ウィスパリング同時通訳研究会コミュのNew York Gov. Cuomo delivers state of the state address

Speaker 1: (00:10) Ladies and gentlemen, the 56th Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo.

Andrew Cuomo: (00:20)
Well, good morning to all. Please welcome Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, who is here with us today, and Controller Thomas DiNapoli, Attorney General Tish James, Senate Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Speaker Carl Heastie, Senator Minority Leader Robert Ortt, and Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay, who are all joining us electronically in this special year.
(00:44)
Happy New Year to all. I believe it is with near-universal relief that 2020 has come to an end. And I say, amen. We now turn towards 2021 with a spirit of optimism that is grounded in experience. Today, I address you from the magnificent War Room in the State Capitol. The War Room is fitting because we are at war, a war that began early last year when we were ambushed by the COVID virus, and a war that continues today. The artwork in this room reminds us that we have been at war before. It memorializes epic battles, the Revolution, the Civil War, World War It honors the Unknown Soldier, also reminding us today of our lost frontline heroes. And as our forebears before us, we will win this war and we will be the stronger for it.
(01:44)
Today, I’m called on to answer what is in most years a straightforward question, but at this time is anything but. What is the state of our state? Well, in some ways it is like the state of the nation and indeed the state of the world. We are hurt. We are frustrated. We are in mourning. We are anxious. We are shocked that an invisible enemy could wreak such death and destruction, especially in this the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth. And it was not only the virus itself that showed our vulnerabilities, it’s that COVID created low tide in America. And the ugliness that lurked below the surface was exposed and became visible for all to see, the racial divisions, the religious tensions, the government incompetence, the healthcare disparities, the social injustice, and the danger of hateful leadership. New Yorkers, of course, not immune to those currents. In New York, we experienced all of it, but in other ways, New York State of the State is different because New York is different. Our DNA is different. Our character is different.
(02:55)
What COVID did to us is different, and how we responded to COVID is different. We have a confidence born from accomplishment. We know what we must do, and we will do it. We will win the COVID war and we will learn and grow from the experience. We are smart, united, disciplined, and loving. We are, as we say, New York tough. There are moments in life that can change a person fundamentally, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Likewise, there are episodes in history that transform society, and COVID is one of those moments. New York sees the moment for the crisis it is, but also the opportunity it presents. We understand the international trauma and disruption that COVID is causing. It has affected every aspect of society around the globe and generated new fundamental dynamics. Even this presentation today is different. Normally, it has given in the Albany Convention Center with thousands of people. Today, I’m speaking in-person with a small group, but broadcasting, Zooming, and streaming. And in this new and different world, the audience is actually larger, not smaller. Technology, and technology-based relationships, work from home, these are new realities that will have dramatic consequences. This next year, we will see economies realign and reset around the world. We see the risk and the peril, but we also see the promise and the potential. The question to be answered is what will we make of this moment? Is it positive or is it negative? Do we move forward or do we move backward? Is America, is New York stronger or weaker in the post-COVID world? Those, my friends are the questions that we alone will answer in 2021 because the future is in our hands. We built the greatest state in the country once before, and we will do it again.
(05:17)
In normal times, a governor State of the State Address is issued on one day in one presentation. But these are no ordinary times and our plan is more complex and detailed. I will give an overview today, and then three additional presentations of specific action plans in the coming days. Allow me to outline the scope of our seven-point plan. First, we must defeat COVID and beat back the assault as the virus rages in these next few months. It will not be easy. A high-performing hospital system, as well as the diligence of New Yorkers are the keys to stop the spread. Second, the vaccine will end the COVID crisis. We must vaccinate 70 to 90% of our 20 million New Yorkers, and we must do it quickly, safely, and fairly. We must also learn the glaring and costly lessons of America’s failed public health system so we are better prepared for the next time. And as we all now should realize, there will be a next time.
(06:27)
Third, we must deal with a short-term economic crisis, a record $15 billion state deficit that must be addressed in the next several weeks. Fourth, we must plan our economic resurgence. We simply cannot stay closed until the vaccine hits critical mass. The cost is too high. We will have nothing left to open. We must reopen the economy, but we must do it smartly and safely. Also, we must energize our lagging private sector and rebuild our economic platform, our transportation system, our infrastructure system for the next generation of growth. Fifth, we must seize the opportunity to make New York the global leader in the long-overdue economic shift to green energy. That is the smart thing to do. That is the right thing to do, and it will create thousands of good, secure jobs.
