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Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie headed toward Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office on Wednesday, the last scheduled day in the 2015 legislative session. PHOTO: MIKE GROLL/ASSOCIATED PRESS
ALBANY—As policy negotiations came down to the wire on Wednesday, Democratic lawmakers said a campaign criticizing their positions on a tax credit was making it hard to reach a compromise.
While Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, held events throughout New York last month to promote the tax credit, which benefits private schools, critical robocalls and mailers were sent to the constituents of dozens of Democratic Assembly members who don’t support the legislation or haven’t taken a clear position on it.
Some of the calls and literature don’t identify who is behind the campaign, but a group called the Coalition for Opportunity in Education, which includes religious organizations, said it funded some of the ads.
Democratic Assembly members, irritated by what they see as a campaign that misrepresents their positions, said they don’t want to pass the tax credit.
“There were many areas where we could have had a compromise, but it is much more difficult when you have this outside campaign that is so negative,” saidAssemblywoman Catherine Nolan, the chairwoman of the chamber’s education committee, on Wednesday.
Members believe Mr. Cuomo helped the campaign strategize, she added. “Why the governor would want to encourage these mailings to Democratic Assembly members’ districts is beyond me.”
Bob Bellafiore, a spokesman for the coalition, said: “Sometimes you have to speak sharply to get people to pay attention.” The coalition’s efforts operated independently of the governor, he said.
EARLIER COVERAGE
A Cuomo administration official declined to say if the administration played a role in the ad campaign, but said: “This is the nature of advocacy, groups work to further their own agendas.”
The coalition was founded by the late Peter Flanigan, an investment banker and former Nixon aide. Mr. Bellafiore said it didn’t yet know how much its campaign cost.
A competing campaign sponsored by New York State United Teachers earlier this year sent out mailers and sponsored ads thanking legislators for their opposition to the tax credit, a campaign that cost in the low six figures, a union spokesman said.
“We did that because these brave Assembly members were getting bombarded by nasty fliers funded by hedge-funders,” the spokesman said.
Members made their concerns known to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. Mr. Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, is negotiating an end-of-session agreement with Mr. Cuomo and Sen. John Flanagan, the Long Island Republican who leads the Senate.
“Clearly our members think the campaign was inappropriate, offensive and misleading,” Mr. Heastie’s spokesman said on Wednesday. “Putting the merits of the issue aside, if the goal was to enrich consultants and harden support against it, then bravo.”
The session was scheduled to end for the year on Wednesday, but after working late into the night, legislators left with many issues unresolved. They planned to resume work Thursday.
New York City’s rent-control laws expired on Monday after legislators failed to reach an agreement. Mr. Cuomo has proposed linking the rent laws to the tax credit, despite resistance from Assembly Democrats.
Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, a Manhattan Democrat who was targeted by the campaign against legislators who oppose the tax credit, said the critical ads backfired.
“The vast majority of my constituents said, ‘Hold tight, I’m with you,’ ” she said.
On Wednesday evening, a fiery debate broke out in the Senate over whether or not to designate the wood frog as the official amphibian of New York state. Democrats criticized Republicans, who run the chamber, for debating the issue as other legislation hung in the balance.
The measure passed but hadn’t been taken up in the Assembly Wednesday night.
Write to Mike Vilensky at mike.vilensky@dowjones.com
