Surprise budget a win for New York

Who can believe the news coming out of Albany?

For the first time in 15 years, New York's governor and legislative leaders have agreed on a budget that would actually cut spending. And although state budgets are often months late, this year's probably will beat the April 1 deadline -- even though opposing parties with warring agendas control the Assembly and Senate.

But there's more. The politicians have managed to cut $1 billion from the state's exploding Medicaid bill, by far the nation's largest. They also agreed to shrink New York's sprawling penal system, which is riddled with costly empty beds, and our expensive juvenile justice facilities, which do little to help juveniles. In all, Albany has closed a $10-billion deficit for the upcoming fiscal year without broad new taxes, just as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo vowed when running for office.

All in all, the $132.5-billion budget deal looks like a triumph for the new governor, who artfully employed his political skills -- and his electoral mandate -- to take a big step toward reining in spending in Albany. Cuomo found a natural ally for his fiscal conservatism in Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre). The governor also benefitted from the precedent set by his predecessor, David A. Paterson, who forced the State Legislature to make the grim choice of shutting down the government or voting for his unamended budget bills if they couldn't reach a negotiated agreement.

Yet there's a lot missing from this budget. It calls for eliminating 3,700 prison beds, but doesn't say which prisons will close, sidestepping a politically touchy issue (prisons are an important source of jobs upstate). The budget calls for $450 million in labor savings, but here too, the cuts are unspecified -- presumably this will be part of upcoming collective bargaining with state employees. The budget cuts $1.2 billion in state aid to school districts, although -- are you seeing a pattern here? -- no details were released.

Perhaps most notable: A much-needed cap on property taxes, supported by both Cuomo and the Republican majority in the Senate, was missing in action. On the other hand, a too-low cap proposed for "pain and suffering" awards in medical malpractice cases also was missing. Such proposals may re-emerge later, in separate legislation. So too might overdue ethics reforms.

Despite these uncertainties, there's a lot to like in what's happened so far. This is a grown-up budget in which politicians, unions and other stakeholders have found ways to make hard choices in an atmosphere of cooperation. It even manages to dramatically reduce the deficit that state officials had predicted would arise in the following year -- demonstrating how much better tomorrow can be if we make the right choices today. If only Washington could do as well.

The political culture of Albany will not be rebuilt in a day, but if things are ever to change, we'll have to start somewhere, and this year's budget-making is a welcome sign of improvement.

So two cheers for the governor, who wanted the right things and seems likely to get most of them. We'll reserve that third cheer until we know how the rest of the budget story plays out.