No new ideas in speech, pols say
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » State Sen. James Tedisco, R- Glenville, says the Legislature must take bold steps to close a projected $4 billion budget gap, and that blaming Washington for shortfalls isn’t the answer.
Tedisco, in response to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s State of the
State Address on Wednesday, called for a permanent
2 percent state spending cap, and said the property tax cap, which has saved New Yorkers $24 billion, should be made permanent.
“Basically, I was disappointed that it was a discussion of more-of-the-same failed policies that got us into this situation in the first place,” Tedisco said of Cuomo’s speech. “He didn’t come up with new proposals to create jobs or expand the economy.”
Tedisco said the governor is trying to make the federal government a scapegoat for the state’s fiscal woes. The recently-approved federal tax bill hasn’t even taken effect yet, he said.
Similarly, Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh, R-Ballston, criticized Cuomo for attacking local government as well, for inefficiencies and duplication of services.
“It would have been wiser for him to talk about what the state could do better instead of pointing fingers of blame at other levels of government,” she said. “He’s talking about spending more money. We should be talking about how do we cut, how to we reduce costs of government. I didn’t hear that. The math didn’t add up for me.”
Also, Walsh said suing drug manufacturers is not an effective strategy for curbing the state’s insidious heroin and opioids epidemic. Instead, the state should take more proactive, deliberate steps by providing places and resources fore people to get treatment to overcome their addictions, she said.
Assemblywoman Carrier Woerner, D-Round Lake, applauded Cuomo for laying out “a very big vision” for New York, and for making a firm commitment to end sexual harassment and discrimination. She also praised his pledge to make sure the Hudson River is cleaned of PCBs before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gives General Electric Company a certificate of completion.
But Woerner said most of the governor’s infrastructure and economic development proposals are targeted for downstate.
“There’s not much on the surface that is going to impact our communities,” she said. “There wasn’t anything that jumped off the page for me.”
State Sen. Kathleen Marchione, R-Halfmoon, chair of the Senate Local Government Committee, said, “I believe it is vitally important Albany finally recognize that our local governments already are sharing services and partnering together, and have successfully done so for years. Albany needs to do more to listen to, learn from, and partner with localities and address the state mandates and cost burdens it imposes on local governments. I will continue my efforts to advocate for our local communities, preserve and pro- tect our historic middle class tax cut, maintain fiscal discipline through the self-imposed state spending cap and rein in job-killing government regulations to strengthen our economy.”
Former state Assemblyman Steven McLaughlin, who heard seven prior Cuomo speeches at the capitol, watched this year’s address as the newly sworn-in Rensselaer County executive. A frequent and outspoken critic of Cuomo during his time in the Assembly, McLaughlin said the address sounded more like a campaign speech for the Democratic governor, whose second four-year term expires at the end of the year.
Cuomo is also believed to have his sights set on a 2020 run for the White House.
Wearing his new hat, though, McLaughlin, said he was particularly concerned as he heard Cuomo discuss a possible budget deficit of as much as $4 billion, expecting the impact to be felt in his new office. The financial pressures caused by state mandates were a common source of public frustration to McLaughlin’s predecessor, fellow Republican Kathleen Jimino, and McLaughlin fears it may only get worse as Cuomo looks for a politically expedient solution in a campaign year.
“The $4 billion deficit is code for ‘ Look out at the county level,’” he said.
McLaughlin admitted that he puts little stock in the State of the State address, preferring the hard numbers that will come when the governor’s proposed budget is released later this month to the “piein-the-sky” visions Cuomo painted Wednesday.
“To me, where the rubber meets the road is three weeks from now [when the proposed budget is unveiled],” McLaughlin said.