With Cuomo “Reeling” During Budget Season, State Lawmakers Are Poised To Take Power
arrow Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins walks in the Senate Chamber as members meet on the opening day of the 2021 legislative session in Albany on January 6, 2021. Hans Pennink/AP/Shutterstock
“I am the government,” Governor Andrew Cuomo famously declared in 2011 during his first term. The statement isn’t as hyperbolic as it sounds. The New York State Constitution and subsequent case law allow the governor to dictate how money is spent, and there isn’t much the legislature can do about it.
Over his decade in office, Cuomo has consolidated this power, cramming the annual budget full of his priorities education changes, pay raises, a “justice agenda” to name a few and forcing the legislature to vote for it or face the wrath of the public from a government shutdown.