Andrew Cuomo’s 2020 campaign for president is off and running — New York, beware.
One part of it is the governor’s sharp left turn — which, to be fair, is also aimed at his 2018 re-election run. He’s eager to avoid the progressive pique that brought him Zephyr Teachout’s annoying primary challenge in 2014, and a large Green Party dissent vote in the November election.
On the other hand, even his desire for a strong 2018 showing is linked to his 2020 ambitions: He wants to show Democrats nationwide that he’s a big winner.
The problem for New York is that it all exacerbates Cuomo’s already-enormous penchant for a big show now, no matter what the hidden costs.
Hence his deal to close the Indian Point nuclear plant, his plan for tuition-free college (announced with Sen. Bernie Sanders by his side, no less) — along with pushes to double the child-care tax credit for middle-class families, cap prescription-drug costs and on and on.
All those shoutouts to the Democratic base come at a cost — whether to taxpayers, or to everyone’s electric bills.
Worse, the big costs don’t show up for years: Indian Point won’t close before 2021, when Cuomo hopes to have moved to the White House.
Yes, New York votes heavily Democratic in national elections, with Republicans a serious minority. But it holds plenty of independents, too — and even areas where Democrats are scarce. Cuomo once tried to govern on that basis — as a sensible liberal careful not to move too far from the center, and eager to show fiscal responsibility.
He’s still talking fiscal rectitude, mostly opting for items with low price tags (in his estimate, anyway). But his emphasis is now on delivering a big progressive bang for whatever bucks must be spent now — with ever less concern for the harm his policies will do down the line.
Thus, his little-noticed (except by environmentalist fanatics) refusal to OK any new pipelines means serious energy problems in the future — not on his watch. Similarly, his minimum-wage hikes phase in over multiple years: He gets credit now for setting a $15 wage floor — but the worst of the job losses don’t show up yet.
The biggest fiscal risk is the governor’s aim to build big — $100 billion big. He’s financing much of this off the books, by using “independent” authorities: the MTA, the Port Authority, the Throughway Authority, the Dormitory Authority and so on. But eventually the cash must come from somewhere.
Consider the new Tappan Zee Bridge. The bill is around $4 billion. Cuomo was lucky enough that a onetime windfall — payments by banks to settle cases related to the 2008 financial crisis — let him cover about half of that.
But he still won’t say where the rest is coming from, and the bridge is more than half-done. Everyone in the know figures it has to mean huge hikes in Thruway tolls, eventually.
New York needs to invest in the future — its own future. Increasingly, it looks like Cuomo is really investing in his own.