Self-Love Gov
Gov. Cuomo must have been channeling his inner President Trump. “You take my record of accomplishment,” Cuomo boasted Tuesday, “you compare it to any governor in modern history, and I think you will see that we have done more.”
He meant any New York gov, but still: Hugh Carey saw the state and city through a horrendous fiscal crisis. And if you like big state government, Nelson Rockefeller’s your hero. Better than Eliot Spitzer? Sure — even if you don’t count the prostitution scandal.
And Cuomo’s been the beneficiary ( the architect) of a state economy that’s tossed off plenty of tax revenue, allowing the gov and Legislature to spend freely. (A $10 billion windfall in legal settlements helped.)
Yes, his budgets have been a bit more restrained than some of his recent predecessors’. But New York hasn’t seen dramatic drops in its sky-high taxes. And it has only grown more hostile to business under Cuomo, with far-higher minimum wages, mandates on sick leave, a ban on fracking and surcharges on electricity.
Cuomo has wasted billions on “economic development” that produces more corrup- tion than development. He’s spending $1.5 billion on his Buffalo Billion — but Buffalo, like Rochester, has been losing jobs.
A New York Federal Reserve report last year noted that upstate employment growth lagged the nation for Cuomo’s early years, then came to a virtual stop in 2016. Overall, the state has the 10th worst jobless rate (4.6 percent) in America.
New York lags by other measures, too. US News lists it 34th among the states for economic growth, 38th for fiscal stability, 23rd for education, 37th for quality of life and 43rd for opportunity.
Governors in at least 16 other states have better approval ratings than Cuomo, a Morning Consult poll found. And New York’s share of the US population has continued to fall on his watch.
The state’s “population decline, economic stagnancy, failed jobs programs, highest tax burden in the nation, broken transit system, emboldened culture of corruption, secret government & [Cuomo’s] closest aide convicted for selling the office all challenge” the gov’s boast, tweeted Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro (R), who hopes to unseat Cuomo in November. He’s got a point.