I wouldn't say it's beyond fixing, but surely drastic measures are needed instead of tweaking. I will keep an open mind about him and will reserve judgement. Scaling down the inaugural festivities is a good start, kudos for that. Now if he would eschew government housing and cut back staff and administration personnel and costs, give himself a pay cut and then call for a new state constitution and cut back further legislators budgets, call for term limits and appoint an impartial re-districting czar. I'd feel a lot better.
With you, Dave, until the czar part. Redistricting should be in the hands of the people not some czar. My suggestion was to allow the local BOEs to manage redistricting with public input. ...And be forewarned, the constitutional convention will be a HUGE expense.
It should not be a Huge expense, however. The special interests need to cut off at the knees. When I said czar, I was thinking of sort of a central figure who manages the process for the Governor and draws and presents the final district map to the legislature for approval. Dreaming I know.
I may be mistaken, but the current process empowers the majority leaders of Assembly and Senate to draw the districts- failing that, the courts decide.
I truly don't know the process, C.M., all I know is, it results in something that looks like a Rorschach blot. It's utterly stupid, to me and just maintains the status quo. The Governor needs to challenge the process, I believe the people of the state will support him if he does.
I think redistricting should be handled by a small, non-partisan group -- being a member of either major party, and perhaps any party, should be immediate disqualification to sit on the panel.
And the instruction to the panel should be to draw lines that preserve geographic continuity as much as possible. No zig-zag gerrymandering.
I also believe there should be consistency between senate, assembly and congressional districts. As far as the process: absolutely, non-partisan. That is why I looked to the Boards of Election. The organization already exists and it is essentially non-partisan. I see no reason to expend more on creating a separate agency to deal with this.
C.M. - The boards are hyper-partisan. They are administered by commissioners that are appointed by the two top party committees. I don't see anything wrong with that either, the dual existence keeps everyone honest and I think that they do a fantastic job.
Good point regarding the B O E's and the cost savings. No question about the non-partisanship, geographic continuity and consistency between districts. Also, we should cut down the number of assemblymen and senators.
I expect Mr. Cuomo to further his agenda of government consolidation. I also hope to see him tell the Senate and Assembly to get over themselves and do the people's work. If he can stay neutral of the party BS, and work both sides of the aisle, I think he could be effective. That being said, I don't expect either to happen. Same old, same old.
In the first State of the State message open to the public and the first using internet-age technology to deliver the presentation, Governor Cuomo said he would open up government to the public and work in partnership with all stakeholders to address the serious fiscal challenges facing New York State and its local governments
"We must transform the State of New York from a government of dysfunction, gridlock and corruption to a government of performance, integrity, and pride,” Governor Cuomo said. “This is not about budget trimming or cutting, it’s about looking at how we can fix government and make it work for the people. Together, we must take the significant steps needed to reinvent, reorganize and redesign government to restore credibility and to rebuild our economy by creating jobs all across this State.”
In light of the enormous fiscal challenges facing New York, Governor Cuomo’s agenda relies on rethinking core government operations and economic development strategies to provide better results and to maximize resources.
“We must begin by confronting honestly the challenges we face. Change is not easy, but we must change to return to prosperity,” Governor Cuomo said.
Governor Cuomo outlined the following initiatives as part of his State of the State message:
•Emergency Fiscal Plan: Governor Cuomo today outlined an Emergency Financial Plan that closes the $10 billion deficit in the 2010-11 budget without raising taxes or borrowing. The plan called for imposing a one-year salary freeze on the vast majority of public employees whose contracts are up for renegotiation as of April 1; holding the line on taxes; and imposing a State spending cap limiting spending growth to the rate of inflation.
•Rightsizing Government: Saying that redesigning New York State government is essential to rebuilding the state’s economy, Governor Cuomo today issued an Executive Order creating the Spending and Government Efficiency (SAGE) Commission to make state government more accountable and efficient by reducing the number of agencies, authorities, and commissions by 20 percent. The SAGE Commission is directed to submit to the Governor a rightsizing plan to reduce the number of agencies by May 1st of this year. Under additional legislation proposed by the Governor today, the Governor would then submit the rightsizing plan to the legislature for action with the plan going in to effect, unless the legislature acted within 30 days to reject it. Director of Agency Redesign and Efficiency Paul Francis will serve as Co-Chair with the Governor appointing one or more additional Co-Chairs.
