New York State Governor Mario M. Cuomo Central Subject and Correspondence Files

This series is arranged chronologically by year, then alphabetically by subject therein.

Mario Matthew Cuomo was born in South Jamaica, Queens, New York on June 15, 1932. In 1954, he married Matilda Raffia and the couple would go on to have five children. In 1956, Cuomo graduated from St. John's University Law School and engaged in both the teaching and private practice of law. He also clerked for New York State Court of Appeals Judge Adrian P. Burke. Cuomo gained public attention in 1972 when, while still in private practice, he successfully mediated a public housing dispute in Forest Hills, New York. In 1975, he further enhanced his public reputation when his investigation of a nursing home controversy led to the creation of a Moreland Act commission and the appointment of a special prosecutor. Cuomo officially entered public service upon his appointment as secretary of state by Governor Hugh Carey in 1975. While in that position, Cuomo settled the Co-op City rent strike and mediated the Ganienkeh Mohawk Indian land claims dispute.

In 1978, Cuomo joined Governor Hugh Carey in his successful bid for reelection and served as Carey's lieutenant governor from 1979 to 1982. In 1982, Cuomo himself was elected to the first of three terms as governor of New York. As governor, Cuomo pledged to ease partisan and executive-legislative tensions through a policy of inclusiveness. He appointed upstate Republican Richard D. Simons to the Court of Appeals and went on to appoint the state's first African American, female, and Latino Court of Appeals judges. Cuomo also focused on reforming the state's criminal justice system and in closing the budget deficit inherited from his predecessors. He sponsored bond issues to rehabilitate the state's roads and improve the environment, as well as significant spending to rebuild the New York City transit system. He spoke on behalf of the states' in their collective struggle against fiscal burdens shifted to them by the federal government.

Despite his insistence on fiscal responsibility, Cuomo firmly believed that government could achieve social change and should improve the lives of the citizenry. During his tenure, public financing was secured for healthcare programs aimed at low-income children, pregnant women, and the elderly. His emphasis on job training for welfare recipients foreshadowed federal policy during the Clinton administration. Cuomo sought but failed to achieve the assumption of local Medicaid costs by the state and public financing of elections. He actively supported increased state funding for higher education and proposed the Liberty Scholarship program to provide incentive to low-income students to finish high school. Cuomo remained steadfast in his opposition to capital punishment, vetoing death penalty bills passed by the state legislature each year that he was in office.

Despite being considered a viable candidate for the presidency in 1988 and 1992, Cuomo publicly displayed his indecisiveness and declined to run both times. He was reelected in 1990 by a very slim majority and faced continuingly high crime rates, persistent welfare dependency, a stagnant upstate economy, and rising tax rates. In 1994, little-known Republican state senator George E. Pataki opposed Cuomo and capitalized on growing public dissatisfaction with the governor and a national resurgence of the Republican Party. Upon leaving office, Cuomo returned to the private practice of law and remains a nationally renowned authority on public affairs.

For further information concerning the life and political career of Mario M. Cuomo, see "Mario Matthew Cuomo, 1983-." In Mullaney, Marie Marmo. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1988-1994, 283-287. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994; and Benjamin, Gerald. "Cuomo, Mario M(atthew)." In The Encyclopedia of New York State, ed. Peter Eisenstadt, 429-430. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2005.

The central subject and correspondence files of Governor Mario M. Cuomo document the management of state government during the longest-serving Democratic gubernatorial administration to date. Documents include incoming correspondence from constituents, private organizations, and public officials at all levels of government; copies of responses prepared by the governor's office or representatives of other state agencies; topical reports and background publications; and both regular and special reports from state agencies.

The records document political relations with Native Americans and Native American land claims; urban housing issues, including rent and other tenant concerns, community development, block grant programs, and state subsidized housing programs such as Mitchell-Lama; the HIV-AIDS crisis; civil rights, discrimination, and affirmative action; legislation requiring parental consent prior to performance of abortions on minors; and the ongoing capital punishment debate during the Cuomo administration.

Other subjects include presidential politics during the 1984, 1988, and 1992 elections; revenue sharing and aid to localities; state aid to education; the Liberty Scholarship program; Medicaid; community-based mental health programs and services; alcohol and substance abuse; sales and property taxes; crime and corrections; environmental conservation; hydroelectric power development, including the James Bay project; medical malpractice insurance; awards and citations; and meetings/interviews with the public.

The videotape "Developing A Blueprint For The Survival Of New York's Rental Housing, 1993" has been digitized and is available in State Archives Digital Collections.

Series B1857 Index to Central Subject and Correspondence Files of Governor Mario Cuomo contains alphabetical lists of subjects by which this series is arranged.

The 1991 paper files for Governor Mario Cuomo were transferred under RDA 15384, transfer list 940004.

At the end of the Cuomo administration (1994), select gubernatorial records were transferred to the State Archives. Archives staff filmed records spanning the years 1983 to 1990. Subsequently the originals were returned to the Executive Department and are presumed destroyed. The State Archives retains paper copies only for the 1991 to 1994 subject and correspondence files, to be microfilmed as resources permit.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of this material.