ALBANY – Senate Republican Minority Leader Dean Skelos to Andrew Cuomo: The GOP is conservative too!
That’s the gist of a just-released Skelos press release that seemed to take umbrage at soon-to-be Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cuomo’s commitment to cap state spending and local property taxes and his rejection of Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch’s plan for $6 billion in new borrowing.
While Skelos noted that when Republicans controlled the Senate in 2008 they backed a four percent cap on property taxes and sought to have a 2.5 percent cap approved this year, he failed to note that Cuomo’s cap is even lower, at just two percent.
Skelos also bragged that Republicans opposed Ravitch-style borrowing even before the lieutenant governor outlined his plan, but he didn’t mention that Cuomo’s opposition carries far more influence with the Democrat-controlled Legislature than does his.
“It looks like Dean is getting nervous that Andrew is moving in on some of his best issues,’’ said a source close to Cuomo, who has been dribbling out some of his top policy positions in recent days in advance of his formal announcement .