The outcome of the fiscal cliff was “ugly ball” in Washington, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters at a meeting of his cabinet in the Red Room at the Capitol earlier today.

Repeatedly, Cuomo used the word “dysfunction” — a major bugaboo for him in state government, to describe the outcome of the negotiations which ultimately averted timed tax increases and deep spending cuts.

“There’s an expression — ugly ball. The ball goes in the hoop, but it’s ugly the way it happens,” Cuomo said. ”At best what happened on the fiscal cliff was ugly ball. The ball went in the hoop, but nobody wanted to watch the play. You can say they passed it, but it’s not how government should function. It wasn’t inspired, it wasn’t educated, it wasn’t collaborative, it wasn’t inspired, it wasn’t how government should function.”

Cuomo has made his bailiwick in Albany about functionality — governing the ungovernable state and he occaisionally notes that Washington’s image has been switched with the state Capitol.

The governor was careful not to explicitly criticized President Obama’s handling of the fiscal cliff.

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