Little suspense in State of the State address

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo will lay out his agenda for 2016 during his State of the State address Wednesday, but much of it will carry little suspense.

Why?

Cuomo has spent the past week methodically rolling out some of his major initiatives for this week, traveling the state to highlight some of the bigger pieces of his forthcoming speech and budget proposal, which he will also lay out Wednesday.

It includes everything from a promise to spend $22 billion on roads and bridges over the next five years, a vow to push for a $15 minimum wage and $1 billion plan to keep tolls flat on the state Thruway system, including the Tappan Zee Bridge.

How the governor plans to pay for it all, however, hasn’t been made clear. And Cuomo has not yet revealed his plan to bolster ethics laws in scandal-scarred Albany, which he has said will be part of his agenda.

“You think I’ve told you everything?” Cuomo told reporters after an event near Syracuse. “No, I’ve told you certain pieces, but there’s real excitement in the State of the State.”

As of Friday evening, Cuomo had laid out 10 separate items that he says will be part of his 2016 agenda.

His tour started Monday in Manhattan, where he led a rally of union workers in favor of his plan to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2018 in New York City and 2021 in the rest of the state.

The boost would mirror several narrower minimum-wage increases Cuomo’s administration has implemented on its own, including for fast-food workers and state and SUNY employees.

The tour continued on Long Island, where Cuomo laid out proposals that would boost Long Island public transit and infrastructure, which included $5 million to study whether a tunnel from the island to either Westchester County, the Bronx or Connecticut is feasible.

Later stops brought him to Rochester, Liverpool near Syracuse, and back to New York City. Along the way he laid out his plans for a $100 million fund to boost downtowns, a proposed tax cut for small businesses, a $123 million boost in the state’s Environmental Protection Fund and his $22 billion road-and-bridge plan, which he says would largely be focused upstate.

There are major plans for New York City, as well, including a major overhaul of Penn Station and an expansion of the Javits Center, the city’s main convention hall.

Throughout his pre-State of the State tour, Cuomo has made his theme clear, repeatedly stressing the need for the state to “think big” and pursue major projects.

Cuomo hasn’t offered much detail, so far, on exactly how he plans to pay for it all, telling reporters Friday it would be covered in the budget.

“We have a roughly $140 billion annual budget,” Cuomo said in Brooklyn. “Part of it’s debt, part of it’s revenue.”

But even Cuomo recognized that he’s putting some huge funding priorities on the state’s plate.

“I think this plan this year is historic progress, and it is going to test the capacity of this government,” he continued. “This is not going to require a truly exemplary government effort, and frankly, the government a few years ago was not capable of this.”

Some advocacy groups and state lawmakers have been wary to weigh in on some of Cuomo’s proposals before he releases his state budget language Wednesday.

Mike Elmendorf, president and CEO of the state Associated General Contractors, said his organization is waiting to hear more details on Cuomo’s $22 billion infrastructure plan. The group has been pushing the state to fund its own capital plan at a level equal to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which has a $26 billion capital plan.

“We don’t really know what’s in that $22 billion, whether that’s just the (state Department of Transportation) capital program or whether it’s other stuff lumped in to get to that number,” Elmendorf said. “It’s difficult to comment in too much detail until we’ve actually seen the language in the budget.”

Cuomo and the state legislature will begin negotiating the state’s budget after Cuomo delivers his address, with a spending plan for the state’s 2016-17 fiscal year due before April 1.

Lawmakers, meanwhile, have begun making their own priorities known, including Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, who called last week for an income-tax cut for the middle class funded by a tax hike on the wealthy.

Heastie was wary to weigh in on some of Cuomo’s proposals before he laid out his entire agenda.

“I don’t want to give a personal opinion on some of these things,” Heastie said. “Like I said, we’ll take the governor’s proposals and we’ll begin to discuss them as a conference after he introduces them formally on Wednesday.”

Follow Jon Campbell on Twitter @JonCampbellGAN.

Coming up

What: Gov. Andrew Cuomo will deliver his State of the State address and budget proposal Wednesday.

When: 12:30 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Empire State Plaza Convention Center, Albany

Why: Cuomo’s speech will outline his agenda for 2016 and kickstart budget negotiations with the Legislature.