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Governor Cuomo’s Long Shadow

News Analysis

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has long cast a long shadow over legislative politics in Albany.

But rarely is that shadow interpreted as differently as it was last week during a debate between Sen. Gustavo Rivera, D-Bronx, and Sen. Edward Rath III, R-Williamsville.

Rivera and Rath were debating S.4336, which directs the state health commissioner to establish a direct patient care ratio reporting and rebate requirement for nursing homes. The proposal, which passed in a party line vote in the Senate, mandates that 70% of a nursing home’s revenue be spent on patient care, and 40% of that 70% is further required to be spent directly on employee wages.

Much was discussed during a lengthy floor debate between Rivera and Rath, but the governor’s role — or lack thereof — took center stage.

Rivera has been a critic of Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes, including withholding information about deaths in nursing homes from state legislators. Rivera was the sponsor of legislation also passed this week requiring reporting on COVID-19, communicable diseases and deaths caused by communicable diseases. Rivera’s criticisms haven’t made him popular with the governor’s office, according to Rivera.

On Feb. 19 — five days before Rath and Rivera’s floor debate — Cuomo issued a 30-day budget amendment requiring that nursing homes spend a minimum of 70 percent of revenue on direct patient care and a minimum of 40 percent of revenue on resident staffing.

“I will lastly point out, madame president, that our dear governor has obviously thought there are some good ideas here because he took some of these ideas — not this bill though — and actually put it into his budget proposal,” Rivera said. “I thank him for recognizing that we have a good idea, but I would say we need to go farther than what the governor does in the budget, which is why we present this bill here.”

Rath questioned Rivera about communications between Rivera’s office and Cuomo’s office regarding the 70% patient care to revenue ratio. Rivera said several times he didn’t reach out to the Cuomo or his office, nor did Cuomo’s office reach out to Rivera. In two other occasions, Rivera said it is common for Cuomo to take legislative bills and introduce them as gubernatorial solutions to problems.

“It is actually a known fact that sometimes makes me quite sad that the governor has never called me in the 11 years I’ve been in the state Legislature,” Rivera said before noticing a chuckle from Sen. Michael Gianaris, D-Astoria. “I’m not sure why you’re laughing at this very, very sad thing, Sen. Gianaris, but OK. Let’s just say that I have not called him. He has not called me, certainly. And none of my staff has been in contact with his staff about this particular bill.”

Rivera has been outspoken in his criticism of Cuomo and Dr. Howard Zucker, state health commissioner, over how nursing home statistics have been reported. But Rivera was also critical of the governor last year for hiring several Republican staffers who Rivera said had been partly responsible for holding up Democratic Party priorities in prior years.

Rivera also voted against expansion of Cuomo’s executive authority last March, saying, “even a cursory look at this bill told me it was way too much authority, not just period, but too much authority for this guy.”

Rivera chastised Cuomo and budget director Robert Mujica last June for attempting to cut Medicaid payments to public hospitals during the COVID-19 outbreak and for not giving legislators more information about how the state budget would be balanced if federal funding didn’t materialize. Rivera was public with his criticism of Cuomo’s book, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic, as well.

“We should not be doing this right now, taking a victory lap, when we have more deaths in this state than any other state in the nation, more deaths than most countries in the world… It is obscene. It is immoral. And the governor shouldn’t do it,” Rivera said according to a post on the Republican Governor’s Association website.

Despite the lengthy history between Rivera and Cuomo, Rath claimed S.4336 was nothing but politics as usual, characterizing the legislation’s passage as an Albany insider deal .

Rath was among the Republicans upset no Democrats voted in favor of a Democrat-sponsored bill stripping Cuomo of his emergency powers. Republicans proposed the legislation, which had been written by Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, D-Bronx, as a hostile amendment to a different bill during Monday’s Senate session. Despite 14 Democrat Senators signing a letter saying they wanted Cuomo’s executive authority to be stripped, none of the Senators sided with Republicans on Monday.

“In general, the bills we are passing today do nothing to address the Medicaid cuts implemented don facilities over the years or the staffing shortages they have been confronted with,” Rath said. “Also they do nothing to address the fact that the administration has ignored our nursing homes since the onset of this pandemic and has continually failed to provide desparately needed resources to our nursing homes. But this bill in particular just highlights to me the supermajority’s approach to governing as an independent body — to say one thing and then turn around and do something else. This majority speaks out against the govenor but behind closed doors, I’m afraid to say, collaborates and takes their orders. New Yorkers deserve more. In particular our seniors deserve more.”

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