Metro

Andy inaugural will be fiscally fitting

Andrew Cuomo, casting aside lavish recent prece dents, will hold a small and “austere” inaugural swearing-in ceremony Jan. 1 designed to highlight the state’s looming budget emergency, The Post has learned.

“He’ll be making it clear coming out of the starting gate that the state is facing a major fiscal crisis, and an austere inaugural will be one way to demonstrate that,” said a source close to Cuomo.

“It will be a very economical affair that reflects the times and says that the days of spending millions of dollars in Albany on unnecessary things are over.”

While no final decision has yet been made on where to hold the event, Cuomo is believed to be leaning toward a small gathering of about 200 family members and friends — including former Gov. Mario Cuomo and former First Lady Matilda Cuomo — in the ceremonial Red or Blue rooms at the Capitol.

Govs. Eliot Spitzer and George Pataki each lavished well over $1 million on their first (and, in Spitzer’s case, only) inaugurals, both of which drew thousands of people.

Little public expense was involved, however, because Spitzer used campaign funds to cover most of the costs, while Pataki, in a highly controversial move, received the funding from business groups that had matters pending before the state.

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Gov. Paterson’s “pathetic” final-days-in-office effort to portray himself as a victim — of a political conspiracy, his blindness and his African-American heritage — just reinforces the widespread view that he’s one of the worst governors ever in New York, many insiders at the Capitol agree.

“The only conspiracy he faced was of his own making — his incompetent aides who let him down — his blindness brought him sympathy, not disdain, and his being the black governor was seen, as all the polls showed, as a wonderful thing and not a hindrance,” said a bitter one-time Paterson political ally.

“The fact that he has to leave office this way, whining, speaks to just how pathetic a governor he turned out to be.”

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Let the bloodbath begin.

Hundreds of Democratic staffers are likely to be fired after Saturday’s state Supreme Court justice’s decision to give Republican Jack Martins the victory over incumbent Sen. Craig Johnson in the hotly contested state Senate race in Nassau County.

Martins’ victory, should it withstand a promised appeal, gives the Senate GOP a one-vote majority.

The Democrats fired hundreds of Republican staffers after taking control of the Senate, and many of those ex-employees want their old jobs back.

fredric.dicker@nypost.com