经济学人300:纽约州长安德鲁•科莫

 　　FOR four years New York was adrift. When Eliot Spitzer, a crusading lawyer, became governor in 2007, his uncompromising ways caused political gridlock in Albany, the state capital. Just over a year later, he was caught frolicking with a prostitute and resigned. His successor, David Paterson, was affable enough, but too weak to push the state legislature to balance the books. When Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat 1 like his predecessors 2, handily won the 2010 governor’s race on a promise to “rebuild the government, restore competence 3, restore trust, [and] get the people of this state believing once again”, New Yorkers gave a cynical 4 snort.

　　近四年来，纽约的政局并不稳定。2007年，时任州长艾略特?斯皮策，他律师出身，作风凌厉，毫不妥协。这种做法曾让纽约州首府奥尔巴尼一度陷入政治僵局。且任职仅一年多，斯皮策就陷入招妓门事件，辞去了州长职务。民主党人大卫?帕特森继任，他亲和有余，力度不足，无力推动纽约州立法机构平衡财政收支。同为民主党人的安德鲁?科莫，于2010年参加州长竞选，并轻松取胜。他承诺要“重建政府，重塑能力，重拾信任，让州民能够再次相信政府”。纽约民众曾对此不以为然。
　　But Mr Cuomo has had an extraordinary year. In the first six months of his term he could point to three historic achievements. First, he balanced the budget: not only bringing spending under control—filling a $10 billion hole and nudging the public-sector unions to make concessions 5 worth $450m—but putting mechanisms 6 in place to control spending in future. He even got the cantankerous 7 legislature to agree. In June Mr Cuomo brought in a cap on property taxes, in a state which the Tax Foundation ranks as the sixth-most-taxed in the country. Robert Ward 8 of the Rockefeller Institute called it “the biggest change in New York’s fiscal 9 policy since the creation of Medicaid”, almost 50 years ago.
　　但科莫继任一年来，政绩斐然，任期前半年便取得三大有历史意义的成就。首先，他平衡了纽约的财政收支，填补了100亿美元的财政漏洞，并促使公共机构的工会做出了4.5亿美元的让步。此举不仅使当前的财政花销得到控制，而且使相关部门机构各司其职，以控制今后的花销。更为难得的是，他甚至征得了一向刁钻苛刻的立法机构的同意。六月，科莫引入财产税上限政策，此前按税务基金会的统计，纽约州的税收排名全国第六。洛克菲勒政府研究所副所长罗伯特?沃德称此项政策为继50年前“创立‘医疗补助计划’后，纽约财政政策的巨变”。
　　Then, also in June, Mr Cuomo signed a bill legalising same-sex marriage, having worked hard to drive the bill through the Republican-controlled state Senate. In December he got bipartisan backing to change the income-tax code, which he says will generate $1.9 billion in additional revenue for the state. It sets in place the lowest tax rate for the middle class in 58 years, while—according to Mr Cuomo’s opponents and the Manhattan Institute—leaving the tax burden on the richest at its highest level since 1986.
　　其次，科莫还于六月签署法案，将同性婚姻合法化，并全力推动该法案通过由共和党掌控的州参议院。十二月份，他获得两党支持，修改个税法条款。科莫称此举将会为纽约州带来19亿美元的附加收入。新条款将中产阶级的税率降至58年以来的最低点。曼哈顿研究所和科莫的竞争对手们称，如此一来，课税负担便落在了富人肩上，富人的纳税金额将升至自1986年以来的最高水平。
　　Still, most New Yorkers are not upset with him. Indeed, they rate him very highly. He learnt much about Albany politics at the knee of his father, Mario, a former governor. He is clever and determined 10. His most noticeable flaw is his arrogance 11, which he has tried to keep in check, but which slipped out in November when he remarked: “I am the government.”
　　但是大多数的纽约民众并没有因此对科莫不满，反而对他给予很高的评价。科莫的父亲马里奥?科莫是前纽约州长，科莫从小受父亲熏陶，谙熟奥尔巴尼政事。因此他更加机敏，更加坚定。他最明显的缺点是其傲慢的态度，虽然他竭力控制但还是在十一月的一次演讲中说漏了嘴，一句“我就是政府”令众人哗然。
　　In that case, his cockiness was accurate. There is not much transparency in how he is getting the results, notes Gerald Benjamin of the State University of New York at New Paltz. Disappointingly, it is still three men (Mr Cuomo, the assembly Speaker and the Senate president) in a room making all the decisions.
　　科莫的傲慢由此可见一斑。新帕尔茨纽约州立大学院长杰拉尔德?本杰明指出，科莫制定政策的透明度并不高。令人失望的是，做决定的仍然是州长、州众议员院长和州参议院议长三个人。