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As a Governor, Cuomo is, in a way, handicapped by his own eloquence; his vaulting rhetoric creates equally lofty expectations. In reality, he is something of an incrementalist, creating a pattern of change in small ways. "Stone by stone, we cross the morass," he likes to say, quoting Justice Learned Hand.
Cuomo's critics suggest that he has not translated his popularity into programs, that he has failed to get the legislature to pass many of his initiatives. Says one Democratic official: "He never pushes the legislative leaders." The Governor, for example, has not been able to win support for a program to clean up toxic-waste sites around the state. Cuomo's detractors point out that the tax cut only lowers the maximum rate for personal income from 10% to 9%, and that New York still taxes and borrows more than any other large industrial state.
On average, each of Cuomo's four budgets has grown by double the inflation rate; his 1986 budget is 30% higher than his 1983 budget. The number of employees on the state payroll has increased by more than 24,000 during his administration. Notes William Stern, former head of the state's Urban Development Corporation: "Mario believes in government activism. That means spending rather than cutting." Jack Kemp has dubbed the Governor "Status Cuomo." Cuomo, says one official who left the administration, "never tackles real change."
One force he did confront was New York's Archbishop, John Cardinal O'Connor. Cuomo, his wife and youngest son Christopher were watching O'Connor in a television interview in 1984. Cuomo was disturbed when O'Connor asserted, "I do not see how a Catholic in good conscience could vote for a candidate who explicitly supported abortion." When O'Connor was asked whether he thought Cuomo should be excommunicated for supporting the right to abortion, he hedged his answer. The Governor was determined to reply. His resolve was further strengthened by O'Connor's subsequent attack on Cuomo's Queens Democratic colleague, Vice-Presidential Candidate Geraldine Ferraro, for taking a similar stance.
The Governor's response took the form of a lengthy, closely reasoned speech at Notre Dame in which he disputed the proposition that a Catholic public official has a duty to obey the church before the laws of the state. A Catholic Governor in a pluralistic society, Cuomo argued, should not impose his personal and religious opposition to abortion on those he governs. "To assure our freedom," Cuomo said, "we must allow others the same freedom, even if it occasionally produces conduct which we would hold to be sinful." The speech further estranged Cuomo and O'Connor. Today their relationship is one of mutual wariness.
The influence of Roman Catholic philosophy on Cuomo is pervasive. When he won the St. Thomas More scholarship at St. John's law school, he began a lifelong fealty to the ideals embodied by the 16th century English scholar and martyred Chancellor to Henry VIII. In St. Thomas More, Cuomo found a fellow lawyer, a man of great gifts and profound flaws who reminded him of his own imperfections while providing a model of how to live with them. More's famous work Utopia describes an island where both religion and reason work to support ethical norms and the aim of society is to provide in a communal way for all citizens.