Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo and Governor Lamont Go Fishing on Lake Ontario

Statement

Earlier today, Governor Cuomo was joined by Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont on Lake Ontario. The two Governors went out fishing on the Lake and delivered remarks afterwards.

Governor Cuomo: Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be back here in Wilson today. It is a beautiful day. I want to thank the Supervisor, Supervisor Doyle, for his kindness and his good leadership. It is a pleasure to be with Tim again. We have my colleague from Albany Mike Norris from the Assembly. So it is a pleasure to be with all of you. It is an exquisite day to be on Lake Ontario. I want to thank Governor Ned Lamont for taking the time to be with us today.

First, we just had a lot of fun. Fun is important. And when you go out on Lake Ontario on a day like today, which is just glorious, there are very few places like it in the world I believe. It is as the Supervisor said an international tourist destination and it should be. So we had a beautiful boat ride and a successful boat ride. We caught and released two fish. And then we caught two steelhead trout. The Governor is going to take one back. I am going to take one back. We are going to be eating well tonight. Not that we are competitive, but the fish happened to be twins. They are identical twins, identical weight, and they are beautiful. So we had a lot of fun and we also had a chance to talk some business.

Connecticut and New York are neighbor states. There are very few issues today that we deal with that are limited by our borders and our boundaries - especially with our surrounding states. And Connecticut is our neighbor to the east. So there are so many issues that we are dealing with that we could do better if we worked cooperatively. And that was the serious part of today's trip.

Our transportation systems interconnect, and how can we both work on a transportation system to make it better? Security, we are all in the same boat when it comes to security. So how can we do a better job working together on security issues, anti-terrorism issues, et cetera? Emergency management, which at one time was a relatively seldom occurrence now happens on almost a monthly basis. Just this past weekend we had hailstorms, we had New Yorkers with power outages. New York and Connecticut being able to work together on these issues. That if Connecticut has an issue, we can deploy our resources to Connecticut and vice-versa.

So we are going to set up sessions where our State Police do drills together, and are familiar with each other's practices, protocol, and territory. And our emergency management response teams, so if Connecticut has a problem we can be there to help them. If we have an issue, they can be here to help us. That makes good sense. We do it now but we can do it better. Right now if there is a storm and there are downed power lines, utility issues in Connecticut, we will send over our utility crews and vice-versa. But having done it a few times, I can tell you that we can do it better, and we're going to work to do that better. We talked about policy issues like the marijuana issue, which is obviously also relevant to contiguous states. What Connecticut does on marijuana is relevant to New York. What New York does is relevant to Connecticut. So we talked about that and a lot of issues.

So we had fun. It was successful. We're going to eat well tonight. We enjoyed the beautiful Lake Ontario, and we got some work done, so I am considering this a work day, by the way, just so we're clear. This goes in my journal as a work day, Governor, so I hope you'll back me up on that. This is not - okay, let's do this: half a vacation day, and half a work day. But it was great. And Governor Lamont is a star - he's done great work in Connecticut in just his first few months. I'm very excited about this partnership, both on an institutional level and on a personal level. He has great experience. He's brought a fresh mind and fresh perspective to the job. He's a get-to-yes person, and that is so important.

There's so much of government now that's just spinning wheels and process, and we were talking about how it seems nowadays that government just isn't competent or capable enough to get great things done anymore. And that's not true - we've got big problems and big problems require big solutions, and big solutions require partnerships. So I look forward to pursuing that with the Governor, and this is going to be the first meeting of many. I want to also congratulate Alan Sauerland and Tim, who took us out on the Instigator, which was the name of the boat, which I thought was appropriate. I think I'm an instigator - I think governors by definition if they're doing their job are instigators. But they did a great job - the boat ride was great, and the catching was even better. With that, I'm going to turn it over to the Governor. I have one quick New York token to give the Governor, and we thank him for his visit and for visiting us here in beautiful Lake Ontario. This is your official Connecticut -

Governor Lamont: Connecticut and New York - I like that.

Governor Cuomo: Connecticut and New York tackle box, which is going to bring you good luck. And this, which I'm jealous of by the way, this is a custom-made rod for you with your name, Governor Ned Lamont, it is guaranteed to catch fish. So if you do not catch with this rod, you can return it to me, because it is guaranteed to catch fish.

Governor Lamont: We had a ball out there and Alan and the Instigator, you guys were great hosts. Supervisor Doyle, I love your backyard, I love your office, look forward to coming back, and Governor we'll make this a home-and-home, make this a regular basis and I'll do these half-work-half-vacation days with you, you know any time you want.

And I just want to say to amplify what Governor Cuomo said: "I've only been in the job for eight years, eight months," he's been doing it eight years and eight months and I had a lot to learn as we were floating around out there waiting for the trout. First thing I've learned though is that these state borders are pretty artificial and we have a lot of overlap there, you know between the Long Island Sound and Metro-North and what we talked about in terms of energy, what we talked about in terms of security.

We are much better off when we work together and I've tried to establish a pretty good relationship with my neighbors on the other side in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. And you're very fortunate to have Governor Cuomo and I look forward to working with you very closely on what we've got to do together. You know if we can, you know tourism is for a region, and if we can make this part of a broader region where people come out to visit and they ought to know this is the most beautiful part of the country.

And you know my state doesn't survive unless we can speed up our transportation and for me to speed it up all the way to the New York border doesn't help. We got to go right into the city.

We talked a lot about energy and ways that we can purchase together, and if we purchase some of this together we get extraordinary savings, we do good by the environment, we also do good by the taxpayers.

And these are the type of initiatives where the Governor's been taking the lead for many, many years and I just want him to know he's got a partner in Connecticut and we're proud to be standing with you.

Governor Cuomo: Thank you. Thank you very much.

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