By Karen DeWitt
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wrvo/local-wrvo-908186.mp3
Albany, NY – After more than two months without a state budget, Governor David
Paterson's newly conceived powers to include budget cuts in emergency
spending bills seem to finally be moving the process towards
completion.
Governor Paterson's bold initiative to include spending cuts and
other budget items in his weekly emergency extenders has paid off so
far. He's forced legislators to either approve his plans or risk
shutting down the government altogether.
If you ask Paterson about it, though, he'll say he wishes it had not
come to this.
"I'm not trying to be abusive," said Paterson, who says he's doing
what's granted to him under the law. He says he believes past
governors would have acted similarly, if they'd "confronted the
simultaneous conversion of a late budget and no resources".
Until now, the governor had only included portions of the budget
where there was general agreement with the legislature, beginning
with the health care budget. But he upped the stakes when he said
that if there's no accord on a spending plan by June 28th, he'll
force another showdown with the legislature by placing his school aid
cuts and new taxes on cigarettes and soda in the emergency
appropriations bill.
Robert Ward, Deputy Director at SUNY's Rockefeller Institute, says
Paterson has discovered a "dramatic new tool" to do what has eluded
governors for three decades of late budgets, make an end run around
the legislature.
Ward says this year's actions will likely impact how budgets are
created in the future, and may even put an end to chronically late
budgets in New York.
He says there is some question, though, as to whether the governor's
actions are legal under the state's constitution, but for now, no one
has tried to challenge them in court.
Ward, who wrote a book on the functioning of state government that's
considered the standard, says it may be necessary for New York
governors to take the reigns for more budget making decisions,
because the legislature has proved unable to act in these situations.
"Legislators are continually under great pressure from their
constituents, interest groups, and just regular citizens not to cut,"
says Ward, who says governors feel more "political freedom" to reduce
spending.
"In fact, votes expect them to," says Ward.
In fact, Rockefeller Institute issued a report recommending that New
York governors be given more powers to impound funds for schools and
health care programs in times of fiscal crisis, in order to avoid the
mid year budget crises that have caused "chaos" over the past couple
of years. He says governors in this state are more limited than their
counterparts in other states, and currently, can only unilaterally
cut spending in state agencies, which represents just one quarter of
the total budget.
So far, the legislature has cobbled together a coalition to approve
the emergency extender bills with the governor's budget proposals.
The most recent extender, which included the mental health and social
services budget, passed when three GOP Senators joined Democrats to
vote yes. One, Senator Hugh Farley of Schenectady, said he could not
vote to shut down government, because too many of his constituents
work for the state and would be adversely effected.
But that arrangement may not hold. Senator Farley vows if there are
taxes are in an emergency spending plan, he won't go along with it.
"I am not voting for taxes. It is what is destroying this state,"
Farley declared. "It's that simple."
The threatened showdown on June 28th can be avoided, though, and the
governor can stop putting his budget into emergency spending
measures, if Paterson and the legislature agree on a complete budget
accord before then.