Thomas Golisano, the wealthy Rochester businessman and erstwhile candidate for governor in New York, is back. More significantly, so is his seemingly limitless supply of money. Earlier this week he threw a bomb into Albany politics when he announced that he would spend $5 million of it on state legislative races this year, to elect candidates he likes and defeat those he doesn’t.

Who those candidates are he didn’t say, and he may not even know at this point. That’s because Golisano is an unpredictable maverick who belongs to, or aligns himself with, neither of the major parties. In fact, he was founder of his own party, the Independence Party — which, despite the fact that his three gubernatorial bids went nowhere, remains a force in New York state politics.

To say that leaders and rank-and-file legislators are nervous about the prospect of this kind of money being used against them is an understatement. Panicked is more like it. That $5 million is slightly more than all the money held in Republican Party statewide campaign accounts, and roughly the same as the state’s two most politically potent unions, the teachers and health care workers, spend on campaign contributions and lobbying. It is 10 times more than the average Senate candidate spends in an election — and the Senate, as everyone knows, is up for grabs this year, with just a one-vote GOP majority.

The real fun is that no one is sure exactly how Golisano will use the cash. He says he will support those who support his agenda — which includes less government spending, lower property taxes, campaign finance reform and redistricting — whether they are Democrats, Republicans or independents, all over the state. The Democratic majority in the Assembly is so lopsided that it is safe, but perhaps not Speaker Sheldon Silver, whose leadership Golisano has criticized and who has two primary challengers that Golisano could support.

In other words, he is one big wild card, an outsider determined to shake things up — and, more important, the money to do it. Not since Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi launched his Fix Albany movement and started targeting incumbents, regardless of party, have prospects for change looked so good.

One of those needed changes that hasn’t happened is campaign reform, and, ironically, Golisano is using loopholes in the weak campaign finance laws to spend so freely. Perhaps the next Legislature will take this and other reforms more seriously.