Mayor Bloomberg is a big fan of the phone. First there was 311 to make the city bureaucracy accessible. Now he wants New Yorkers makes the case for increased state funding of New York City schools by calling state lawmakers and the governor directly. 311 is cheaper than 411 if you need their phone numbers.

Announcing this $6.5 billion telethon was momentous enough to bring Mayor Bloomberg and the new City Council speaker, Christine Quinn, together in City Hall’s Blue Room for the first time. “Tell them enough is enough,” declared the mayor. “We are not going to wait any longer,” chimed in the speaker. Any chance of a City Hall tote-bag for the city resident who squeezes the most out of a lawmaker?

State leaders weren’t happy when a research group called them “dysfunctional” a couple of years ago. Now they’re in the mayor’s crosshairs, and he’s aiming a weapon more dangerous than Vice President Cheney’s shotgun. Mr. Cheney only had birdshot. Mr. Bloomberg’s ammunition is cash.

“Many people in Albany come to New York City to raise money,” Mr. Bloomberg warned yesterday. “That’s where they get the money so they can run for office.” Perhaps the first state lawmakers to take the mayor’s side will be rewarded with a fundraiser at his townhouse.

Being mayor of New York City has plenty of perks but far less than power than the title suggests. In terms of the most basic public policy and spending issues, there’s not a whole lot mayors can do without Albany’s permission.

Every tax but the property tax goes through the state capitol. Even parking tickets and red light cameras need the state’s okay. So do charter schools and rent control laws. MTA subways and buses are out of the mayor’s reach, as are pension benefits for city workers.

During his first term, though, Mr. Bloomberg had a limited amount of capital to spend fighting with Albany. He barely won in 2001, and even his re-election landslide – which in retrospect looks so obvious – took his team by surprise. In his first term, he had one big Albany win – gaining control of the public schools – and one big Albany loss – the West Side Jets stadium and convention center, on which the city’s 2012 Olympics hopes rested, and which died in Albany.

Now Mr. Bloomberg has nothing to lose, and perhaps a lot to gain, by making a few enemies upstate. The mayor has made improving city schools a priority second only to public safety. As Mr. Bloomberg has learned over the last few years, fixing a mammoth educational enterprise serving a vast swath of the socio-economic spectrum is a long-term proposition. Whether measured by better test scores, better graduation rates, or better teachers, there is only so much any mayor can do in a limited period of time. Securing cash from Albany would be a short-term win that pays long-term benefits for Mr. Bloomberg’s legacy.

Mr. Bloomberg hasn’t had a big win from Albany since he took control of schools nearly four years ago. That was achievable because giving Mr. Bloomberg the school system didn’t cost Albany a dime. Mr. Bloomberg also demonstrated a great deal of respect for state leaders, visiting them in the state capitol so often it looked like he had an upstate time-share.

Reelection concerns have now given way to legacy concerns. With less than four years to secure his place in Gotham history, Mr. Bloomberg is no longer asking the three men who run Albany – he’s demanding. The mayor demonstrated he’s not bluffing last week by threatening to help Democrats win control of the State Senate.

Such an aggressive strategy doesn’t usually go over well in the Capitol. If Governor Pataki, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno have anything in common, its that they don’t like being told what to do with their (oops, the taxpayers’) money. It’s already been almost three years since New York’s highest court ordered the state to spend billions of dollars more a year on city schools – and so far little of that money has materialized.

With Ms. Quinn riding in the sidecar alongside Mayor Bloomberg, can the mayor accomplish what nine judges couldn’t?

Mr. Bloomberg lumped together Albany’s leading triumverate when he called on New Yorkers to make phone calls. But one of the three really is his ally on this topic. Mr. Silver and the Democrats who control the Assembly have been pushing for schools funding for years. Mr. Silver told me he sees almost eye-to-eye on the money – including the $6.5 billion for school facilities.

One down, two to go. The three men who together have run Albany in private for more than a decade will (pretend to) meet in public today for the first time. The annual budget dance is about to begin, and Mr. Bloomberg is trying to be the D.J. leading a call-in show.

Mr. Goldin’s political column appears weekly.