Will They Curse the Cuomo?

F or New Yorkers of the future, the name “Mario Cuomo” may well mean just one thing: sky-high tolls. That’s one of the risks in the current Gov. Cuomo’s successful push to name the new span over the Hudson the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge.

Make no mistake: Andrew Cuomo got this job done. The old Gov. Malcolm WilsonTappan Zee Bridge should’ve been replaced a decade or more earlier; yearly maintenance costs hit seven figures a while ago.

Cuomo’s relentless will got the project started — and moving rapidly to completion — where past governors had thrown up their hands at the issues that bedevil modern public megaprojects, from financ- ing to lawsuits to red tape.

But the project also bears another trademark Andrew Cuomo stamp: Its full cost is still a mystery, as is how it’ll be financed.

The gov tossed in a couple billion from the state’s bank-lawsuit-settlement windfalls to cover half the roughly $4 billion bill. But the Thruway Authority is on the line for the rest, and toll hikes are the only way it can boost its income.

To be fair, Gov. Mario Cuomo famously sold off a state prison (then leased it back) to balance one budget. So perhaps it’s appropriate that his name grace a bridge built with such creative financing.

Still, it’s hard to think he’d want to hear everyone cursing “the tolls on the Cuomo.”