Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo took office on Saturday proclaiming his inauguration a rebirth of trust in a state government that he described as a “national joke.”
At 12:20 p.m. EST, the 56th governor of New York performed a ceremonial oath of office and delivered a 20-minute inaugural address in which he promised to restore New Yorkers’ faith in a capital racked by fiscal turmoil and ethical lapses.
Albany’s budget troubles are such that even the bishop of Albany, who delivered the invocation at the event, made mention of the state’s deficit. But Mr. Cuomo, who spoke mostly from memory, said a lack of cash is only part of the problem. “It’s actually worse. The state faces a competence deficit, an integrity deficit and a trust deficit,” he said.
“The words ‘government in Albany’ have become a national punchline, and the joke is on us,” Gov. Cuomo said. “Too often government responds to the whispers of lobbyists before the cries of the people.”
And to reinforce that point, Mr. Cuomo reopened to the public the Hall of Governors, a stretch of hallway outside his offices in the executive chamber that had been blocked by a security post since the Pataki administration. By lifting the barriers, his administration was removing a “symbol of the way the government has turned away from the people,” Mr. Cuomo said after his speech, as he sliced a red ribbon at the hallway’s entrance before a pack of reporters and cameras.
The 55-minute inauguration ceremony was staged in the chilly air of the Capitol’s so-called War Room, a second-floor chamber that is decorated with ceiling frescos depicting the goddess of war and violent battles scenes from New York history. About 175 people attended the ceremony, hundreds fewer than witnessed former Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s outdoor inauguration four years ago.
In his speech, the new governor invoked the plight of taxpayers on Long Island, who he said are “imprisoned in their homes,” as well as laid-off construction workers in Brooklyn who are running out of unemployment insurance checks. “My gray hairs are multiplying just thinking about what we have to do,” Gov. Cuomo said.
But while Gov. Cuomo spoke of “right-sizing” state government and called on lawmakers to pass a property tax cap, he also spoke of his belief in the power of his office, echoing the political philosophy of his father, who served from 1983 to 1995. “We want the government to succeed. It is not an alien force. It is the organizing force for people,” he said.
And he called on New Yorkers to enlist in the struggle.
“Where are the people in Albany? Where are the people in the capital? That is the profound absence in this system. The people aren’t engaged,” he said. “If there’s a silver bullet in the battle to recapture Albany, it is the re-engagement of our citizens. This capital has become a physical metaphor for the isolation and alienation of our people.”
Gov. Cuomo praised his predecessor, David A. Paterson, who served as governor for nearly three years after the resignation of Mr. Spitzer. The governor said Mr. Paterson “became captain of a ship just when the ship was headed into a storm, and he warned us about the storm and brought us through.” Spitzer and Pataki weren’t invited to the ceremony.
Gov. Cuomo took the oath last, following the swearing-in of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a former Democratic state senator, incumbent comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy, a former mayor of Rochester.
The new governor also ordered construction crews to remove concrete and steel barriers in front of the Capitol on State Street, allowing tour buses to park and drop off visitors to the building. The security measure was installed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
After the ceremony, Gov. Cuomo walked outside and briefly chatted with a couple of Department of Transportation workers in John Deere cranes, who were removing the barriers. The crew was paid overtime hours, but the extra cost was borne by Mr. Cuomo’s campaign funds, a spokesman for the governor said.
The official oath was administered at 10:09 p.m. on Friday by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman. Mr. Cuomo officially became governor at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, after signing an oath of office at the executive mansion.
(Source: WSJ)
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Should we take bets on how long this will last? You know, until he realizes that the state is run by the hard core spenders (think our own community’s Shelly Silver, among many others) and the unions and all the other special interests.
If he makes New York back into the Empire State (Empire in the original meaning, e.g. Rome or Britain at its height, as opposed to to its current meaning, e.g. Rome or Britain in the 21st century), he’ll be running in 2016.