As budget deadline looms, Cuomo leaves Albany to tour construction projects

Gov. Andrew Cuomo apparently is pretty confident about where he stands with legislative leadership on state budget negotiations, as he spent the day touring around Western New York with the deadline quickly approaching.

The governor, who often points to his ability to pass on-time budgets in a state where the spending plan for years would come in well beyond the April 1 deadline, deflected questions seeking specifics on where he, state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie sit in terms of finalizing the deal. But with just nine days left to sign his sixth straight on-time budget (or close to it), Cuomo was comfortable traveling to Buffalo and Niagara Falls to celebrate a construction milestone at the University at Buffalo’s new Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and announce a $42 million commitment from the state for a road reconfiguration project along the Niagara Gorge.

During a morning press conference that preceded a “topping off” ceremony at the UB medical school, where the final beam was put in place on the building, Cuomo joked about arguing with Heastie and Flanagan over the budget.

“Well, not really arguing,” Cuomo said. “Discussing, for about five minutes, and then arguing.”

After the Niagara Falls press conference Cuomo declined to elaborate on the status of budget negotiations with leadership in the state Legislature. Cuomo offered a sports metaphor, saying it was like the Buffalo Bills being on the 5-yard line.

“The way the budget works, you’re close, you’re close, you’re close,” Cuomo said. “But it doesn’t matter until you get over the goal line.”

When pressed by City & State on whether he had been meeting with Flanagan and Heastie, Cuomo again offered a vague response.

“I have been talking to members of the Senate and Assembly,” Cuomo said. “The deadline is April 1 and we’re getting close to it.”

Meanwhile, back in Albany a different tone was struck. Heastie told reporters the three leaders are “nowhere near” a budget agreement, while City & State heard from sources that negotiations had broken down last week. Later on Tuesday, however, legislative sources said leaders talks had resumed on Tuesday afternoon. 

In Niagara Falls, Cuomo offered a few details about the state budget, mentioning the $25 billion he wants earmarked for investments in upstate, with $22 billion of those funds dedicated to infrastructure upgrades. Otherwise, he focused on announcing the removal of a two-mile stretch of the Robert Moses Parkway, north of the world famous waterfalls, that will include paths for bicycles and pedestrians. The move is aimed at reconnecting the city with its waterfront.

During the two stops Cuomo emphasized the progress that the two projects represent for a region that had long been in decline, a narrative that the the governor and his administration have worked to reinforce time and again since the Buffalo Billion initiative was introduced.

“Five years ago Buffalo was used as a characterization of urban blight and a city on decline,” Cuomo said. “It was literally used in late-night (television) skits five years ago.”

Now leaders from across the state are working with Cuomo’s administration to emulate what has happened in Western New York.

“The congratulations goes to you, because you did it,” Cuomo told the audience of political, business and education leaders gathered at the medical school ceremony. “And you did it the way success always happens, by putting aside differences and coming together and working together for a common goal with a lot of assets and a lot of talent and a lot of good people that want to make a difference.”

The medical school, which at more than 600,000 square feet will be the largest of its kind in the nation when it opens next year, is one of several ongoing projects at the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, a collection of buildings that totals more than 6 million square feet of clinical and research space just east of downtown Buffalo. About 17,000 people are expected to work there by the end of 2017.

The parkway has been a topic of civic discussion for decades, with government officials and residents having long complained of the barrier the four-lane roadway created to the parks and trails that line the gorge. The state-funded reconfiguration of a portion on the south end of the city is already well under way, and with the removal project on the north end the city will finally have its waterfront back, while downtown Niagara Falls is seeing more development than it has in decades, Cuomo said.

All of this is part of the plan Cuomo put in place when he announced his Buffalo Billion initiative in 2012. For years people had heard from politicians that would “revitalize” neighborhoods and cities, but always underwhelmed, he said.

“People heard too many plans,” Cuomo said. “A billion dollars says ‘I’m going to put my money where my mouth is.’”

Now that people see the construction and developments happening in Western New York, the drive behind the region’s economic engine has returned and members of the business community are again looking towards Buffalo-Niagara for opportunities, Cuomo said.

“Just like negative energy begets negative energy, well, positive energy begets positive energy,” Cuomo said. “There is a synergy. People are believing and people believing is a very powerful economic asset in-and-of itself.”