•Redesigning the Medicaid program: Governor Cuomo today issued an Executive Order aimed at redesigning New York State’s costly Medicaid program. The order calls for the creation of a new Medicaid Redesign Team to find ways to save money within the Medicaid program for the Governor’s upcoming state budget proposal for the 2011-12 Fiscal Year. Based on the nationally recognized model used in Wisconsin that involved bringing stakeholders together to find efficiencies and cost savings within the Medicaid program, the team will be comprised of leaders from the healthcare industry, the Governor’s office, the legislative bodies, and other business, labor and consumer advocates. Jason Helgerson, whom the Governor appointed today to serve as New York State Medicaid Director and created the Wisconsin model, will be the Team’s Executive Director.
Under the Governor’s order, the Team is to begin work no later than Friday, Jan. 7, and must submit its first report with findings and recommendations to the Governor by March 1 for consideration in the budget process.
•Providing Mandate Relief: Governor Cuomo today issued an Executive Order creating The “Mandate Relief Redesign Team” (“Team”) to review unfunded and underfunded mandates imposed by the New York State government on school districts, local governments, and other local taxing districts. The Team, chaired by Senior Advisor to the Governor Larry Schwartz, will include representatives from private industry, education, labor, and government and look for ways to reduce the costs of mandated programs, identify mandates that are ineffective and outdated, and determine how school districts and local governments can have greater ability to control expenses. The Team will begin working by January 7, 2011 and will submit a first set of recommendations to the Governor by March 1, 2011 for consideration in the Fiscal Year 2011-12 budget process. The Team will continue its review until the end of Fiscal Year 2011-12.
•Redesigning Local Governments: Governor Cuomo is creating a program to reward local governments that save money by rightsizing. The Citizen Re-Organization Empowerment Grants will provide up to $100,000 to cover all or part of the costs of merger and dissolutions studies.
•Redesigning Education: Noting that New York is first in spending but 34th in results, Governor Cuomo proposed restructuring a portion of our education aid to create incentives that reward school districts for improving student performance and implementing management efficiency policies.
•Transforming the ethical environment in Government. Governor Cuomo’s “Clean Up Albany” agenda includes instituting campaign finance reform to include a system of public financing for elections, limiting contribution levels, creating an independent redistricting commission, create independent monitoring and enforcement of ethics laws; and requiring full disclosure of outside income and clients. Governor Cuomo also proposed to outlaw “pay to play” to limit the impact of special interests, strip pensions for public officials convicted of a felony for abusing the public trust; and improving government performance and transparency through technology.
Transforming New York’s Economy:
Governor Cuomo said, “Business built New York, and we are declaring that New York is once again open for business.”
Governor Cuomo said that restoring the State’s historically thriving private sector will require holding the line on taxes and working to lower taxes in the future. His economic development agenda seeks to help government to be job facilitators and not frustrating job creation through the following initiatives:
•Creating regional Economic Development Councils: Noting that those working at the local level know their area economies best, he will create regional economic development councils to work with state agencies to allocate resources. To ensure that state agencies and the councils are working to create jobs, Governor Robert Duffy will lead these councils, which will be drawn from the private sector, local governments, state agencies and academic institutions.
•Fixing the recently-enacted Excelsior Tax Credit Program: Governor Cuomo proposed to revise the recently enacted Excelsior Tax Credit Program to produce better results for New Yorkers. His proposals would restructure the value and length of the tax credit to provide greater incentives for job creation; restructure incentives for improving properties; pay credits as job-creation milestones are met rather than at the end of the proposal; expand research and development tax credits; and streamline the application and approval process.
•Create a permanent Power for Jobs Program: To help keep manufacturers in New York State, Governor Cuomo introduced a permanent Power for Jobs program to provide predictability and stability of supply with long-term contracts, and incorporate efficiency incentives to reward improvements.
