“The governor delivered ‘part one’ of his 2021 State of the State Address this morning, and it came as little surprise that it included more of the same rhetoric that we have heard since he began his daily briefings nearly 10 months ago.

“In addition to touching on major policy initiatives, including legalization of recreational marijuana, broadband expansion and mobile sports betting, the governor’s presentation outlined an overly ambitious seven-point ‘recovery’ plan. Rather than focusing on such a wide-ranging agenda, we must be laser-focused on successfully distributing the COVID-19 vaccine to eligible and interested New Yorkers, while working to implement more immediate relief to struggling families, local governments and business owners.

“I was very disappointed to hear the governor refer to New York’s ‘short term economic crisis.’ We didn’t get a $15 billion deficit simply from COVID-19 – and throwing a ‘Hail Mary’ for a federal bailout is not fiscally responsible. I would have rather heard the governor identify necessary spending cuts and rollbacks of expensive or duplicative programs than simply rolling out FDR-like public works projects.

“The number one priority for this state in 2021 is COVID-19 relief and I welcome the chance to work with the governor on that. However, with vaccine doses wasted and New Yorker’s angry and confused about the vaccine rollout thus far, the governor and his commissioners should work on getting that right before anything else.”