Paterson, Legislature to miss first budget target
ALBANY, N.Y. - Gov. David Paterson and the Legislature's Democratic majority leaders will miss the first target date under Paterson's accelerated budget process to deal with New York's fiscal crisis.
Tuesday's closed-door budget session resulted in no agreements, but was noteworthy for who didn't attend: Any Republicans.
The Democratic governor and the Democratic leaders of the Assembly and Senate said they hope to agree to budget cuts and revenue raisers next week to address a $1.7 billion deficit in the current budget. Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith says he hopes there will be agreement by Feb. 4, while Paterson said he hopes for agreement by the end of next week.
Paterson's target to address the current deficit is Sunday.
Paterson, however, said it was a good meeting and he's optimistic that he could strike the deal with Silver and Smith next week.
But it may not be a great start.
"There's a disconnect between the dire, perilous budget situation on the one hand and the meetings that are all with Democrats," said Russ Haven of the New York Public Interest Research Group. "Doing things behind closed doors is not a good idea when the public is going to be asked to share the pain."
Silver said he was prepared to take action on the current $120 billion budget. Smith said he's discussed the deficit reduction plan in his conference and is prepared to hit the target of Thursday for approval. He said he plans to keep the Senate in Albany four days a week because of the urgency of the budget. Most weeks in the January to June session include three session days.
Paterson said he's confident he and legislators will close the current deficit soon and then take on the projected deficits of the 2009-10 fiscal year. That budget is due April 1, but Paterson's accelerated budget schedule calls for approval on March 1, for a Legislature that until recent years were known for annually passing budgets late, sometimes by months.
"One of the reasons I released my budget five weeks earlier than the constitutional deadline was to give us a head start," Paterson said. "We may not be able to meet some of the proposed deadlines of perhaps closing this budget deficit on February 1st, and closing next year's deficit by March 1st. But they were just general signals I was trying to send to the Legislature that the faster we're able to come to an agreement the more we will be able to cut into the deficit that we have."
Paterson's deficit reduction plan as proposed calls for spending reductions for Medicaid, which affects hospitals and other facilities, no midyear cut in school, and other cuts in programs and services announced in November. Paterson sought the cuts then, in addition to about a 10 percent cut he ordered in the executive totaling more than $1 billion. But the Legislature in a special session in November didn't take up the measures under pressure from special interests led by unions representing teachers and other public workers.
Lawmakers are counting on a federal stimulus package, worth as much as $5 billion under a plan pushed by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer. But New York won't know if federal funding is coming, or how much, until mid-February at the earliest.
"You do get the sense things are going to slip because they are going to wait until the last minute to see what the federal program is," Haven said. "Politically they say, `Why should we inflict pain and make enemies when we don't have to?"'
The budget process has also been delayed because of the unsettled majority in the Senate. Although Democrats won a 32-30 majority in November, three Democratic dissidents had threatened to side with the Republicans until early January.
Attending were Paterson, a Harlem Democrat; Silver, a Democrat from lower Manhattan; and Smith, a Democrat from Queens.
Paterson says governors traditionally meet first only with the Legislature's majority leaders.
Republican Senate Minority Leader Skelos complained that Paterson and Smith didn't follow through on pledges for reform and that the leaders' meetings be open and include minority leaders. Skelos said Paterson had made statements before the election about wanting to cooperate and work together.
"There are 32 Democrats in the Senate and there are 30 Republicans, and we deserve to be part of this process," Skelos said. He said he will only attend a so-called leaders' meeting if he and Assembly Republican leader James Tedisco of Schenectady attend.
"Today we saw it's about the dysfunction of the past rather than the reform of the future," said Skelos, who as a senior GOP senator when Republicans limited the ability of Democrats to pass bills and gave them fewer resources and staff than Republican senators.
"We had some discussions about inclusion of the minority leaders. As a former minority leader, I stuck up for them and I offered to meet with both the minority leaders today," said Paterson, the former Democratic minority leader of the state Senate.
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