Gov. Cuomo on Monday shot down Assembly-led efforts to link his proposed property-tax cap with beefed-up rent regulations.

Cuomo said the two issues should be considered separately - and not tied together as part of a legislative deal.

"My approach is going to be to deal with these individual issues on their own merits," said Cuomo, following a private powwow at the executive mansion with legislative leaders.

Cuomo, who has made the property tax cap a top priority, said he would introduce his own bill and "go to the people" if a deal can't be reached with the Legislature within the next few weeks.

"I believe in cooperation and I believe in collegiality," Cuomo said. "I also believe in advocacy."

The Daily News first reported Sunday that Assembly Democrats, led by Speaker Sheldon Silver, were on a collision course with Cuomo for attempting to tie the tax cap with efforts to bolster New York's expiring rent regulations.

The state's rent stabilization laws expire June 15.

"The concept of rent regulation is the very same [as a property tax cap]," Silver said yesterday. "And that is to give people certainty when they are renters."

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau) said Assembly Democrats were taking a "bit of a shot" at Cuomo by connecting the issues.

Cuomo said he favors extending the rent laws but did not take a stand on whether they should be strengthened.

Cuomo, in another break with many Assembly Democrats, said he opposed extending the state's so-called millionaire's tax, which expires at the end of this year.

Silver yesterday said the state should consider whether it could "afford that tax relief to the wealthy."

Senate Republicans, meanwhile, left the door open to extending the tax.

"I'm not sure, actually, you'd have to take a look at it," Deputy Minority Leader Thomas Libous (R-Binghamton) said when asked if extending the millionaire's tax would violate the GOP's no-new-taxes stance.

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