SYRACUSE -- Governor Andrew Cuomo made a special visit to Syracuse Wednesday to promote his plan to create a new state agency that would help protect people with special needs from abuse.

Speaking at Syracuse University's Schine Student Center, Governor Guomo laid out his plan, which would create the Justice Center for people with special needs. The governor says the agency would have a special prosecutor and inspector general that would work with local district attorneys to pursue any potential criminal offenses by workers at state homes for the developmentally disabled.

The move comes after a series of high profile cases of neglect at state homes outlined in a series of articles by the New York Times. There were 10,000 allegations of abuse against people at state facilities for the disabled last year.

The New York State Senate has approved the legislation proposed Cuomo to create a this new state agency. The bill passed unanimously Wednesday.

"The Justice Center will dramatically improve the way we protect and care for people with special needs and disabilities, and this bill is vital to ensuring that these reforms are implemented," said Governor Cuomo in an email to the media. "I commend the Senate for unanimously passing legislation that will help give more than one million New Yorkers with disabilities and special needs the protections and justice they deserve. Now both the Senate and Assembly need to work towards a final agreement so we can create the Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs this year. New Yorkers who have been the victims of abuse or mistreatment cannot afford any delay in action."

According to the governor's office, there were more than 10,000 allegations of abuse against New Yorkers with special needs and disabilities in state operated, certified or licensed facilities and programs in 2011, but the State never had a consistent standard for tracking complaints or punishing guilty workers.

The agency would also have a hotline, statewide incident database and a list of employees banned from working with the disabled because of abuse.

The State Assembly has been reviewing the bill, which Cuomo says he wants enacted in the remaining weeks of this legislative session.

(Information from the Associated Press was used in this report)