ALBANY - Just a week after the current state budget was passed, Gov. David Paterson is pushing his idea to cut next year's state budget by 5 percent to 10 percent.
The Democrat in just his fifth week in office said declining revenues in a recessionary economy will force “serious cutbacks” in a year.
The $121.7 billion state budget passed by the Legislature last week, much of it agreed to by Paterson, increases spending more than 4 percent and adds a record $1.75 billion to school aid despite a projected deficit this election year.
He said last week that the “hard-core cutting” will mean a 5 percent to 10 percent cut “off the top.” That's rare even for a pledge in Albany, where “cuts” usually refer to reduced growth in spending. Some recent budgets included spending increases near 10 percent.
“It's an ambitious target,” said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, part of the fiscally conservative Manhattan Institute. “If you don't propose an ambitious target and you don't propose an actual budget reduction, you will not have the kind of spending restraint you need to avoid big increases in taxes.”
McMahon said former Republican Gov. George Pataki proposed cuts in his first two executive budgets in the mid- to late-1990s. That forced cuts or negligible increases even after the Legislature acted on the budget. Since then, however, state spending has often been at two or three times the inflation rate.
“I think the signals a governor sends are very important,” McMahon said Tuesday. “So far, he's sending the right signal and he's sending it consistently.”
The Democratic governor met behind closed doors Tuesday with the Senate's Republican majority and found a partner in taking a rare, hard look at how the budget is spent, said John McArdle, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.
“We're going to do something in the next several weeks to focus on the spending side,” McArdle said. He said that will involve following the money to see if there is waste and duplication of services.
“We're going to work with the governor,” McArdle said of Paterson, the former Democratic leader of the Senate.
The Democrat-led Assembly will also consider Paterson's call for cuts.
“We'll have to look and see what the economy does,” said Assembly Ways and Means Committee Chairman Herman “Denny” Farrell, a New York City Democrat. “And then we'll deal with it.”
On Tuesday, Paterson also gave some hints as to who would - and who wouldn't - pay the price for the drastic pledge in worsening fiscal times.
Paterson told cheering environmental activists Tuesday that he would make a goal of passing a bigger bottle bill that would require consumers to pay deposits for non-carbonated beverages such as bottled water.
The anti-littering bill would also provide millions of dollars to the state revenues by collecting unredeemed nickel deposits.
“We want to pass a bigger, better bottle bill this session,” Paterson said. The legislative session is scheduled to end June 23.
Although the proposal has been blocked for years by the bottling industry and the Republican-led Senate, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said that might change.
“Some people will say all it does is increase prices, it doesn't clean up trash, and others say it gets some of the trash out of the landfills and recycled,” Bruno said Tuesday. “So it's one of the issues we have to consider.”
The Democratic governor also made it clear Tuesday that Albany's powerful unions wouldn't be targeted.
“We are going to have to address what has been mismanagement and, at times, recklessness in the assembling of our budget,” Paterson said. “We are going to have to make some serious cutbacks. We are going to have to address these issues to save our economy. But we cannot do it by balancing it on the backs of individuals who go to work every day.”
He was drowned out by cheers from hundreds of members of the Transport Workers Union and who Paterson called its “great leader,” President Roger Toussaint.
Toussaint and his union marched off the job in 2005 in an illegal strike, halting buses and trains in New York City at the height of the Christmas shopping season.
A judge fined the union $2.5 million and Toussaint spent 3 1/2 days in jail for contempt. Workers were docked six days' pay.
Paterson wouldn't explain his plan further on Tuesday. For the second straight day, he refused to answer reporters' questions.
He refused to respond to questions before, after and as he walked between meetings with the lobbyists on why he contributed just $150 of his and his wife's $269,815 salary to charity in 2007. The disclosure was made Monday as part of the tradition of statewide elected officials releasing their income tax returns.
“It may be that that he's ridiculously busy,” said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group. “It's only a concern if it's a pattern.”
The $121.7 billion state budget passed by the Legislature last week, much of it agreed to by Paterson, increases spending more than 4 percent and adds a record $1.75 billion to school aid despite a projected deficit this election year.
He said last week that the “hard-core cutting” will mean a 5 percent to 10 percent cut “off the top.” That's rare even for a pledge in Albany, where “cuts” usually refer to reduced growth in spending. Some recent budgets included spending increases near 10 percent.
“It's an ambitious target,” said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, part of the fiscally conservative Manhattan Institute. “If you don't propose an ambitious target and you don't propose an actual budget reduction, you will not have the kind of spending restraint you need to avoid big increases in taxes.”
McMahon said former Republican Gov. George Pataki proposed cuts in his first two executive budgets in the mid- to late-1990s. That forced cuts or negligible increases even after the Legislature acted on the budget. Since then, however, state spending has often been at two or three times the inflation rate.
“I think the signals a governor sends are very important,” McMahon said Tuesday. “So far, he's sending the right signal and he's sending it consistently.”
The Democratic governor met behind closed doors Tuesday with the Senate's Republican majority and found a partner in taking a rare, hard look at how the budget is spent, said John McArdle, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.
“We're going to do something in the next several weeks to focus on the spending side,” McArdle said. He said that will involve following the money to see if there is waste and duplication of services.
“We're going to work with the governor,” McArdle said of Paterson, the former Democratic leader of the Senate.
The Democrat-led Assembly will also consider Paterson's call for cuts.
“We'll have to look and see what the economy does,” said Assembly Ways and Means Committee Chairman Herman “Denny” Farrell, a New York City Democrat. “And then we'll deal with it.”
On Tuesday, Paterson also gave some hints as to who would - and who wouldn't - pay the price for the drastic pledge in worsening fiscal times.
Paterson told cheering environmental activists Tuesday that he would make a goal of passing a bigger bottle bill that would require consumers to pay deposits for non-carbonated beverages such as bottled water.
The anti-littering bill would also provide millions of dollars to the state revenues by collecting unredeemed nickel deposits.
“We want to pass a bigger, better bottle bill this session,” Paterson said. The legislative session is scheduled to end June 23.
Although the proposal has been blocked for years by the bottling industry and the Republican-led Senate, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said that might change.
“Some people will say all it does is increase prices, it doesn't clean up trash, and others say it gets some of the trash out of the landfills and recycled,” Bruno said Tuesday. “So it's one of the issues we have to consider.”
The Democratic governor also made it clear Tuesday that Albany's powerful unions wouldn't be targeted.
“We are going to have to address what has been mismanagement and, at times, recklessness in the assembling of our budget,” Paterson said. “We are going to have to make some serious cutbacks. We are going to have to address these issues to save our economy. But we cannot do it by balancing it on the backs of individuals who go to work every day.”
He was drowned out by cheers from hundreds of members of the Transport Workers Union and who Paterson called its “great leader,” President Roger Toussaint.
Toussaint and his union marched off the job in 2005 in an illegal strike, halting buses and trains in New York City at the height of the Christmas shopping season.
A judge fined the union $2.5 million and Toussaint spent 3 1/2 days in jail for contempt. Workers were docked six days' pay.
Paterson wouldn't explain his plan further on Tuesday. For the second straight day, he refused to answer reporters' questions.
He refused to respond to questions before, after and as he walked between meetings with the lobbyists on why he contributed just $150 of his and his wife's $269,815 salary to charity in 2007. The disclosure was made Monday as part of the tradition of statewide elected officials releasing their income tax returns.
“It may be that that he's ridiculously busy,” said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group. “It's only a concern if it's a pattern.”
The Citizens' Say
There are 1 comment(s)
brew1234 wrote on Apr 16, 2008 2:17 PM: