The recently defeated state budget reform proposition called for the state's fiscal year to start a month later, on May 1. The reasoning is that it would allow the governor and the Legislature a clearer picture on tax revenues for the year. The current April 1 budget start leaves out a large chunk of the revenue picture, for at least 15 days beyond that and likely even further.

But does May 1 really make a difference?

Comptroller Alan Hevesi has suggested going to July 1, which would give a better picture. He's right on the numbers but leaves out the political obstacle. Moving the budget start date to July 1 would likely hurt the re-election efforts of the 212 members of the Legislature.

With a record of 1-20 in the last 21 years of passing an on-time budget, the idea of moving the budget date closer to Election Day, when legislators run for re-election every other year, might shine more light on their failures. Some believe that if there are many months before they go into the voting booth, voters forget the ugly wrangling and back-room dealings that all too often permeates the budget process.

Move the date to July 1 and the public, even with its notorious short attention span, might still recollect some of what went on just five months before. More importantly there are other risks for the Legislature when it comes to a July 1 date.

First, with its record, the odds are that the budget may be late again, but that window of trying to get voters to forget the tardiness will be shorter.

Also, a later budget process, while allowing legislators to hold more of their fund-raisers in Albany with lobbyists on a regular basis, deprives the incumbent a chance to campaign in their districts. By being stuck in Albany, they leave any challenger the local stage to receive media attention and attack inaction in Albany.

Just as dangerous for incumbents is the fact that the majority of legislative work has traditionally not been completed in Albany until after the budget is adopted.

While they may currently go through the motions of having committee hearings and meeting constituent groups from January until the budget is adopted by April 1 or after, that first three months doesn't accomplish a lot legislatively. Sure they are in the “process” of writing legislation and holding hearings, but the bottom line is that much of what the Legislature does is held hostage by passage of the budget and the side deals that go with it.

Despite all of this, New York needs to move its fiscal year beyond May 1 to get a better handle on its revenue numbers.

But in the end, don't expect such a change.

The reason? The politics of re-election.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be e-mailed at cozguytho@aol.com