ALBANY - Albany's infamous "three-men-in-a-room" state budget negotiations have already been expanded this year by Gov. George Pataki to include five men. In what could be a historic change, those five may be about to add a sixth man - state Comptroller Alan Hevesi.
In basketball, the sixth man is often the person teams expect to come in off the bench to spark a rally when things are going badly.
When it comes to the state budget, to say things have been going badly is an understatement of the first order. Over the past two decades, New York's governors - Democrat Mario Cuomo and Republican Pataki - and the Legislature are 0-20 in getting a new budget in place by the April 1 start of the state fiscal year. In the past eight years, there have been three times when the budget hasn't been adopted until August.
Late budgets leave school districts and service providers uncertain about how much they can spend, no small matter for regular New Yorkers.
Pataki has just begun his 11th year as governor and has yet to be part of an on-time budget. In that entire time, he has always negotiated on budgets with state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a fellow Republican, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat.
The trio almost always meets behind closed doors when they talk about the budget. Pataki tried a public budget meeting in 1995, and included the minority leaders from the Senate and Assembly.
It proved a disaster. The five gave speeches.
This year, Pataki is trying the five-way public budget sessions again. There have been three meetings and the five have actually done some negotiating.
Among other things, the quintet has agreed that if they fail to decide, by this Tuesday, how much money the state will have to spend in the new fiscal year, Democrat Hevesi will be asked to settle the dispute.
While a technical issue, not having agreement on how much there is to spend has caused major delays in budget adoptions in past years - or at least given one side or another a convenient excuse not to reach agreements.
Hevesi is, of course, no political neophyte. He was a state assemblyman and New York City comptroller before being elected to the state comptroller's job in 2002.
Knowing the ways of Albany, Hevesi sent a letter to Pataki and the legislative leaders on Feb. 18 laying out conditions for entering the game.
"If there is a true impasse and we are asked to step in, it is essential that we serve as part of the solution, not as part of a dysfunctional process," Hevesi wrote, adding that he believes "our intervention will not be useful unless our findings are binding."
Hevesi said he wanted that commitment in writing.
The big guns - Pataki, Bruno and Silver - said they would do that.
"I'm perfectly happy to sign a letter saying that is binding," Pataki told reporters on Wednesday. "That was the intent from the beginning."
Pataki's agreement was all the more surprising given that Hevesi, just hours earlier, had issued a report critical of Pataki's $105 billion budget proposal, saying that while it was technically balanced, it could lead to a budget gap of $11 billion or more within three years.
Pataki disputed that, saying there could be almost no gap by then.
The two are also having a public disagreement over how much money the state should pay into the Hevesi-controlled state employee pension fund, a major budget issue.
Pataki and the legislative leaders are expected to meet publicly again on Tuesday to discuss their estimates on what money is available for the budget. If they don't agree at that March 1 meeting, that is when Hevesi is expected to be asked to step in.
It would mark the first time state leaders plagued by late budgets have turned over the responsibility of determining how much they have to spend to an "outsider."
Hevesi has already cautioned that making such judgments is far from an exact science given its reliance on economic forecasting.
"It's not as if there's an absolute truth here," he said.
Nonetheless, if the governor and the legislative leaders accept his findings as binding, it removes one possible stumbling block in budget negotiations. That does not, however, portend an on-time budget.
In the past, Pataki and the legislative leaders have found plenty of other reasons not to agree on budgets, generally based on philosophical differences on how the money should be spent.
That is something Hevesi can do nothing about.
When it comes to the state budget, to say things have been going badly is an understatement of the first order. Over the past two decades, New York's governors - Democrat Mario Cuomo and Republican Pataki - and the Legislature are 0-20 in getting a new budget in place by the April 1 start of the state fiscal year. In the past eight years, there have been three times when the budget hasn't been adopted until August.
Late budgets leave school districts and service providers uncertain about how much they can spend, no small matter for regular New Yorkers.
Pataki has just begun his 11th year as governor and has yet to be part of an on-time budget. In that entire time, he has always negotiated on budgets with state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a fellow Republican, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat.
The trio almost always meets behind closed doors when they talk about the budget. Pataki tried a public budget meeting in 1995, and included the minority leaders from the Senate and Assembly.
It proved a disaster. The five gave speeches.
This year, Pataki is trying the five-way public budget sessions again. There have been three meetings and the five have actually done some negotiating.
Among other things, the quintet has agreed that if they fail to decide, by this Tuesday, how much money the state will have to spend in the new fiscal year, Democrat Hevesi will be asked to settle the dispute.
While a technical issue, not having agreement on how much there is to spend has caused major delays in budget adoptions in past years - or at least given one side or another a convenient excuse not to reach agreements.
Hevesi is, of course, no political neophyte. He was a state assemblyman and New York City comptroller before being elected to the state comptroller's job in 2002.
Knowing the ways of Albany, Hevesi sent a letter to Pataki and the legislative leaders on Feb. 18 laying out conditions for entering the game.
"If there is a true impasse and we are asked to step in, it is essential that we serve as part of the solution, not as part of a dysfunctional process," Hevesi wrote, adding that he believes "our intervention will not be useful unless our findings are binding."
Hevesi said he wanted that commitment in writing.
The big guns - Pataki, Bruno and Silver - said they would do that.
"I'm perfectly happy to sign a letter saying that is binding," Pataki told reporters on Wednesday. "That was the intent from the beginning."
Pataki's agreement was all the more surprising given that Hevesi, just hours earlier, had issued a report critical of Pataki's $105 billion budget proposal, saying that while it was technically balanced, it could lead to a budget gap of $11 billion or more within three years.
Pataki disputed that, saying there could be almost no gap by then.
The two are also having a public disagreement over how much money the state should pay into the Hevesi-controlled state employee pension fund, a major budget issue.
Pataki and the legislative leaders are expected to meet publicly again on Tuesday to discuss their estimates on what money is available for the budget. If they don't agree at that March 1 meeting, that is when Hevesi is expected to be asked to step in.
It would mark the first time state leaders plagued by late budgets have turned over the responsibility of determining how much they have to spend to an "outsider."
Hevesi has already cautioned that making such judgments is far from an exact science given its reliance on economic forecasting.
"It's not as if there's an absolute truth here," he said.
Nonetheless, if the governor and the legislative leaders accept his findings as binding, it removes one possible stumbling block in budget negotiations. That does not, however, portend an on-time budget.
In the past, Pataki and the legislative leaders have found plenty of other reasons not to agree on budgets, generally based on philosophical differences on how the money should be spent.
That is something Hevesi can do nothing about.