Comptroller Levine Tells Why He is Campaigning for Hochul

If New York is to remain a place where working families can build a life, we have to get serious about affordability. That means creating more housing, expanding access to childcare, and making government an active partner in lowering the everyday costs that are pushing people out. These are not small challenges, and they cannot be met with slogans or incrementalism.

They require sustained leadership and a willingness to take on difficult structural reforms. Governor Kathy Hochul has taken this agenda on with the bold leadership New York State needs. As New York City’s Comptroller, I am responsible for helping safeguard the city’s fiscal health, protecting the retirement security of the public servants who built this city, and ensuring that our government can make the investments New Yorkers need.

That work depends in part on strong partnership with state leadership. At a time when New Yorkers are confronting a deep affordability crisis, Governor Kathy Hochul has been an active and important partner in addressing some of the most urgent challenges facing our city and state. The cost of living remains the defining issue for working families. Housing is too scarce and too expensive. Childcare remains out of reach for too many parents. And government must do more to make it possible for people to build stable lives here.

Governor Hochul has made these issues central to her agenda. On housing, she has advanced consequential reforms aimed at increasing supply and removing barriers that have made it too hard to build in New York. That includes support for long-overdue FAR reform, which helps remove outdated limits on housing production and gives the city more ability to plan for growth. She has also supported policies to make office-to-residential conversions more feasible, creating a pathway to turn under used buildings into much-needed homes.

Along with broader efforts to streamline approvals and modernize state law, these reforms have helped lay the groundwork for substantially more housing creation. Her support for changes to the state’s environmental review process also reflects an understanding that New York cannot address affordability without making it easier to build.

For too long, unnecessary delay, uncertainty, and obsolete rules have made it harder to add the housing New Yorkers need. Governor Hochul has recognized that confronting the housing shortage requires structural reform, not just rhetoric.On child care, Governor Hochul has also played a leading role. She has prioritized expanding access and reducing costs for families, recognizing that child care is not a side issue but a core economic issue for parents, workers, and the future of the state.

She has also been a strong partner to New York City in moments of fiscal strain. As the city has faced significant budget pressure, the state has stepped in with critical support to help protect services New Yorkers rely on. That kind of partnership matters.

Public leadership is about more than responding to crises. It is about identifying the long-term challenges facing New Yorkers and doing the difficult work of addressing them. On housing supply, affordability, child care, and the relationship between the city and the state, Governor Hochul has shown that she is engaged in that work.I am proud to endorse Governor Kathy Hochul for reelection.

Mark Levine was elected NYC Comptroller in Nov. 2025 and took office on Jan. 1, 2026.