(07:29)
Sixth, we must be the first to anticipate how COVID will transform our society and economy and we must capitalize on those coming changes. Seventh, we must address the systemic injustices exposed during this year’s low tide in America, the inequity, the racism, and the social abuse. And my friends if that wasn’t ambitious enough, all of these plans must move forward simultaneously. It will be hard. It will be the greatest test for government since we mobilized to fight World War II. It will be the greatest opportunity for advancement since post-World War II. Today, I will address the first steps we must take. Most immediate, until the vaccine reaches critical mass, we must regulate and implore New Yorkers to be diligent. COVID fatigue is not an option until COVID itself is fatigued. We must defeat the enemy. If we tire before the enemy tires, we lose the war. It’s that simple. We must slow the spread to keep our COVID numbers down.
(08:53)
In the interim, we must manage hospitalization so the system is not overwhelmed. We need the highest level of performance from our hospitals and local governments. If the caseload threatens to overwhelm the hospital system, we will need to close that region again. That is the worst-case option. But even more broadly, we must realize that it is time for an entirely new way of thinking of our public health system. Our nation’s public health system was just not prepared for this. Despite the experience of SARS 17 years ago, MERS, and Ebola six years ago, several dengue outbreaks in the last few years, this country couldn’t even produce something as simple as enough nasal swabs. Our laboratories were unprepared and our hospital systems had no ability to manage the surge. The federal government did not even screen visitors at the nation’s gateways here in New York. And it still doesn’t. Our nurses and doctors were heroic, but our country couldn’t provide them with enough masks and gowns. It was like sending soldiers into battle without bullets.
(10:17)
We have had 100 years of medical breakthroughs since the last pandemic in 1918, yet we were decimated by this virus. That can never happen again. COVID revealed the grave vulnerability in our medical supply chain. Too many essential products are made in China. We must have the capacity in the United States and even here in New York. We are already acting to solve the problem. We ordered more than $20 million to 36 New York businesses to make medical equipment here at home. Going forward, I propose the state pass the Medical Supplies Act to incentivize New York companies to manufacture medical-
(11:03)
Incentivize New York companies to manufacture medical supplies and New York will then purchase from that supply first. This nation can not be caught flat-footed again.
(11:14)
COVID showed us the limits of our health system, but it also fostered innovations. Telemedicine was invaluable in keeping people remote while providing care. Public access was uneven and inequitable. At the recommendation of the Re-Imagine New York Commission, I am introducing the most comprehensive telehealth bill in the nation to ensure accessibility to all New Yorkers.
(11:40)
Most pressing for the immediate future, we must vaccinate all New Yorkers. It is a massive undertaking and much greater than anything this nation has done to date. We are expanding today, our distribution system to include thousands of outlets, but the federal vaccine supply must increase. Today, we have about one million doses in New York state for over four million eligible people. We only receive 300,000 doses per week from the federal government. At this rate, it will take us 14 weeks just to receive enough dosages for those currently eligible.
(12:29)
Now we will schedule appointments for vaccines, weeks into the future. We would rather have people signed up and awaiting the vaccine than have the vaccine awaiting people. I understand millions of people want the vaccine today, but we must be patient, even though it is an impatient time. I believe the new federal administration will see the vaccine supply increase and we will be ready for that increase.
(13:04)
We will also bring social and racial justice to the vaccination effort by making vaccines available to all New Yorkers and supplement the private health system to reach more underserved communities, predominantly black, Latino, Asian, and poor communities. We will not allow politics or wealth to dictate the distribution of this life saving vaccine.
(13:29)
Today, we’re announcing the launch of the New York State Public Health Corp. The Public Health Corp will be a joint effort with Cornell University and Northwell Hospital System. We will hire 1000 Health Corps Fellows who agree to serve for one year. There’ll be trained to facilitate a statewide, coordinated, vaccination operation and do it safely and quickly in every part of the state. The Public Health Corps will also help New York learn from this experience and establish a best in the nation emergency response capacity that lasts beyond COVID, so we are better prepared for future crises.
(14:10)
We will also empower and educate New York’s citizens to be prepared for the next public health crisis. Too many New Yorkers felt anxious because they were uninformed and untrained to handle this new emergency. We will develop a Citizen Public Health Training Program designed by Cornell. It will be offered online and it will be free to educate and certify tens of thousands of citizens all across the state, who will then be better prepared to help themselves, their families, their coworkers, and will be trained and ready to volunteer, to help their community in the next public health emergency. Our goal is to train and certify 100,000 New York health emergency volunteers.
(15:06)
Rapid testing, not only saves lives, but it is a key to our economic reopening plan. We will open a network of new rapid testing sites all across the state.
(15:18)
While we’re continuing to battle COVID and expedite the vaccine, we must also deal with the cost of COVID. COVID has been costly in every sense of the word. The greatest cost of COVID is the lives lost and for that we pray every day for God’s grace and peace. Businesses have been lost, lifetime savings have been exhausted. Personal debt has mounted and our state government faces a $15 billion deficit, the largest in history. While this fiscal crisis is larger than ever, the dynamics are not new. In the 1970s, New York City was on the verge of bankruptcy, a bankruptcy that threatened the whole state and in fact, the whole nation. At that time, Washington famously told us to quote, end quote, “Dropped dead.
