Cuomo, on budget gridlock, backs Paterson

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo spoke briefly off-topic after an officiial AG announcement in NYC yesterday. With all major editorialists rooting for executive restraint to prevail over legislative largesse in this fiscal crisis, and his critics still alleging a reluctance by the Democrat to engage key gubernatorial issues, Cuomo had this to say (credit Daily News) about Paterson's move to place cutbacks in the emergency spending bills, thus squeezing lawmakers to choose between the chosen level of reductions and responsibility for a government shutdown:

“I’m hopeful they will resolve it. I think the Governor is acting appropriately. I think this recent strategy he has is actually a breakthrough because it’s dissolving the anonymity of the Legislature and replacing it with accountability," Cuomo, the state attorney general, told reporters at 120 Broadway.

"Through this process, the people of New York will know exactly what the position of the legislative body is and why. And I think that’s a big step forward. The code of secrecy has been lifted by the governor’s actions and now people are starting to understand, this is what the Senate feels, this is what the Assembly feels, and these are the consequences," Cuomo said.

"If you don’t pass the budget, they’ll shut down the state. I believe there’s got to be transparency in the system and accountability. Democracy works when people get information. Too often in Albany you just don’t know the positions and you don’t hear the positions. What the governor is doing is exposing it all. And that’s a good thing.”