You might think the most popular governor in the country — with his gravity-defying approval numbers and his spot on Time’s 100 Most Influential People list — could relax just a little bit about how the public perceives him.
But, no, Gov. Cuomo‘s image-polishing machine is running full tilt these days, spinning the truth, puffing up accomplishments and lashing out at criticism in excessive and sometimes ugly fashion.
Cuomo should keep in mind that there’s only one thing worse than a sore loser — and that’s a sore winner.
An especially grating case of puffery happened last week, when the governor’s office published a routine budget report with much fanfare, including a laudatory quote from former President Bill Clinton.
In the press release, Cuomo repeatedly makes the highly misleading claim that his budget contains “no new taxes.”
As Clinton himself might have put it, the truth of that statement depends on what the meaning of the word “new” is.
Technically, yes, the budget bills passed by the Legislature at the end of March did not raise anyone’s taxes. As Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto told me on Monday, “There were no new taxes passed as part of the budget.” But what made that possible was a major income tax increase that Cuomo pushed through in December of last year. Apparently, in his view of the world, stuff that happened four months ago is ancient history.
Cuomo further argues that the hikes in question were not really new, but a continuation of a temporary surcharge on the wealthy that had been in place for three years.
But that surcharge was due to expire on Dec. 31; without Cuomo’s approval to re-up it, it would have gone away entirely.
This much is true: Cuomo continued a high-income surcharge at a somewhat lower rate, while actually cutting taxes slightly for middle-income New Yorkers. He could therefore accurately say that everyone paid less in January than they did in December.
Still, the fact remains that the governor proactively changed the tax code to extract an extra $1.9 billion from taxpayers — in what was already one of the heaviest-taxed states in the nation. And he did that after campaigning on a pledge not to raise taxes.
If he wants to defend his politically clever waffle on the merits, fine. But to pretend his budget was balanced with “no new taxes” is to whitewash history.
Overhyping accomplishments is one side of Cuomo’s spin machine. The other is overreacting to perceived slights.
Take, for example, a letter to the Albany Times Union from gubernatorial adviser Drew Zambelli. Responding to an editorial that criticized a lack of transparency in the Cuomo administration, Zambelli slammed a Quinnipiac poll for asking “leading and biased” questions.
But Quinnipiac, in surveying New Yorkers, simply noted that Cuomo and the Legislature “are being criticized for secrecy in negotiating major policy deals, then quickly voting at night on the measures.” Which is a perfectly fair and accurate description of what Cuomo and the Legislature did in passing pension reform and other major bills last month.
It’s not the pollster’s fault that the public reacted negatively.
And then there was the revelation that Cuomo’s press aides met with an Albany-area TV station to complain about supposedly “snarky” coverage from well-regarded talk-show host and blogger Liz Benjamin, a former colleague of mine at the Daily News.
Their evidence — from what we could gather from a packet of clippings that was leaked to BuzzFeed.com — cited such alleged zingers as: “Cuomo declined to even put a ballpark figure on the cost of the storm cleanup, but he did say there will be a ‘significant’ economic impact at the end of the day.”
Anyone who considers that snarky hasn’t spent much time on the Internet.
The ironic thing is that Cuomo doesn’t need to be so defensive. He has plenty of accomplishments to legitimately crow about. He gets lots of positive press to balance the criticism — which has been a gentle rain compared with the hurricanes that hit Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson. And he remains remarkably popular despite picking fights with powerful interest groups — which is why he’s so often mentioned as a presidential contender for 2016.
But what can and will tarnish his image is taking credit for stuff he hasn’t done — and hyperventilating about those who call him out.
whammond@nydailynews.com
