No longer the rookie, Cuomo sets agenda for his second year in office at State of the State

In front of an audience of elected officials, the media, and ordinary citizens packed inside the Empire State Plaza Convention Center beneath the Egg in Albany, Cuomo thanked the state’s legislative leaders, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), as “partners.”

Silver, prior to Cuomo’s remarks, called the governor the “most effective chief executive in the country today.” Skelos called Cuomo an “innovator and friend.”

“And in just one year, working together, we made great progress. The 234th legislative session was one of the most productive for our state government in modern political history,” Cuomo said. The session included marriage equality passage, a property tax cap, the elimination of the MTA payroll tax, ethics reform, and reforms to rent regulations.

A year ago, the perception New Yorkers (and outsiders) had of state government was as dismal as it could get, according to the governor. ”Our state had a deficit. And not just a fiscal deficit, but even worse, a trust deficit, a performance deficit, and an integrity deficit,” Cuomo stated. In the four years prior to Cuomo taking office, New York went through two Democratic governors (Spitzer, Paterson), a sex scandal, a Senate leadership crisis, and one of the latest passed budgets in state history.

In the 60 minute long speech, the governor laid the blueprints for a “new New York” that would include continued economic innovation, “reimagining government,” and continuing progressive legislation.

Citing that convention centers are “important generators of economic activity,” Cuomo wants to build the largest convention center in the United States at the Aqueduct racetrack site in eastern Queens. The Javits Convention Center on Manhattan’s West Side, currently ranked twelfth in size, would be dismantled and redeveloped as a public-private partnership driven site, which totals 18 acres (this is in comparison to Battery City at 17 acres and the World Trade Center site at 16 acres).

The convention center plan, which was ironically announced in a state-funded and operated convention center in a city that has desired to build it’s own complex in Downtown Albany, would likely have an impact on traffic and transit around Jamaica Bay.

Development isn’t just limited to the New York City area as Cuomo wants to transform Western New York, in particularly Buffalo – using a similar road map to what the Capital Region did in respect to high tech.

“We know from experience that large investments in growth industries can pay substantial dividends. Twenty-five years ago, the state began investing in the Albany area’s high-tech industry. Today, the Albany area is a world-class center for nanotechnology innovation and the home of major semiconductor manufacturers. We saw great results from asubstantial, sustained state investment.”

Cuomo’s plan calls for $1 billion in state support, in which the governor hopes will bring up to $5 billion in economic activity in the region.

The most controversial remarks from Cuomo stemmed from his discussion of legalizing casino gaming in the state, which is currently prohibited by the state’s constitution. “We have long flirted and dallied with another potential economic engine — casino gaming — and when it comes to gaming, we have been in a state of denial.”

The state, according to Cuomo, has over 29,000 electronic gaming machines – more than Atlantic City or any other Northeastern state. The reaction from the audience was largely subdued.

On state infrastructure, Cuomo wants to consolidate capital project bureaus at six different state agencies and to create the NY Works Fund, which would identify priority projects and organize funding and execution of such projects. The fund would provide assistance to improve approximately 100 bridges and to expedite the replacement span to the Tappan Zee Bridge between Rockland and Westchester counties.

The Tappan Zee Bridge is currently seven years past the recommended lifetime of the span, which was built in 1955.

On K-12 education, Cuomo lamented that he learned that “everyone in public education has a lobbyist” except for the students. “This year, I will take a second job as the student lobbyist,” said Cuomo. The governor called for the creation of a bipartisan education commission that he hopes will have a report by the end of the year.

In response to what Cuomo saw when he toured the disaster areas left in the wake of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, the governor announced the creation of a statewide emergency network to be led by former New York City emergency management czar Jerry Hauer. Hauer had most recently been Acting Assistant Secretary for Public Health Emergency Preparedness for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

On SUNY, Cuomo wants to expand NYSUNY2020 to the remaining 60 colleges within the SUNY system, which also includes community colleges, a move that has met criticism from education activists.

Save Our SUNY, an education activism group based out of the University at Albany, said, “Cuomo called SUNY a ‘precious gem,’ but did not propose anything that would actually maintain such a gem. Instead, the governor has opted to expand on gimmicks, like the NYSUNY2020 Challenge Grant Program, in the name of economic development.”

“The best way SUNY can help develop the economy is by fulfilling its core mission: providing quality higher education to all. Rather than helping a fraction of SUNY schools with miniscule grants, cutting state funding by tens of millions this past year and raising tuition by 30%, New York students need a governor who will fight to restore and expand funding for academic programs and strengthen the capacity for SUNY institutions to educate all New Yorkers,” said the group in a release.

“Cynics will say we can’t do it again, that we can’t do any better. Well, cynics don’t know us, and they don’t know New York,” said Cuomo.