While the governor has not yet offered many details about a plan to clean up the state Capitol, he is expected to address the ethics crisis in his State of the State speech Wednesday. Zack Fink filed the following report.
With sneak preview after sneak preview, Governor Andrew Cuomo has already outlined 14 proposals he plans to touch on in his State of the State address on Wednesday. They include major infrastructure projects, such as expanding the Javits Convention Center, revamping Penn Station and improving service for subway riders.
The administration has put a price tag for all of these proposals at $100 billion without providing much information about where the money would come from.
"$100 billion in transportation funding, I'm not sure how that is possibly done. And I don't know how everything is related to each other because there has to be parity," said state Senator John DeFrancisco of Syracuse. "Having been chairman of finance, I know that you need to pay for things."
One thing the governor has not offered many details about is his plan to clean up the state Capitol. Lawmakers are still rattled by the corruption convictions of the men who were in charge of the state legislature a year ago at this time.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie spoke exclusively to NY1, saying he expects ethics reform to be part of Cuomo's spending plan.
"I know he is putting ethics into the budget," Heastie said. "We expect it. We accept that he is going to do it."
Putting policy proposals in the budget is a new way for the governor to force legislators to accept them, otherwise forcing the state into a fiscal ditch.
Looming large at the Capitol is U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who successfully prosecuted the state's top two legislative leaders last year. Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb invited Bharara to conduct ethics training in albany.
"Well I'd like, and I think we should invite Mr. Bharara or someone like him to talk to the New York State legislature about ethics and corruption," Kolb said.
Cuomo is also expected to address the city's homeless crisis. Heastie says he wants the state to work with the city. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio have sparred on the issue.
"It's a problem that doesn't just fix itself by dealing with people once they become homeless. There are other ways we have to start to look at this," Heastie said. "We need to try to really look at ways of preventing people from being homeless in the first place because it becomes much more expensive."
Another issue the governor is expected to address is the minimum wage. Cuomo has launched a campaign for a $15 minimum wage statewide. He's already taken executive action to make that happen for public employees.