Andy,GOP bashfest
Trade threats of petty punishment
ALBANY — With the state Senate GOP now at war with Gov. Cuomo and the Democrats, the Republicans have introduced a set of a bills aimed at dealing with recent controversies involving the governor’s office.
Cuomo’s team shot back Sunday with a threat that the governor would introduce legislation of his own that would target the Senate GOP — including one to bar lawmakers from spending more than half their time in Florida, which may be dubious legally but is a clear shot at the Republicans.
The back-and-forth comes as the Senate last week descended into chaos, with neither the Republicans nor Democrats having the 32 votes needed to pass any legislation.
The GOP, which controls the chamber, is down a member, giving it just 31 guaranteed votes.
Cuomo’s lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul, was prepared to preside over the chamber last week to give the Dems a possible deciding vote on whether amendments that would strengthen New York’s abortion and contraception-coverage laws should be attached to other bills, but the GOP pulled the plug on the session before votes were taken.
“If the governor wants to continue to interfere with the business of the Senate, we have a few ideas about how to improve operations within the executive chamber,” said one Senate GOP insider.
One Republican-backed bill would prohibit employees of political campaigns from working as lobbyists before certain offices.
Cuomo’s former top aide Joseph Percoco was recently convicted on federal corruption charges for helping companies with business before the state while he was off the state payroll and serving as the governor’s campaign manager.
Another bill would hold executive chamber employees like the secretary to the governor and chief counsel responsible for not taking immediate action on sexual harassment complaints brought to them.
Some women have complained their allegations were not taken seriously by the administration and agencies they work for, but Cuomo aides say they immediately forwarded any complaints once they reached them to the state inspector general’s office.
Still another GOP bill introduced would prohibit the governor’s office from using “any electronic devices that do not store information in a manner that allows for it to be accessed at a lat- er date for inspection and further preservation, if such is compelled by court of law or law enforcement agency.”
The Daily News reported several years ago that the governor does not use email, preferring instead to use a Blackberry pin-topin device that bypasses servers, making messages irretrievable once deleted.
A last bill would crack down on a longstanding practice by governors of keeping the executive chamber payroll lower by paying staff out of the budgets of different state agencies. The feds have been investigating the practice under Cuomo, who has said what he does is legal.
The bills, which have no Assembly sponsors and little chance of becoming law, were introduced late Friday.
A Cuomo administration aide accused the Senate GOP of having a “Trumpian temper tantrum.”
“It’s a dumb strategy that shines more of a spotlight on their militant opposition to protecting reproductive rights that are under attack in Washington and gives Democrats a solid campaign issue,” the aide said.
The governor’s team says it will push legislation to include the Legislature under the state Freedom of Information Law, which would require the lawmakers to provide more transparency on legislative legal settlements. The team is also considering introducing legislation to hold individual lawmakers responsible when it’s shown they knew about a sexual harassment situation in their chambers.
The potential bill to bar lawmakers from spending a majority of their time in Florida “would disqualify half (the Senate Republican) conference,” the Cuomo aide mocked.
The fight for control of the state Senate promises to be one of the biggest battles in the November general election.