•Enacting Property Tax Relief: Governor Cuomo’s property tax cap will set the cap at the rate of inflation or two percent, whichever is less; prohibit any property tax levy above the cap unless endorsed by both by the local governing board and a 60 percent majority of the people during an election; and provide only limited exceptions such as extraordinary legal or capital expenditures.
Making New York the Progressive Capital of the Nation
Governor Cuomo seeks to reclaim its status as the progressive leader in the nation in the following ways:
•Better protecting consumers and investors: A newly-formed Department of Financial Regulation will merge the Insurance Department, Banking Department and the Consumer Protection Board to better regulate modern financial services organizations. A primary mission will be to stand up for consumers, protect them from predatory lending and unlawful foreclosure practices, and provide access to good, honest and capable financial services at competitive rates.
•A cleaner, greener environment: Governor Cuomo will create the “NY Cleaner, Greener Communities Program” to provide competitive grants that will encourage communities to develop regional sustainable growth strategies in housing, transportation, emissions control, energy efficiency. The program will emphasize revitalizing urban areas through smart growth, creating green jobs, building green infrastructure including roof and rain gardens, and strengthening environmental justice and protection.
•Expanding Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBE) support: Of the 1.9 million business entities operating in New York State, more than 50 percent are owned by women or minorities. The vast majority of these companies are small businesses and a critical driver of the New York State economy. To ensure that MWBE’s have the opportunity to earn their fair share of the State’s business, Governor Cuomo directed State agencies to double the current MWBE participation goal from 10 to 20 percent and ease bonding restrictions that they will face and expand the Owner-Controlled Insurance Program model to expand opportunities for small businesses.
•Juvenile Justice Reorganization: With a goal of reducing wasteful spending, Governor Cuomo will undertake an immediate reorganization of the State’s youth detention facilities with the goal of consolidation, while providing current staff the priority for relocation to other facilities, retraining and/or reemployment opportunities. He proposed a repeal of the requirement mandating a 12-month notice requirement to close facilities to avoid keeping facilities open that have few or no children.
•Expanding fresh food into urban centers: To help revitalize urban areas and develop markets for New York farmers, Governor Cuomo will seek ways to expand the presence of locally-grown food markets in urban areas. This will include working to revitalize the Hunts Point terminal Produce Market in the Bronx, which supplies a large portion of the produce for New York City’s and the region’s food consumption, and creating a “Share NY Food” Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program that develops partnerships with farmers and residents to expand access and resources and make fresh food available to consumers in urban areas.
•Providing for marriage equality for all New Yorkers: To end discrimination against same–sex couples who wish to get married, Governor Cuomo called for the passage of legislation legalizing marriage for same-sex couples as has been done in many states and other countries.
•Protect Reproductive Rights: To protect a woman’s right to choose options in the face of an unplanned or problem pregnancy, Governor Cuomo will fight for passage of reproductive rights legislation to protect the fundamental right of reproductive freedom and a woman’s right to make private health care decisionshttp://governor.ny.gov/press/01052011stateofthestate
Much of this statement sounds good, except for the mandate for 20% of State business set aside for "minorities". I have seen the result of this mandate and not impressed. Just insure fair bidding and let minorities compete. When you set aside 20% of the business for a special group, you don't get the best deal.
Question: If the above is correct and 50% of the 1.9 million business are minority owed, why do they need 20% of the business set aside for them?
What about the thousands of other businesses Charlie that didn't feed at the government trough and barely survived. Now they have to deal with their competition getting a leg up because they have different physical attributes and not because their product is better?
I wouldn't say it's beyond
I wouldn't say it's beyond fixing, but surely drastic measures are needed instead of tweaking. I will keep an open mind about him and will reserve judgement. Scaling down the inaugural festivities is a good start, kudos for that. Now if he would eschew government housing and cut back staff and administration personnel and costs, give himself a pay cut and then call for a new state constitution and cut back further legislators budgets, call for term limits and appoint an impartial re-districting czar. I'd feel a lot better.
With you, Dave, until the
With you, Dave, until the czar part. Redistricting should be in the hands of the people not some czar. My suggestion was to allow the local BOEs to manage redistricting with public input. ...And be forewarned, the constitutional convention will be a HUGE expense.
