Michael Bloomberg (FilmMagic)
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The tense relationship between Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Cuomo reached a low point last month, when the city’s chief Albany lobbyist was temporarily banned from the governor’s office.
The sources said Micah Lasher was placed on a blacklist for calling on Cuomo in a press release to approve the mayor’s hard-fought plan to expand metered taxi service to the boroughs outside Manhattan.
“Over the next 10 days, we are available to discuss any questions or concerns the governor has, and strongly urge him to sign this historic legislation,” Lasher suggested.
He recommended it go as is and said an amendment “is not necessary to achieve the goals of the legislation.”
Under ordinary circumstances, this might be viewed as Lasher doing his job to promote the mayor’s agenda.
But these are hardly ordinary times.
The Cuomo and Bloomberg camps are wary of just about anything the other does.
Since the governor was still in the midst of negotiations with the various sides of the cab industry when Lasher’s press release hit, “this was viewed as an attack,” said one insider.
The taxi legislation was eventually signed — with changes — and both Cuomo and Bloomberg got to bask in the achievement.
Aides to both men insist that Lasher was never made persona non grata and that all is fine and well with him and the governor’s office.
Even as the aides try to tamp down tensions, those with dealings in Albany and City Hall are scrutinizing every interaction between the mayor and the governor for clues to the next flare-up.
“There’s only one story in 2012 — Cuomo and Bloomberg,” declared one seasoned lobbyist.
There’s a history of mayors and governors not getting along. What’s good for the state isn’t necessarily what’s good for the city, and vice versa.
The curious part of the antagonism between Bloomberg and Cuomo is that they got off to a good start.
At the height of the gubernatorial campaign in 2010, there was one brief moment when it appeared Republican contender Carl Paladino had a shot at a stunning upset. A poll put him within 6 points of Cuomo.
Bloom- berg rode to the rescue by endorsing Cuomo and overshadowing the poll.
More recent events haven’t gone as smoothly.
There’s the battle over who pays for the 9/11 museum’s infrastructure, there’s the dispute over fingerprinting food-stamp recipients, and there’s the tug of war over whether the city should share in the proceeds when EmblemHealth turns into a for-profit health insurer.
But the issue that created the big chill between the state’s best-known officials was the “last in, first out” law (LIFO) governing teacher layoffs.
“That was really the big one,” said one source.
The feeling among Cuomo loyalists is that the governor, just two months into his term, was blindsided when the mayor asked him to obliterate the law in the face of fierce union opposition. Instead, Cuomo came up with an alternative involving a teacher-evaluation system for determining layoffs.
The feeling among Bloomberg loyalists is that LIFO would be a distant memory by now if Cuomo did the right thing.
For all their differences, there’s evidence that the mayor and governor are trying to find common ground. Bloomberg last week backed Cuomo’s convention-center plan for Aqueduct despite private reservations about a facility so far from Midtown.
“I haven’t seen anything where you could argue they’re past the point of no return,” said one official who has served in both city and state posts.
He said the upcoming state budget will reveal whether the mayor and governor get along for the rest of the year.
“Until then, the jury’s out,” he said. “Is the city going to get treated fairly? That will tell you where things are heading.”