From: Press Office Press.Offi[email protected] Subject: RUSH TRANSCRIPT: GOVERNOR CUOMO DELIVERS HIS 2017 REGIONAL STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS IN BUFFALO Date: January 9, 2017 at 6:08 PM To: [email protected] For Immediate Release: 1/9/2017 GOVERNOR ANDREW M. CUOMO State of New York | Executive Chamber Andrew M. Cuomo | Governor RUSH TRANSCRIPT: GOVERNOR CUOMO DELIVERS HIS 2017 REGIONAL STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS IN BUFFALO Today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo delivered his 2017 regional State of the State Address in Buffalo. A rush transcript of the Governor’s remarks is available below. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Well it is great to be at UB. Let’s give Satish Tripathi and Nancy Zimpher, a great round of applause for their great work. Really an extraordinary accomplishment. And to all of the elected officials who we’ve worked with so successfully, but another round of applause for Mayor Brown, County Executive Mark Poloncarz, Mayor Dyster, Comptroller Mark Schroder, Mayor Sam Teresi. And how about that Howard Zemsky? I just read – he did a book, Howard. The book came out around Christmas. The sales haven’t been great. I got an early copy. The title was, “I Always Wanted to be Jerry Seinfeld, But I Wound Up Being the Head of Economic Development, Go Figure,” but it is a good read. It is a good read. It has a sort of schizophrenic twist to it about a man caught in one occupation but he really wanted to be another person. Certain sexual identity issues in their also. But it is a good book and he on a serious note has been such an extraordinary benefit – not just to Western New York – he has turned around all of upstate New York. Let’s give him a big round of applause. That is Howard Zemsky. And I am so excited to be here and talk about the new year. The State of the State, we’ve been talking about the State of the State for the past few days. What is the State of the State? It is, well, stronger than it has been in decades and nobody knows that better than you in Buffalo know that. New York has made remarkable economic and social progress. Not since the time of FDR and Robert Moses. Our government has achieved more, built more, passed more meaningful legislation than ever before. It really has been an extraordinary six years in terms of progress, especially when you compare it to the preceding decades of stagnation. Statewide, the unemployment went from 8.4 percent to 5.1 today. And the good news is you see that economic recovery all across the state. It used to be that downstate New York would do very well economically and upstate New York would lag and we have changed that because we focused much more on upstate New York and now when you look at the gross numbers in upstate New York, you see they are all across the state and they are comparable with what you are seeing downstate. It’s extraordinary that the growth in the North Country, for example, would be better than the growth in Manhattan. So it really is a testament to the new and balanced approach that is working across the entire state. In the state of New York today we have just under eight million private sector jobs. That is more private sector jobs In the state of New York today we have just under eight million private sector jobs. That is more private sector jobs than have ever existed in the state of New York. That is what 8 million jobs represent. Western New York – 23,900 new jobs since 2010. So we are making dramatic progress. But the progress didn’t just happen. We took dramatic action six years ago. we really headed in a much different course. The truth was the state was on a spending spree and it had been for many, many years. When you go back 50 years and you look at the rate of spending in the state, the state was spending at a higher rate of increase than the people in the state were earning income. Just think about that for a second. Literally, the government was spending more than its people were earning and that is why there was that constant feeling that government was taking more and more of your paycheck. Do you know why? Because government was taking more and more of your paycheck. And what we did fundamentally, was we got the state spending under control. During the times going back to Governor Rockefeller, the state spent about 11 percent more every year. Governor Carey – 7.9, my father Mario Cuomo – 6.9, George Pataki, Republican Conservative was elected to correct the spending of Mario Cuomo, a democratic liberal. The difference was 1.7. We brought the spending in six years down to 1.4 percent. Now when you get that spending down, a lot of good things happen. And when you get the spending down, then you can cut taxes and the taxes for every person in the state of New York – at every rate – are lower today than they were five years ago. Lowest middle class tax rate since 1947. Lowest manufactured tax since 1917—which is zero. Lowest corporate tax since 1968. So we got the spending down, it allowed us to get the taxes down and that’s why you see a new attitude where businesses believe they’re welcome in New York, families believe they’re welcome in New York. The exodus has stopped, the job growth has started. And we also shook up Albany on a different level. And we shook them up to the fact that upstate actually matters. The truth is the legislature in Albany all too often focuses too much on downstate. Why? Because that’s where most of them are elected from. That’s the single largest concentration density population in the state. I understand that. I’m from downstate New York. I understand the concept. But upstate New York actually has greater needs than downstate New York. And at the end of the day, upstate, downstate, we are one state. We are one set of books. And not to give upstate the attention and help it deserves never made any sense. So we started with a new approach where we invested in upstate New York to an exponential extent from past years. And we changed the way we did it. The old way was Albany bureaucrats and politicians said this is what I want to spend money on in Buffalo. This is what I want to spend money on in Syracuse. So it was really more political pork barrel and political payoffs than anything else. We put together Regional Economic Development Councils. Which are the top business people in each region working with the top academic people in each region. And we said to them, you give us a business plan that actually makes sense for that region. And then we will follow what your plan says rather than the politicians in Albany tell you what they think you should do. It was a totally different approach. Now, the legislature doesn’t like it. Because they liked it when they got to make the decisions. But let politicians do what politicians do, let business leaders and academic leaders do what they do. Let them design the business plan for the region. Because it’s about creating jobs. That’s what this is all about, and that’s what these REDC’s have done extraordinarily well. And it is working. We have invested $4.6B in these Regional Economic Development Councils. We have created 210,000 jobs and in Western New York we made a special commitment. Why? Western New York, I believe we had a commitment to make up for years of abandonment and years of inaction. I first came to Buffalo when I was in my twenties. My father was Governor. I was working with a fellow named Tim Russert who was a good buddy of mine who was working with my father also. He was my father’s press secretary. And he was the first person who used to bring me out to Buffalo. And we would always come out on official business. That’s why we took the plane. And we would do our official business and then we would have some unofficial events. And he showed me Buffalo in only a way that Tim Russert could show somebody Buffalo. But it had such potential always. And it had such a great work force, such a great ethic, such a great history. And it got caught in an economic transition and really state government was never there to help. But people never gave up on Buffalo, and that’s what was always extraordinary to me. I mean the economic transition has been going on since the 50’s, the 60’s. 70’s, 80’s, 90’s. And people never gave up. They stayed because they believed in Buffalo. And when I became Governor I committed myself to making a difference, and making up for the lack of state energy and state investment in Buffalo. And we did and that’s what the Buffalo Billion was all about. It was a billion dollars. Why a billion? A billion to say to people, this is not just another plan. And I’m not just another politician with another plan, because you’ve heard a lot of politicians with a lot of plans over a lot of years.