It should not be a Huge
It should not be a Huge expense, however. The special interests need to cut off at the knees. When I said czar, I was thinking of sort of a central figure who manages the process for the Governor and draws and presents the final district map to the legislature for approval. Dreaming I know.
I may be mistaken, but the
I may be mistaken, but the current process empowers the majority leaders of Assembly and Senate to draw the districts- failing that, the courts decide.
I truly don't know the
I truly don't know the process, C.M., all I know is, it results in something that looks like a Rorschach blot. It's utterly stupid, to me and just maintains the status quo. The Governor needs to challenge the process, I believe the people of the state will support him if he does.
I think redistricting should
I think redistricting should be handled by a small, non-partisan group -- being a member of either major party, and perhaps any party, should be immediate disqualification to sit on the panel.
And the instruction to the panel should be to draw lines that preserve geographic continuity as much as possible. No zig-zag gerrymandering.
I also believe there should
I also believe there should be consistency between senate, assembly and congressional districts. As far as the process: absolutely, non-partisan. That is why I looked to the Boards of Election. The organization already exists and it is essentially non-partisan. I see no reason to expend more on creating a separate agency to deal with this.
C.M. - The boards are
C.M. - The boards are hyper-partisan. They are administered by commissioners that are appointed by the two top party committees. I don't see anything wrong with that either, the dual existence keeps everyone honest and I think that they do a fantastic job.
Good point regarding the B O
Good point regarding the B O E's and the cost savings. No question about the non-partisanship, geographic continuity and consistency between districts. Also, we should cut down the number of assemblymen and senators.
I expect Mr. Cuomo to further
I expect Mr. Cuomo to further his agenda of government consolidation. I also hope to see him tell the Senate and Assembly to get over themselves and do the people's work. If he can stay neutral of the party BS, and work both sides of the aisle, I think he could be effective. That being said, I don't expect either to happen. Same old, same old.
Not a bad start, keep
Not a bad start, keep choppin', baby; like Sandra Lee and a stalk of celery.
http://www.buffalonews.com/incoming/article300781.ece
Note, they are now executive
Note, they are now executive orders and not just campaign rhetoric.
Governor Cuomo Outlines Transformational Plan for a New NY
http://governor.ny.gov/press/01052011stateofthestate
In the first State of the State message open to the public and the first using internet-age technology to deliver the presentation, Governor Cuomo said he would open up government to the public and work in partnership with all stakeholders to address the serious fiscal challenges facing New York State and its local governments
"We must transform the State of New York from a government of dysfunction, gridlock and corruption to a government of performance, integrity, and pride,” Governor Cuomo said. “This is not about budget trimming or cutting, it’s about looking at how we can fix government and make it work for the people. Together, we must take the significant steps needed to reinvent, reorganize and redesign government to restore credibility and to rebuild our economy by creating jobs all across this State.”
In light of the enormous fiscal challenges facing New York, Governor Cuomo’s agenda relies on rethinking core government operations and economic development strategies to provide better results and to maximize resources.
“We must begin by confronting honestly the challenges we face. Change is not easy, but we must change to return to prosperity,” Governor Cuomo said.
Governor Cuomo outlined the following initiatives as part of his State of the State message:
•Emergency Fiscal Plan: Governor Cuomo today outlined an Emergency Financial Plan that closes the $10 billion deficit in the 2010-11 budget without raising taxes or borrowing. The plan called for imposing a one-year salary freeze on the vast majority of public employees whose contracts are up for renegotiation as of April 1; holding the line on taxes; and imposing a State spending cap limiting spending growth to the rate of inflation.
•Rightsizing Government: Saying that redesigning New York State government is essential to rebuilding the state’s economy, Governor Cuomo today issued an Executive Order creating the Spending and Government Efficiency (SAGE) Commission to make state government more accountable and efficient by reducing the number of agencies, authorities, and commissions by 20 percent. The SAGE Commission is directed to submit to the Governor a rightsizing plan to reduce the number of agencies by May 1st of this year. Under additional legislation proposed by the Governor today, the Governor would then submit the rightsizing plan to the legislature for action with the plan going in to effect, unless the legislature acted within 30 days to reject it. Director of Agency Redesign and Efficiency Paul Francis will serve as Co-Chair with the Governor appointing one or more additional Co-Chairs.
