Assemblyman Ken Blankenbush, R-Black River, believes that, in his budget address Tuesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo focused more on Washington than on New York.

“The governor’s continued fixation on Washington was on full display during his budget address today,” Blankenbush said after the address Tuesday. “It isn’t productive. The governor should be focused on balancing our budget.”

There has been open speculation that Gov. Cuomo is not only running for another term as governor this year, but is also leaning toward a run for the Democratic Party nomination for president in 2020, at the cost of putting the state first in his thinking.

“We’re facing a $4 billion deficit,” Blankenbush said. “The new spending, new fees and new taxes he outlined today are not going to energize our economy. Partisan bickering is not going to energize our economy. This year’s budget needs to cut wasteful programs and wasteful spending so we can finally deliver real tax relief to middle-class families and small-business owners.”

Blankenbush represents the 117th District, including the towns of DeKalb, Gouverneur, Hermon, Russell, Edwards, Fowler and Pitcairn in St. Lawrence County plus Lewis County and parts of Jefferson and Oneida counties.

“Declaring war on Washington won’t turn our state around,” he said. “We should, however, be aggressively opposed to new taxes, new fees and the waste, fraud and abuse that burden taxpayers.”