Budget deal winners & losers

ALBANY — After weeks of secret negotiations, and nine days after it was due, the $153.1 billion state budget won final passage Sunday night. Some of the winners and losers follow.

WINNERS

Gov. Cuomo: There was talk he lost his mojo. The process was rough, he was openly attacked by legislators from both parties more than ever before and the budget passage is the latest of his two terms. But Cuomo pretty much won everything he was seeking, including major progressive victories sure to be highlighted should he run for President in 2020. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie: He successfully held out for his chamber’s No. 1

priority — raising the age at which teens can be charged with a crime from 16 to 18 — even if it meant keeping his members trapped in Albany for two straight weeks. He is now stronger within his conference than at any time since he became speaker in 2015. Senate Independent Democratic Conference: Senate Republicans knew they had to hand the eight breakaway Democrats some progressive victories if their leadership coalition is to continue. Raising the age of criminal responsibility and $10 million for immigrant legal services were those victories. It won’t be enough, though, to stop the progressive wing of the party from continuing to hammer them.

Unions: Members will now be able to deduct their dues from their state taxes.

Direct care workers: Budget sets aside $55 million to raise the salaries of those who work with the disabled.

LOSERS

Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan: If it was based on the budget alone, he’d be on the winner’s list. But it’s clear the Republican Flanagan has a fractured conference, with upstate conservatives led by deputy GOP leader John DeFrancisco (R-Syracuse) pushing back against him, wanting to fight back more aggressively against Cuomo.

Senate Democrats: They could only watch in frustration from the sidelines, knowing the Republicans have controlled the chamber largely with the help of the Independent Democratic Conference and Sen. Simcha Felder, a Brooklyn Dem who caucuses with the Republicans.

Assembly Republicans: As usual, the forgotten conference played no role.

Dreamers: College affordability plan does not offer state tuition assistance to the college kids of undocumented immigrants.

Reformers: Zero reforms to address the many government corruption arrests in recent years.

The Independent Democratic Conference is now in the cross hairs of many Assembly Democrats.

A frustrated Heastie — who typically has stayed out of Senate politics — is considering getting the warring Senate Democratic factions together to discuss issues, a source close to him said.

Other sources say a half-dozen Assembly members want to meet with Cuomo in the hope of persuading him to help reunify the Senate Dems.

And on Saturday, a number of Democrats said victories like raising the age of criminal responsibility could have been even stronger, and the DREAM Act passed, if Cuomo had helped get the Senate Dems back together.

Assemblyman Michael Blake, a Bronx Democrat who was recently elected a vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told the Daily News the pressure is going to increase on the independent Dems. The GOP has control of the Senate, thanks to its relationship with the independents and Felder.

“I think you’ll see a much more aggressive communication of what we’ve been unable to do without a unified force,” Blake said. “The Trump election has made all of us realize there is an absolute necessity for us all to be unified.”

There has been talk among mainline Dems of launching aggressive primaries against different independent Democrats.

A source close to the indie conference dismissed the complaints from the Assembly as coming from “a small group of malcontents who are kind of upset that we got credit for ‘raise the age’ — and the governor gave us the credit.”

Cuomo, in announcing the budget agreement on Friday night, praised the independent Democrats for their work passing the raise-the-age bill and securing $10 million for immigrant legal services. But he said it’s not for him to get involved in the internal workings of the Senate.