Second Cuomo sworn in as governor

New York officially has a new governor.
Andrew Cuomo took over the state’s top position at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Day and was sworn in later that morning.
The Queens native became the first son of a governor to hold the same position.
Cuomo, the 56th governor of New York, grew up in Queens and attended Archbishop Molloy High School in Briarwood. He becomes just the second to hold the position born in Queens, again following his father, who attended the ceremony.
Cuomo’s mother, Matilda, three daughters, Mariah, Cara and Michaela, and girlfriend, celebrity chef Sandra Lee, joined him as he was sworn in.
Prior to entering the governor’s office he had served as the state’s attorney general since 2008.
Cuomo said he is entering office with the state “at a crossroads.” New York State faces a budget deficit of over $9 billion. This is estimated to reach more than $15 billion by 2014.
Cuomo, 53, who became the frontrunner the day he entered the race, was elected in a landslide over Republican Carl Paladino, taking over the office from David Paterson.
Cuomo campaigned on reducing state spending, imposing a cap on property taxes and ending state dysfunction — many of the ideas he again touched on in his inaugural speech.
“New York faces a deficit,” Cuomo said. “The state faces a budget deficit and a competence deficit and an integrity deficit and a trust deficit.”
Cuomo also pledged to reduce his pay by five percent saying that “change starts at the top.”
The governor’s salary, $179,000, has not been changed since 1999. The five percent, which comes to $8,950, will be returned to the state’s treasury.
Paterson similarly returned $10,000 of his salary in 2009, but not this past year.
“I want to rebuild this government,” said Cuomo. “Rebuild it by bringing back competence; rebuild it by bringing back integrity; rebuild it by bringing back performance.”
The new governor wasted no time in signing his first executive order, the removal of physical barriers from around the state capitol.
“The capitol has become a physical metaphor for the isolation and alienation of our people,” said Cuomo.
He also reopened the Hall of Governors in the Capitol, where many executive offices are located. It had been closed to the public since 1995, and the barriers around the building were put up post-9/11.