Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul walked with shoppers at Queens Center in Elmhurst to discuss her first proposal for the 2025 State of the State’s affordability agenda - New York State’s first-ever state-wide Inflation Refund, building on the promise to put money in the pockets of New Yorkers. Governor Hochul also addressed her continued efforts to make the subway system safer for riders, which includes adding more National Guard members.

B-ROLL: B-Roll is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

?Thank you for joining us at the most diverse place on Earth. Not just New York, not just Queens, but right here in this shopping center, Queens Center. I've been walking around for the last 20 minutes or so, took about 4,000 selfies, at least it seemed like that, but it's a friendly place and this is a beautiful, beautiful mall.

Over $500 million of investments have been made to make it lighter, safer, more inviting. So I'm here today to talk about two things. Wish everybody happy holidays. Talk about public safety, keeping them safe when they're here on our subways. I just came off the subway, had a chance to thank our National Guard.

Over 250 more are joining, the number we already have, and the people on the trains, and I talked to dozens of them, are really happy about the presence of police and National Guard on the subways. It makes them feel safer. And lastly, talking about this, more money in the pockets of New Yorkers. Making sure that I get support for putting through our plan, the Inflation Reduction Act, to make sure that we can put money back in the pockets of those who pay too much for everything from sneakers, to jewelry, to toys, and their groceries.

So, I'm working with the legislature to have the support of our great Borough President, Donovan Richards, who knows how important it is to help his constituents by putting money back in their pockets. So, next holiday season we’ll have over $500 more because of this plan. I'm looking forward to saying hi to even more people here and let's get started.