Metro

Cuomo’s bold promise: Owe, no, I won’t

ALBANY — Andrew Cuomo barreled headlong into the state’s fiscal crisis yesterday with a rejection of borrow-and-spend budget plans that’s sure to impact the deficit deadlock in Albany.

The presumptive Democratic nominee for governor bolstered Gov. Paterson’s beleaguered budget strategy and denounced the $6 billion borrowing plan central to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s effort to restore aid to health care and education.

“We must reduce costs, not raise them,” Cuomo said in his 21-minute video campaign announcement. “I will not delegate my responsibility to make the tough, but essential, financial decisions.”

The hard-times tone will no doubt be welcomed by the politically isolated Paterson as he attempts to close an estimated $9.2 billion budget gap. Paterson has struggled to resist the borrowing push and has so far failed to win contract concessions from state workers.

Paterson sources described Silver as in a “panic” in recent days trying to get a framework deal on the budget before the party kicks off its nominating convention Tuesday in Rye.

“Shelly’s nervous about Andrew’s position opposing [Lt. Gov. Richard] Ravitch’s plan, and he has been trying to lock the governor in to support it before Andrew went public,” said one senior state Democrat. “Well, it’s too late now.”