As governors move through their tenure, the focus of their State of the State addresses change.\u00a0 In the first few years, governors shape their addresses as part of a reform package.\u00a0 As they are in office, and if they get re-elected, that tone changes.\u00a0 More and more of the State of the State reflects the achievements of the Administration; after all, they are now the status quo and \u201creforms\u201d imply failures.<\/p>\n
Governor Cuomo delivered his eighth State of the State address last week.\u00a0 As he gears up for his apparent re-election campaign, his address took a traditional approach \u2013 it focused on his achievements.\u00a0 In his speech, which ran over an hour and a half, he unveiled his full policy agenda for the 2018 legislative session.<\/p>\n
The address was organized around three themes \u2013 or as the governor called it a \u201cthree front war\u201d \u2013 (1) discrimination and sexism, (2) challenges to the state\u2019s health and safety, and (3) economic challenges that stem from actions in Washington.\u00a0 Of the 90-plus minute speech, these three sections were covered in about an hour.<\/p>\n
But they were not equally discussed \u2013 at least in terms of time.\u00a0 The governor spent roughly 15-20 minutes on the first two themes and 30 on the threats emanating from the Trump Administration and the Congress.<\/p>\n
Clearly, the governor was presenting himself as an opponent of the actions taken by Washington, in particular the President.\u00a0 In a \u201cblue\u201d state like New York, a state in which the President is immensely unpopular, positioning himself as the President\u2019s opponent is a political winner.<\/p>\n
The proposals advanced by the governor were numerous and covered much of the policy \u201cwaterfront.\u201d\u00a0 He gave considerable attention on his women\u2019s rights platform as well as criminal justice reform proposals like significantly reducing the use of cash bail. \u00a0His speech advanced broad policies in the areas of criminal justice reform, workforce development, protecting the environment, modernization of New York City\u2019s mass transit system, and strengthening voting protections.<\/p>\n
The governor referenced the state\u2019s $4 billion budget deficit, but did little to discuss why the deficit has occurred and how he will close it.\u00a0 In terms of corruption, a problem which has plagued the state for years, the governor said little.<\/p>\n
Instead of addressing \u201chome grown\u201d problems in New York, the governor chose to characterize the threats facing the state as national, particularly resulting from the actions of the President and the Congress.\u00a0 In particular, the governor said that he would launch a campaign to \u201crepeal and replace\u201d the tax changes approved in Washington last month.<\/p>\n
Articulating the problems as national, not the result of state actions or inactions, allows the governor to sidestep the difficult \u2013 and possibly unpopular \u2013 actions he will have to take during the course of the legislative session.<\/p>\n
Clearly, a budget deficit \u2013 estimates which range from $1.7 billion to as high as $7 billion \u2013 will result in service reductions or revenue increases, or both.\u00a0 Reducing services or raising the cost to state residents is undeniably unpopular and it was not surprising that the governor spent little time articulating his solutions.\u00a0 Those revelations will occur when the governor unveils his budget proposal next week.<\/p>\n
And while it wasn\u2019t surprising that the governor spent little time on corruption-fighting measures, after all some of his aides are implicated, it is a big issue that will not go away.<\/p>\n
Reacting to the State of the State address, New York\u2019s leading civic organizations called for action.\u00a0 They cited the looming six upcoming corruption trials of high ranking former public officials that begin this month.<\/p>\n
Each month of the session, a high profile corruption case will begin.\u00a0 No matter the outcomes for the individuals involved, the trials will undoubtedly paint an unflattering picture of politics in New York.\u00a0 These cases, plus the dozens of resignations and convictions of other public officials has resulted in New York repeatedly dubbed as one of, if not the most, corrupt states in the nation.<\/p>\n
The groups urged the state\u2019s leaders to approve a package of Restore Public Trust<\/em> reforms that include strengthening independent oversight of the state\u2019s system of awarding government contracts, new campaign contribution limits for those seeking government contracts, greater budget transparency, new limits on the outside income of public officials, and the creation of independent oversight entities.\u00a0 New laws are only as good as they are enforced.<\/p>\n How well the governor and the state legislature address corruption should be a key measure for how voters evaluate candidates this coming November.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As governors move through their tenure, the focus of their State of the State addresses change.\u00a0 In the first few years, governors shape their addresses as part of a reform package.\u00a0 As they are in office, and if they get re-elected, that tone changes.\u00a0 More and more of the State of the State reflects the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2005"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2006,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005\/revisions\/2006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}