Mario Cuomo's First State of the State: A Look Back [VIDEO]

In light of Andrew Cuomo’s rock n’ roll light and PowerPoint but light on specifics State of the State address yesterday, it is worth recalling that nearly 28 years ago to the day, his father took to the stage in the Assembly chamber to deliver his own address to his partners in government.

And although the elder Cuomo proposed a much more activist, expansive government, it is odd how much the two speeches have in common. Both warned for example of a coming austerity to close a budget deficit.

According to the Times account of the speech (now behind a paywall) Cuomo called “for a ‘new partnership’ with business and labor and a program to provide billions of dollars for jobs, to house the homeless and to rebuild the state’s crumbling roads and bridges. To help achieve the goals, he proposed $7 billion in new bond sales over the next five years through a variety of existing and new state agencies.”

Like his son, who tasked a number of new commissions with streamlining state government, Cuomo gave his staff 90 days to report back with a proposal to restructure the M.T.A. and he created a panel to develop a five-year capital financing and construction budget. And like the younger Cuomo, the former governor “in a break with recent State of the State Messages, Mr. Cuomo gave credit for proposals to legislators of both parties, as well as the Attorney General and the State Comptroller. “

Concluded Cuomo:

I end this statement as I began it, recognizing that we face great problems and challenges, the greatest budget gap in the state’s history, punishing protracted national recession that shows little sign of abating, a consequent need for reordering our financing, reorganizing our government, rebuilding our institutions and rekindling our people’s hope.

A time of great difficulty, indeed, but surely no time for despair. There is simply no question that we have it within us to meet this challenge, as we have met so many others. It takes only willingness to believe, to work, to give together. Legacy of Achievement

For as long as I have understood our history, I have been consoled by the notion that we are born to a legacy of achievement, to a people who have proven themselves worthiest when the challenges were most severe. We should go forward, therefore, confidently.

As was said about us by one whose eloquence I could not hope to match: ”We have made this thing, this dream, this land unsatisfied by little ways. We made it, and we make it, and it’s ours. We shall maintain it. It shall be sustained.”

Beautiful words. And it shall be sustained with a new partnership, a new partnership whose members include the whole family of the great Empire State.

Video excerpt below: