POL SON BURNED
By FREDRIC U. DICKER, NY POST

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ALBANY - Conservative and liberal reformers alike condemned the "broken" Albany system yesterday for allowing Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno's lobbyist son to make a quick $60,000 from ambulette companies by getting the Senate to restore $4.4 million to the state budget for them.

"This shows the system is broken," said Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long.

"The perception in this case is not good and what I think there should be are clear guidelines that would not allow this kind of perception that something is wrong," Long continued.

Rachel Leon, executive director of liberal-oriented Common Cause, called the action by Bruno's son, Kenneth, "an instant symbol of what's wrong in Albany.

"I certainly have no doubt that he has his dad on his speed-dial, and that certainly puts him ahead of most New Yorkers.

"It says that if you have the right phone numbers you can get through and make the changes in the budget while most New Yorkers are just left out in the cold."

Meanwhile, former Port Authority Executive Director George Marlin, an investment banker and Conservative Party activist, said the younger Bruno's actions "show that public policy in New York is being driven by lobbyists and lobbying money.

"I don't expect to see any reform in Albany until the whole crowd that has controlled state government for a generation is swept out."

The Post disclosed yesterday that the younger Bruno was hired by the New York Ambulette Coalition for $60,000 on March 31, the same day that the Legislature passed a budget eliminating $4.4 million in medical-transportation funding that would go to the group's members.

The younger Bruno then called top aides to his father and, according to two high- level sources with first- hand knowledge, won the Senate's approval 10 days later to have the money put back into the budget.

Blair Horner, legislative director of the liberal-oriented New York Public Interest Research Group, called the action "suspicious."

He added it "confirms the view that in order to get things done in Albany, you have to hire those with the hottest political contacts."

The younger Bruno, a former Rensselaer County district attorney, became a lobbyist less than two years ago and set up his own firm last month, raking in $600,000 in fees from five clients.

While he's insisted he was granted no special consideration, state government insiders say that he regularly receives special treatment because his father runs the Senate.

The elder Bruno, meanwhile, is coming under growing criticism for his son's high-profile lobbying.

"The senators are unhappy with the perception their leader's son is cashing in," said a prominent Capitol lobbyist.

"It's not good for them in their home districts, where they're already under suspicion, and it's not good for the Senate as a whole."