London tries to bridge N.Y.'s gap on the right - New York State conservative politician Herbert London; includes related article on London's education policies

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Oct 18, 1993 | by Kenneth Silber

If the Republicans and Conservatives again fail to agree on a candidate, the clear beneficiary would be Cuomo. The governor's popularity has declined since the 1990 election, with opinion polls lately putting his approval rating around 40 percent. "What we're seeing in New York is extensive dissatisfaction with the governor," says the Marist Institute's Miringoff. "It's very difficult, after having served 12 years, to become the agent of change."

Yet a Marist poll taken in May showed Cuomo leading London by 49.5 percent to 20.6 percent, with the remainder undecided. Miringoff attributes this result to the public's limited recognition of London's name. "Having run last time doesn't automatically get you into the upper tier," he says. London dismisses the poll as "a snapshot" and points out that it was taken before the 1994 race begins in earnest.

During his tenure, Cuomo often has deflected criticism by blaming Republican administrations in Washington for New York's problems, a technique that became obsolete with the inauguration of a Democratic president. Moreover, New York has been particularly slow to recover from the national economic doldrums of recent years, experiencing a net loss of about 400,000 jobs since 1989. "Why is New York in a situation where it has such a disproportionate share of the jobs that have been lost?" asks London. "Clearly, a lot of the blame belongs with the governor."

London is vehement in his criticism of Cuomo's economic policies, pointing out that New York residents bear the largest per-capita tax burden in the nation. "Socialism is government operating to take an enormous amount of money out of your pocket that you've earned, creating disincentives for people to be productive," he says. "That is precisely what we're doing in New York state."

New York has the lowest credit rating of any state, and its debt has grown rapidly in recent years. Rising expenditures on social programs, the fastest-growing area of the state budget, have contributed to this fiscal stress. New York accounts for more than 14 percent of state and local welfare spending in the U.S., even though the state has only slightly more than 7 percent of the nation's population. Unlike a number of other states, it has made little progress toward welfare reform.

London promises to reduce what he calls New York's "Cadillac equivalent in welfare benefits" and to require recipients to work in exchange for government aid. He would reduce benefits to welfare mothers who have more than one child. "Young women today can be married to a welfare agency instead of being married to a husband," says London. "I regard that as outrageous." He would step up efforts to compel negligent fathers to take care of their children. He also would set limits on medical benefits provided by the state and alter payment rules that currently result in many state-assisted patients going to hospital emergency rooms for routine treatment.

Reducing social spending would be only a part of London's effort to scale back New York's government. He also would seek to privatize a variety of state assets, including a small airport north of New York City and a state-run gambling company called Off Track Betting (which, London notes, differs from most bookmaking operations in that it loses money). As London sees it, there are numerous government activities that should be handled by the private sector. "The state of New York presently owns three ski resorts," he says with exasperation. "What is the government doing in the ski resort business?"