ALBANY -- By appealing to bipartisanship, referencing reformer Al Smith, incorporating slides, personal stories and humor, Governor Andrew Cuomo urged New Yorkers to embrace a complete redesign of State Government.  

It was a broad speech that covered an enormous swath of policy from redesigning Medicaid  to reforming campaign finance laws. 

But Andrew Cuomo did what no other Governor has done in the recent past.   Praise the legislators..

The challenges both in the quantity of work he expects his staff to do, and in the limited timeframe he has given them – prior to April 1st, is daunting.  Larry Shwartz will head up the Governor's Government redesign taskforce…

After the speech, legislative leaders at least gave lip service to working with the new Governor…

The biggest laugh of the address, which isn't traditionally known for its comedy was a slide the Governor introduced showing the 2 legislative leaders as naval commanders on the high seas

Taking a cue from the Obama administration, Cuomo also wants to institute a pay for performance model in different areas of state government.