Editorial

Finding our priorities

Posted 1/14/21

In his annual State of the State message on Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo touched on many areas, but his largest areas of concern were the ones that tugged at us at year’s end: the COVID-19 …

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Editorial

Finding our priorities

Posted

In his annual State of the State message on Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo touched on many areas, but his largest areas of concern were the ones that tugged at us at year’s end: the COVID-19 pandemic and police and election reform.

His response to the pandemic throughout out nearly all of 2020 helped push the Governor to the national stage. His 2021 agenda, likewise, is loaded with pandemic-related issues: Passing the Medical Supplies Act, Comprehensive Telehealth Legislation, “social and racial justice in the vaccination effort, free citizen public health training and a fight for overdue Federal Support to states fighting COVID.”

As noted here last week, there is a need for a faster and better-coordinated distribution of the vaccine, and more help needs to come from the Federal Government. While we may hope that a change at the White House may warm the often chilly relationship between Albany and Washington, we also know we don’t want to waste another week in this battle. We were encouraged this week to see at least two elected officials pushing for a vaccination site in Eastern Orange County. Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobson proposed the Newburgh Activity Center as a site, while New Windsor Town Supervisor George Meyers has offered his town hall complex as a vaccination location.

As we all know, the pandemic has also devastated New York’s economy. The governor offered two measures intended to help rebuild it: cannabis legalization that he estimated would create more than 60,000 new jobs, spurring $3.5 billion in economic activity and generating more than $300 million in tax revenue when fully implemented; and the legalization of online sports betting, currently available in New Jersey. They offer to be the beginning of a long road back, but more is needed, like aide to small businesses and tax breaks for working families.

Cuomo also proposed measures that will prompt much discussion. One is to facilitate policing reforms, designed to strengthen relationships between police agencies and communities they serve. A second is to strengthen and expand access to elections and speed up the process in which votes are counted. Both are measures that need to be addressed here and elsewhere.