•Redesigning the Medicaid program: Governor Cuomo today issued an Executive Order aimed at redesigning New York State’s costly Medicaid program. The order calls for the creation of a new Medicaid Redesign Team to find ways to save money within the Medicaid program for the Governor’s upcoming state budget proposal for the 2011-12 Fiscal Year. Based on the nationally recognized model used in Wisconsin that involved bringing stakeholders together to find efficiencies and cost savings within the Medicaid program, the team will be comprised of leaders from the healthcare industry, the Governor’s office, the legislative bodies, and other business, labor and consumer advocates. Jason Helgerson, whom the Governor appointed today to serve as New York State Medicaid Director and created the Wisconsin model, will be the Team’s Executive Director.
Under the Governor’s order, the Team is to begin work no later than Friday, Jan. 7, and must submit its first report with findings and recommendations to the Governor by March 1 for consideration in the budget process.
•Providing Mandate Relief: Governor Cuomo today issued an Executive Order creating The “Mandate Relief Redesign Team” (“Team”) to review unfunded and underfunded mandates imposed by the New York State government on school districts, local governments, and other local taxing districts. The Team, chaired by Senior Advisor to the Governor Larry Schwartz, will include representatives from private industry, education, labor, and government and look for ways to reduce the costs of mandated programs, identify mandates that are ineffective and outdated, and determine how school districts and local governments can have greater ability to control expenses. The Team will begin working by January 7, 2011 and will submit a first set of recommendations to the Governor by March 1, 2011 for consideration in the Fiscal Year 2011-12 budget process. The Team will continue its review until the end of Fiscal Year 2011-12.
•Redesigning Local Governments: Governor Cuomo is creating a program to reward local governments that save money by rightsizing. The Citizen Re-Organization Empowerment Grants will provide up to $100,000 to cover all or part of the costs of merger and dissolutions studies.
•Redesigning Education: Noting that New York is first in spending but 34th in results, Governor Cuomo proposed restructuring a portion of our education aid to create incentives that reward school districts for improving student performance and implementing management efficiency policies.
•Transforming the ethical environment in Government. Governor Cuomo’s “Clean Up Albany” agenda includes instituting campaign finance reform to include a system of public financing for elections, limiting contribution levels, creating an independent redistricting commission, create independent monitoring and enforcement of ethics laws; and requiring full disclosure of outside income and clients. Governor Cuomo also proposed to outlaw “pay to play” to limit the impact of special interests, strip pensions for public officials convicted of a felony for abusing the public trust; and improving government performance and transparency through technology.
Transforming New York’s Economy:
Governor Cuomo said, “Business built New York, and we are declaring that New York is once again open for business.”
Governor Cuomo said that restoring the State’s historically thriving private sector will require holding the line on taxes and working to lower taxes in the future. His economic development agenda seeks to help government to be job facilitators and not frustrating job creation through the following initiatives:
•Creating regional Economic Development Councils: Noting that those working at the local level know their area economies best, he will create regional economic development councils to work with state agencies to allocate resources. To ensure that state agencies and the councils are working to create jobs, Governor Robert Duffy will lead these councils, which will be drawn from the private sector, local governments, state agencies and academic institutions.
•Fixing the recently-enacted Excelsior Tax Credit Program: Governor Cuomo proposed to revise the recently enacted Excelsior Tax Credit Program to produce better results for New Yorkers. His proposals would restructure the value and length of the tax credit to provide greater incentives for job creation; restructure incentives for improving properties; pay credits as job-creation milestones are met rather than at the end of the proposal; expand research and development tax credits; and streamline the application and approval process.
•Create a permanent Power for Jobs Program: To help keep manufacturers in New York State, Governor Cuomo introduced a permanent Power for Jobs program to provide predictability and stability of supply with long-term contracts, and incorporate efficiency incentives to reward improvements.
