He didn’t say when exactly, but Governor Cuomo he believes the Republican-led State Senate will bring same-sex marriage to the floor for a vote.
“I’m cautiously optimistic when it comes for a vote that it’s going to pass,” Cuomo told reporters tonight, outside his office on the second floor.
Echoing the message Mayor Michael Bloomberg brought to Albany last Monday, Cuomo said: “I believe the people are entitled to a vote and let the elected officials stand up and say yea or nay. I believe that’s how democracy works and I believe the state is entitled to a vote, on this issue.”
I asked if that’s a change in his strategy.
“We early on said we’re not going to advance a bill unless we’re confident that it has a good chance of success,” Cuomo said. “Not that you know it’s going to succeed, because you never know until the vote is actually cast. But we’ve reached the point, the threshold where we believe there was a high likelihood of success, we felt good about the chances of success, so then we moved the bill.”
“Does that mean you believe you have every vote? Of course not,” he said. “But obviously we had enough votes and felt we were in a strong position, so we moved forward.”
Later, when discussing the progress he made on other major initiatives — capping property taxes, extending rent regulations, adjusting SUNY tuition — Cuomo said, “I think we are on the cusp of historic progress for this state.”
One initiative not moving forward is a new, cheaper, pension tier for future state employees. Cuomo said that was not currently part of the discussion with legislative leaders.
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