Governor Kathy Hochul delivered her 2026 State of the State Address today before the full legislature in Albany. Notably, the Governor raised the issue of auto insurance affordability stating, “rampant fraud and runaway litigation costs are jacking up prices.” We are encouraged that Governor Hochul is interested in addressing fraud, abuse and excessive litigation and look forward to working with the Governor and Legislature to create meaningful change.

A recording of the speech and summary of the 2026 Governor's address are available. The Governor also issued a media release that includes an outline of her plans related to insurance affordability. For those seeking additional information and a transcript of the speech, the Governor's Office annually produces a State of the State Book, which contains a report and itemization of the Governor's State of the State agenda for the upcoming year.

NYIA has already flagged numerous initiatives either directly pertaining to property and casualty insurance or business more broadly. We are providing a list of the proposals we have flagged so far, which can be cross referenced with the State of the State book with the page numbers indicated by each proposal. There are several with the stated purpose of cutting the costs of auto insurance, tackling rising home insurance costs, keeping roadways safe, repealing outdated and burdensome regulations, implementing AI in state agencies, fighting workers compensation fraud, and mitigating flood risks.

While some details are provided, it is difficult to determine the exact nature of what the Governor is putting forward without seeing the actual language. We anticipate that many of the proposals will be included in the Executive Budget, which is scheduled to be released next week. We believe a number of the proposals could prove positive to the industry and our policyholders but will not know the exact impact until we review the language.

We are continuing to review the State of the State book in depth and are analyzing all the proposals to understand any potential effects on the industry and will report to member companies accordingly. We will also send a detailed analysis of the Executive Budget next week once it has been released.