Cuomo Teamed Up With Republicans Against Democrats On Rent Regulations, Charter School Policy, Money For Private Schools

Fred Dicker in the Post:

Despite public claims to the contrary, Gov. Cuomo worked behind-the-scenes with the Republican-led Senate to defeat Assembly Democrats on such key “progressive” initiatives as tenant rights and a minimum-wage hike, knowledgeable insiders have told The Post.

Cuomo, the de facto head of the state Democratic Party, defeated a range of Democrat-sponsored proposals supposedly on his agenda through a “two-against-one” strategy in which he allied with Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan (R-Suffolk) against Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx), leaving Heastie no choice but to fold, the sources said.

“Throughout the negotiations, there was never any real difference between the positions of Cuomo and Flanagan. It was two against one with Cuomo pulling Flanagan’s strings to corner Heastie,” said a source with direct knowledge of the secret end-of-session deal-making.

The source said Cuomo and the Senate GOP also worked to force Heastie to accept an expansion of charter schools for New York City and additional state aid to parochial schools, proposals Heastie and the Assembly’s other leaders repeatedly opposed.

“Not that there should have been, but if there was any doubt that Senate Republicans are nothing but a tool of Cuomo to use against his fellow Democrats, there isn’t anymore,’’ the source complained.

This isn't a surprise - anyone watching closely over the past few years knew this was what Cuomo was doing and what he was going to do in the final days of the legislative session.

But it's good to get this in print, even if it's anonymously sourced in Fred Dicker's column.

I'll have more on this story later because Dicker reports that one of Cuomo's primary motivations to work with Republicans against Democrats was to screw de Blasio - just cuz', you know?

Says an awful lot about Andrew Cuomo, alpha male, that a primary motivation in policy-making is remaining top dog.

In any case, if Cuomo still harbors any national political ambitions as a Democrat, his work with Republicans against his fellow Democrats, becoming more and more naked as his governorship goes on, ought to dispel them.

He literally now is seen as "New York's Republican governor," as one tenant activist put it last week after Cuomo screwed NYC residents by siding with Senate Republicans over Assembly Dems on rent regulation.

Tenant Advocates Say Cuomo Will Pay For His Sellout

From Politics on the Hudson:

Tenant groups are irate over the four-year tenant control extension agreed to be Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders yesterday, saying up to 100,000 rent-regulated apartments could be at risk.
Alliance for Tenant Power, a community group, ripped Cuomo in particular for not pushing for a law that would protect tenants in rent-stabilized apartments.

“Cuomo made empty promises and lied repeatedly while helping the Senate Republicans advance a bill that is a massive giveaway to landlords,” Katie Goldstein, a leader of the Alliance for Tenant Power, said in a statement.

The group and others said the new changes would not provide enough protections from landlord harassment and higher rents.

“Cuomo will suffer big political consequences for his betrayal of tenants and Democrats and for solidifying his status as a Republican Governor,” Goldstein continued.

...

“This is a bad deal for tenants engineered by Gov. Cuomo and his billionaire-friendly Senate Republicans. We will lose up to 100,000 affordable apartments to deregulation, while the Governor and the Senate Republicans can go back to collecting large campaign checks from billionaire landlords like Leonard Litwin,” said Jonathan Westin, executive director of New York Communities for Change.

Count me as skeptical that “Cuomo will suffer big political consequences for his betrayal of tenants and Democrats and for solidifying his status as a Republican Governor," as Katie Goldstein said yesterday in her statement.

NYC Democrats and liberals have a co-dependent relationship with Cuomo - no matter how badly he screws them, they always seem to come back and cozy up to him one more time.

See the Working Families Party sellout from last year for the textbook example of that.

As Expected, Cuomo Screws NYC Renters And Schools

The inevitable Cuomo screw job on rent regulation came today:

New York City loses tens of thousands of affordable apartments each year to deregulation. Under the "framework" of an agreement to extend rent laws announced today by Governor Cuomo and the two leaders of the state legislature, the city will keep on losing them.

