Pubdate: Thu, 10 Jan 2001
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2001 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Richard Perez-Pena
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?140 (Rockefeller Drug Laws)

News Analysis

UPBEAT AND STILL CHALLENGING CUOMO, IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE

ALBANY -- Starting a year when he plans to run for a third term, Gov. 
George E. Pataki's theme today seemed to be back to the future.

The governor's annual address to the Legislature included an inventory of 
his achievements, a long list of bills he has tried before and will try 
again, and repeated references to the failings of his predecessor, Gov. 
Mario M. Cuomo. It offered little that was new, and few clues as to how he 
plans to solve the state's looming financial crisis.

Instead, Governor Pataki put an upbeat cast on every topic he touched, 
pledging "the same confidence, the same optimism" as in brighter times -- 
no surprise for an incumbent seeking re-election. Even when paying tribute 
to the victims and heroes of Sept. 11, his speech had the ring of a 
campaign rally, a string of encomiums to the good will and good prospects 
of New Yorkers.

"We responded to evil with good," he said. "We answered terror with 
strength. We met adversity with resolve. We will defeat hatred with tolerance."

The Republican governor has never really stopped campaigning against Mr. 
Cuomo, the Democrat he unseated in 1993. With the former governor's son, 
Andrew M. Cuomo, the former United States housing secretary, now running 
for the Democratic nomination, Mr. Pataki returned to that tactic repeatedly.

When he took office, he said, "Failed government policies left us with a $5 
billion deficit, massive job losses, bloated government bureaucracy, an 
oppressive regulatory climate and the highest taxes in America."

Mr. Pataki vowed today, despite a multibillion-dollar budget deficit, that 
he would not postpone promised tax cuts, "unlike 1989, unlike 1990, '91, 
'92, '93 and '94," and that he would not repeat the fiscal low points of 
the Cuomo years.

"We're not going to sell prisons to ourselves," he said. "We're not going 
to slash education funding in the middle of the school year. We're not 
going to use fiscal gimmicks to conceal reality."

Andrew Cuomo, in a statement, criticized the governor for failing to 
address problems, like a "near-Depression upstate," and complained that Mr. 
Pataki had predicted a multibillion-dollar deficit in the coming budget, 
but "did not tell us -- not a word -- how he plans to balance it."

State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, the other Democrat in the race, said, 
"This speech was a recital of promises, mostly promises that he's made and 
broken in the past."

But listeners of all political stripes called the speech strategically 
smart, saying that an optimistic rallying call works well for a popular 
incumbent appealing to a public still seeking solace after the World Trade 
Center attacks.

"It was very rah-rah," said Assemblyman Herman D. Farrell Jr., the state 
Democratic Party chairman. "It had some good sound bites, so I guess it 
makes sense for him. Though on the substance of what we are going to do, it 
was very thin."

Representative Thomas M. Reynolds, a Republican from western New York, 
said, "In an election year, you highlight what you've accomplished -- you 
dwell on the positive."

That was surely more palatable for Mr. Pataki than confronting head-on what 
2002 holds for him: a potentially difficult campaign, with an economy and 
state finances rocked by recession and terrorism.

The governor made a few references to fiscal woes, warning that the general 
fund budget would shrink in the coming year. But he did not call for shared 
sacrifice, as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg did in his inaugural address. As 
for solutions, Mr. Pataki left much of that for the release of his proposed 
budget this month.

The new proposals he made, like preserving a million acres of wild land and 
raising health care workers' salaries, will cost money that is suddenly scarce.

"He didn't lay much groundwork for sacrifice," said Diana Fortuna, 
president of the Citizens Budget Commission.

Rather, Governor Pataki offered a resume, dwelling more on the past than 
ever before in this annual ritual.

He recited his record of cutting taxes, increasing spending on education 
and the environment, inaugurating or expanding a raft of health care 
programs, and setting aside billions of dollars in reserve funds. He asked 
again for things the Legislature had rejected, like an initiative and 
referendum system, mayoral control of big-city schools, campaign finance 
reform, easing of the Rockefeller-era drug laws, and anti-terror laws.

Even those failures can work to the governor's advantage. The ideas are 
popular, and he can always blame a recalcitrant Legislature for their defeat.

Mr. Pataki remains no one's ideal as an orator. When punching a point, his 
already reedy voice drops into a sort of emphatic whisper. His anodyne 
aphorisms -- "there is no place for criminals in a society of heroes" -- 
often fall flat.

But his delivery has improved, and he no longer suffers from frequent, 
unflattering comparisons to his predecessor's speech-making. More 
important, Mr. Pataki's style is familiar and comfortable to New Yorkers.

"Obviously, it works for him," said Patricia Lynch, a former Democratic 
Assembly aide and now a lobbyist. "Strategically, for a guy facing a tough 
year, he handled it exactly right."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jackl