New governor, new day
In his farewell address Monday, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo was true to the end in his disdain for democratic government. We hope Gov. Kathy Hochul doesn’t share that view.
Mr. Cuomo, who once declared that “government is about action; it’s not a debating society,” revisited that theme in his defiant, self-laudatory address, stating, “We cannot go back to the old days when government talked, and government debated ... but they never made a difference in people’s lives, and they never improved, and they never built.”
It’s quite possible, though, to build, to improve, and, yes, to debate what exactly we want to build and improve. It’s messy, sure, but it’s democracy.
If Ms. Hochul is looking to be a different kind of politician from Mr. Cuomo — and many governors before him — she could start by showing more respect for the legislative process and for legislators who are, after all, representatives of the people of New York. She should work with lawmakers to end the routine use of “messages of necessity” to circumvent the three-day aging period for legislation required by the state constitution. Lawmakers and the public deserve time to absorb and discuss pending bills, especially the huge budget bills hashed out behind closed doors. And the budget should get back to being the budget, not a way for the governor to jam through legislation.
We urge Ms. Hochul, too, to be more transparent than her predecessor, whose secrets in the last year caught up with him and helped spur calls on both sides of the aisle for his resignation or impeachment. The cover-up of nursing home resident deaths and his monthslong refusal to reveal the value of his $5.1 million book deal were part of a pattern. Whether it was information on gun registrations, time sheets for a campaign contributor’s son working for the state, or the names of people he pardoned, Mr. Cuomo had a long track record of hiding public information.
Ms. Hochul needs to distance herself from the decisions about her State Police security detail, matters
Mr. Cuomo insinuated himself into in order to both get rid of officers who displeased him and bring in a female officer who was among the women who accused him of sexual harassment. This is a professional matter.
And Ms. Hochul’s husband, William Hochul, senior vice president and general counsel to the gambling firm Delaware North, should step down from his position to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest for Ms. Hochul. The state Gaming Commission is part of the executive branch she now heads.
On a matter of particular urgency, Ms. Hochul needs to light a fire under state government to get federal and state rental aid to tenants and landlords. The Cuomo administration was abysmally slow in spending the $2.7 billion in available funds, and even with a recent push has still reached only 65 percent. This money is critical to helping avoid an eviction crisis.
Change has been forced on Ms. Hochul by Mr. Cuomo’s downfall. But she now has a chance to be an agent of change in the 16 months she has to finish Mr. Cuomo’s term. We hope she seizes the opportunity to be more than an accidental governor.