At a press conference this afternoon, the "Three Men In A Room," told reporters that the city's recently expired rent laws would be renewed for four more years.

Earlier this month, the Assembly passed a bill that would repeal the state's vacancy decontrol law, which allows landlords to jack up the rent on regulated apartments as soon as a tenant leaves and perpetuates a system of inequality.

That change was eliminated.

Instead, the leaders promised to do what they did in 2011: modestly increase the rent at which a rent-regulated apartment could be deregulated, from $2,500 to $2,700.

Reaction from Alliance for Tenant Power's Katie Goldstein:

Our worst fears about Governor Cuomo have been confirmed. He took no action at all to strengthen the rent laws. Cuomo made empty promises and lied repeatedly while helping the Senate Republicans advance a bill that is a massive giveaway to landlords. Cuomo’s Republican deal on rent will harm and endanger countless low-income and working-class households. Up to 100,000 rent-regulated apartments will be lost over the next four years because of Cuomo’s Republican deal. This four-year extender does nothing to empower tenants. In fact, it leaves the most vulnerable even more susceptible to landlord harassment and skyrocketing rents. Cuomo should change his party registration to Republican because he is not worthy of the Democratic Party and its most basic values. Cuomo will suffer big political consequences for his betrayal of tenants and Democrats and for solidifying his status as a Republican Governor.

We were right to challenge Cuomo at every turn and not trust him throughout our campaign for stronger rent laws. Cuomo never had any intention of introducing his own pro-tenant bill. We will now lose many more rent-regulated units because of Cuomo’s failure to deliver for tenants and for working families. Today Cuomo alienated and angered millions of New Yorkers. We look forward to helping a strong Democrat defeat Cuomo if he foolishly tries to run for a third term as Governor.

In addition to the screw job to tenants, Cuomo stuck it to public schools too - raising the charter cap by 180 (50 for the city, but since the statewide cap is nowhere near full, expect that some or all of those rest-of-the-state slots end up in NYC in the end), giving $250 million to private schools and extending the property tax cap for 4 years.

Another end-of-the-session screw job from Cuomo.

When do "liberals" in NYC finally abandon Andrew Cuomo and make him pay politically for screwing them?

Cuomo Siding With Senate Republicans Against NYC Tenants

Jimmy Vielkind at Capital NY:

ALBANY—With the legislative session now in overtime and lawmakers still at stalemate, Governor Andrew Cuomo has been at the Capitol, out of the public eye and out of the fray, present but unaccounted for.

...

The governor's absence has fueled suspicion among Democrats that Cuomo, the de facto head of their party, is siding more closely with Republicans in the State Senate as lawmakers negotiate the renewal of rent regulations in New York City.

“I think he's schooling us. I think he really, fundamentally sides with the landlords,” said Mike McKee, the longtime treasurer of Tenants PAC, an advocacy group. “From what I hear—and this is all second-hand, because we're not in the room—he's been laughable in terms of tenant protection.”

Gee, who'd a thunk "Governor Glenwood" would be looking to screw NYC tenants for his landlord donors behind the scenes?

You can pay Cuomo back for his betrayal, NYC residents, by doing this.

NYC Residents Need To Pay Cuomo Back For His Betrayal On Rent Regulations

Governor Cuomo is holding rent regulations in NYC hostage to his education tax credit giveaway to his billionaire buddy friends - no tax credit, bye-bye rent regulations.

This is not sitting well with tenant advocates who protested outside a $2500 a head Cuomo fundraiser at the Plaza Hotel:

"I'm here because of the rent," said Margie Trisbend, a 70-year-old Bronx resident. "For years, I was paying $723. Last month, it went up to $1,574. If I can't afford my rent, where am I going to go?" Trisbend was skeptical of Cuomo's commitment to renters. "He's not acting in good faith," she said. "He's acting in favor of the landlords."

