Governor Andrew Cuomo sat down with NY1's Errol Louis for an interview Wednesday after laying out his vision for the year in his State of the State address.
The governor combined his annual State of the State address and his Executive Budget, laying out a huge set of long- and short-term priorities, from expanding local airports to funding higher education, upstate business development and clean energy projects.
The governor also provided details of a plan that we knew was coming: state monitoring of the way New York City homeless shelters are run.
After the speech, NY1's Errol Louis asked the governor why he decided to intervene.
"It's a state responsibility," Cuomo said. "We have provided more funding than the state has ever spent in history on the homeless. That's a big step forward. The second step is to make sure the money is well-spent and the system works. I believe fully that New Yorkers are very disturbed by this homeless situation."
Toward the end of his speech, the governor got unusually personal and emotional. He talked about the cancer that resulted in a mastectomy for his girlfriend, celebrity chef Sandra Lee, and the last days of his father, former Governor Mario Cuomo, and how that experience convinced him that New York needs a law guaranteeing personal leave to all full-time workers.
"There were two issues that mean a lot to me. One is family leave, which allows a person to spend time if they have an immediate family member who is sick, dying, childbirth, etc. And the second is breast cancer. And I wanted to use a real-life situation to explain what this was about. My father died just about a year ago this time. I work obsessively, and I made a mistake, and I did not spend enough time with him," Cuomo said. "I had the choice. What I want to say is, everybody should have the choice. And that's what family leave does."
The entire interview will air tonight on Inside City Hall at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.