Governor Andrew Cuomo emerged today after days out of the public eye, taking questions from the press at a Manhattan bus garage. Cuomo’s appearance focused on the introduction of 75 newly designed buses, beginning today, on MTA routes in Queens and the MTA’s ongoing development of an app allowing LIRR and Metro North customers to purchase train tickets on mobile devices.
Cuomo spoke with the press afterwards, taking over a dozen questions with many focused on the investigations and controversy swirling around his “Buffalo Billion” program. Among the Buffalo Billion related questions were the review of Joe Percoco’s disclosure form revealing outside income from Buffalo Billion vendors, details of Cuomo’s last conversation with Percoco, the recent disclosure by Solar City of a reduction in the expected number of jobs, why the Public Authorities Control Board delayed a decision of funding certain payments related to Solar City and whether public money funding the Buffalo Billion was treated “as sacred” and if so, why an investigation is occurring. Other question topics included how Cuomo’s love of cars and motorcycles affects his actions on mass transit, the ongoing investigations of Mayor de Blasio’s fundraising efforts in the 2014 senate elections and whether Cuomo has been questioned in those investigations, current legislative efforts at retroactively extending the statute of limitations in child sex abuse cases, the developing troubles of Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota and whether Cuomo will act to remove Spota, the likelihood of “ethics reform” passing in this legislative session, the timing of an inspector general’s report on the 2015 Dannemora prison escape and Cuomo’s planned trip to Italy.
Here’s the full Q&A: