Gov. Andrew Cuomo struck a distinctly conciliatory tone while discussing Mayor Bloomberg’s crusade to end last in, first out following his budget address on Staten Island today, insisting there is a “basic agreement” that the current method of evaluating teachers “is not the best way to do layoffs.”

That’s a far cry from the verbal nuclear warfare that has characterized this issue since Cuomo blindsided the mayor by introducing his own teacher evaluation bill just moments after the Senate had narrowly passed the legislation Bloomberg had championed.

A NYC City Hall source confirmed the two sides have indeed ratcheted down their respective anger levels following a phone conversation this morning between the mayor and the governor, which I believe was the first time they’ve spoken since the LIFO situation exploded Tuesday night.

This source characterized the talk as “the kind of conversation that begins a process that gets to a deal,” while also cautioning that there is nothing resembling a deal yet.

In order for there to be an agreement, both sides will likely have to move off their original positions. I’m not sure how the unions are going to feel about that, since they’ve been very laudatory of the governor’s proposal and consider the Bloomberg-backed bill passed by the Senate to be Wisconsinesque.

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