Albany Nuclear Countdown

Gov. Cuomo’s war of passive-aggressive slaps with the Legislature escalated further this week. How long before it goes nuclear? In the runup to Thanksgiving, Cuomo’s pawns on a special committee dashed lawmakers’ hopes of getting a raise. In response, the Legislature’s leaders aimed to ruin the gov’s holiday, by sending him 136 bills to sign or veto over the long weekend.

On Wednesday, Cuomo replied in kind — by suggesting lawmakers drop everything to go back to Albany for a special session to pass a horde of bills in just a day or two.

Some of it’s standard legislative stuff: releasing money for the homeless, creating new watchdogs for SUNY and CUNY, funding a new state hate-crimes unit. Cuomo also wants action to restore the 421-a tax credit for residential buildings in the city — a credit that he blew up last year.

Yet he’s also pushing constitutional changes — making legislators’ jobs officially full-time, with higher pay and low caps on outside income. Plus, he wants their time in office limited to two four-year terms.

It’s all worth discussing — in a long, careful and public back-and-forth. Since it involves constitutional amendments, the process must take years.

It’d also mean radical change to lawmakers’ lives — not the sort of thing you should spring on them out of the blue. But that’s what Cuomo apparently did, though he says he’s been talking about it with legislative leaders.

Parts of the gov’s agenda “have never been brought to my attention,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie huffed — clearly furious. These include “issues that go to the very heart of our system of government, and they cannot be considered on a whim. I have no idea who the governor is speaking to about these issues, but it certainly isn’t me.”

Heastie says the governor is “entitled to his wish-list,” but the Legislature is “a coequal branch” and “must be respected.” Ouch.

To get the special session, Cuomo is dangling a small raise for lawmakers. If they don’t act to make it happen by Dec. 31, they have to wait until at least 2019 for any salary hike.

But they’d look bad if that’s all they did, so maybe they’d give him some of his less-ambitious requests.

Most of the gov’s agenda plainly ought to wait until the new regular session begins in just a few weeks — at least. As for the rest, he’s probably going nowhere unless someone leads the way to ending the cycle of titfor-tats.