Metro

Andy’s 2012 checklist

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Gov. Cuomo enters his second year in office this week promising to strengthen the threatened private-sector economy, but his surprise December flip-flop that imposed a new “millionaires tax” has left many wondering if the commitment is real.

So here’s a new-year checklist of five actions Cuomo must take in 2012 if he’s to prove he’s serious about being that rare breed of New York Democrat who actually believes that it’s the private sector — not the public sector — that must be strengthened for the state to have an economically healthy future.

1. Give the green light to hydrofracking in the Southern Tier.

Drilling for clean-burning natural gas, using technologies already proven safe in Ohio and Pennsylvania, represents the first instance in modern times that economically depressed upstate areas can add tens of thousands of jobs to their sorrowfully struggling economies, as well as contribute millions more to the state in taxes.

An added bonus: an increase in American energy independence, which green-energy and Israel-backing Democrats claim to favor but then quickly forget when it comes to gas drilling.

2. Close the state budget’s looming $3 billion budget gap with at least $2 billion in real spending cuts — and not the fiscal gimmicks or higher taxes and fees used in the past.

This is a real test for Cuomo, who vowed when he went back on his word and supported the millionaires tax that much of the new revenue would go to budget balancing, not more spending.

3. Convince the special interest-owned Legislature to back real “mandate relief’’ for New York City and hundreds of other municipalities in the form of a new, lower-benefit pension tier for public employees and fewer costly Medicaid and education requirements.

New York’s governments, the most costly in the nation, simply can’t afford the gold-plated benefits they’re now required by state law to hand out to millions of their residents.

4. Make sure that more than $150 million in annual pork- barrel “member item’’ spending by scandal-scarred state lawmakers is not included in the new budget. The Legislature, facing re-election this year, would desperately like to spend that money, which, thankfully, has been blocked for the past two fiscal years.

5. Win a first passage in the Legislature of a constitutional amendment to, at long last, legalize casino gambling and create thousands of jobs in the process.

New York’s government has stood passively by for decades as officials, first in New Jersey and then Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and now Massachusetts, created lucrative high-quality gambling casino/resort venues that drew millions of Empire State residents, and literally billions of dollars in new tax revenues, to their states.

Cuomo took some important steps to improve the state’s economy in his first year in office, but there’s lots more to be done.

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Republican senators are going all out to tell their constituents they’ve been working arm-in-arm with . . . Democrat Cuomo.

“This year, the New York state Senate . . . teamed with Gov. Andrew Cuomo for one of the most productive legislative sessions in decades,’’ declared Sen. Roy McDonald (R-Saratoga) in a pre-Christmas letter on Senate stationery that was sent to constituents last month.

McDonald went on to take credit for what were, in fact, Cuomo’s proposals for closing a projected $10 billion deficit without raising taxes and imposing a cap on local property taxes.