The Pew Center On The States released its annual grades for overall performance on Monday, and New York landed right into the national average with a B-. While some state leaders may tout those areas the state did well in (capital planning and financial controls), it is clear that New York's structural budget process is not allowing it to rise above the national average.

The report is a mixed bag for New York. While it does some things, such as “Intergovernmental Coordination” (something started by former Gov. George Pataki) well, the vast majority of its grades are considered “Mid-Level” #) basically nothing to write home to taxpayers and voters about.

With a coming shortage of qualified workers to go into the state's governmental workforce, Pew gave the state middling grades for everything from retaining employees to “Strategic Workforce Planning” to how it monitors performance of projects and personnel.

Yet the most damaging section of the survey identifies what has been a continual problem for the Empire State - its budget process. While the category of “Money” may have received a C+, it is weak in the categories of the survey's top three areas: “Long Term Outlook,” “Budget Process” and its “Structural Balance.”

Most damning is the observation that “New York always seems to be on the verge of reforming its fiscal processes. It never quite seems to get there.” The authors contend that many of the changes implemented, especially in the last few years have been more cosmetic than substantive.

Making matters worse is a thought expressed by Erika Rosenberg of the Center for Government Research out of Rochester who contends that the new series of “reforms” may have “backfired” on good government types. Remember that last year's budget was adopted hours before (or after, depending on how you remember it last year) the April 1 deadline, but to what end? The Pew report argues that “simply meeting the deadline seemed to take precedence over serious discussion of the state's fiscal problems.”

With the state's budget deadline just 26 days away, one has to ask if the state is still in the mode of hitting a required deadline over the need to really look at the weaknesses in New York's budget's that deal with the long term and mounting debt?

If the past is any indication of what is to come - the governor and Legislature will work frantically to be the ones not to be blamed for a late budget and once a budget is passed, they will not reform a budget process that is still broke as the Legislature looks to run for re-election.

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