Shot up the middle

Ads tout gov’s budget as boon to workers, tie GOP to elites

ALBANY — With state budget talks set to heat up, Gov. Cuomo is taking his push for a “middle-class recovery act” directly to the public. The state Democratic Party that Cuomo (photo) controls is funding a $1 million-plus statewide TV, radio and digital ad campaign touting the plan, which is set to begin Monday and run for the next three weeks in the leadup to the April 1 budget deadline.

Without mentioning state Senate Republicans specifically, the ad knocks them for wanting to allow a tax on millionaires to expire at the end of the year.

“The battle for the New York State budget is on, and the choices have never been clearer,” the ad says.

It then highlights Cuomo’s plans to enact free public college tuition for families making up to $125,000, middle-class tax cuts, lower property taxes through local government service consolidations, and making record investments to public schools.

“The other side wants to give tax breaks to multimillionaires — that’s right, multimillionaires,” the narrator says. “Join Gov. Cuomo’s fight for the middle class, because we’re the ones who deserve a break.”

A recent poll showed strong support for Cuomo’s proposals.

Senate Republicans have said they are the ones who pushed for the middle-class tax cuts approved last year, while Cuomo has argued the state cannot afford to pay for them if the millionaire tax is allowed to expire.

“Our position is that New York needs to find ways to make the state more affordable, not less,” Senate GOP spokesman Scott Reif said.

While Cuomo has called for record funding of schools, both the Senate GOP and Assembly Dems are set to seek even more when they release their own budget plans on Monday.

Cuomo, who has been mentioned as a potential 2020 presidential candidate, has repeatedly said he believes the reason Democrats lost the presidential election last year was because the party failed to address middle-class fears that President Trump tapped into.

lll If Cuomo is looking to heal his frayed relationship with the Legislature, a former top aide didn’t help last week. Larry Schwartz, former secretary to the governor, reopened a deep wound with an online piece he authored for City & State, warning that lawmakers will jeopardize a potential pay raise for 2019 if they deliberately hand Cuomo a late budget this year — as some have speculated could happen. The piece infuriated many lawmakers in both houses and on both sides of the aisle, who were already angry with Cuomo for what they believe was his reneging on a pay raise deal in December. Assemblyman Gary Pretlow (DWestchester County) and a number of his colleagues said they believe Cuomo was behind the Schwartz piece.

“We’re doing our jobs, we always do our jobs, and we don’t need threats from him pertaining to something two years down the road,” Pretlow said. “People weren’t happy he did it.”

He also dismissed promises Cuomo might make about any future pay raise. “No one believes anything he says, anyway,” Pretlow said.

Pretlow and Assemblyman Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn) insisted the Schwartz piece won’t cause the Legislature to seek retribution, but said it doesn’t help heading into sensitive budget talks.

“Everyone was moving on, and then this letter mysteriously appears from someone who no longer works for the governor,” Lentol said. “Everyone was certainly disgusted again.”

A Cuomo aide responded that “the rule in politics, like in life, is you get what you give.”