Op-ed: Common Sense – Drama lessons
Gov. Cuomo’s State of the State address last week was notable for several items he did not address. There was no mention of amending the bail reform legislation which has been returning violent and repeat offenders to the street for the past three weeks. The new law also changed the discovery requirements, which in practice will force district attorneys to drop prosecutions as well as providing personal information on victims to the accused.
The governor also failed to address the unusually large $6.2 billion state budget deficit. He did indicate that local governments needed to do more to rein in Medicaid costs. That is all well and good, but fails to take into account that his budget office has been kicking Medicaid costs down the road from to year, resulting in much of the deficit. Many legislators and budget-oriented good government groups warned him in early 2019 — warnings he did not heed.
He also failed to acknowledge that the large migration of New Yorkers to other states was a growing problem. To this point, some of the wealthiest New Yorkers are taking their homes and their pocketbooks to other states, further hurting the state economically.