Cuomo bid to hold power irks legislators

ALBANY -- Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is consolidating power in the executive chamber, triggering resistance from state lawmakers who largely were his allies.

During his first year in office, Cuomo got legislators to agree to major initiatives such as a property-tax cap and legalizing of same-sex marriage, while threatening to shut them out of budget negotiations and investigate their ethics. Lawmakers groused only privately about what they saw as heavy-handedness.

Now the governor's push for control has intensified -- and legislators have begun to complain publicly.

The skirmishing began two weeks ago when a new state ethics commission hired a close Cuomo ally, Ellen Biben, as executive director. Last week, Cuomo moved to widen the power of the inspector general's office, which polices state employees and which Biben ran until recently, to access private tax records. He proposed legislation to enable the governor to shift money between state agencies and loosen borrowing limits without lawmakers' input or approval.

Resistance rises

Lawmakers are pushing back -- though with carefully chosen language.

"This is a natural thing between a governor and the legislature," Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) said. "But to give [Cuomo] the free hand to do [the state budget] any way he wants, I don't think that's something that's going be acceptable to the legislature and I think the governor will understand that."

Skelos has had cordial relations with the Democratic governor on big issues, including the property-tax cap and raising tax rates on the wealthy.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) hasn't directly criticized Cuomo, but has said he has "some concerns" about the governor's move to expand his budget powers. Unlike last year, Silver has aggressively moved to advance his own agenda, including a minimum wage hike.

In a recent Newsday interview, Silver also stressed that Cuomo's "willingness to negotiate and recognize there are partners in government" will determine "what successes he'll achieve" this year.

Struggle for supremacy

Asked whether he was trying to increase his power, Cuomo responded by casting himself as trying to fight the status quo.

"There is no doubt there is an ongoing historic and probably healthy, although annoying, struggle between the governor and the legislature," Cuomo told reporters after a stop in Syracuse to promote his budget.

"The legislature is saying they want the power and they should have the power," he said. "I'm saying I'm trying to make changes and I believe what the legislature has done for a lot of years is wrong. So that's the tension. I'm trying to make changes. The legislature is trying to stop me making changes."

Other examples of Cuomo's push for power, lawmakers said, include his creation of a Financial Services Department, which critics say has tried to poach in the state attorney general's territory. Cuomo also made a proposal in the budget that would give agencies the ability to borrow millions of dollars for infrastructure projects without legislative oversight.

"You're hearing more grumblings about the governor. The question is whether it grows from grumblings to action," said Doug Muzzio, a political science professor at Baruch College. "Sure, he'd like to work with legislators as long as they do want he wants -- and likewise, from their point of view."

'Imperial governor'Cuomo risks being seen as "the imperial governor" if he overreaches, Muzzio said, noting that three months ago Cuomo blurted "I am the government" during an interview, prompting a tabloid to Photoshop an image of the governor in King Louis XIV clothes and wig. But the public could just as well decide that, "you need a strong executive to cut through the dysfunction of state government."

"Power grabs sometimes may be necessary," Muzzio said. "But it all depends on the specifics of the case."

The brewing tension boiled over at a normally mundane state budget hearing on tax revenues. Lawmakers zeroed in on a previously undisclosed agreement by the Tax Department to expand the inspector general's office's access to private tax records. Instead of a few people, the agreement would give everyone at the inspector general, including secretaries, access to tax records.

"It seems to me to be extremely dangerous whenever you give an investigator the ability to get information, any information that they may want," Sen. John DeFrancisco (R-Syracuse) said.

Concerns raisedThe next day, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli raised concerns about language in Cuomo's budget proposal that would allow the governor to ignore allocations to certain state programs and shift money wherever he wants. DiNapoli, a Democrat, also found that Cuomo proposed exempting state agency contracts from the comptroller's review. That would curb "transparency, accountability and oversight," DiNapoli said.

Cuomo tried to deflect the criticism. "The politicians in Albany do not want to do what I am recommending," he said.

"The politicians in Albany want to keep the status quo. The politicians in Albany all too often respond to the special interests. I am there to represent the people."

Cuomo has $14.4 million in his campaign chest and has enjoyed the support of the well-heeled Committee to Save New York, a business and union-backed group that has spent millions of dollars to tout his initiatives.

Despite the tumult, lawmakers say they're not expecting a standoff. They still expect to adopt a budget by the April 1 deadline without much ruckus.

But Skelos hinted that, in the future, legislators might not cede as much control. For instance, he noted that last year a governor-controlled panel handed out nearly $800 million in local economic development grants. This year, lawmakers want to be more in the loop.

"I think the legislature will be more involved in the future," in the development grant discussion, Skelos said.