Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. is now keeping his cards fairly close to his vest as to whether he’ll be voting “yes” or “no” on the next round of extenders, preferring, in his usual way, to keep everyone guessing as to whether he’ll wreck havoc on state government.

Here’s what he had to say on the matter last night on “Capital Tonight”:

“I haven’t seen it what I have said, Liz, if it contains anything near the kinds of cuts, that we, basically, unilaterally he proposed and we accepted this past Monday that I will not repeat that on behalf of the state of New York and the people of New York.”

“We can’t run our government piecemeal fashion. We can’t do that again. And if it’s present again in the budget extender, then the governor will have pushed the button on shutting government down.”

Which isn’t “yes,” and isn’t “no,” either, when you read closely.

He goes on to slam the “unelected governor,” saying the Legislature is giving him more power than President Obama by allowing him to continuously force lawmakers into the position of choosing between approving his cuts and shutting down the government.

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