Colby Hamilton, Writer, WNYC News
Colby Hamilton is a general assignment reporter. He originally joined WNYC as a political blogger. He's a proud graduate of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.
The majority of New York voters seem to think Governor Andrew Cuomo can do no wrong. According to a new Quinnipiac University poll, the Governor's approval rating stands at 68 percent--the highest he's scored with Quinnipiac during his first year in office.
And this despite 40 percent of voters believing the recent tax reform package engineered by Cuomo was indeed a tax increase. It was a tax decrease for 28 percent of those polled, a more than a third said they weren't sure. When asked how they thought it would affect their taxes, 43 percent also said they were unsure.
“Whatever they think about the tax deal, New Yorkers still love their governor. Andrew Cuomo’s job approval hits a new high, higher than we’ve seen since the post-9/11 approval ratings for Gov. George Pataki,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, in the report.“Voters like Gov. Cuomo as a person 65 – 13 percent and they like his policies."
And this despite the fact that nearly half of those polled--47 percent--believe the Governor did not keep his promise to not raise taxes. Additionally, 42 – 23 percent, with 35 percent undecided, believe Cuomo broke his promise to end government by "three men in a room."
“That transparent government that Gov. Cuomo promised? Opaque is more like it. A lot of voters think that, in the quickie tax deal, Cuomo broke his promise to end Albany’s tradition of ‘three men in a room,'" Carroll said.
Yet, despite all this, 63 percent of those polled gave Cuomo either an "A" or a "B" as a grade on his first year as Governor.
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