Memo to pols: Backtracking can be a popular move

The only legislative news that seems to get hailed as positive in these days of nasty and deliberate partisan division results when elected officials tentatively inch away from entrenched stances that have already prompted backlash from key constituencies.

Such backtracks are as good as it gets for what the optimists among us would like to call productive partisan compromise. Nothing sweeping or unifying on overall policy seems possible — only incremental shifts in which hope of an authentic deal can be invested.

So it is with the very Long Island issue of state and local tax deductions, a century-old practice abruptly restricted during Donald Trump’s first presidency. Last year, as he ran a third time, Trump helped rev up his Uniondale rally by grandly vowing to "bring back" the valuable deductions, which his first administration had capped at $10,000.

On Tuesday night, word spread that enough red-state House Republicans had softened on SALT enough to give their purple-district GOP colleagues something to show for their efforts. Speaker Mike Johnson said a caucus agreement had been reached to raise the cap to $40,000.

No budget deal is done yet.

Last month, Trump's Interior Department halted construction already underway on Equinor’s offshore wind project, bringing the "green energy" enterprise to the brink of collapse. But this week, he temporarily relented after talks with Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. She indicated she won’t oppose plans for increased natural gas capacity. That’s as far as it goes for now. It's not a big bargain, though the skies brightened a bit for proponents of zero-emission technology.

Neither climbdown by the administration — on SALT or wind — will match for impact Trump’s de-escalation of the trade war he started last month with China. Both countries since agreed to reduce tariffs on each other's goods for 90 days. This "truce" sparked a market comeback from the depressing plunge Trump’s tariffs single-handedly inspired in April.

There are local versions of compromise-by-backtrack. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman recently took the great circle route to a "compromise" on $420 million in public-works funding.

First, Republicans in the county legislature excluded certain district funding for Democrats while guarding their own. After Blakeman lacked the votes to approve borrowing, however, he circled back and ultimately agreed to restore those funds. Democrats then agreed to help approve the bond issuance.

Running for mayor in next month’s New York City primary, ex-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo did some none-too-subtle distancing from actions and positions he took as governor. The less-expensive Tier 6 pension fund adapted in 2012 as a key fiscal measure was later sweetened, but remains quite unpopular among affected public service union members.

"The state has the funding," Cuomo told a Saturday forum sponsored by the United Federation of Teachers. "The pension threat is over. Roll back Tier 6 so you can compete and get the best teachers and keep them."

And restore the 55-year-old retirement age, asked UFT President Michael Mulgrew.

"Yes, you’re going to have to or you’re not going to be able to get teachers," Cuomo said.

Such shifts by elected executives, or former ones, are electoral sales pitches. Perhaps it shows that despite the current political penchant for silly WWE performances, those in elected office sense that reason and trade-offs don’t always have to give way to the irascible, that rigid slogans aren’t solutions, and honest negotiations aren't futile.

Apparently, many politicians from the national to the local need to be reminded of something so obvious.

Columnist Dan Janison's opinions are his own.

By Dan Janison

dan.janison@newsday.comDanJanison

Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.