By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Gov. Andrew Cuomo is warning New Yorkers of a looming shutdown in Albany — and blaming it on the legislature — in a new message released a day after Mayor Michael Bloomberg took to the airwaves with a self-financed ad of his own.
Cuomo's two-and-a-half minute ad, "Budget Message to New Yorkers," is decidedly less flashy than Bloomberg’s campaign-style effort and features the governor wearing a gold tie and addressing the camera from the State Capitol's Red Room. The message appears on the governor's official website and was not airing on television networks.
Cuomo and State Assembly and State Senate leadership have spent recent weeks trying to hammer out a budget plan. But with the clock ticking and no consensus yet, Cuomo is taking his case directly to the voters.
"We are now about one week from an April 1 deadline for a new state budget and either the legislature will pass or will fail to pass the state budget that I have proposed," he says in the ad.
"If the legislature fails to pass a budget on time, the government will not have the funds to operate and it may be forced to shut down," he continued. "As your governor, I will make sure we are prepared for this contingency. I don’t want it to happen…But in the end, I will not compromise the important work you elected me to do."
"It will only be temporary and it will only delay, not derail, our budget’s final passage," he added.
The governor has repeatedly defended his budget plan, which slashes spending across the board, including major cuts to education aid. Both the assembly and senate versions restore some of the funds.