(16:20)
Well, in recent years, Washington not only told us to drop dead, they dug a grave and they tried to push us in. But their efforts failed. New Yorkers would not give up. Fortunately, this nation rejected Washington’s hyper-partisan politics, and today’s a new day in America after a long dark night. The new federal government has no credible argument against the fact that New York’s damage from COVID is clearly, legally and ethically Washington’s liability. This crisis was caused by two factors and both were created by the federal government. First, allowing COVID to ambush New York last spring, without the knowledge or notice of the federal government, was an act of gross negligence. The federal government thought the virus was still in China, but they were wrong. COVID had already traveled to Europe and three million Europeans had already traveled to New York before the federal government ever warned New York or the nation, or enacted a travel ban from the continent. New York, unlike any other state, had no notice and no time to prepare for the attack. As soon as we found out, the COVID enemy was already amongst us and had been coming for months.
(17:52)
We just saw the same federal negligence reenacted when it failed to test travelers from the UK where a new strain of the COVID virus had been detected. The United States did nothing, even though 120 other countries had already acted. New Yorkers were called on to flatten the curve created by federal failure. New Yorkers cannot now be asked to pay the financial bill for federal incompetence. New Yorkers already paid too high a cost.
(18:28)
Second, the federal government has failed to realize that this is a national crisis. This is not a state crisis. They delegated responsibility for COVID to the governors and then failed to provide the resources. Washington, as they say, passed the buck without passing the bucks. And again, in December, Congress failed this nation, when it failed to pass state and local financing during their last legislative session.
(19:01)
This is a national challenge. It is a war and like every war before it must be financed by Washington. If the federal government needs revenue, it should raise income taxes on the wealthy to finance the state’s resurgence from this national devastation. That is basic economic justice and economic prudence. Look what has happened. In America, the rich have gotten richer. The poor have gotten poor and the middle-class has gotten smaller. Washington should not force any state to bear the cost alone, especially New York state. Washington has savaged us for four years. No state in the nation pays more to Washington and receives less in return, as the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan pointed out. This has been true for decades and it has never been remedied. In fact, it has gotten worse. Over the past four years, Washington took even more funding from New Yorkers as a sheer exercise of political extortion.
(20:21)
Today, New York subsidizes 42 other States. On top of that, the new federal SALT Provision has cost New York $30 billion more over three years. It increased the property taxes on hardworking New Yorkers, $2,600 per year. Look at the gross injustice. Washington raised our taxes to benefit other states and those states then appeal to our residents to relocate to their lower tax States. The infuriating irony is that New York subsidizes those States lower rates. But Washington didn’t stop there. The abuse was unrelenting. Our Medicaid reimbursement rate is the lowest in the United States. They starved our infrastructure funding and they illegally impeded our global travel.
(21:25)
So you ask me today, what is our State of the State? New York is suffering and New Yorkers are tired of being abused and demand that Washington stops causing damage and starts resolving the damage they caused. We expect SALT to be removed from our wounds, fully and quickly. And we expect to be compensated for our economic loss. We expect basic fairness from Washington.
(21:59)Finally, with our new President… (22:02)
Finally, with our new president, a new senate and the house members, I believe they will do justice. If Washington does tell New York to effectively drop dead once again, I would be shocked, but New York will fight back. We will do what we did in the ’70s. We came together, we organized, we sacrificed and we averted financial ruin. But make no mistake my friends, it would be very painful. To close our $15 billion budget gap on our own would require extraordinary and negative measures. Imagine this. If we raise taxes to the highest income tax rate in the nation on all income over $1 million, billionaires, multi-millionaires, millionaires, any income over $1 million, we would only raise $1.5 billion. If we postponed our important tax cut for our struggling middle-class, we would save $500 million. If we froze labor contracts on our hardworking public employees, we would save $1 billion. If we cut education funding for our children 20%, we would save $5.2 billion.
(23:25)
Even after all of that pain, we would still need billions in cuts to healthcare in the middle of a pandemic. And we would need to borrow billions at the cost of future generations. It would be devastating to all New Yorkers. After four years of Washington’s assault on New York, their inaction would compound their crime. Our federal representatives must deliver fairness for New York and they must do it quickly because our budget is due April 1. Now, New York will do its part. We will legalize adult use recreational cannabis, joining 15 other states who’ve already done so. This will raise revenue and we’ll end the over-criminalization of this product that has left so many communities of color over-policed and over-incarcerated. We propose state sponsored mobile sports betting to raise additional funding. We are a fiscally responsible state. We only ask for an equitable partnership from Washington. (24:36)