Nov. 17, 2010
CUOMO USES VISIT TO SOUND FISCAL ALARM
By ROBERT J. McCARTHY
Andrew M. Cuomo couldn’t have been more blunt Tuesday about the state’s financial position during his visit to Buffalo, his first since he was elected the state’s 56th governor two weeks ago.
“I believe the situation is so bad that it is a financial crisis,” he told reporters after a meeting with Mayor Byron W. Brown in City Hall. “I liken it to the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis.”
Cuomo’s comparison is significant because of its magnitude. The 1975 situation inherited by then-Gov. Hugh L. Carey was so serious that New York City almost went bankrupt, with many observers fearing that if it had, the state could soon follow.
But as he makes his postelection rounds throughout New York State, the governor-elect is also viewing the current crisis as an “opportunity.” Carey and the State Legislature enacted a host of budget cuts and reforms to alleviate the crisis back then, said Cuomo, who hopes for the same course of action now.
“That crisis brought people together,” he said, pointing to government, labor and business working to climb out of a deep fiscal hole. “In the midst of the crisis, they did tremendous work — innovative work, cooperative work.”
“Use the crisis to deal with a lot of issues we needed to deal with anyway,” he added. “There’s a silver lining to it. The state can now galvanize, focus and change.”
Indeed, aides said that Cuomo throughout the campaign was distributing a new Carey biography — “The Man Who Saved New York: Hugh Carey and the Great Fiscal Crisis of 1975,” by Seymour P. Lachman and Robert Polner.
The news on the budget front can only underscore Cuomo’s analogy after State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli on Monday projected a $1 billion deficit for the current fiscal year that will end March 31. Other officials are estimating a deficit of as much as $9.5 billion for the following fiscal year.
While expressing optimism about his plan to establish regional economic-development programs, Cuomo said the only way to address the newest deficit problem is to cut spending.
“This crisis can actually be a pivot point for this state,” he said, adding that the government must figure out “ways the state can do with less.”
He also repeated a promise he made throughout his campaign — that while he does not see any immediate opportunity to cut taxes, he will not raise them.
“I don’t want to raise taxes. I think it’s counterproductive,” he said. “So my position is: no new taxes. Ultimately, the goal would be to reduce taxes. Do I believe that is feasible in year one? No. Is that the goal down the road? Yes.”
Brown, in welcoming the governor-elect, emphasized a long relationship with him, and Cuomo did likewise.The mayor said he hoped that the relationship would work to the city’s benefit.”We had a very good conversation ... about the kind of partnership he wants with Buffalo and other communities to move this city and this region forward,” Brown said. “In general, it was a good opportunity for old friends to talk and catch up.”
Cuomo, citing his experience as housing secretary in the Clinton administration, said he was eager for his economic-development team to institute its new programs with the goal of creating opportunities in Buffalo.
But he also said the state has to cure itself of its “hangover” from when it was a job and business mecca and undergo an “attitude adjustment” in making the state more hospitable to commerce. “The goal is simple: jobs, jobs, jobs,” he said. “If you create jobs, people can take care of their own lives. If you are not creating jobs, you’re going to have a serious problem.”
Cuomo on Tuesday also created more transition teams to advise him on hiring upper-level members of his new administration. They include Western New Yorkers such as James R. Kaskie, president and CEO of Kaleida Health, who is in a health care advisory group, and departing University at Buffalo President John B. Simpson, who is advising on education.
Stan Lundine of Jamestown, who served as lieutenant governor for eight years in the administration of Cuomo’s father, three-term Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, was chosen for a state and local government reform panel, and Robert D. Gioia, former head of the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, is a member of a transportation team.
The panels include other SUNY college presidents, state lawmakers, hospital executives, airline chiefs, venture capitalists and representatives from various rights groups, as well as from businesses and industries.
News Albany Bureau Reporter Tom Precious contributed to this report.
Buffalo News story on Cuomo visit cites Carey bio
December 16, 2010
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