Republicans in the state Senate will remain in charge to negotiate a $153 billion budget early next year despite a plan backed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo for fractious Democrats to unify and create a slim majority, The Post has learned.
That’s because conservative dissident Brooklyn Democratic state Sen. Simcha Felder will continue caucusing with the Republicans — at least until after the budget is approved — giving the GOP a swing 32nd vote in the 63-member chamber.
Felder said prominent Democratic officials are trying to coerce him to switch sides, but he won’t budge.
“Some people think they can bully me, intimidate me to move around. That’s not going to happen,” Felder said.
“Extreme leftist radical organizations and well-respected Democratic Party elected officials are trying to get me to change. I will not consider any conversations for Democratic unity until a budget is in place.
“We deserve a budget that is thorough and timely — not factionalism or chaos because of political gamesmanship,” he said. “We want stability, not a circus.”
Asked if Cuomo was among the Democratic power brokers personally appealing to get him to flip, Felder declined to comment.
Eight other renegade Democrats who’ve been allied with the GOP in running the Senate — collectively known as the Independent Democratic Caucus — have agreed to rejoin 21 other mainline Democrats in a power-sharing arrangement. Two vacant seats in The Bronx and Westchester are expected to be retained by Democrats in special elections early next year, bringing their total to 31.
Counting Felder, the Democrats have a majority; without him, the GOP remains in control.
Felder represents largely Orthodox-Jewish and conservative Borough Park. Unlike most Democrats, he supports steering more tax dollars to yeshivas and other parochial schools and backs charter schools — the bane of the teachers union and Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Meanwhile, Jessica Ramos, 32, a former de Blasio communications aide, plans to run against an IDC member, Queens state Sen. José Peralta, in the 13th District.
“There is an upswell of support in my community to elect a real Democrat that fights for working families and helps call progressive legislation to the floor for a vote,” Ramos, the mother of two public-school kids, told The Post.
Peralta’s response: Bring it on!
“I’m confident in putting my long record of Democratic achievements up against anyone’s,” Peralta, who defected to the IDC in January, said in a statement.