•Enacting Property Tax Relief: Governor Cuomo’s property tax cap will set the cap at the rate of inflation or two percent, whichever is less; prohibit any property tax levy above the cap unless endorsed by both by the local governing board and a 60 percent majority of the people during an election; and provide only limited exceptions such as extraordinary legal or capital expenditures.
Making New York the Progressive Capital of the Nation
Governor Cuomo seeks to reclaim its status as the progressive leader in the nation in the following ways:
•Better protecting consumers and investors: A newly-formed Department of Financial Regulation will merge the Insurance Department, Banking Department and the Consumer Protection Board to better regulate modern financial services organizations. A primary mission will be to stand up for consumers, protect them from predatory lending and unlawful foreclosure practices, and provide access to good, honest and capable financial services at competitive rates.
•A cleaner, greener environment: Governor Cuomo will create the “NY Cleaner, Greener Communities Program” to provide competitive grants that will encourage communities to develop regional sustainable growth strategies in housing, transportation, emissions control, energy efficiency. The program will emphasize revitalizing urban areas through smart growth, creating green jobs, building green infrastructure including roof and rain gardens, and strengthening environmental justice and protection.
•Expanding Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBE) support: Of the 1.9 million business entities operating in New York State, more than 50 percent are owned by women or minorities. The vast majority of these companies are small businesses and a critical driver of the New York State economy. To ensure that MWBE’s have the opportunity to earn their fair share of the State’s business, Governor Cuomo directed State agencies to double the current MWBE participation goal from 10 to 20 percent and ease bonding restrictions that they will face and expand the Owner-Controlled Insurance Program model to expand opportunities for small businesses.
•Juvenile Justice Reorganization: With a goal of reducing wasteful spending, Governor Cuomo will undertake an immediate reorganization of the State’s youth detention facilities with the goal of consolidation, while providing current staff the priority for relocation to other facilities, retraining and/or reemployment opportunities. He proposed a repeal of the requirement mandating a 12-month notice requirement to close facilities to avoid keeping facilities open that have few or no children.
•Expanding fresh food into urban centers: To help revitalize urban areas and develop markets for New York farmers, Governor Cuomo will seek ways to expand the presence of locally-grown food markets in urban areas. This will include working to revitalize the Hunts Point terminal Produce Market in the Bronx, which supplies a large portion of the produce for New York City’s and the region’s food consumption, and creating a “Share NY Food” Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program that develops partnerships with farmers and residents to expand access and resources and make fresh food available to consumers in urban areas.
•Providing for marriage equality for all New Yorkers: To end discrimination against same–sex couples who wish to get married, Governor Cuomo called for the passage of legislation legalizing marriage for same-sex couples as has been done in many states and other countries.
•Protect Reproductive Rights: To protect a woman’s right to choose options in the face of an unplanned or problem pregnancy, Governor Cuomo will fight for passage of reproductive rights legislation to protect the fundamental right of reproductive freedom and a woman’s right to make private health care decisionshttp://governor.ny.gov/press/01052011stateofthestate
Never mind the right of the
Never mind the right of the baby or the rights of white men who own businesses to compete fairly (aka without government interference)
Much of this statement sounds
Much of this statement sounds good, except for the mandate for 20% of State business set aside for "minorities". I have seen the result of this mandate and not impressed. Just insure fair bidding and let minorities compete. When you set aside 20% of the business for a special group, you don't get the best deal.
Question: If the above is correct and 50% of the 1.9 million business are minority owed, why do they need 20% of the business set aside for them?
Peter O'Brien: Champion of
Peter O'Brien: Champion of white men everywhere.
Only really rich white men.
Only really rich white men. You know, the ones that get my tax money to bail out their poorly run businesses.
What about the thousands of
What about the thousands of other businesses Charlie that didn't feed at the government trough and barely survived. Now they have to deal with their competition getting a leg up because they have different physical attributes and not because their product is better?
And for the record I qualify
And for the record I qualify for minority status Chris.
Posted by Peter O'Brien on
Posted by Peter O'Brien on January 6, 2011 - 8:18am
And for the record I qualify for minority status Chris.
waiting for the rim shot...
could the response be, "because I am a white male who is creating wealth and paying taxes."?
Bea, technically I am Indian.
Bea, technically I am Indian.