Assembly’s Carl Heastie is for, against, for de Blasio CUNY stand

State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie did a pair of 180-degree policy turns Friday, taking one stance in the morning — seemingly breaking with his ally Mayor Bill de Blasio on City University of New York funding — before a spokesman said the speaker had misspoken.

De Blasio is counting on Heastie (D-Bronx) and the chamber he leads to be a firewall in Albany against Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s proposed cuts, which total nearly $1 billion, of state funding for CUNY’s senior colleges, Medicaid and other programs.

In January, Cuomo proposed shifting about $485 million in CUNY costs onto the city’s books. He later said he’d work with the de Blasio administration to find efficiencies and that the proposal wouldn’t cost the city “a penny.”

On Friday morning, Heastie told reporters after a business-leaders breakfast sponsored by Crain’s New York Business that the city ought to pay more toward the universities.

“At some point we’ll just ask the city to help us out in this solution,” he said of the governor’s proposed cuts. “We think it’ll be worked out.”

But hours later, Heastie spokesman Michael Whyland said the conference’s position opposing the cuts remains intact and that Heastie was referring only to increasing how much the city pays toward paying the schools’ professional staff, such as professors — a position accepted by the mayor.

Neither the mayor’s staff nor Whyland could immediately say know how much money is at stake.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.