Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s inaugural address, delivered at noon Saturday, Jan. 1. He was expected to announce a wage freeze for state employees during his first State of the State address Wednesday, Jan. 5.
During this campaign, Bob (Duffy, former mayor of Rochester and new lieutenant governor) and I had the opportunity to visit all 62 counties once again. And doing it in a relatively compressed period of time, it’s just a beautiful reminder of the assets that we have in this state.
From the falls of Niagara to the powerful waves of Montauk, we have it all and everything in between. We really have every asset that man or God could be expected to give to a place.
That is the State of New York, and I saw that up close and personal. I also saw up close and personal the suffering that our people are facing and the devastating toll that this economy has taken. And it cannot be underestimated.
Young people all across upstate New York who are leaving because they believe there is no economic future left. The taxpayers on Long Island who are imprisoned in their homes because they can’t afford to pay the property taxes anymore, but the value of the home has dropped so low that they can’t afford to sell the house because they can’t pay off the mortgage. The laid-off construction worker in Brooklyn who can’t find a job and is fretting about what he’s going to do to feed his family when the unemployment insurance runs out.
This, my friends, cannot be underestimated. And to make it actually worse, people then feel betrayed by their government. That they have problems, they have needs, they look to the government and they assume the government was going to be there to help them because that’s what government is supposed to be all about. And they look to the government and instead they find a government that’s part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
People all across the state, when you mention state government they are literally shaking their heads. Worse than no confidence, what they’re saying is, is no trust. The words “government in Albany” have become a national punch line. And the joke is on us. Too often government responds to the whispers of the lobbyists before the cries of the people. Our people feel abandoned by government, betrayed and isolated, and they are right.
New York faces a deficit. A deficit that we talk about all day long, the budget deficit, the budget deficit. But it’s actually worse. The state faces a budget deficit and a competence deficit and an integrity deficit and a trust deficit. And those are the obstacles we really face.
And the state is at a crossroads. I believe the decisions that we make, the decisions my colleagues make, this year will define the trajectory of this state for years to come. The decisions we make today will shape the state we leave our children tomorrow.
As governor, I’m going to tell you what I’m going to do, because I told you what I’m going to do. I told the people all across this state. This was a different kind of campaign. Bob and I put together a very specific agenda. And we said we wanted to win not with the personal mandate — This was not about electing Andrew Cuomo and Bob Duffy; this was electing a mandate for change that the people of this state endorsed overwhelmingly all across this state.
We have a very specific mandate for change that the people want. And our expectation is that the politicians and the elected officials of people are now going to do what the people voted for and what the people need.
It starts with jobs, jobs, jobs, getting the economy running once again. Getting the economy running all across this great state.
Number 2 is going to be cleaning up Albany and restoring trust because Bob is right, you have nothing without trust. Any relationship is only as good as the level of trust, and we have lost the trust. And we are not going to get it back until we clean up Albany and there’s real transparency and real disclosure and real accountability and real ethics enforcement. That’s what the people have voted for and that’s what the people deserve.
We have to pass a property-tax cap in the State of New York because working families can’t afford to pay the ever-increasing tax burden. Nothing is going up in their lives. Their income isn’t going up, their banking account isn’t going up, their savings aren’t going up. They can’t afford the never-ending tax increases in the State of New York and this state has no future if it is going to be the tax capital of the nation. We have to send that signal this session by passing a property-tax cap.
And my friends, we must rightsize the state government for today. The state government has grown too large, we can’t afford it, the number of local governments has grown too large, and that we’re going to have to reduce and consolidate.
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