{"id":2974,"date":"2024-01-15T08:55:10","date_gmt":"2024-01-15T13:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=2974"},"modified":"2024-01-15T08:55:10","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T13:55:10","slug":"albanys-poetry-and-prose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/albanys-poetry-and-prose\/","title":{"rendered":"Albany\u2019s Poetry and Prose"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mario Cuomo once famously remarked, “You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.” This metaphor, highlighting the shift from rhetoric to reality, applies to various contexts. A good example is the governor\u2019s State of the State address.\u00a0 The governor\u2019s State of the State is a requirement of the job.\u00a0 The state Constitution<\/a> demands that \u201cThe governor shall communicate by message to the legislature at every session the condition of the state and recommend such matters to it as he or she shall judge expedient.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In modern times the State of the State speech is delivered with much of the pomp found in the State of the Union address given by the President.  The State of the State is delivered before a joint session of the state Senate and the state Assembly and is covered by media outlets across the state.  The speech is typically delivered at the beginning of the legislative session and offers the governor\u2019s vision and her plans to make the state better.  Usually the one hour or so speech comes with a detailed policy book that outlines initiatives that the governor will advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The State of the State is the \u201cpoetry\u201d of the governor\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her \u201cprose\u201d shows up in her budget address.  Again, it is the state Constitution<\/a> that requires that she submit \u201con or before the second Tuesday following the first day of the annual meeting of the legislature\u201d a budget to the Legislature.  (In the first budget after a gubernatorial election, the governor has until February 1st<\/sup> to deliver the budget plan.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The budget presentation is where the rubber hits the road.  Given the necessary level of details in a budget, soaring rhetoric is insufficient.  The governor must make it clear what she proposes the state do, how much programs will cost, and how those programs will be funded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, Governor Hochul offered poetry while covering a wide range of topics in her third<\/a> State of the State address.  The media coverage tracked her overall vision:  She focused on fighting crime yet said virtually nothing about the migrant crisis that has overwhelmed New York City.  She cited the state\u2019s need to build affordable housing but sketched out only a modest plan focusing on working with New York City.  She made little reference to how she intended to offset the state\u2019s looming budget crisis \u2013 unless actions are taken, the state is projected to run deficits over the next three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her poetry was more detailed in the policy book<\/a> that accompanied the speech.  For example, she devoted a section to the worsening climate crisis and the need for a wide range of actions.  Yet, she ignored the huge and mounting costs and how to pay for them.  She\u2019s not alone when it comes to ignoring the worsening climate crisis in New York and the staggering \u2013 and mounting \u2013 expenses to protect communities and to restore damaged infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That topic, if it\u2019s discussed at all, will be part of the governor\u2019s proposed executive budget, due to be released on January 16th<\/sup>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the governor\u2019s budget plan that will dominate the first few months of the legislative session.  Her plan is subject to public hearings for a month, then a largely secretive budget negotiation between the governor\u2019s office and the leadership of the Senate and the Assembly.  The final budget is supposed to be approved by April 1st<\/sup>, but in recent years that deadline was ignored.  Last year, for example, the governor insisted that criminal justice changes be included in the budget, holding up the final deal and passage until the end of April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There has been a lot of debate \u2013 correctly \u2013 that the state is facing a crisis that stems from the increase in migrants seeking new lives in New York.  Over the past 18 months, 140,000 migrants and asylum seekers have arrived<\/a> in New York.  How the state handles these new arrivals \u2013 in terms of providing housing, food, and opportunity \u2013 is undoubtedly an enormous task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, recent storms have caused enormous damage across New York.  The two most recent storms have hit Long Island particularly hard causing incredible erosion<\/a> of its south shore.  Of course, damage goes far beyond coastal erosion and includes extensive flooding and other structural damages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the governor\u2019s State of the State policy book, she devotes a section to \u201cProtecting New Yorkers from Extreme Weather.\u201d  In that section, the governor discusses plans to protect homes \u2013 including buying out properties that are at risk \u2013 to update homes and buildings for hotter temperatures, to address coastal erosion, and to tackle aging dams that will be handling stronger storm surges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her plans, however, said little about how to pay for these \u2013 and other \u2013 proposals.  So far, the governor has saddled climate damages onto New York taxpayers.  But as these costs mount \u2013 and they will \u2013 the financial pressures will squeeze taxpayers as never before.  Unless the governor devises another way \u2013 like supporting legislation<\/a> to make the largest oil companies pick up these costs \u2013 a new crisis is brewing and it\u2019s one that is only going to get worse.  The prose in the governor\u2019s budget plans may give policymakers a clue as to how she will tackle the climate cost crisis. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mario Cuomo once famously remarked, “You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.” This metaphor, highlighting the shift from rhetoric to reality, applies to various contexts. A good example is the governor\u2019s State of the State address.\u00a0 The governor\u2019s State of the State is a requirement of the job.\u00a0 The state Constitution demands that \u201cThe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2974","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2975,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2974\/revisions\/2975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}