Gov. Cuomo, in his second week in of fice, will hold a “summit” at the palatial Executive Mansion with the leaders of the Legislature as soon as today, in a stepped-up effort to gain their backing for budget cuts and other reforms, The Post has learned.
Cuomo will hold a private afternoon sit-down — possibly including dinner — with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau) today or tomorrow to discuss the state’s worsening fiscal problems, his call for a local property-tax cap and sweeping ethics reforms, a source close to Cuomo said.
“This is a governor who wants to do things differently, and doing things differently in Albany these days means trying to get along with the Legislature,” said the source.
While Skelos has signaled strong support for the Democratic governor’s budget and reform proposals, Silver has indicated only general support, raising fears among Cuomo’s aides that he’s not really prepared to go along.
Cuomo is expected to follow up the meeting with Silver and Skelos with a second sit-down with Senate Minority Leader John Sampson (D-Brooklyn) and Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb (R-Canandaigua) also at the mansion.
Recent governors have had bitter relations with the legislative leaders and especially with Silver, who has been speaker since 1994.
Relations were once so strained between Silver and former Gov. George Pataki that Republican Pataki repeatedly refused to be alone in a room with him.
Silver also repeatedly clashed with fellow Democrats Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson.
While Cuomo appears ready to use his considerable political and diplomatic skills to win over the legislative leaders, he’s publicly and privately signaled a willingness to battle lawmakers — including Silver — to win passage of his agenda.
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Newly elected Attorney General and former state Sen. Eric Schneiderman was widely criticized last week when he named Neal Kwatra, a non-lawyer union activist, as his chief of staff, but the most stinging attack has yet to be heard.
It’s coming from his own Department of Law, the official name of the AG’s office that had been under the leadership of Cuomo for the past four years.
“Schneiderman is being described as a Democratic Dennis Vacco, and that hurts,” said a source in the AG’s office.
The Republican Vacco, a one-term attorney general from 1995 through 1998, was widely known for his mediocre appointments and heavy emphasis on political considerations.