Carrying banners that mocked the Governor's $1.5 million campaign donation from ethically embroiled real-estate giant Glenwood Management, the crowd stood in a pen of police barricades across from the hotel, chanting "La renta sube sube! El pueblo sufre sufre!"

In recent days, Cuomo has said that he is willing to strengthen rent protections—but only if the legislature agrees to a tax incentive that shunts public money into private schools, a plan his critics point out is especially attractive to the billionaires who donate to his campaigns at events like yesterday's.

"He wants to take money from the poor and give it to the rich," said Everett Stembridge, 57, a Harlem parent of public high school students.

"Our public schools are underfunded. We need money," said Mindy Rosa, a public school teacher. "Why should I pay for private schools, pay for charter schools, when my schools don't have our resources?"

But you have a weapon against Cuomo and his betrayals:

Jean Folkes, a 73-year-old member of the Flatbush Tenant's Association, who has lived in her neighborhood since moving to the country in 1969, wanted to speak directly to the Governor. "Cuomo, where is your humanity? Did money eat your humanity?" she asked. "We have elephant memories. We'll see to it that you lose if you run again. Enjoy your last two and a half years in Albany, if you're not indicted before then."

Yes, holding him accountable if he tries to run for re-election is one way to pay Cuomo back for his betrayal.

But three years is a long time to wait for payback - there's something NYC residents can do right now to pay back Cuomo for his betrayal.

Cuomo's poll numbers have fallen to all-time lows in all three major polls - the Siena poll, the Marist poll, and the Quinnipiac poll.

His support upstate is in the toilet, he has lukewarm support at best in the suburbs - the only thing propping him up from falling below Spitzer levels is the support he enjoys in NYC.

Cuomo's currently set to screw NYC residents by destroying tent regulations if he doesn't get his way on his education tax credit.

Isn't it time NYC residents pay the governor back by withdrawing support and sending him plummeting past the Spitzer line?

Some commenters on this blog think Cuomo doesn't care about poll numbers so long as he's got the support, both political and financial, of his wealthy donors.

I don't think that's the case

Believe me, when the headlines come that Cuomo's in the mid-to high-twenties in job approval because his NYC support has cratered, he'll be paying attention.

Nothing takes a politician closer to irrelevancy faster than poll numbers in the twenties.

That doesn't mean Cuomo won't still try and impose his preferred policies on the state if he falls below the Spitzer line.

But it's a lot harder to be successful at that when you're at 25% approval.

Tenant Advocates Blame Cuomo For Tying Education Tax Credit To Rent Regulation

Crains reports that tenant advocates are holding Governor Cuomo accountable for the expiration of rent regulation laws in NYC and plan to primary him in three years:

"Cuomo has alienated a massive number of rent-regulated Democratic voters by not delivering stronger rent laws this session," said one operative working with tenant groups. "His base blames him, not anyone else, for the dysfunction and corruption in Albany."

By linking rent regulation with a $150 million education tax credit proposal opposed by Assembly Democrats, Mr. Cuomo has poisoned the debate, said Jonathan Westin, director of New York City Communities for Change.

"Tenants across New York City, especially in communities of color, folks that supported the governor in his re-election, are furious at what's happening," Mr. Westin said. "Albany, and the governor specifically, are playing games with their homes."

"The only thing holding up his poll numbers are New York City liberals and communities of color," he continued. "And if he loses those, I don't know what will be left. He's completely vulnerable."

I've said before, I'll say again, it's a shame these activists didn't realize Cuomo would betray them before this, so that more damage could have been done to him in the 2014 primary.

Nonetheless Westin is right that the only thing holding Cuomo up from complete political collapse in polls is the liberal base and communities of color in NYC.

If he loses that support (and God knows, he should), he will fall below Spitzer territory in approval.

Hell, he's almost in Spitzer territory now - won't take much to put him there.

