Speech Suggests Pro-Business Approach by Cuomo

  ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo called for “a fundamental realignment” of state government on Wednesday, saying New York needs to rethink the services it provides and face up to its overspending problem before it is too late. “We need radical reform, we need a new approach, we need a new perspective,” said Mr. Cuomo, who was giving his first State of the State address. “And we need it now.”

The speech was emphatically pro-business and centrist, suggesting he is modeling himself more after his former boss, President Bill Clinton, than his father, former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo. The new governor mentioned the word “tax” or “taxes” 21 times, mostly to denounce them and promise to lower them. “What made New York the Empire State was not a large government complex,” he said. “It was a vibrant private sector that was creating great jobs in the state of New York.”

The proposals laid out by Mr. Cuomo — including reducing the number of agencies, authorities and departments by 20 percent and capping the annual growth of state government to the rate of inflation — set up a clash with the more liberal Democrats who control the State Assembly.

In addition to freezing the salaries of most state workers, Mr. Cuomo would reduce spending on Medicaid and limit local property tax increases statewide.

“New York has no future as the tax capital of the nation,” Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, said in his speech. “Our young people will not stay, businesses will not come, this has to change. Put it simply, the people of this state simply cannot afford to pay more taxes, period.”

The 47-minute speech also offered New Yorkers a different view of their new governor: he was highly animated in his expressions of frustration over the state’s reputation and injected cornball humor, a PowerPoint slide show and even air quotes into the formal setting.

One of his PowerPoint slides showed Mr. Cuomo in a captain’s uniform aboard a battleship, taking incoming fire from special interests while smaller ships captained by legislative leaders — Sheldon Silver, the Democratic Assembly speaker, and Dean G. Skelos, a Republican who is the Senate majority leader, as naval officers — sailed nearby.

Mr. Cuomo has a passionate if at times nostalgic view of the state’s history, and he implored lawmakers to return New York to its previous glory, to an era when it was not a symbol of shame and scandal, a period that, in his version of history, typically ends on the day his father left office.

“We were the model for the nation,” Mr. Cuomo said. “This has been an aberration, this recent past, the dysfunction of Albany, the gridlock of Albany, the corruption of Albany. This is not the true story of the New York State Legislature; it’s not who we are, it’s not what we do, it’s not why we’re here.”

He continued, as the Legislature applauded enthusiastically, to invite them to rehabilitate themselves. “The New York State Legislature is the best legislature, historically, in the nation,” he said, adding, “That’s who we can be again.”

The governor has much work ahead of him. Most of the proposals in his speech expanded on plans laid out during his campaign, and, notably, he failed to provide many details for how he will close the state’s nearly $10 billion deficit. The emergency finance reinvention plan he promised, too, was broadly drawn.

“I think it was effective for setting the stage and really trying to communicate that these are serious issues, but there weren’t a lot of specifics about the financial impact of the proposals he’s making,” said Elizabeth Lynam, deputy research director at the Citizens Budget Commission.

Edward F. Cox, the chairman of the state Republican Party, expressed concern that Mr. Cuomo was adding new layers of bureaucracy, and criticized the governor’s plan to set up regional economic development councils that would help develop and bring forward local leaders’ ideas for economic development, and help state agencies administer aid.

“Ten regional councils, they all compete for goodies,” Mr. Cox said. “Where’s the decision made? In Albany. We don’t need more government programs.”

In many ways, though, the speech by Mr. Cuomo, a former housing secretary under President Clinton, reinforced his determination to show he will be a different kind of Democrat. Already, leaders of the State Assembly have been chafing, with members suggesting in recent days that new borrowing or higher taxes on the wealthy would be required to balance the budget, notions the governor has rejected. He said his fiscal plan would not involve tax increases or new borrowing.

Mr. Cuomo did reiterate his positions on social issues that are more in line with Democratic members’ views, like his support for same-sex marriage and for expanding abortion rights.