Governor Andrew Cuomo is viewed favorably by 73 percent of voters and unfavorably by 18 percent, up from 69-20 percent last month.
Fifty-four percent of voters say he is doing an excellent/good job as Governor (up from 51 percent last month) and 41 percent say he’s doing a fair/poor job (unchanged).
Although voters say the citizens of New York, their local schools and their local hospitals were losers in the recently enacted state budget, they overwhelming say Governor Andrew Cuomo was a budget winner.
Cuomo also saw his favorability and job performance ratings edge up higher, according to a new Siena (College) Research Institute poll of registered voters released today.
And while voters continue to have unfavorable views of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, by a better than three-to-one margin, they say the new budget makes them feel better about the State Legislature.
A property tax cap and a new legislative ethics law are the top priorities for voters for the remainder of the legislative session.
Voters also strongly support renewing and strengthening rent regulation laws, creating an independent redistricting commission and requiring public employees to contribute more for their benefit package.
A majority also supports legalizing same sex marriages, allowing SUNY to set its own tuition rates, and freezing state employees’ salaries for a year.
Voters overwhelmingly say Cuomo has treated New York’s public employee union fairly.
By a slim margin, voters believe public employees should have the right to strike and they support keeping the Triborough Amendment in place.
New York voters also support, by a nearly two-to-one margin, Wisconsin unions in their fight with Governor Scott Walker, an issue to which most New Yorkers have paid at least some attention.
“Andrew Cuomo starts his second hundred days as governor continuing to enjoy ‘rock star status’ among New Yorkers. His favorability rating is back over 70 percent, his job performance rating is up and, by a 61-9 percent margin, voters say he was a winner, not loser, in the just-completed budget battle,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg.
“There are many issues voters want to see addressed between now and June so the Governor has his work cut out for him if he wants to keep the honeymoon going into the summer.”