ALBANY — Just in time for election season, more than a million New York families are about to get a $350 check courtesy of Gov. Cuomo and state lawmakers.

The checks, which state officials began mailing this week, are the first installments of a three-year tax credit program that Cuomo and legislators tucked into last year’s state budget.

“It’s as shameless a political ploy as we have ever seen,” said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for Public Policy.

The tax credits, which will drain about $357 million from the state treasury this year, will arrive in mailboxes just weeks before Cuomo and legislators face reelection.

Checks are being sent to families who had total incomes of between $40,000 and $300,000 in 2012 and who had at least one child under 17 that year.

Lawmakers defended the credits as a way to provide much-needed tax relief.

“We have always believed that hardworking families should have as much direct tax relief as possible,” said Scott Reif, a spokesman for Senate GOP leader Dean Skelos.

© 2014 New York Daily News

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