Andrew M. Cuomo is the 56th Governor of New York State, having assumed office on January 1, 2011. Governor Cuomo has a lifelong commitment to public service and the proven leadership skills to make government work for the people of the state.
When the governor assumed office, New York jobs and businesses were fleeing the state. The state government, once a national, progressive model, was a disgrace. It struggled with a $10 billion deficit. Taxes ballooned out of control and threatened to chase businesses and middle class families from the state. And after years of scandal and dysfunction, government had lost the trust of its people.
Now, thanks to Governor Cuomo’s leadership, the times of government waste and mismanagement are behind us. As governor, Andrew Cuomo has worked tirelessly to make communities across the state stronger and safer for all New Yorkers. Governor Cuomo set out a transformational plan to restore New York to greatness and thanks to his accomplishments, New York is once again the progressive capital of the nation.
This includes groundbreaking accomplishments like passing marriage equality, a $15 statewide minimum wage, enacting the nation’s strongest paid family leave program, and protecting New York’s water supply by banning hydraulic fracturing.
The Governor also worked to enact the most complete set of gun safety laws in the nation to help save lives from gun violence, implemented comprehensive policies to combat sexual violence on college campuses, passed reforms to combat New York’s heroin and opioid epidemic, and created a path to ending the AIDS epidemic in New York State by 2020.
Under Governor Cuomo’s leadership, state education aid has increased by $6.1 billion or 31 percent over the last six years to its highest level ever – $24.8 billion. Major infrastructure projects such as the long-stalled Second Avenue Subway extension and the much-needed construction of LaGuardia Airport are moving forward, and the Governor’s administration has invested nearly $4 billion through the Regional Council and Upstate Revitalization initiatives to jumpstart the economy and support local priorities for development. Since the Governor took office, the unemployment rate has declined in every region of the state, and New York now has 7.9 million private sector jobs, more than at any point in state history.
For more than fifty years, through Democratic and Republican administrations, state government spent too much and taxed too much. And New York became the tax capital of the nation. But Governor Cuomo restored fiscal discipline to state government. Governor Cuomo closed a $10 billion deficit in his first budget, and has remained committed to fiscal responsibility with state spending growing by less than 2 percent each year since he took office.
The state also enacted its first ever property tax cap to keep communities affordable for homeowners, renters and businesses. But Governor Cuomo didn’t stop there: homeowners have seen their property taxes frozen and slashed even lower over the last few years. Every New Yorker now pays a lower tax rate than they did before the Governor took office. To spur job creation, Governor Cuomo cut the corporate tax rate to the lowest since 1968 and the manufacturer’s tax rate (zero) to its lowest since 1917.
Prior to his election as Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo served four years as the state’s Attorney General. As the top legal officer, he made restoring public trust in government and protecting New York taxpayers the top priorities for his office.
As Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo ushered in national reform to the student loan industry, uncovered fraud within the largest health insurers in the country, protected investors from abuses on Wall Street, and made the Internet safer for children nationwide. In addition, his groundbreaking investigations into the state pension system set a model for public pension funds across the country.
In 1997, Cuomo was appointed by President Clinton to serve as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Under his leadership, HUD was transformed from a wasteful and inefficient bureaucracy to an effective driver of economic development and housing opportunities for all Americans.
As secretary, Cuomo made fighting racial discrimination a key focus and brought 2,000 anti-discrimination cases all across the country.
Andrew Cuomo’s work to turn the agency around earned HUD the prestigious “Innovations in American Government Award” from the Ford Foundation and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University on three different occasions.
Cuomo first practiced law as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan. He also briefly worked at a law firm before founding Housing Enterprise for the Less Privileged (HELP) – a not-for-profit organization designed to combat homelessness in New York City. Cuomo later served as Chairman of Mayor David Dinkins’ New York City Homeless Commission.
Cuomo graduated from Fordham University in 1979 and Albany Law School in 1982.
Andrew Cuomo resides in Mount Kisco in Westchester County, and is the father of three daughters, twins Mariah and Cara, and Michaela.
Under Governor Cuomo’s continued leadership, New York has solidified itself as a national, progressive leader and will continue to grow into a stronger, better state that works for all New Yorkers.
About Andrew - Cuomo 2018
