ALBANY — The new year is traditionally the time to chuck out the old and take a fresh approach, and Gov. Andew Cuomo is doing exactly that by remaking the traditional State of the State speech.

In a move that is rankling lawmakers and being questioned by strategists, Cuomo is set to touch down Monday in Buffalo and New York City to deliver two of a half-dozen speeches at locations across the state.

The string of addresses, his administration says, will replace the annual State of the State speech at the Statehouse in Albany.

Lawmakers say they’ve been snubbed.

“The climate here is already tense as it is, and now he is going to ignore the Legislature,” said Albany’s second-most powerful GOP lawmaker, Senate Deputy Majority Leader John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, in an interview Wednesday inside a Capitol elevator.

For nearly 100 years, New York’s governor has given a January speech to members of the Senate and Assembly. The address parallels the annual State of the Union delivered by the president to Congress, as prescribed by the U.S. Constitution.

Cuomo rebooted New York’s tradition in 2011 when he moved the gubernatorial address from the Assembly chamber to an adjoining convention hall in a government complex in downtown Albany and bundled the speech with his budget presentation.

The latest plan is far different, leaving 213 lawmakers out of the ritual altogether, unless they sign up for a seat at one of the speeches on Cuomo’s website, as the public must do.

Sen. James Tedisco, R-Saratoga, suggested Cuomo’s new approach to updating New Yorkers on the condition of the Empire State is rooted in presidential ambitions.

Tedisco tweeted Wednesday: “Governor is too busy working on a State of the Union speech in 4 years then giving a real State of the State message at Capitol this year.”

Cuomo, who appeared with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a 2016 presidential contender, to push for free tuition at New York’s public colleges, insists he is only focused on running for re-election in 2018.

Cuomo has said he has no plans to seek the White House in 2020.

State GOP Chairman Ed Cox was even more blunt in attacking the road trip, denouncing Cuomo as a “political thug” out to “hide” from legislators.

Responding in kind to Cox, the son-in-law of late President Richard Nixon, Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi called the remark “one more dumb Nixonian deflection.”

Cuomo’s move to scrap the Statehouse speech comes as many lawmakers are still stewing over that fact that 2016 ended with no pay raise for the Legislature in sight. Their $79,500 base salary has remained the same since 1999.

After a push for pay raises collapsed, veteran Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, D-Westchester, lashed out at Cuomo, telling the New York Post that the governor had resorted to “bribery” by offering an increase in return for passage of favored bills.

Cuomo’s team has pointed out that lawmakers had the authority to go into session and vote for raises but didn’t.

While crisscrossing New York, Cuomo can “amplify his message” without risking the wrath of New Yorkers who already see the Legislature as dysfunctional, said Douglas Muzzio, a political science professor at Baruch College in Brooklyn.

“I see it as a net plus,” he said, noting the tour will allow Cuomo to tailor his message to regional audiences, while the impact would have been diluted if he initially gave most of his address in Albany.

Cuomo will also make speeches in Westchester County and Long Island on Jan. 10. His trips wrap up on Jan. 11, with speeches in Syracuse and Albany. The governor’s office has not released the exact venues or times for his talks.

By taking firmer control over who gets admitted to the speeches, Cuomo improves his chances of avoiding the kind of interruption he got a year ago, Assemblyman Charles Barron, D-Brooklyn, heckled him during the State of the State.

The lawmaker, who was escorted out of the proceeding, later insisted he was standing up for “our most needy.”

Cuomo’s break from tradition comes with the risk of further straining his ties to lawmakers, said David Catalfamo, a communications director for former Gov. George Pataki.

“It is going to become a question of whether they can repair this fractured relationship,” he said. “I just don’t see how taking the State of the State out of the Capitol can be a positive thing in that regard.”

Joe Mahoney covers the New York Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at jmahoney@cnhi.com

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