A Cancerous Commission

Gov. Cuomo and legislative leaders just launched another commission meant to shield them from accountability — in this case, accountability for massive changes to state campaign and election law. The panel’s members, named last week, have ’til Dec. 1 to hammer out major details of public financing of political campaigns, such as donation limits and how much the state will match each private-donor dollar.

The commission can also ban fusion voting, which lets major-party candidates run on the ballot lines of independent parties, such as the Working Families Party. And its recommendations are binding, unless the Legislature calls a special session to modify them within 20 days after the panel finishes up.

New state GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy gripes that one of Cuomo’s two picks is state Democratic Party chief Jay Jacobs: “You have a party leader heading a governmental entity.” But that’s the least of it.

Rewriting the rules for political campaigns is far too massive a change to put in unelected hands. Cuomo & Co. surely expect their picks to do their bidding — even as they pretend the panel is independent.

It all reeks of a bid to end-run the state Constitution. And it runs the risk that a court will step in and toss some or all the commission decisions, as a judge just did in rewriting a different commission’s rulings on legislative pay.

All this, just so lawmakers can avoid taking ownership of major changes to the law — that is, the work they’re elected to do.

In fact, the anti-democratic reliance on bogus “independent” commissions is exploding under Cuomo, taking the heat on tax breaks and minimum-wage hikes — plus another on congestion pricing, etc.

The gov may claim this is a way to cure the disease of Albany dysfunction, but it looks more like the cancer is metastasizing.