ALBANY — Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver yesterday hastily withdrew threats to upend Gov. Cuomo’s call for suburban property-tax relief by tying it to stronger rent regulations for mostly city dwellers.
The powerful Assembly speaker insisted moments before an hourlong powwow with the new governor that he had no intention of “linking” the two hot-button issues, an old and oft-criticized Albany negotiating tactic that makes passage of one piece of legislation contingent on another.
Renewal and expansion of existing rent regulations, which are set to expire in June, would theoretically make Cuomo’s proposed cap on local property taxes more palatable to Silver’s city-centric Assembly Democrats.
“I don’t plan on linking it,” said Silver (D-Manhattan), who nonetheless argued that the decades-old rent regulations, like the newly proposed tax cap, protect New Yorkers from “enormous spikes” in housing costs.
Asked if he could pass a property-tax cap without first getting agreement on rent regulations, Silver replied, “Of course, I can.”
The decision by Silver to connect the two issues barely a week into the Democratic governor’s first term was viewed as troubling by those close to Cuomo, who’s desperately trying to avoid the political pitfalls that so often thwarted previous governors.
Silver first signaled last week that he was considering tying any talks on the tax cap to the rent regulations.
The Assembly wants not only to renew current rent regulations that cover about 1 million apartments but also to raise the rent and income thresholds that trigger the loss of rent protection.
A Cuomo administration source told The Post that Silver appeared “up to his same old game.”
“The two have nothing to do with each other,” said the source. “The governor realizes that he can’t start his new administration by allowing Sheldon Silver to establish the ground rules.”
Cuomo himself told reporters he was open to changes in rent regulations but insisted that Silver’s proposals and his effort to cap property taxes at 2 percent annually would be “analyzed as separate issues.”
“My approach is going to be to deal with these individual issues on their own merits and not put issues together as part of a deal or part of a package,” Cuomo said. “I hope the Assembly and the Senate will do the same.”
Earlier, the governor huddled behind closed doors with Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-LI), who supports the property-tax cap, to discuss the upcoming legislative session over lunch in the Executive Mansion.
Cuomo plans similar meetings with rank-and-file lawmakers in an effort to win support for his agenda.
Skelos praised Cuomo’s outreach and criticized any effort to link tax relief to rent regulation.
“That’s not what the public wants,” Skelos said while leaving the mansion. “Certainly, that would be a bit of a shot at Gov. Cuomo, who has indicated that the property-tax cap is one of his most important pieces of legislation.”