So, Tom Golisano, three-time minor-party candidate for governor, is going to pump $5 million into this year’s campaigns for the state Legislature, immediately making him a bigger player than the teachers’ unions or anyone else.

What does he want? Oh, the usual stuff and fustian of reform: “end to unfunded mandates,” “government transparency,” and so forth, plus my favorite, as stated on his Web site: “Government Employee Compensation Commiserate with Private Sector,” which I immediately added to Mrs. Malaprop’s Basket, for my Word Watch.

I may not care, and you may not care, but you can bet that our state legislators runing for reelection are going to care. Their first question is usually, What does NYSUT want? This year it’s likely to be what does Tom Golisano want?

My own private, personal guess is that he just wants to be in the action again, after having run for governor in 1994, 1998 and 2002 and having scored no more than 14 percent of the vote (but gaining every time, as he points out).

Don’t worry about the $5 million being a serious bite out of his fortune. He spent a total of $93 million of his own money on those three runs for governor without having to apply for food stamps. Forbes magazine puts his wealth at $2 billion. You can get out your calculator and figure for yourself what percentage $5 million is of $2 billion. Or you can run right out and buy the print edition of the Sunday Gazette, where I provide that information and more.