Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in Binghamton and later in Brooklyn to sign parts of his economic package into law, claimed the Times Union’s story that he threatened Assembly Republicans to vote for the measure wasn’t “accurate.”

“I was explaining my position on the bill and what I believe the merits of the bill were,” the governor said.

The paper reported today that Cuomo called Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb while they were huddling in closed-door conference Wednesday evening and threatened to campaign against GOP lawmakers who voted against the bill.

He never says what, exactly, is wrong with Jimmy Vielkind’s story and Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto doesn’t refute that Cuomo made that assertion. Six Assembly Republicans ultimately voted against the bill, along with two Democrats. The measure passed in the Senate, 55-0.

Cuomo said in Binghamton that the state needed the revenues in order to “bring the education budget and the health care budget to below zero.”

“If you don’t believe in more revenues, then you believe you need to bring the education budget to below zero and the health-care budget to below zero,” he said at the event, which was a similar argument he made Wednesday night hours before the bill passed the Assembly and roughly 45 minutes after he spoke with Kolb.

It must be said that it’s kind of odd Cuomo would make this claim, given there’s been plenty of off-narrative stories written before that have sometimes resulted in pre-emptive statements attacking the news organization’s credibility.

The Press and Sun Bulletin has the video, with the response starting at around 23:00 in. We’ll update with our video once that becomes available.

Update: Here’s our video.

Share|