EDITORIAL: State leaders need to wake up and pass a budget
Barring some astonishing turn of events, the state budget will be eight weeks late on Thursday. Only now do lawmakers appear to have awakened, glanced at the alarm clock and decided it's time to put in a five-day workweek to try to come to a resolution. Only now are they talking about obeying their self-imposed reform: to negotiate a budget agreement in public.
Only now is there a glimmer of recognition that this endless budget process could put an end to them in November.
A Newsday-Hofstra University poll released last week showed that 90 percent of Long Island voters - and 83 percent statewide - are frustrated or angry with state government. In primary elections around the country last week, incumbency took a drubbing.
But make no mistake. Albany had a built-in incentive to stall past the April 1 due date. Like a captive in a burning tower, state leaders have been hoping to be rescued.
Rescue, Albany-style, comes in the form of revenue. In a year with a $9.2-billion budget gap, lawmakers hoped to avoid cuts by holding out for a windfall on April 15, when state income taxes were due. The prolonged recession dashed that idea.
But there are other potential white knights. Sales tax receipts are improving. Nassau County, for example, budgeted for less than 2 percent growth in sales taxes, but it's taking in more than 5 percent. Jobless numbers are improving. And June 15 offers sunnier skies, when estimated tax payments from businesses and high-income individuals are due.
Albany is also stalling for federal Race to the Top education grants, to be announced next month - a potential of $700 million for schools. And Congress is considering a $23-billion bill to prevent teacher layoffs.
But holding out for a hero is utterly irresponsible. As the legislature extends last year's budget, in weekly Monday votes, it continues to ratify a higher level of spending than the state can afford. Instead of implementing a more austere plan over 12 months, Albany now has just 10 months remaining in the fiscal year to rack up savings. Counting on federal education grants that are hardly guaranteed is reckless.
Lawmakers are stalling for fear that if they sign on to a budget in these bleak days, they will have to live with the consequences in November. They don't want to cut programs that will spur well-organized interest groups - state workers unions, teachers unions, hospital interests - to campaign against them in the fall.
In the State Senate, both parties are clinging to the fantasy that they can offer property tax breaks this fall, to compete in important races on Long Island and in other suburbs. Giving tax rebates in the midst of a mammoth deficit is absurd - but neither the Democrats nor Republicans want to surrender. They believe the rebate checks are all that voters will care about come Election Day.
For its part, the State Assembly - dominated by city Democrats - is loath to agree to the school aid reductions proposed by Gov. David A. Paterson. But votes outside of New York City should count for more with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), if he cares to live up to his responsibility as a state leader. Last week, voters in 92 percent of school districts across New York approved the modest budgets their school boards handed them. Most included Paterson's cuts. New York voters are ready to live with less - our elected representatives should be, too.
How is it that these paid envoys can't accomplish one of the only important jobs they're assigned - passing a state budget? How is it that legislators can't look past the narrow posturing they believe is required to win their re-election, and do something valuable for New York State? And that means, the whole state.
More bills are coming due. A payment from the state to school districts is scheduled for June 1, and state coffers are short by $1 billion. This is intolerable. Foiled in efforts to force savings through furloughs and salary freezes, Paterson must now consider layoffs.
Job loss is hard on individuals and their families. But if unions and lawmakers won't negotiate responsibly, New York's financial mess leaves the governor little choice.
Legislators should begin conference committee meetings. Until recently, state leaders have gone weeks without speaking. Senate minority leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) is right to insist on open dialogue. Where there's talk, there is hope. Senate Democrats are taking welcome steps, though overdue, to arrange such meetings.
Paterson should also continue to call legislative leaders together, as he did last week - but this time with an actual agenda. Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch's budget reforms would be a good place to begin - even though the part of his plan that would add to the state's debt must be a last resort. And if $2 billion is eventually borrowed, it must be done with all the strings Ravitch attached to his plan.
State leaders must end their slumber and stalling, and put New York on a path to a better fiscal future. They should stop nail-biting about re-election and difficult choices, and do the job they were elected to do. hN
