(Bloomberg News) New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, riding record approval ratings, may use his second year to consolidate agencies, raise the retirement age for new workers and lower costs for local governments as he closes a $2 billion budget gap.

The 54-year-old first-term Democrat has discussed his goals for the year, though not specific legislation, in a series of public appearances and interviews during the past month. Today, he plans to outline his 2012 agenda in his State of the State speech in Albany, the capital.

"He'll talk about the success of Year One," said Steve Greenberg, a pollster for Siena College in Loudonville, New York. "He'll outline the budget in broad terms and discuss everything in the context of creating jobs and improving the economy."

In his first year, Cuomo erased a $10 billion deficit, got New York's two biggest government-worker unions to agree to pay freezes and furloughs, instituted a property-tax cap and pushed through a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in the third-most- populous state. In December, the Legislature passed a Cuomo- endorsed tax package that raised rates on those earning $2 million or more, and cut them for the middle class.

A poll by Quinnipiac University conducted after the tax changes put Cuomo's approval rating at 68 percent, two percentage points higher than the record set in July 2002 by Republican Governor George Pataki, the university said.

"He's absolutely the most successful governor in his first year in recent memory," Greenberg said.

Halfway There

The extra revenue from the new tax brackets cut the estimated fiscal 2013 deficit to $2 billion from $3.5 billion, leading the governor to say "the budget is 50 percent done," at a press conference in Albany after the Senate approved the measure.

Cuomo, whose father, Mario, served three terms as governor, has said he now may turn his attention to streamlining the government.

"Next year, I'm going to shift to more of an operational front," he said during a Dec. 16 interview on former Governor David Paterson's show on WOR radio in New York City. "The whole system was designed at a different time and a different place, and it needs serious reorganization."

Cuomo convened the 20-member Spending and Government Efficiency Commission in April to find ways to consolidate agencies. In a report released last month, the panel recommended that the state centralize procurement, debt collection and human resources to save almost $600 million over five years.

Union Opposition

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