Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State speech was emphatically pro-business and centrist, suggesting he is modeling himself more after his former boss, President Bill Clinton, than his father, former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo.
Cuomo said there must be ethics reforms because “Every time there is another headline, there’s another cut on the body politic – and a little more trust has bled out.”
Instead of specifics, Cuomo named an unprecedented trio of highly risky panels composed of some of the most powerful vested and often adversarial special interests to do the work for him.
The Times approves of Cuomo’s efforts to trim government and institute ethics reform; less enthusiastic on his property tax and spending caps.
FDR’s fireside chats. LBJ’s The Johnson Treatment. Reagan’s hand-scrawled notes. Cuomo’s PowerPoint?
The verdict by Albany assemblyman Jack McEneny: “A lot of people walked in jaundiced and cynical, and walked out with hope.”
Shelly Silver supported Cuomo’s efforts to cut spending and cap property taxes.
Cuomo’s biggest applause line came when he talked about reforming the state’s juvenile justice program: “An incarceration program is not an employment program. Don’t put other people in prison to give some people jobs. … That’s not what this state is all about, and that has to end.”
The new independent Democratic caucus means that it is impossible for Democrats to retake the chamber by getting Republicans to switch sides or by retirement.
Ray Kelly has appointed a commission to examine the reliability of the NYPD’s crime reports.
David Johnson ducked reporters at the Bronx Domestic Violence Court.
The City Council has persuaded Mayor Michael Bloomberg to rescind his plan to shutter 20 fire companies at night, part of $35 million in budget restorations that the council is set to unveil today.
Tourists like Brooklyn, too.
Art Levine worries that Cuomo’s (and other govs, for that matter) assault on public employees is really an attack on all workers.
