Gov. Andrew Cuomo fleshed out the themes of his recent State of the State address with an impassioned plea for a narrative of 'ethics' in New York's political system. His keynote address - which you can hear above - was backed up by presentations from his budget director, the state's health commissioner, the head of the DEC and the Director of Operations for the State of New York, Howard Glaser.
Cuomo outlined another typically broad agenda that includes a review of the troubled Common Core curriculum, saying that the administration of the controversial system by the New York Board of Regents was 'flawed'. He also proposed a ban on standardized testing for grades K through 2 and made a staunch commitment to implement statewide day-long Pre-K programs with an initial funding horizon of five years. He made similar commitments for after-school programs.
His address, and that of his health commissioner Dr Nirav Shah painted a bleak financial picture for a number of the state's fiscally distressed hospitals including eight in the borough of Brooklyn. Cuomo and Shah both called for quick Federal approval of a request for a $10 billion Medicaid waiver.
More detail on the budget from our Capital Bureau correspondent Karen DeWitt here.
New York Executive Budget Briefing Book 2014/15 by Matthew Leonard