In Post-Budget Session, Cuomo Says He’ll Take Cues From Legislature

From the Morning Memo:

As lawmakers return at the end of this month to a thin legislative agenda win Albany, Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he has no plans to push for centerpiece issues.

Speaking with reporters over the weekend, Cuomo insisted he got what he wanted in the budget — juvenile justice reform and a SUNY and CUNY tuition plan among them — while issues such as the DREAM Act and ethics reform remain too heavy a lift with the Legislature.

“Those that weren’t done in the budget, I don’t know that they’re feasible to get done. If we didn’t get it done in the budget, it means you don’t have the political will to get done,” Cuomo said.

He added: “I’ll respond to the initiatives that the Legislature coms up with. Frankly, everything big we wanted to get done we got done in the budget.”

Issues like the DREAM Act, which provides tuition assistance for undocumented immigrants, and ethics reform such as the constitutional amendment the governor first proposed in December for term limits and limiting outside income for state officials, lack the “political will,” he said.

Cuomo’s maximum leverage comes during the budget process, a power he displayed when he submitted an “extender” bill to fund the government temporarily while a broader spending plan was still be negotiated. The bill had the bulk of Cuomo’s preferred project and infrastructure spending.

Cuomo on Saturday at the annual Easter egg hunt at the executive mansion made clear he still blames the Legislature for the budget passing more than week into the new fiscal year, which begins April 1.

“Once the Legislature made the budget late, still timely, but a week late, the governor goes to extender, but all the extenders is the power with executives,” he said. “They did go late. I think it was a mistake and I think tactically it was a mistake for the Legislature.”

The post-budget session does not have much for lawmakers to consider. There’s the renewal of mayoral control of New York City schools at the end of June, the only truly deadline-driven concern for the Legislature.

Lawmakers may also make a push for a bill that ends child marriage in the state.

As for his plans, Cuomo said he’s focusing on running the state, building and boosting the upstate economy.

“I’m not going to do government as usual,” he said. “We never have.”

(Published 2017/04/28 at 4:45 pm)