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DEMS TRY SNEAK AT-TAX ON BRUNO

ALBANY – The Dirty Tricks Scandal took a new twist yesterday as one of Gov. Spitzer‘s top Democratic allies was caught secretly plotting to sic the IRS on Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.

Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith of Queens sent three Democratic senators copies of a proposed letter seeking an Internal Revenue Service probe of Bruno’s potential income-tax liability for alleged personal use of state aircraft.

But one copy mistakenly wound up in the hands of a Bruno political ally.

Aides to Bruno (R-Rensselaer) said they believe Spitzer himself was behind the effort, with one noting, “Malcolm Smith doesn’t even jump without the governor’s OK, so he had to be told to do this.”

Smith told The Post that it was his staff, not he personally, who sought to unleash the IRS on Bruno by sending the letter. He conceded that aides to Spitzer also were involved.

“This was one of the things the staff people were looking at in terms of our strategic plans,” said Smith, noting his aides “were definitely talking” to Spitzer’s advisers about the attack on Bruno.

But Smith insisted, “I shut it down” when he was asked to approve the letter to the IRS, insisting that members of his staff had distributed the letter without his approval.

The letter, which was supposed to go only to Sens. Liz Krueger of Manhattan and John Sampson and Velmanette Montgomery of Brooklyn, carries the signatures of all three Democratic lawmakers and is addressed to Linda Stiff, acting commissioner of the IRS.

“We are writing to call to your attention [to] possible violations of the Internal Revenue Code and implementing regulations involving Sen. Joseph Bruno, the Majority Leader of the New York State Senate and his use of New York State aircraft,” says the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Post.

It goes on to cite newspaper stories involving the Dirty Tricks Scandal in which top Spitzer aides used the State Police to gather information on Bruno purportedly showing that he had improperly used a state helicopter for political, and not governmental, purposes.

“We urge you to conduct a review into Sen. Bruno’s use of the aircraft and his obligation to pay federal income taxes on the fair market value of the unreimbursed non-official portion of his travel,” the letter continues.

The letter, with copies “cc’d” to the state tax and finance commissioner, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and Manhattan and Albany District Attorneys Robert Morgenthau and David Soares, makes no mention of Cuomo’s explosive July 23 report on the scandal, which found aides to Spitzer plotted against Bruno and found that Bruno had done nothing wrong.

Bruno spokesman John McArdle said the letter “shows that the governor and his surrogates in the Senate have learned nothing from the scandal as they continue to abuse the power of their offices in pursuit of more dirty tricks.”

He said Bruno owed no taxes on his aircraft usage because “there was no personal use involved at all.”

fredric.dicker@nypost.com