At his executive budget presentation in Queens this morning, Governor Andrew Cuomo reiterated his call to stop New York City from requiring food stamp applicants to submit to fingerprinting. Governor Cuomo’s push to stop fingerprinting is one of his only plans that has drawn opposition from Mayor Michael Bloomberg who argued fingerprinting isn’t a deterrent to prospective food stamp applicants and is necessary to prevent fraud. In his speech today, Governor Cuomo said that argument hasn’t swayed him.

“Flipside of the argument is, well, fingerprinting helps detect fraud. I understand that, I understand that. My position is this; there are many ways to detect fraud, especially nowadays, you don’t need fingerprinting,” Governor Cuomo said in his speech. “If fingerprinting is stopping people from applying for foodstamps so children are going to bed hungry, let’s do away with fingerprinting and let’s do away with fingerprinting now. Let’s make sure no child goes to bed hungry in New York.” Read More