ALBANY – Gov. Andrew Cuomo slate of proposals introduced in his State of the State and budget presentation have widespread, bipartisan support, according to a poll by the Siena Research Institute.
“His four most popular proposals are creating a $2 billion clean water infrastructure fund, giving preference in state purchases to American-made goods, allowing ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft to operate across the state, and extending the millionaire’s tax, which even has the support of 61 percent of Republicans,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg. “There is also bipartisan support for the middle class child care tax credit, renovating JFK Airport, and constitutional amendments to limit state legislators’ outside income and implement term limits.”
Despite support for his ideas, Cuomo’s overall poll numbers remains flat, according to the poll, and less than half want to seem him run again.
In January, his favorability rating was 56-37 compared to 56-36 percent in December. His job performance rating is a negative 45-53 percent, little changed from negative 44-54 percent last month.
Currently, 47 percent are prepared to re-elect Cuomo in 2018, while 44 percent would prefer “someone else,” unchanged from December,” according to the poll.
“While voters like his proposals and he traveled the state promoting them, it did not help boost Cuomo’s ratings, which continue a two-year trend of little fluctuation,” Greenberg said.
Legislature gets more popular
The state Senate has a 49-36 percent favorability rating, up from 48-39 percent in December, while the Assembly has 45-35 percent favorability rating, up from 43-40 percent last month.
For both houses, it’s both the highest favorability and lowest unfavorability rating ever in a Siena College poll, Greenberg said.
“Perhaps it’s a result of coming off an election season where legislators were successful in promoting themselves and their accomplishments. Perhaps it’s because no legislator has been indicted or convicted with a new scandal in the last few months,” Greenberg said. “Whatever the cause, the result is the Assembly has a plus 10 favorability rating and the Senate has a plus 13 favorability rating – the best ever for each house.”
Pres. Trump
Pres. Donald Trump’s approval rating dipped from 41-53 last month to 37-55 this month, according to the poll.
New Yorkers do like the new president’s infrastructure ideas and his policies when dealing with Russia but on seven other issues, including race relations and the environment, they don’t think he will perform.
“A large majority of Republicans think he will make America better on all nine issues tested, while a majority of independents say he will make America better on infrastructure and a plurality say he will make America better on health care and US-Russia relations,” Greenberg said.
A small majority of New Yorkers, 51-47 percent, are pessimistic about the country’s future under Trump, while last month voters were nearly evenly divided with 49-48 percent optimistic.
This poll was conducted Jan. 22-26, 2017 by telephone calls conducted in English to 812 New York state registered voters.
