Sharing credit, governor outlines plans at Molloy College

The choice of venue was perhaps symbolic. Gov. Andrew Cuomo spoke at Molloy College’s brand new, state-of-the-art Madison Theatre in Rockville Centre on Feb. 2, and his theme was a “New New York” and a change in the way the state government is run.

Before fellow politicians, Molloy staff and students and other Long Island residents, the governor laid out his social and economic plans for 2012 while highlighting the state’s accomplishments since he took office a year ago.

After introductions from Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, Assemblyman Charles Lavine and State Sen. Jack Martins, Cuomo told the audience that he would continue the momentum from 2011 in the coming year. “We really did get a lot of good work done,” he said. “And we now want to use the good work from last year and use the success from last year to do even better this year.”

The state overcame a “trust deficit and integrity deficit,” early in 2011, Cuomo said, by changing the culture of Albany. “And last year’s legislative session will go down in the history books as one of the most successful legislative sessions in modern political history,” he said.

He commended the State Legislature for several significant accomplishments, including closing a $10 billion deficit, enacting a first-ever property tax cap and launching the New York Open for Business Campaign.

“We also had two amazing accomplishments, in my opinion. One in the field of social justice and the other in the field of economic justice,” Cuomo said, referring to the Marriage Equality Act and the tax-code overhaul and drawing loud applause from the audience.

He noted that with those two accomplishments, the state made history, and added that thanks to the tax-code overhaul, middle-class residents now pay the lowest tax rates in 58 years. “It’s almost hard to get your head around that, because it was really a long, long time ago,” Cuomo joked. “Gas was 29 cents per gallon in 1953, Elvis Presley was being registered for the draft in 1953 and Jackie Robinson was playing second base the last time taxes were this low … and me, I was just a twinkle in my father’s eye.”