John Kaehny of the reform group Reinvent Albany is calling on Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to hold immediate oversight hearings on the Cuomo administration’s mishandling of nursing home data as well the administration’s response to the pandemic, overall.  

He says the two legislative leaders need to ensure that the whole truth is presented; that top policy makers from the administration are compelled to testify under oath; and that budget and policy documents in question are subpoenaed and provided in full. 

“This is a huge deal,” Kaehny said of the widening scandal. “There should be an immediate inquiry. The nursing home data has been asked about repeatedly, and it goes right to the heart of democracy, which is, can the executive lie?”

Kaehny says the governor has a pattern of not telling the truth or perhaps more accurately, withholding the truth, pointing to a front-page story in Friday’s New York Daily News on the governor’s “raid” of transportation funding.

“That’s a part of this. It’s all about Cuomo withholding billions of dollars in state budget money and not revealing it, basically keeping it secret,” he said.