Cuomo wants Child Victims Act to pass next year, but says final bill shouldn’t bankrupt the Church – By Kenneth Lovett (nydailynews.com) / Nov 20 2018
ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo said Tuesday he wants to see a bill making it easier for victims of child sex abuse to seek justice as adults pass next year—but not in a way that would bankrupt the Catholic Church.
“Obviously nobody wants to see a dioceses or the Catholic Church bankrupt, so how it is done is very important,” Cuomo told reporters during a pre-Thanksgiving trip to Buffalo to pass out turkeys.
But Cuomo quickly added that “nor do I think you should say, ‘well this may cost the Church money, so we shouldn’t do it.’ There’s a long step between acknowledgment and justice and financial catastrophe, so I do believe there should be a recognition and justice should be done for the victims.”
Buffalo has been contending with a widespread priest abuse scandal.
“The revelations about the extent of the problem are only getting worse and I think it should be passed,” Cuomo said of the Child Victims Act.
Child victim advocate Michael Polenberg, vice president of government affairs at Safe Horizon, said the Governor needs to pick a side.
“We need to be less worried about protecting abusers and those who harbor them and more focused on delivering justice for survivors of childhood sexual abuse,” Polenberg said.
During Cuomo’s trip in Buffalo, and during a similar appearance earlier in the day in the Bronx, Cuomo shot down an Associated Press story that listed him among those potential 2020 presidential candidates who have been reaching out to Iowa Democratic officials.
Cuomo called the report a “dark conspiracy theory” and insisted “there’s no truth to it.”
Front page of the New York Daily News for January 12, 2017. (New York Daily News)
The governor vowed during his recent campaign to serve all four years of his third term if re-elected, which he was on Nov. 6.
Cuomo while in the Bronx also threw his support behind House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi for speaker when the Democrats take control of the chamber in January.
Cuomo, who has been close with Pelosi, said she “just had a phenomenal victory in a very difficult time.”
“You are in stormy seas,” he said. “Why you would want to change leadership makes no sense to me.”
While no one has officially stepped forward to challenge Peolosi, 16 Democrats, including four from New York, signed a letter this week opposing her as speaker.
Closer to home, Cuomo told reporters that he expects “rapid, remarkable change” now that the Democrats have claimed control of the state Senate, giving the party total control of state government.
Cuomo said he expects to be able to pass many bills that had long been blocked by the Republican-controlled Senate. He has mentioned legislation to strengthen the state’s abortion laws and bills to enact new gun control measures and ethics and voting reforms.
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-pol-cuomo-child-victims-act-church-20181120-story.html
