By John DeSio

Things are getting strange in Albany. Roles are reversing, new alliances are being formed, and you might even wonder if some individuals stand for anything at all. Governor Eliot Spitzer has called for cuts in his first budget, particularly from the state’s bloated Medicaid budget. This has put him directly at odds with some of his key supporters, such as the powerful SEIU 1199 healthcare workers union, which would be affected the most by the proposed cuts.

So now, Spitzer and the state’s healthcare interests are warring with each other over the budget, and doing so very publicly. Both factions have unveiled a series of television advertisements attacking the other, with the union subtly accusing Spitzer of allowing seniors and children to die in underfunded hospitals while Spitzer accuses the unions of not even caring about those seniors and children in the first place.

The union’s advertisements are the most interesting part of this story, illustrating that in Albany friendships are fleeting at best, especially when they are bought and paid for. The Mirram Group, the consulting firm organized by former Bronx Democratic Party boss Roberto Ramirez and partner Luis Miranda, is among the firms credited with steering Spitzer toward his landslide victory last year. Now, that same consulting firm is behind the new union advertisements attacking Spitzer, pitting one client against the other in a battle for the monetary heart of the state—associated ethical concerns be damned.

Spitzer’s budget is causing other relationships between former strong allies to grow further and further apart. In the past, the state’s Republican and Conservative Parties have been tight, but that is no longer the case. The Republican leadership in New York state has, in many ways, abandoned the low-tax, small-government ideals that drew people to the party in the first place, preferring instead to spend big in a last-ditch effort to maintain whatever power it still has, particularly its ever-shrinking majority in the state Senate.

After Spitzer announced his own budget, state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno released his own proposal, which actually restored those Medicaid cuts proposed by Spitzer. To maintain his slim lead in the state Senate, Bruno needs the help of unions like SEIU 1199, which have been very helpful in the past, even recently when they supported the Republican candidate over the successful Democrat in last month’s State Senate special election in Nassau County.

Predictably, the State Conservative Party is not happy with its Republican counterparts’ spendthrift ways. In fact, Party Chairman Michael Long is hoping that he can stand together with Spitzer to rein in this new spending increase, all other ideological differences between the two men notwithstanding.

“Governor Spitzer, I do not agree with most of your budget,” wrote Long. “You have increased spending at levels that according to the Comptroller are unsustainable. I believe there is fat in your budget and, given the opportunity, I would cut spending. If your future budgets continue at the same rate of spending, New York could go bankrupt.

As difficult as your budget is, what the Republican-controlled Senate is proposing forces me to re-evaluate your proposals.”

Long added, “We support your efforts to cut health-care. And we support your efforts to increase the number of Charter Schools in New York state. Both these areas of spending comprise the largest portions of New York’s budget. We must get them under control and end the massive amounts poured into healthcare and education each year with very little positive results.”

However strange it might be to see Long and Spitzer united, it would even be stranger to see the very liberal Democratic state Senate minority standing with those same Conservatives. “Joe Bruno has turned his caucus into the borrow-and-spend caucus,” said Manhattan state Senator Liz Krueger, noting various tax cuts and spending increases in Bruno’s budget proposal.

Everybody hates Bruno, all for different reasons. Long thinks he should be following Spitzer’s lead and making bigger cuts, while Krueger is opposed to Spitzer’s cutbacks to Medicaid but wants Bruno to modify his tax cuts. The Senate minority has been far more conciliatory to Spitzer than others regarding the budget, arguing that it is only trying to stop its friend from making a mistake. But others are filled with venom.

The new realities in Albany have created strange bedfellows, with Spitzer pulling support from Conservatives while losing support from his traditional Democratic allies. Spitzer has even seen a key consultant rally resources to oppose their former boss. And everybody hates Bruno. For the first time in 12 years New York state has a Democratic governor, and Albany has been turned on its head.