REMAKING NEW YORK'S GOVERNMENT

We also need innovation and reform when it comes to New York's budget. In the middle of a fragile recovery, with the state's current deficit still at a whopping $10 billion and growing, we can't be held hostage to improvising our way out of budget trouble (whether with taxes, cuts and/or borrowing) year after year.

For instance, at the height of the fiscal crisis two years ago, the state imposed an income-tax surcharge on New Yorkers earning more than $200,000 a year -- and called it a "millionaire's tax." I voted for it as a temporary solution, expecting that the economy would have turned the corner by now. But a tax isn't temporary if we keep re-authorizing it. Unfortunately, some of my colleagues want to do just that -- arguing that we should extend the tax before it expires this year.

We have to recognize that rather than sticking to old solutions, we must fundamentally transform the very way New York State's government is structured. We need smarter spending and vastly improved efficiency.

Governor Cuomo is leading the way. He's putting forward innovative ideas, like a spending and government-efficiency commission to reorganize the state's government -- weeding out layers of unnecessary bureaucracy that clog up Albany. He has proposed a Medicaid redesign team to reign in New York's out-of-control Medicaid costs -- providing better service for less money -- and another team that will do away with costly and unnecessary state mandates.

We in the legislature should be working with our new Governor to make these solutions -- and other great ideas -- a reality. Last week, I published an op-ed in the New York Post about how the so-called "millionaire's tax" represents a step backwards at a time when we should be focusing on growth and innovation. You can read the op-ed here .