Hochul pledges to pump nearly $4B into NYS water infrastructure projects over 5 years

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced plans to disperse nearly $4 billion in funding for water infrastructure projects statewide, including Long Island, on Friday.

"My philosophy is go big or go home," she said, speaking in Woodbury to a group of business leaders at the Long Island Association's State of the Region Breakfast.

Hochul offered few details on what type of infrastructure projects the money would fund except to say that the money will be spread over five years, with disbursements of $750 million a year. A spokesman for Hochul said the governor would provide more details, including how much money could go to Long Island, in her State of the State address on Tuesday. The funds would require legislative approval before they're released.

The announcement comes on the heels of other state funds secured for Long Island. 

Last July, Hochul announced Suffolk County would receive $20 million for its septic improvement program, which provides homeowners grants of $10,000 to upgrade their septic systems.

In December, Hochul earmarked $16.4 million for Long Island projects that would remove cancer-causing PFAS chemicals from the local water supply. That funding included nearly $1 million for Hempstead, $5.5 million for the Suffolk County Water Authority and nearly $5 million for the Locust Valley Water District.

That announcement was part of a $269 million pool of money for projects across the state that's separate from the nearly $4 billion proposal.

"We are cautiously optimistic about the governor’s announcement today," Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine wrote in a statement to Newsday. "This type of commitment would be a tremendous benefit to protecting Suffolk County’s water and we look forward to hearing details about this funding in the Governor’s State of the State address next week."

Hochul’s announcement came as she vies for Long Island votes in a reelection bid against Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.

“For years the governor has short-changed Long Island, as taxpayers send more than $14 billion more to Albany than we get back," Blakeman said in a statement. "I guess it must be an election year. I’ll believe it when I see it.”

The two exchanged light jabs at the gathering of business leaders on Friday, with Hochul critiquing Blakeman's "militia," a group of gun-licensed, Nassau volunteers he enlisted to support first responders in an emergency.

"I have faith in Long Island police departments," Hochul said. "I find it undermining that you think you need a separate militia to do something that they do anyhow."

Asked earlier in the morning what he was looking forward to in 2026, Blakeman replied, "That's a very loaded question. ... I guess, a new governor?"

Long Island's 2.1 million active registered voters total nearly one-fifth of the state's voters. 

Blakeman, poised to be the Republican gubernatorial nominee after Rep. Elise Stefanik dropped out, floated his bid for governor less than 48 hours after being reelected to the county executive seat in November.

He defeated former Legis. Seth Koslow (D-Merrick) even as Democrats have a voter enrollment advantage in Nassau. There are nearly 71,000 more Democrats than Republicans in the county.

To win statewide office, Blakeman will need to keep his local base happy, while winning swing voters and flipping Democrats, political experts told Newsday. As of November, 48% of New Yorkers were registered Democrats, 25% were registered as unaffiliated or "blank," and 23% were Republicans.

Democratic Party enrollment has dropped slightly from the last gubernatorial election in 2022, when 50% of active New York voters registered as Democrats. In that election, Hochul defeated Republican Lee Zeldin of Shirley by 53-47.

Republican candidates for governor are said to need 30% of the vote in New York City to win. Republican Lee Zeldin of Shirley won 30% of the city’s vote in 2022.

A Siena Research Institute poll conducted around the same time Blakeman announced a run last month showed Hochul with a 25-point lead over the county executive.

"Our message is appealing to all voters. The 'R' or 'D' after your name doesn't mean anything anymore," Nassau GOP Chairman Joseph Cairo previously told Newsday.

Hochul also touted a new bill offering confidential mental health support to law enforcement officers, organized with the help of Tommy Shevlin, president of Nassau's largest police union. "I want you to recognize, it takes courage for them to step forward and say, 'I do need help,'" she said.

Newsday's Joe Werkmeister contributed to this story.

Correction: Gov. Kathy Hochul seeks to earmark nearly $4 billion in state money for water infrastructure projects over five years. An earlier version of this story misstated the amount of money Long Island would receive.