A commenter at Crains points out the real danger here for Cuomo politically:

The point is not so much that "tenant activists" would pull this off but that at the rate our esteemed governor is going that by 2018 there could be a rather formidable coalition of tenant activists, anti-frackers, parents and teachers fed up with Cuomo's education policies, people finally exhausted by the Roman level of decadence now playing out in Albany and an assortment of other moderate and liberal Democrats that a real candidate willing to show some courage, like Eric Schneiderman or Tom DiNapoli, or, yes, even Zephyr Teachout would have a real chance in a primary with a lot of energized anti-Andy voters in it.

All of this assumes he's not carted out in handcuffs as the third arrest in the "Three Amigos In A Jail" show US Attorney Preet Bharara is putting on for the state.

This also assumes that the anger activists are expressing remains undiminished by whatever deal eventually gets worked out on rent regulation.

Still, the blueprint is there to continue to weaken and finally destroy Andrew Cuomo politically - and Cuomo keeps adding to it with every betrayal and fight he wages these days.

Tenant Advocates Decry Cuomo's Betrayal, Threaten Him With 2018 Opponent

From the "Would've Been Nice To Understand This In 2014" file:

ALBANY - Angry tenant activists and other liberals are threatening to find a primary challenge to Gov. Cuomo in 2018 if he doesn't deliver on his promises to strengthen the expiring rent regulation law.

"We basically have had it with Andrew Cuomo, with his total phony double talking, who clearly is siding with the landlords despite his rhetoric," said longtime activist Michael McKee, treasure of Tenants PAC. "We are looking for a Democratic candidate to challenge him if he runs for a third term.

Katie Goldstein, director of Tenants & Neighbors, also spoke of a potential primary for Cuomo unless he can "strengthen the rent laws in a meaningful way."

"New York tenants are the ones who got him elected," Goldstein said, noting his strong showing in the city.

The tenant advocates are incensed at what they say is Cuomo's quick retreat from his June 6 guest column in the Daily News in which he called for a strengthening of the rent laws.

Among the changes he said he is pushing is ending vacancy decontrol, which lets apartments out of rent regulation when the rent goes over $2,500 and a tenant moves out, and scrapping the 20% rent hike landlords are allowed to make every time a tenant leaves.

Cuomo has since said he expects the current law might simply be extended and is trying to tie the issue to passage of an education investment tax credit designed to mainly benefit parochial and private schools and their donors.

Were tenant advocates and liberals unaware that Cuomo's M.O. is betrayal, that he takes a lot of money from the landlords, that he was likely to make it look like he was going to "reform" the rent regulation laws, then do as much as he could to simply leave things alone?

I dunno, I'm not that smart, but watching Cuomo the last four+ years, that's how I would've gamed this out.

And lo and behold, that's how it's playing out.

Not all that different from how he made all those promises to the Working Families Party in 2014, then ignored them (e.g., to take back the state Senate for the Dems.)

Or the way he claimed he was "friend" to Bill de Blasio, then did everything he could behind the scenes (and sometimes in front of the scenes) to screw his "friend".

This is classic Cuomo, paying lip service to progressive values while really pushing to pay back his wealthy donors.

Is Cuomo Set To Destroy Rent Regulations If He Doesn't Get His Education Tax Credit?

From the Times Union:

With the session clock ticking, the notorious Albany negotiating tactic of lumping together thorny items to get them all passed — in a measure sometimes labeled a ''big ugly''— rather than holding individual up or down votes appears to be in play. Online news site Capital New York reported Monday that two of Albany's most pressing issues — New York City rent regulations and the education investment tax credit — are set up to be handcuffed to each other by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

...

"As has always been the case, the Assembly supports stronger rent regulations, the Senate supports the education tax credit, and the governor is a proponent of both," Cuomo spokeswoman Melissa DeRosa told Capital New York.

Oh sure, Cuomo's in favor of both, so why not link them and help passage?

