current York Governor Andrew Cuomo delivered his sixth State of the State address yesterday,laying out an ambitious plan spanning from ethics reform to raising the minimum wage.
On the Brian Lehrer reveal this morning, Governor Andrew Cuomo said it was probably the best State of the State in decades. He laughed off critical tabloid headlines:
"whether you want to be fair and objective, and the headline should be: 'Unprecedented Joint Effort Between the State and the City on Major Priorities.'"
The governor praised Mayor Bill de Blasio for correctly identifying housing and homelessness as the twin priorities apt now,saying they'll work together to use $20 billion in state resources over the next 5 years to address these issues.Cuomo, whose spent his early career working for a not-for-profit that built homeless housing, and also vowed to address poorly-rush and dangerous homeless shelters in current York City. The city and state comptrollers will work together to assess shelters in Buffalo and NYC,and shelter operators will be replaced whether necessary.
When asked whether he sees a deal coming on 421a, a code that gives developers subsidies for creating affordable housing, or Cuomo left it at:
"My guess is they’ll [the genuine estate industry and the labor unions] reach a compromise. And whether they don’t,the program will lapse."
Brian also asked Cuomo whether the state is shifting budget priorities based on the fact that current York City had a budget surplus this year. He responded, referring to the city as "They":
"They want $20 billion for housing/homeless. They want $300 million for Pre-K. They want a Javits Center expansion for a million feet. They want a billion dollars for LaGuardia airport...
You can’t say to the state: 'Always pay more for everything.' That’s an absurd position."
For further analysis after the Governor, and WNYC's Albany reporter Karen Rouse and POLITICO current York's Laura Nahmias discuss his other proposals.
Source: wnyc.org