50 percent favorability rate unchanged for Gov. Andrew Cuomo

Given four choices, 21 percent of those polled said Cuomo’s greatest asset was his ability to get opposing groups to work together; 20 percent said it was his vision for the state; 20 percent said it was that he “gets things done;” and 18 percent said it was that he makes tough decisions. “While upstate voters are divided, there is strong support for the increase in the downstate suburbs and overwhelming support in the City”.

On key issues, however, the Governor has not succeeded in convincing voters that he’s going a good job. It has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. That’s according to a new Siena College poll. Last month, “wrong direction” led the poll 49-41 percent, so this means a net 15-point improvement in how New Yorkers view the direction of the state.

Cuomo has not been accused of any wrongdoing and the education department is not under the control of the governor, although Cuomo did insert himself into arguments with the state’s teachers unions. The number was the same as last month’s poll. By a two-to-one margin, voters think Common Core has worsened, not improved, public education, and a small plurality think those educational standards will continue to worsen public education in the future.

The Siena College poll was released early Monday morning.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently pledged to spend $8 billion on a plan to upgrade the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The Siena poll found that more than two-thirds of voters agreed that New York should fund both downstate mass transit and upstate roads for similar amounts – which in recent days has been echoed by upstate leaders.

Still, voters were unsure how to fund such an expense endeavor.

The poll also found 62 percent of those surveyed supported increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

Albany bureau chief: Joseph Spector is Gannett’s Albany Bureau chief and has covered New York politics and government since 2002.