Makeover, fakeover

Another year, another new Gov. Cuomo.

The Democrat is beginning his perennial search for identity — and trying out themes for a 2020 presidential run — by copying both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.

Cuomo’s pulling a Trump by refusing to give the annual State of the State address to the Legislature in Albany and instead making six speeches to audiences around New York. Like the president-elect, he’s trying to talk straight to the public instead of through the usual filters. The plan also has the added advantage of letting him escape Albany’s permanent taint of corruption, including among some of his former close associates.

In actual policy, Cuomo lifted from Sanders by proposing free tuition for most students at the city and state university systems, depending on family income. Sanders joined Cuomo and called his plan “revolutionary.”

The good news in all this is that Cuomo recognizes there is neither honor nor political profit in defending the status quo. It is telling that although he endorsed Hillary Clinton, Cuomo turned to her more unorthodox challenger to validate his tuition plan.

The flurry of activity includes Cuomo’s push to finish the first leg of the Second Avenue Subway, which he did, but not without hiccups. The largest being the price — an estimated $2.2 billion a mile.

The cost of the tuition proposal is unclear, but whatever it is, it would surely add to the state’s budget deficit, already pegged at $3.5 billion.

But money, schmoney. The road to the White House isn’t paved with caution.