ALBANY – Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders spent weeks in closed-door meetings, trying to strike a deal on the weighty, complicated issues of public campaign financing and which bridges to exempt from a new toll on Manhattan drivers.

With a March 31 state budget deadline staring them down, they finally came up with a solution late Saturday night.

They punted.

Instead of deciding on their own, Cuomo and the Democratic lawmakers who control the Legislature agreed to create two new state panels as part of the $175.5 billion state budget, which lawmakers finished approving early Monday

One will craft a public matching system for campaign donations that will be backed with $100 million a year in taxpayer funds.

The other will recommend what the congestion-pricing toll will be for drivers who venture below 61st Street in Manhattan, as well as which bridges and tunnels will be exempt from double-tolling.

An emerging trend at the Capitol

The decision to shift responsibility to newly created boards follows an emerging pattern at the state Capitol, where last year Cuomo and lawmakers created a Compensation Committee to decide on pay raises for lawmakers and agency commissioners.

But the legal authority for last year's committee is being challenged in the courts by a group of Republican lawmakers and a conservative legal group, the latter of which is arguing it amounted to an unconstitutional delegation of authority.

"We didn't have the guts to pass a legislative pay raise on our own," Sen. Thomas O'Mara, R-Big Flats, Chemung County, who is one of the lawmakers challenging the Compensation Committee, said during a late Sunday budget debate.

"We shirked the responsibility. Now we're shirking off responsibilities to two more committees."

Even some Democrats agreed.

"I have to agree with several of my colleagues from across the aisle," said Senate Finance Committee Chair Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan.

"We shouldn't have punted campaign finance to a commission. We should do it ourselves."

Saving a timely budget

Cuomo and legislative leaders — Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx — had been hashing out a deal on a $175 billion state budget since January.

By late last week, only a few major sticking points remained ahead of Sunday's deadline for an on-time budget for the fiscal year that started Monday.

Among them were creating a system of public campaign financing, in which small donations to political candidates are matched with public funds, and a congestion-pricing plan to help fund improvements to the New York City public transit system.

Cuomo had been pushing for a campaign system that would match small donations to political candidates with public money at a 6-to-1 rate. The idea is to amplify the voice of small donors so politicians don't rely too heavily on deep-pocketed individuals seeking to influence the political process.

But Assembly Democrats, who had previously pledged support for such a system, raised concerns that were amplified late last week, when the state AFL-CIO — a powerful labor union collective — said public campaign financing "needs to be postponed."

So, facing the prospect their disagreement might force a late budget that would prevent next year's pay raise from taking effect, Cuomo and legislative leaders instead struck a deal late Saturday to create the Public Campaign Financing and Election Commission.

That commission, made up of nine members appointed by Cuomo and legislative leaders, has until Dec. 1 to put forward a plan to create a public financing system, which will automatically take effect unless lawmakers pass a law blocking or changing it by Dec. 22.

Speaking to reporters Sunday, Cuomo said he's comfortable with the panel approach, largely because its recommendations will have the force of law.

"It's not a simple system to put in place," Cuomo said.

"It's especially not simple statewide. What offices are eligible? How many candidates? How many parties? What's the match? Is the match in Buffalo the same as New York City."

Panel to decide which bridges are exempt

It's a similar story with congestion pricing.

The congestion-pricing system will implement a toll in Manhattan that will change during peak and non-peak hours beginning in 2021.

In his original congestion-pricing proposal, Cuomo had originally given the power to set the toll to the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, a division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that oversees crossings in the New York City area.

He also proposed limiting the number of bridges and tunnels exempt from the congestion toll to just a few in Midtown and Lower Manhattan.

Lawmakers in both houses, however, weren't pleased with approving a congestion-pricing plan without knowing what the toll would be. And those in the Hudson Valley and on Long Island fought for including bridges like the former Tappan Zee Bridge and the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge on the exempt list.

Ultimately, Cuomo and legislative leaders couldn't agree.

So, facing the prospect their disagreement forcing a late budget, they created the Traffic Mobility Review Board, a six-member panel appointed by the MTA that will recommend what the tolls should be and which bridges and tunnels will be excluded.

The MTA Bridge and Tunnel board then votes on whether to accept the recommendation.

The decision will have a major impact on commuters in the tri-state area depending on which bridges they traverse to get into Manhattan.

Under the new law, at least one of the board members has to be from New York City, one has to be from the Hudson Valley and one from Long Island.

Budget passed, but some remain unhappy

Cuomo said the tolling plan is a way to reduce emissions and congestion in overcrowded Manhattan while funding improvements to the city's subway system, which is badly in need of repair.

"You have to get fewer cars driving into Manhattan," Cuomo said. "The traffic is so bad, I can't tell you how many days myself I get out of the car and walk because it's so much faster."

Lawmakers in both parties criticized the plan for relying on the new committees.

Krueger, the Manhattan Democrat, said lawmakers shouldn't have delegated authority to a committee last year to determine whether they received raises.

If a judge strikes down the Compensation Committee's authority, it could complicate the public-financing committee's ability to function.

"I would have just given us a raise," Krueger said.

"I think that would have been the right answer. So I also am quite concerned about a commission when we should have just done a public-financing system."

JCAMPBELL1@gannett.com

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