King Cuomo?

With no clear end in sight for a pandemic-induced shutdown of much of the private sector and state revenues in free fall, Albany lawmakers couldn’t possibly have planned a 12month budget. Which is why legislators showed wisdom in delegating extraordinary powers to Gov. Cuomo’s budget director to reassess the state’s fiscal health at bimonthly intervals and authorize spending cuts as needed.

The need for triage will likely come quick. The $177 billion fiscal plan just enacted assumes the state will get $10 billion worth of federal aid that’s not at all certain to come. If the cash falls short, lawmakers have just 15 days to review cuts Cuomo offers or come up with their own.

Legislators should identify a roster of their own potential savings right now, so they don’t have to scramble in the future. That may not be an easy exercise for Assembly and Senate Democrats, many of whom never met a spending program they didn’t like, but it’s a necessary one.

We’re pleased the budget lets New York access up to $4.5 billion in newly-authorized federal coronavirus aid, while also enacting some necessary Medicaid reforms to hold down future deficits. Cuomo claimed it couldn’t be done. Turned out it could be.

Meantime, the governor’s bad, blameshifting idea to force counties to assume the growth in costs for local Medicaid spending ended up in the dustbin. Unfortunately, that plan’s been replaced with a measure to intercept $200 million of New York City’s annual sales tax revenues.

Push came to budge.