Paterson aide: Emergency spending bills will get OK

ALBANY - Gov. David A. Paterson's budget director predicted Friday that lawmakers would approve emergency spending bills next week to prevent state government from shutting down.

Robert Megna said the bills, due to be voted on Monday, include about $11 billion in spending for human services, mental health and public assistance. Together, they represent a spending reduction of $326 million from last year.

Megna said the administration was careful not to include cuts that wouldn't pass legislative muster and to incorporate some suggestions from the State Senate's Republican minority. The GOP in both houses has complained of being excluded from budget negotiations.

"We are assuming, I think rightly, that we have put a bill together that will be easy for [lawmakers] to pass," Megna told reporters in the Capitol. The measure "has cuts that are reasonable, cuts that we believe the legislature could live with, and spending they know we need to do."

Earlier this week, the specter of a government shutdown loomed after two Democratic senators from the Bronx said they would oppose Monday's bills. One senator has since said he will vote "yes," but a Republican vote is still needed to get the required 32 for passage in the closely divided chamber.

For the past month, the bills have been adopted along party lines with all 30 Republicans voting "no." But two GOP senators from the Albany suburbs indicated Friday they would probably vote for the bills to avert a government shutdown.

A top aide to Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) noted some spending cuts suggested by Republicans had made it into the emergency bills. "We will look at the final bills on Monday and make a determination then," said spokesman John McArdle.

Austin Shafran, a spokesman for the Senate's Democratic majority, said it "will not jeopardize the health, safety and livelihood of millions of New Yorkers" by closing government. "Our conference will continue to keep government moving forward and meet the taxpayers' needs," he added.

A spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) said she couldn't comment on the bills until members of the Democratic majority had been briefed about them.

The legislation includes no tax increases or additional borrowing, both contentious points between the chambers. It also doesn't delay a planned 10 percent increase in the welfare grant, which took effect June 1.

"We felt it would be unfair to the poorest members of New York to have an increase go into effect and then take it away," Megna said.

For the first time in 11 weeks, these emergency bills do not authorize the sending of paychecks to state workers in the following week. The bills were expected to permit payments to 153,000 employees of state agencies on June 23; that authorization now will be included in bills to be voted on June 21. Last week's bills authorized checks be sent Wednesday to 108,000 workers at prisons, hospitals and other state-run facilities.