We are living in turbulent times and pay little attention to the unseen trends in the political world.
But while we weren’t looking, Andrew Cuomo has become the most powerful New York governor in the past 75 years. Is that a problem? No. it’s just a fact of life that will impact on the state’s operations for many years to come.
The last governor who was able to use his powers freely was Nelson Rockefeller.
During his tenure, his power was not in the law books. It was based on his strong support from the Legislature because of his close relationships with the leadership. Even though he was a staunch Republican, the then-Democratic Speaker Anthony Travia, delivered anything Rockefeller wanted.
The current accumulation of strong governmental power by Gov. Cuomo didn’t happen overnight. Most of it goes back to the time when George Pataki was governor.
At that time, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver didn’t like the Pataki budget and decided to challenge his power. Once upon a time the state budget could be late and be passed after April 1. So the legislature had its traditional powers.
The Silver challenge to Pataki resulted in a court decision that basically said that if no legislative budget was adopted by April 1, the governor would be able to propose his own budget and the legislature couldn’t amend or modify it. That basically castrated the legislature’s powers once April 1 came and went. In short, the legislators lost all power if the budget was late.
A few years later, under Gov. David Paterson, the legislature again challenged the governor’s budget powers and lost their battle. Those cases helped cement the powers that Andrew Cuomo now enjoys.
For all of my years in Albany, the adopted state budget was a numbers document. It provided funds for all of the state agencies and there were no non-fiscal issues in the document.
But Andrew Cuomo was a well-schooled student of state affairs dating back to the days when his father, Mario Cuomo, was governor. Young Andrew Cuomo paid great attention to the budget process and the skirmishes that his father had with legislative leaders.
Once Andrew became governor, he started testing the legislature by adding items to the budget that had nothing to do with budget numbers.
He would insert such proposals as the legalization of marijuana and ethics proposals that unsettled the legislative leaders. A number of those ideas fell by the wayside, but quite a few passed because when the legislature votes on the budget it is all or nothing.
As a current example, the recently passed state budget made major reforms to the state’s bail laws. After bail reform was passed, there was a loud outcry from law enforcement that the 2019 law was too lenient and alleged offenders of serious crimes were getting out of jail with no bail.
Much to the displeasure of some Assembly members, the budget was adopted. Legalization of pot was also in the proposed budget but the virus attack sidelined that issue for another day.
The extraordinary powers of Mr. Cuomo have been cemented by the current battle with the coronavirus. State revenues are plunging and that throws the state’s budget into a free fall. With dramatic drops in sales and income taxes, the budget is no longer a one-year document.
Under the budget adopted a few weeks ago, the governor now has the power to make major cuts in programs after a periodic review. Absent some fresh federal dollars, big cuts are coming and only the governor can make them.
Gov. Cuomo has a few years left in his current term and no doubt will seek re-election and have no problem winning.
So for the next six-plus years, he will be able to freely exercise every power given him under the state’s constitution and will benefit greatly from all of the different powers that he inherited.
To paraphrase Willie Nelson’s well-known song, Andrew Cuomo is the king of the hill.
