Cuomo spars with court system over budget

While reading his fiscal Riot Act to state lawmakers, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo took what his listeners heard as a surprise shot.

It came as Cuomo in his first budget address this week saluted the work of the current attorney general and the state comptroller to trim their costs.

"Only the Office of Court Administration did not participate in finding reductions," Cuomo declared, "and we will negatively comment on their budget when we submit it."

Judge Ann Pfau, the state's chief administrative judge, issued a blunt retort. She told Newsday's Yancey Roy that carrying out a 10 percent slice requested by Cuomo would require closing courts.

"If we start closing courts," Pfau said, "we can't continue to provide justice."

Expect the volume to rise before it recedes.

Back-roomers on both sides, speaking confidentially, sounded unsure if this spending spat could erupt into a broader battle of the branches. Such a clash would pit new executive branch leader Cuomo against two-year judiciary branch leader Jonathan Lippman, who, as chief Court of Appeals judge, is Pfau's boss.

For the moment, state leaders from rival power bases are sizing each other up.

Cuomo's first session as governor also is Dean Skelos' first session as Senate majority leader.

It is still unclear how they might deal with each other and how both might deal with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, longest-serving Democrat in the job.

The next few weeks should help reveal how the new leaders will handle some long-simmering institutional tensions.

Those tensions are easy enough to trace. For example:

Two decades before Andrew M. Cuomo ever demanded budget cuts from the court system, former Gov. Mario Cuomo famously fought with its leadership over cuts. Cuomo and Chief Judge Sol Wachtler even went to court before that war was resolved.

Long before current Gov. Cuomo decried special legal mandates that curb his budget options, Gov. George Pataki slugged it out in court with still-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver over control. The Court of Appeals gave some complex definition to their roles with a decision in 2004.

Before Skelos drew public fire from Senate Democratic leader John Sampson over Democratic Lt. Gov. Bob Duffy's duties, partisan warfare in that house reached a fever pitch.

Before Andrew Cuomo became governor, he proposed reform bills removing the state comptroller from sole trusteeship of the state pension systems. But Thomas DiNapoli - then the appointee and now the elected comptroller - has resisted, saying trustee boards are no panacea. That may be an issue for a future season.

Before Skelos and other Long Island senators deemed Cuomo's school cuts unacceptable as proposed, the governor perennially held funds back and the Legislature tried to free them up.

Especially during a recession, public-money battles have as much to do with lines of authority as they do with the funds themselves.