N.Y. Budget Plan Could Boost Cuomo Candidacy

In a fiscal move that could make any presidential bid by Gov. Mario M. Cuomo far easier, key legislators Monday considered proposals to forge a multi-year financial plan for New York state.

The plan would combine a budget gap of $689 million for this fiscal year with a projected $2-billion gap in next year’s budget into a single solution, reaching into 1993.

Not only would such action provide a package of potential remedies for the state’s financial woes, including a freeze on additional spending by most state agencies, but it also would in political terms eliminate the spectacle of long and bitter budget negotiations in the state capital of Albany during the Democratic presidential primaries.

Advisers to the governor have long feared that if Cuomo runs for President, his campaign could become bogged down not in the snows of New Hampshire but in acrimonious budget debate in Albany.

New York State has a divided Legislature, with Republicans controlling the Senate. Aides to the governor worry that Republican lawmakers could seek to make the budgetary process next year extra time-consuming and embarrassing--pinning Cuomo down in a plethora of financial problems when he would far prefer presidential campaigning.

And even while initial discussions were under way on a stretched-out budget, there were indications that Republican leaders were viewing the proposals less than enthusiastically, preferring an interim budget solution this year, regular budget negotiations next year and cuts in social services.

Last year, legislators and the governor could not agree on a state budget until 65 days after the start of the fiscal year, which ends March 31.

A spokesman for the governor said Monday that informal discussions began in Albany over the weekend on a multi-year financial plan. The process is complicated by the trial on fraud charges set to begin today in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn of Speaker Mel Miller, leader of the Democratic-controlled Assembly.

Prosecutors allege that Miller and an aide swindled clients out of $300,000 in a real estate deal.

Politics and budget making have always been intertwined in Albany. But in the month since Cuomo indicated he was seriously considering seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, the timing and dimensions of New York State’s budget problems have taken on renewed urgency.

The governor, in numerous statements and discussions with reporters, has stressed that New York’s fiscal problems pose a major hurdle to seeking the White House.

During normal years, two critical periods exist in the budgetary timetable. In January, the governor prepares his financial proposals. Then in April, intensive negotiations take place over the ultimate budget agreement. In between exists a window of about 10 weeks when Cuomo could be relatively free to campaign.

Compromise on a multi-year financial plan could throw the campaign window wide open.

In Albany on Monday, advisers indicated that Cuomo was moving closer to announcing whether he will seek the Democratic nomination.