He tracks down reporter hours after making a hasty exit from an afternoon news conference about his efforts against child pornography and sex offenders.
View full sizeAttorney General Andrew Guomo announces a new initiative to enable social networking sites to eliminate images of child pornography Thursday at the YMCA in Fayetteville.Syracuse, NY -- Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said he opposes taxing soda, increasing taxes on cigarettes or borrowing money to solve the state’s $9 billion budget deficit. He’d rather cut spending.
The Democratic gubernatorial candidate made a hasty exit from a afternoon news conference today in Fayetteville without citing a single budget cut he favors.
But in an interview hours later, Cuomo said that he would try to cut the state’s budget deficits – estimated at $9 billion this year and as high as $15 billion next year – by eliminating some of the 1,000 state agencies and reducing education, health care and Medicare spending.
Cuomo has also proposed a one-year freeze on the salaries of all state government workers to reduce state spending.
The attorney general said he would persuade local governments to consolidate by giving more aid to those that do and less to those that won’t.
“You have to reduce the number of local governments you have. Everyone wants to have their own fire district, water district, lighting district. You can’t afford it,” he said. “You’re not going to be able to afford all the school districts we have.”
Cuomo, who has been criticized by Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio for not revealing how he’d solve the state’s deficit, said at the afternoon news conference that he does not have to run in a September primary election, but is “looking forward to a full, intelligent, substantive campaign” after that. Cuomo said he has already issued the most comprehensive campaign platform of any candidate, a 224-page booklet.
Cuomo visited the YMCA in Fayetteville to talk about his efforts against child pornography and sex offenders, one of many news conferences he has given across the state on that subject in the past year. The attorney general announced his staff provided a database of 8,000 child pornography images to Facebook and MySpace, and those social networking websites have agreed to use digital technology to prevent those 8,000 images from being posted on their sites. Cuomo said he will press other social networking sites to do the same.
In applauding Cuomo at the news conference, Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Megan’s Law, said there are 100,000 different child pornography images on the Internet at any given time, with hundreds more uploaded daily.
Cuomo acknowledged his database will only block a fraction of the child pornography images.
Fayetteville residents Dodie and Dean Vlassis are hosting a $250 per person Cuomo fundraiser July 8 at their home.
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