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New Yorkers Suffer As Cuomo Fixates On Trump

The state Legislature ended its session last week with a whimper.

Sports betting, early voting, bail reform, legislation benefitting child sex abuse victims, procurement reform and a database of deals all fell by the wayside when the final gavel struck to end the session.

As we said a couple of weeks ago, governing is the art of compromise. Neither Republicans nor Democrats are going to get everything they want out of any particular piece of legislation, but apparently some in our legislative leadership or those who reside in the governor’s mansion can’t be convinced of that basic fact from high school civics classes.

Such was the case with legislation proposed by state Sen. Catharine Young, R-Olean, that would have ameliorated the condition of child sex abuse victims. It wasn’t the solution being proposed by the other side, so compromise wasn’t possible. In the meantime, the partisan bickering continues while child sex abuse victims get nothing.

It would be easy to say that we should throw all the bums out. Doing so, however, would hurt Chautauqua County, which benefits from Young’s lofty position in the state Senate. We don’t see much hope of the state Assembly changing hands anytime soon either. Perhaps it’s time New Yorkers elect a governor more interested in fixing New York’s issues than he is in bashing President Donald Trump or bolstering his resume for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2020.

Forget complex issues. Where was Cuomo on something as simple as approving legislation that passed the state Senate and Assembly last year to remove a wrong-headed and ill-conceived fine from the Panama Central School district? He couldn’t be bothered to sign the legislation or work to rein in a state Education Department that is trumping up paperwork errors and fining school districts, an action that does nothing but hurt students and waste state money.

Last week, as the session wound down, Cuomo was on NY1 and MSNBC hammering the president on children being separated from parents and writing opinion pieces for the New York Times. He wasn’t trying to broker compromise between the divided state legislature. His guidance is political — to elect more Democrats.

The issues left dangling at the end of the legislative session weren’t a priority for the governor. It’s time for a governor who prioritizes New Yorkers instead of party politics.

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