Critics of Cuomo had another way of looking at it:

"The governor is willing to let rent regulations go up in flames, if he can't pass an education tax credit for his hedge fund supporters who donate to private and charter schools to double their money, while our public schools starve, still waiting for $5 billion in CFE funding," state Sen. Bill Perkins, D-Manhattan, said in a statement. "It's outrageous and wrong, and we will not stand for it. The governor has said he is committed to repealing vacancy deregulation, and he needs to follow through on that commitment, without qualification."

I have a difficult time believing Cuomo has the political courage to destroy rent regulations if he doesn't get his education tax credit.

So the heavy hearts in the Assembly need to stand up to him and say "No to your education tax credit, no to linking the tax credit to rent regulations."

So far, it seems that is what they're doing:

By the end of the day Monday, pushback from legislators had dimmed the chances of linking the tax credit to rent regulations, said people familiar with the conversations. 

We'll see if that continues.

Protesters Plan To "Move In" To John Flanagan's Office Over Rent Regulations

Tenant-rights groups are getting aggressive in their push on rent regulations:

A day after affordable housing advocates protested outside of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Albany office, a tenant-rights group plans to push Senate Majority Leader John Flanangan on the issue as well.

Housing advocates and demonstrators plan to demonstrate at Flanagan’s Long Island office later today and call for stronger rent-law protections as regulations are due to expire June 15.

The demonstrators will plan to “move in” to the office if they aren’t assured rent control regulations will be protected, according to one of the event’s organizers.

At the same time, the Alliance For Tenant Power plans to release a letter knocking Flanangan (and really the Senate GOP at large) for the power wielded by developers like Glenwood Management, which has played a role in the indictment of former Majority Leader Dean Skelos.

Here's a blueprint for targeting Flanagan on education issues as well.

Teachout: Cuomo's A Puppet For Glenwood Management

Casey Seiler at Capitol Confidential:

Zephyr Teachout, the Fordham Law professor and author who challenged Gov. Andrew Cuomo for the 2014 Democratic nomination, appeared at the Capitol at a Wednesday midday rally by New York City tenants-rights advocates calling for stronger rent regulations.

The rhetoric was almost as harsh for Cuomo as it was for landlords: Numerous signs assailed him as “Governor Glenwood” — a reference to the support he has received from the various organs of Glenwood Management, the real estate giant caught up in the federal corruption cases that prompted the downfalls of Dean Skelos and Sheldon Silver.

...

“Andrew Cuomo right now likes to think of himself as a strong man,” said Teachout, who might not have seen Cuomo’s recent poll numbers. “But he’s acting like a puppet for Glenwood Management.”

Cuomo's clearly hurting on the rent regulation issue - that's why he's going to hold a "rally" tomorrow on the issue:

Governor Andrew Cuomo is planning a rally Thursday in support of tougher rent regulations, Capital has learned, even as tenant groups question his commitment to the issue.

Cuomo aides on Wednesday were reaching out to officials and groups about participating in the event, which will be held in central Harlem in the early afternoon, according to an invitation obtained by Capital. It comes 11 days before rent regulations are set to expire, and two weeks before state lawmakers are set to adjourn for the year.

...

 dozens of activists, including several sitting state lawmakers, were arrested at the Capitol during a protest that blocked the doors to Cuomo's office. Ava Farkas, executive director of the Metropolitan Council on Housing, called Cuomo's planned rally “a load of nonsense.”

“While real estate-driven corruption scandals swirl … Cuomo sits on Albany’s biggest pile of real estate cash and holds a bogus rally in support of corrupt rent laws,” she said. “No wonder his job approval ratings are going down as fast as working families' rents are going up.”

A Cuomo spokesman declined to comment.

He fools few with his jive these days

More and more, that's clear.

Anyone for a Cuomo mash-up of the Dan Penn song "I'm Your Puppet"?

Landlords Say NYC Rents Not High Enough

No, seriously:

Panicked landlords are trying to do the impossible — convince New Yorkers that the rent is too damn low.

With the Rent Guidelines Board mulling the first freeze in city history, the Rent Stabilization Association — which represents 25,000 landlords — has launched a six-figure ad campaign called, “A rent freeze hurts everyone.”

