Cuomo Offers Views on a National Economic Agenda : Politics: New York governor’s fiscal outline could serve as foundation for a prospective presidential candidacy.

In a scornful critique of the federal government for complacency in the face of recession, New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo on Thursday ticked off the highlights of an economic agenda that could serve as a foundation for his prospective presidential candidacy.

Speaking from bitter personal experience after struggling with a budget crisis that has marred the start of his third term in office, Cuomo said the nation’s states and cities are confronted by “one of the worst fiscal crises in history,” aggravated by the current economic downturn.

“Despite this, Washington appears to feel it doesn’t have to act,” Cuomo told a breakfast audience of corporate executives hosted by the American Stock Exchange. “Now we’re being told you don’t have to do anything. Just wait and sit and be patient.”

But Cuomo declared: “I don’t think we can wait, not when nearly 10 million Americans are out of work” and economic growth has been almost flat since 1989.

Cuomo advocated a wide spectrum of initiatives, from promoting capital formation and broadening worker training to fostering research and development and revitalizing the nation’s infrastructure.

In an interview after the speech, Cuomo sought again to dismiss continuing speculation that he might seek the presidency. But his address seemed well suited in some ways to advance a Cuomo candidacy, which many Democrats believe would constitute their strongest possible challenge to President Bush’s reelection.

Cuomo portrayed his state’s fiscal difficulties as not his fault, but rather a reflection of a fundamental national economic weakness.

“It is simultaneous,” he said of the recession that began last year. “It is everywhere. What happened is that the national economy receded and the boats went down with it.”

He also attacked the government in Washington generally, thereby emphasizing his status as a governor and an outsider.

Although he indicated that the responsibility for federal economic policies, or the lack of them, was bipartisan, he reserved his sharpest criticism for President Bush.

“The White House specifically seems more interested in debating quotas than in discussing economic growth,” the governor charged.

Cuomo described the issue of hiring quotas as “a nice thing to discuss especially if you want to get people’s eyes off the real problem (the economy) which you can’t deal with because it’s too hard politically.”

The speech demonstrated Cuomo’s undiminished skill at positioning himself politically and his eagerness to leave his personal stamp on the debate over national economic policy. But so far he has not delivered the kind of specific analysis that he would probably need to get across his ideas as a declared candidate for the presicency.

A so-called “white paper” on plans for economic growth that aides had said would be ready for release with his speech Thursday is still in the drafting stage. And in the speech itself the governor confined his discussion of specifics to elaboration of previous ideas for an investment tax credit and a capital gains tax cut.

Cuomo said Bush’s proposal for a capital gains tax cut would provide “an enormous windfall to the richest Americans,” while Cuomo said his proposed cut would be coupled with a boost in tax rates on the wealthy and a hike in tax rates on capital gains earned in less than one year.

In the interview after the speech, he acknowledged that his interest in discussing such issues inevitably fed speculation about his candidacy.

“How can I possibly speak on the subjects . . . and not lead you to ask me whether it has something to do with the presidency?” Cuomo asked. “What can I do?”

He said he issued a firm renunciation of his interest in running for the 1988 nomination in February of 1987. “It did not stop (the speculation then),” he said. “It got worse. I had a war (with reporters.) I went bonkers over this.

“If I were to say to you, under no circumstances would I ever run, isn’t it logical you would ask me, ‘Governor is it possible that you would change your mind?’

“And if you did ask me that question,” he continued, “is there any logical answer other than this: Yes, of course it’s possible?”