The governor spoke in broad terms about New York state’s future this afternoon, and his most passionate language was reserved for western New York and Buffalo, which he said deserved major attention to revitalize that region’s economy.<\/p>\n
But he spoke about a number of issues vital to the North Country.\u00a0 The following excerpts are from his prepared comments.\u00a0 The governor deviated from this text as he ad-libbed his way through the speech, but this gives you the gist.<\/p>\n
On mandate reform for local governments, the governor called for an “up or down vote” on reforms this year:<\/p>\n
The joint Legislative and Executive Mandate Relief Council
\nwe created last year will begin its work this month. I will
\nrequest that the Council hold public hearings. We need a
\nrobust public discussion on the pros and cons of the
\nmandates. The Commission will issue a package of
\nrecommendations by the end of the session. We need a yea
\nor nay vote this year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe governor called for a $2 billion investment in electric transmission corridors connecting our region and Quebec to consumers downstate:<\/p>\n
We have an excess of generation capacity and tremendous
\nwind power potential in Upstate and Western New York and
\nnorth of the border in Quebec. We have tremendous energy
\nneeds Downstate. Just as we built the New York State
\nThruway to unite distant parts of the state, we will develop
\nan \u201cEnergy Highway\u201d system that will bring excess fossil-fuel
\nenergy from Western New York downstate, and also tap into
\nUpstate\u2019s potential for renewable energy, like wind power.
\nJust like we built the Northway, we will develop an energy
\nexpressway down from Quebec.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nReform of management of programs, like the Sunmount center in Tupper Lake, that provide services to people with developmental disabilities:<\/p>\n
Many of the problems our disabled residents encounter are
\nnot the result of limited resources, but rooted instead in
\nfailures in the organization and management of services.
\nWe must develop a system that recognizes the potential of
\nand the barriers faced by each individual we serve. We
\nmust focus on quality and prevention, and simplify and
\nstreamline access to services.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nGovernor Cuomo again suggested that he would veto any political maps developed by lawmakers, not by an independent redistricting body:<\/p>\n
I would veto any lines not developed through such a
\nprocess. Independent redistricting will help restore public
\ntrust in government.
\nThe redistricting process would work transparently with
\npublic hearings held in every corner of New
\nYork. Comments and feedback would be submitted by
\nindividual voters, organizations, and stakeholders. The
\nproposed district maps will be subject to extensive public
\ncomment and revised as necessary before being finalized.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSo there are some takeaways.\u00a0 What do you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The governor spoke in broad terms about New York state’s future this afternoon, and his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[6548,20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5287"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}