The ad blitz began over the weekend and comes just as the guidelines board is preparing to meet Thursday for the first of five public hearings to discuss a freeze, which Mayor de Blasio called for during the campaign.

Nearly 700 ads — more than 40 a day — will air on radio and TV through June 23, the day the board votes on whether to make the one-year freeze for rent-stabilized apartment leases a reality.
The 30-second TV spot opens with shots of well-cared-for city homes, and features actual landlords sprucing up their properties.

“Small-building owners put their rent increases right back into their buildings for repairs and maintenance,” the narrator says.

The homey shots of big city living then morph into grim images of urban blight, including graffiti-marred walls and broken windows. “Let’s protect affordable housing so this doesn’t happen to our neighborhoods,” the narrator says.

Last month, the board said it would consider anywhere from zero to 3% hikes on one-year leases that start Oct. 1, and 0.5% to 4.5% on two-year leases.

In other news, few people can afford to pay rent in NYC:

On May 5, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a $41 billion plan to provide additional affordable housing for middle-income as well as low-income New Yorkers.

A few weeks earlier, the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy of New York University and Capital One Bank jointly issued a report titled “The Affordable Rental Housing Landscape,” showing that low-income New Yorkers are not the only city residents to be rent-burdened — that is, to pay at least 30 percent of their gross income for rent and utilities. Among middle-income households — for example, a three-person household earning between $91,000 and $152,000 annually — 14 percent or roughly 290,000 households fell into this category in 2012.

“We examined the situation because rental housing has become less affordable in the past six years,” said Max Weselcouch, the director of the Moelis Institute for Affordable Housing Policy at the Furman Center. “Between 2005 and 2008 things looked pretty good. The median income rose, and new housing construction was at a peak. But between 2009 and 2012, there was little new construction even as preliminary estimates show that up to 200,000 new residents arrived in New York.”

And a report titled “The State of New York City’s Housing and Neighborhoods in 2013,” issued by the Furman Center on May 28, concluded that the percentage of middle-income households in the city decreased from 61 percent in 1990 to 56 percent in 2012.

I once got a 30% rent hike - my rent in Hell's Kitchen went from $2050 to $2650.

These rent stabilized landlords do everything they can to get their apartments above the rent-stabilized threshold so they can jack the rent up to market rate.

No wonder nobody can afford to leave in the city anymore without putting themselves under severe financial strain.

Except for Eva Moskowitz, of course, who gets free rent.

Shelly Calls Cuomo's Bluff

You have to admire Sheldon Silver's tactical skills in politics. Look at the way he has framed the debate over a property tax cap, which Governor Little Andy Cuomo insists must be passed as part of his "reforms":

ALBANY — Democratic leaders in the State Assembly are signaling that they are ready to embrace a cap on local property taxes, which could clear the way for its passage this year.

The cap, popular with voters in New York’s suburbs, who pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation, is one of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s top priorities and already has support from the Republican-led State Senate.

But in what will very likely be one of the defining legislative battles of the year, Assembly leaders are indicating they want something else for their mostly urban constituents: stricter rent regulations for New York City, a measure strongly opposed by Republicans and the real estate interests that helped Mr. Cuomo capture the governor’s office in November.

“In a day and age when we’re talking about giving people the ability to live in their homes and not be priced out of their homes, we should not forget people who have rent protections,” the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, said, adding, “I just think the philosophy behind the tax cap is the same as the philosophy behind rent regulation.”

Now of course Cuomo doesn't actually give a shit about homeowners. He is promoting a property tax cap so that he can starve government and claim the state employees union must be destroyed in order for the state to survive, not to save people money on their taxes.

That has been the real rationale behind his entire campaign.

Does his hatred of unions date back to the Carl McCall fiasco when the unions backed McCall over Cuomo in a hate-filled campaign that sent Cuomo down to a bitter defeat and left him tarnished as a racist?

Perhaps.

