NEW YORK CITY—The goals that Rob Astorino, Westchester County Executive and Republican gubernatorial candidate, spelled out at a breakfast presentation Wednesday were in line with what his opponent, incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo, promised four years ago. “In fact, in his first State of the State address, he said we needed radical reform,” Astorino told a gathering sponsored by the Association for a Better New York. “He was right.” But the reforms never came.

“New York is on a losing path,” Astorino told the ABNY audience. “To some, I may sound like a broken record, but really, the only thing broken is our state.” For example, when it comes to economic growth outlook, “New York has five metro areas in the bottom 10, and 10 metro areas in the bottom 20.” Astorino will take to the podium before another high-powered gathering of commercial real estate executives next week when he delivers the keynote address at RealShare New York, scheduled for Oct. 9 at the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown.

Charging that Cuomo's leadership has been limited to “protecting the status quo,” Astorino offered some specifics on what he would do differently. Given that the state has one of the highest income and business tax burdens in the US, lowering taxes would be a priority of an Astorino administration in Albany.

However, while Astorino proposed a greatly simplified state income tax schedule, he did not promise to eliminate taxes altogether, at least not straightaway. “We could've said 'we're going to get rid of the income tax,' and that would make a big splash,” he told the ABNY audience. “But it's not possible right now.” He characterized himself as “a realist,” and said the process of reducing the state's spending and debt load while lightening the tax burden “won't be easy.”

In terms of building on one of the Empire State's undisputed success stories of recent years—the establishment a high-tech sector—Astorino said, “We'll accelerate tech startups by modeling on what Silicon Valley has done.” Namely, encouraging private capital, streamlining the tech-transfer process at state universities and colleges and supporting entrepreneurial networks.

One potential economic driver, specifically for hard-hit upstate, that has stalled during the Cuomo administration has been hydrofracking, and Astorino vowed to get it going. “To rescue a large swath of upstate, we'll move forward with safe and clean natural gas exploration and extraction in the Southern Tier,” he said. He said that although safety concerns would be addressed, such as a buffer zone between any fracking activity and water supplies, “we'll move forward with the proper environmental safeguards and join the 30 other states in harvesting this abundant energy resource just beneath the ground.”

Instant Insights /

Astorino: NY State Needs 'Radical Reform'

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