ALBANY – Andrew Cuomo again weighed in on the tense state budget battle this morning with a provocative call for Gov. Paterson to use the crisis to force a vote on a property tax cap.
The Democratic candidate for governor said – during an interview with The Post’s Fred Dicker on WGDJ 1300-AM – that Paterson’s tactic of packing controversial proposals into emergency spending legislation has compelled lawmakers to take stands on issues they could normally avoid.
Lawmakers risk a government shutdown by voting “No” on the week-to-week budget extenders.
“You can also use this moment to get done a lot of the work that we need to get done and that the state desperately needs,” Cuomo said. “I would like to see them put [the] property tax cap on the table.”
He said doing so would unmask the resistance to capping the rate of property tax growth outside the city.
“They’re going to say – the ‘they’ – ‘Well, we don’t want it,'” Cuomo continued. “We don’t want it? Let’s put it in the extender and let’s define who ‘we’ is. When it never comes up for a vote, they never have to take a position.”
While Senate Democrats have pledged to include some form of property tax relief in the final budget, Sen. Craig Johnson (D-L.I.) has been alone among the conference in calling on Paterson to put the proposal in an extender.
“Great minds think alike,” Johnson said in a statement.
The measure is opposed by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and the teachers unions who argue it would diminish the quality of education.