Cuomo, legislators agree on state budget

ALBANY -- It's a deal.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and legislative leaders announced an agreement yesterday on a $132.5-billion state budget, marking the first cut in overall state spending in 15 years.

The freshman governor met his goal of lowering spending and closing a $10-billion deficit without raising any broad-based taxes. Cuomo killed a push by his fellow Democrats to renew the so-called millionaires' tax; instead, it will expire Dec. 31.

Cuomo gave some ground to legislators, who were able to soften his overall school-aid cut, whittling it from $1.5 billion to $1.2 billion. The budget accord will also mean sharp cuts in state agency operations and a $1 billion cut from Medicaid, as well as closing a handful of state prisons. Total spending will be reduced by just more than 2 percent (about $3.5 billion) from the current fiscal year.

Many details of the agreement weren't released, including school-by-school aid totals. Cuomo said those would become available Monday, when his staff begins preparing thousands of pages of budget bills to be sent up to the Legislature.

Lawmakers should begin voting on the plan midweek, in time to meet the start of the April 1 fiscal year. It would be the first time since 2006 that New York lawmakers meet the deadline.

"I believe this budget puts us on the right path," Cuomo said. "This was a very hard budget to do. It didn't just set out to recalculate numbers. It set out to transform the way we do business in the midst of a very difficult economic time.

"This budget is not about the special interests. It's not about the lobbyists. It's about performance for the people. It's a new day in New York."

Cuomo had more leverage than his predecessors in not only pressuring legislators to meet the April 1 deadline but also accepting the bulk of his cuts. Because of a victory last year by then-Gov. David A. Paterson, if legislators do not adopt a budget by April, Cuomo has the power to put all of his policies and spending cuts in a series of "emergency" spending bills -- forcing legislators to choose between voting for his plan or rejecting it and shutting down state government. Cuomo had repeatedly threatened to use that power.

Even without knowing the details, Rockville Centre School District Superintendent William Johnson praised the restoration of $272 million in school aid funds.

"With [Senate Majority Leader Dean] Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) and the eight other Long Island senators involved, we knew there was going to be some good news for Long Island," said Johnson, a former president of the New York State Council of School Superintendents. He said he hoped much of the restored funding would go to low-wealth districts, including those on Long Island most heavily hit by the budget cuts.

Cuomo said funding would be restored for schools for the deaf, blind and severely disabled.

Democrats beat back the governor's call to cap medical malpractice awards. Republicans modified a proposed prison-closing process to give lawmakers more say on locations.

"This is a sobering budget, unquestionably," said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), who was wedged between his support for a Democratic governor and his more liberal fellow Assembly Democrats, who lobbied hard for renewal of the "millionaires' tax" -- approved in 2009 to create higher tax brackets for people making more than $200,000 per year -- and other changes.

But Skelos, who shared Cuomo's goal of cutting spending and eliminating the "millionaires' tax," sounded more upbeat, saying the budget now says to the business community, "New York State is there to work with you."

With John Hildebrand