Cuomo In Hiding For Eight Straight Days And Counting

Where oh where has Governor Cuomo gone?

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told reporters on Monday morning he had a “nice conversation” with Gov. Andrew and his Republican counterpart in the Senate, Majority Leader John Flanagan.

But agreements on an extension of rent control laws for New York City, as well as mayoral control of New York City schools and a real-estate tax abatement remain elusive.

“We’re talking, the governor, Senator Flanagan and I, we had a nice conversation this morning,” Heastie said after the hour-long meeting. “There’s no agreement, so for me to tell you something now, it could change.”

...

Heastie said he was unsure whether the Legislature would have to stay here for the rest of the week in order to secure a deal.

As for the governor, Cuomo has not been seen in a public venue since June 14, when he appeared at a news conference in Yonkers unveiling a $100 million struggling schools fund.

“That’s for you to ask him,” Heastie said when asked about Cuomo’s lack of visibility. “I have to represent the interests of the conference and that’s what I’ve been doing.”

Why's Cuomo in hiding these past eight days?

He was so visible for a while there, hammering home the education tax credit issue.

Then came the Yonkers PR set piece where he introduced the $100 million for "struggling" schools above NYC fund, a fund that he said was not linked to his tax credit, and he hasn't been seen since.

Weird.

Anybody got any idea why he's in hiding?

Assembly Dems Say Aggressive Campaign By Education Tax Credit Supporters Has Backfired

State of Politics:

Lawmakers continue to reject the notion of linking major issues together, such as an extension of rent control to the creation of a tax credit designed to encourage donations to public schools and private school scholarship programs.

Democrats in the Assembly, in particular, do not expect there to be a vote on the tax credit, and many privately say the aggressive campaign by supporters through mailers and robocalls has backfired.

There have been some pretty strong ads run against some Assembly Dems who are so far holding the line on the tax credit.

Often that kind of aggressive campaign works, but after the heavy hearts in the Assembly rolled over on Cuomo's education reforms in the budget, they seem to be less susceptible to pressure on the tax credit.

That in itself is interesting.

I suspect all the calls, email, tweets and Facebook messages some of the heavy hearts got after the budget fiasco has got them wanting to hold the line on the tax credit.

Again, we'll see.

Still some time to go before it's all said and done.