Governor Cuomo's State of the State speech today was fiery. He pulled out all of the stops, discussing everything from gun control to a paddling competition. Of all the things on his agenda, I think the three biggest headlines were tightening the ban on assault weapons, raising the minimum wage, and strengthening the state's power and communication systems post-Sandy. I would agree with these being the top legislative priorities for 2013. All I can say now is, "Go get 'em Albany...please."

In a wide-ranging State of the State address today, Governor Cuomo called for a tighter ban on assault weapons and the elimination of high-capacity ammunition clips. Referring to the mass shooting in Connecticut and the Christmas Eve shooting in upstate New York, Cuomo said it's time to "end the madness now."

Governor Cuomo also proposed raising the minimum wage to $8.75 an hour from the current $7.25. He said the wage in New York is "unlivable," and ranks behind 19 other states. The Democrat also spoke in favor of expanded gambling in New York with three casinos upstate, but none in New York City.

Cuomo also focused on lessons learned from Hurricane Sandy. He called for strengthening cell phone networks, abolishing LIPA, and rebuilding waterfront areas to be better prepared for future storms. What do you say?

How would you describe the state of the State? Do you support a tighter ban on automatic weapons? Should the minimum wage be raised to $8.75 an hour? What would you like to see Albany focus on in 2013?

Send your thoughts using the link above.

Guns don't go mad. People go mad. If every assault weapon was confiscated, there would still be mass murders, just not mass shootings. One stick of dynamite, fuse lit, thrown in the Sandy Hook School might have killed everyone. Should dynamite be banned, just in case?

Joe
Port Richmond, SI

This Cuomo is nothing but a big bag of wind. He talks big but when he can't votes to go in his favor he then like a thief himself goes behind closed doors.

Example is what took place behind closed doors with the same sex marriage. What he did was pass it like the coward that he is and then when he received so much flack about how it was done I discovered an article in a paper saying that it was brought before a judge and the judge said he did nothing wrong.

WE ARE LOSING ALL OF OUR RIGHTS AS BORN AMERICANS AND IT'S BECOMING QUITE ALARMING TO MANY OF US.

MIND YOU THESE LAWS ARE BEING PASSED BY PEOPLE THAT HAVE THESE SO CALLED JOBS THAT ARE JUST PASSING THROUGH ON TO ANOTHER OFFICE AND WE HAVE TO LIVE WITH THEIR DECISIONS FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES IN NEW YORK STATE.
IT'S TIME TO STOP AND LISTEN AND AGAIN THE MINIMUM WAGE WAS THROWN IN AS YET ANOTHER FREE BEE TO MAKE HIM LOOK GOOD. GIVE WITH ONE HAND AND SURE AS HELL THEY TAKE SOMETHING BACK MORE VALUABLE THAN WHAT THEY GAVE.

WAKE UP PEOPLE OF NEW YORK/AMERICA

TAKE NOTICE THAT WE HAD TWO TRAGEDIES HAPPEN TODAY = ONE BEING ANOTHER FERRY AND THE OTHER YET ANOTHER CRANE ACCIDENT AND THE IMPORTANT THING IS WHERE WAS BLOOMBERG?

PLUS THE FERRY ACCIDENT HAPPENED ABOUT 8:45AM AND IT TOOK ABOUT 2 1/2 HRS AND MAYBE MORE FOR THE HEADS OF THE CITY TO MAKE AN APPEARANCE AND THEY STUTTERED THROUGHOUT THE SESSION SAYING IT IS ALL BEING INVESTIGATED.
ALSO MINUS BLOOMBERG AT THAT TIME.

ALSO WHAT ABOUT SANDY?

maxxiee
mp

Why doesn't the Gov propose hammer control?

Alan

I watched Cuomo's address and was happy with everything he said; I only hope he is able to achieve it all!!

Barri
Jackson Heights

NYS is already the strictest Gun State in the country. The only way He can make it stricter is banning guns altogether. The Governor forgets that the Sandy Hook shooting had NOTHING to do with Gun Control. It had to do with Bad Parenting in not locking up her weapons with a mentally disturb son.

Jason

I would like Gov. Cuomo to restore some funding to the MTA so that they can make the role of MTA Chairman sustainable instead of a revolving door, and start investing in public transportation infrastructure. Why did he ram through the Tappan Zee Bridge project, which only benefits cars, but is silent on public transportation?

Bruce
UES

Minimum Wage in NYC should of been at $12 or more. This is an expensive city. $18,200 is not enough from for even a single man to live off of let alone a family of 3.

The purpose for automatic weapons is for the possibly of the Government stripping our rights away completely. Mary Ann you need to live in the real world.

Making NYS gun laws tougher is only going to get more innocent people killed.

Jason

listening to the state address I think we need tighter gun control laws, as a woman I believe our rights need to be continued to be protected under the law this is important especially in cases of rape or incest. Minimum wage needs to be raised but 8.75 is unrealistic and not good enough especially in a city is as expensive as NYC. The average person can't afford the rents 1000 1,260 1,500 is we need to focus on more affordable housing for our city and make it accessible not have all of these unrealistic requirements that make it impossible for the working class to get help. Cell towers need to be fixed and im working order.

Jennifer
Ridgewood

Everything is very expensive is this great city of ours, so minimum wage should be at least $10.00 and that's just enough to pay rent and eat fast food, Bloomberg, what do you know about struggling for anything?

Carmen

Cuomo, like Christie, missed an opportunity to demonstrate leadership by announcing negotiated deals and providing details.

How many years is he going to talk about minimum wage, stop and frisk, etc. Overall, I like the job he's doing but there's so much that needs to be done.

Results, not promises, matter.

Rob. Tribeca

As a teacher in New York City, I, and my colleagues, would greatly appreciate Governor Cuomo not engaging in financial blackmail. As professionals, we would definitely like to see a fair and balanced evaluation system put in place that will help improve the teaching profession. What we do not need is Governor Cuomo blackmailing us by threatening to withhold funds (which incidentally were never meant for use in the classroom but instead were meant to be used to develop more tests for use in evaluations). He is well aware that Bloomberg's goal is to destroy public schools and demoralize teachers in New York City to open t he doors for his cronies to privatize schools and use them to generate profits. The Governor should allow negotiations to proceed without imposing artificial time limits. Maybe then something positive could finally be done for schools to counteract 11 years of destruction by the Bloomberg Dynasty.

Quixotic

I believe that the minimum wage should be 10.50/hr because, there are companies that are raising prices and taxes. Also,we have to buy a lot things that we need which is expensive and hard to pay for. Also rent and transportation are going very high and its hard to balance these things. Therefore,it should be $10.50

Nathan
Bedford Park

Small business owners don't create jobs if they get tax breaks they pocket the profit and create larger workloads for their current employees. Hiring new employees is the last thing a small business owners wants to do, that deducts from their profit. The cost of living in this city is excessive to say the least. My last employer didn't give us raises for over 5 years but the cost of living continued(s) to go up. So, financially I was better off when I started working/living in NYC than I was before I got laid off. Eventually this city will be too expensive for the lower wage workers to live. WHo's going to work in the cafes, delis, retail etc? Not the the Goldman Sachs employees.

Love the show!

Eric