Perhaps he just wants to pay back his hedge fund buddies and Wall Street cronies for all their largess over the past few years.

More than likely it is a little bit of both.

Regardless, Shelly tying strengthened rent regulations to the property tax cap does force Cuomo to have to make a move he isn't going to want to make and expose himself as a landlord shill.

Here is what Shelly wants from the deal:

The position taken by Mr. Silver and other Assembly leaders is significant, because the Assembly has in recent years been the place in Albany where proposals to cap property taxes meet a quiet death. His Democratic caucus is dominated by New York City lawmakers whose constituents often do not own homes, and Mr. Silver is tightly allied with public employees’ unions worried over the cuts to local government spending that caps would require.

The Assembly is also a bastion of support for expanded rent regulations and has passed a package of such legislation several times in recent years — proposals that have gone nowhere in the Senate, even during the last two years, when it was controlled by Democrats.

Mr. Lopez said his committee was moving fast on an ambitious package of rent legislation, including a bill to abolish vacancy decontrol, a procedure that has allowed owners of rent-regulated apartments to move hundreds of thousands of units out of the rent-stabilization system, according to estimates by tenant advocates. He also said he hoped to pass a temporary extension of the tax break that would expire on the same day in June as the existing rent regulations.

“Those three issues have to be looked at and somehow thought of in an interrelated way,” Mr. Lopez said.

About one million apartments in the city’s five boroughs, roughly half of all rental units, are covered by the existing laws, which sharply limit landlords’ ability to raise rents and keep many apartments, particularly in Manhattan, renting at well below market value. Currently, apartments become deregulated when the rent reaches $2,000 and total household income of the tenants is at least $175,000 annually for two years.

Mr. Silver said he would like not only to preserve those protections, but also to expand them, by raising the income and rent thresholds.

“You want to preserve people making $210,000, $225,000 a year, living where they’re living,” Mr. Silver said.

One model could be a bill that has passed the Assembly twice in recent years: It would raise the thresholds for so-called high-income decontrol to $2,700 in monthly rent and $240,000 in annual income.

Cuomo has been noncommittal, issuing some boilerplate jive about wanting both rent protections for renters and a freed up market for landlords.

But here's what the real estate criminals think about the proposal:

But the notion of a three-issue deal was quickly criticized by real estate leaders, who argued that property-tax caps and rent regulation should be considered separately.

“That’s unacceptable to us; the cap on property taxes doesn’t apply to people in New York City,” said Steven Spinola, the president of the Real Estate Board of New York. “The game of the Legislature is to negotiate and to make connections, and that’s traditionally what Albany and Washington have done. We saw nothing happen in Washington because of that policy, and I’m not sure anything gets accomplished in New York.”

Scott Reif, a spokesman for the Senate majority leader, Dean G. Skelos of Long Island, declined to comment on the Assembly’s proposed rent regulation package, though Republicans have tended to oppose such measures. But he joined Mr. Spinola in arguing that a property tax cap should in no way be linked to rent regulation.

“The property-tax cap should stand on its own,” Mr. Reif said. “It was a centerpiece of the new governor’s agenda. There are many members on both sides of the aisle who ran in support of a property-tax cap. So we should get a result.”

Now if this is what the real estate criminals and Senate Republicans think, then of course this is what Cuomo thinks too.

So when he finally does get the courage to come out in the open and say the property tax cap must not be tied to strengthened rent regulations, Assembly Dems must nail him hard, fast, and often as a real estate industry shill who is happy to keep taxes low on millionaires and cut taxes for suburbanites but actively works against apartment dwellers in New York City.

And if I were the unions, I would go up with ads bashing Cuomo over the rent regulations sell-out in NYC.

Cuomo has already declared the unions Public Enemy #1.

They may as well dispense with the early term niceties and start working to lower his approval ratings now.

One way to do that is to expose him as corporate shill every time he screws working and middle class people for his rich Wall Street, corporate and real estate criminal friends.

This issue seems tailor made for that.