Gov. Kathy Hochul used her annual State of the State address on Tuesday to pledge a crackdown on the electronic theft of food-stamp benefits and an expansion of two rent freeze programs for older New Yorkers and people with disabilities, according to reporting by City Limits.
Hochul, who is running for re-election this year, laid out dozens of proposals she said would “make life more affordable” for New Yorkers, the outlet reported. Two of them target costs that fall directly on low-income and fixed-income residents: the security of public benefits and the rent paid by seniors and disabled tenants.
According to City Limits, the governor pledged to finally upgrade New York’s EBT cards with security chips, an effort to tackle the “skimming” that the outlet reported has stolen millions of dollars in benefits from participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Skimming schemes capture card and PIN data so thieves can drain benefits before recipients can spend them, and New York’s magnetic-stripe cards have left the program exposed to that fraud.
Hochul also pledged to raise the income threshold for two key rent freeze programs that serve seniors and people with disabilities, City Limits reported. The programs cap the rent that eligible tenants pay; raising the income ceiling would extend that protection to more households whose earnings currently disqualify them.
City Limits reported that the proposals were among the affordability measures the governor outlined in the address. The State of the State sets the administration’s policy agenda for the year, but the pledges would require action through the state budget and legislative process before taking effect.
