NY state budget is late, but on track for finish this week

By MICHAEL GORMLEY | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

9:53 AM EDT, April 1, 2008

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - They didn't do it.

Missing the midnight Monday deadline for an on-time state budget, lawmakers continued to work on details of a $124 billion proposal on Tuesday, the start of the 2008-09 fiscal year.

As rank-and-file lawmakers continued efforts to agree on major spending paid for with myriad tax and fee increases, lobbyists worked the halls to get more aid for their causes and clients.

Late Monday night, much of the massive health care portion of the budget was agreed to, but it remains unfinished. That will be a top priority Tuesday.

The Assembly began voting on its first budget bills Monday night, but all the bills won't likely be done until Wednesday, said officials in the Democrat-controlled chamber. In the Republican-controlled Senate, budget bills, many of which must be approved by the Assembly first, aren't expected to be passed until Thursday or Friday, according to a Senate official.

Unlike years when partisan disputes made budgets weeks and even months late, this year's process was disrupted when the governor who crafted the initial budget proposal, Eliot Spitzer, resigned March 17 after he was implicated in a prostitution investigation.

Lt. Gov. David Paterson took over, but he quickly revealed some past extramarital affairs, saying he didn't want to be blackmailed into decisions as governor.

The result was at least five days of critical budget crafting and negotiation lost while the transition to a new administration, usually two months in the making, was reduced to days.

"I think that under the circumstances, they have been working hard to comply with the constitutional deadline," said Elizabeth Lynam of the independent Citizens Budget Commission. "A few days isn't going to make that much difference."

If the budget is late by just a few days, there is little harm to school districts, nonprofit agencies and the many businesses that rely on state funding or services. But the longer the budget remains open to negotiations, the worse the forecasts for revenues become and the less that can be spent.

As it stands, the proposed budget now in the works would increase spending 4.4 percent by raising some narrow taxes and fees.

The possibilities include doubling the cigarette tax to $3 a pack, no pay raise for legislators or judges, and a requirement that Internet retailers such as Amazon.com collect state sales taxes on purchases made in New York.

An on-time budget had become a kind of brass ring for Paterson and lawmakers. They hoped agreement on a budget in dire economic times with a nearly $5 billion deficit would help put a month of unprecedented scandal behind them.

"We have a conceptual agreement, as you know, and we're just trying to keep that intact," Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno told reporters Monday, a day of frustration and uncertainty in Albany. He referred to the general agreement announced Sunday with Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, which failed to gain quick approval by the rank-and-file.

Despite promises to make budget talks more open and transparent, legislative leaders and the new governor kept details budget secret Monday. In Albany, such secrecy has been common when leaders feared lobbyists could unravel the vote in the Senate and Assembly.

Lobbyists, meanwhile, continued their last-ditch pitches.

On Monday, in a driving freezing rain, hundreds of prison guards rallied loudly at the Capitol steps to stop a measure that would close a medium security prison and three minimum security prisons, threatening their jobs. The proposal by Spitzer would have saved taxpayers $33.5 million a year and avoided $30 million in capital costs while prison populations drop.

The New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association union rallied and attracted several supportive Republican senators and assemblymen who blamed the closing proposal on Spitzer, who resigned this month when he was implicated in a prostitution scandal.

"Client No. 9!" some prison guards shouted when Republicans' mentioned Spitzer, to the Republicans' delight. It was a reference to how the former Democratic governor was identified in the federal investigation leading to his resignation this month.

The union members would find out after the television news cameras left that the proposed budget deal had already spared their jobs. Bruno issued a press release saying the proposal excludes closing Camp Pharsalia in Chenango County, Camp McGregor in Saratoga County, Camp Gabriels in Franklin County and Hudson Correctional Facility in Columbia County. The three camps are about half full, while Hudson is near capacity. In all, 584 full- and part-time workers watch 939 inmates.