June 29, 2010

Albany Has No Plan on Budget Gap, Paterson Says

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson criticized lawmakers on Tuesday for passing budget bills this week that did not plan for a likely shortfall of up to $1 billion, saying he would call lawmakers back to Albany in the middle of the fall campaign season if they did not deal with the problem beforehand.
“They don’t have a plan to solve this problem,” Mr. Paterson said during one of four radio interviews he conducted on Tuesday. “There’s kind of an understanding usually that the governor will not call the Legislature back during the election — I will.”
The shortfall — which would occur if the federal government, as expected, does not come through with more than $1 billion in promised Medicaid financing — was one of several issues confronting lawmakers on Tuesday, the morning after Mr. Paterson vetoed hundreds of millions of dollars in state education aid that the Legislature sought to restore to the state budget on Monday.
The vetoes capped a tortured budget process that has dragged on nearly three months past the March 31 budget deadline, with most of the budget approved in a piecemeal fashion through emergency bills introduced by Mr. Paterson. The process has been so chaotic that neither Mr. Paterson’s office nor legislative leaders appear to know precisely how big the budget actually is.
If John L. Sampson, the Senate Democratic leader, and Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker, seek to override Mr. Paterson’s vetoes, they would need to muster a two-thirds majority in each house. That vote would have to begin in the Assembly, which approved the spending bills first. But the real hurdle may be in the State Senate, where Democrats hold only a 32-to-30 majority and would need substantial Republican support to override Mr. Paterson.
In a statement issued Tuesday morning, Dean G. Skelos, the Republican Senate leader, suggested that no such support would be forthcoming, even though an override would restore millions of dollars to schools in Republican districts.
“After a tortured budget process where they violated the budget reform law, negotiated in total secrecy, excluded Republicans from the process and rejected every alternative we offered to reduce spending,” Mr. Skelos said, “Senator Sampson and Speaker Silver took matters into their own hands and created an irresponsible, unbalanced budget that Senate Republicans unanimously opposed. They should not expect or count on Senate Republicans to bail them out of the mess that they have made of this budget and the damage they are inflicting on taxpayers.”
A spokesman for Senate Democrats, Austin Shafran, said that no decision had been made over whether to seek an override. A spokesman for Assembly Democrats did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While the passage of two appropriation bills on Monday effectively completes the state budget — almost three months past the state deadline — lawmakers must still approve a separate revenue bill to pay for that spending, as well as a smaller appropriation bill to budget money for the Legislature and for the judiciary. Mr. Paterson has said that the Legislature’s version of the revenue bill, which includes about a billion dollars in taxes, fees and other measures, would not raise enough money to balance out the spending already approved by lawmakers.
And Mr. Paterson has pledged to veto hundreds of millions off dollars in legislative earmarks, known as member items, that were bundled into the appropriations bills passed by lawmakers on Monday.
The outstanding revenue bill, and Mr. Paterson’s looming threat to veto lawmakers’ prized spending, may provide an opportunity for further negotiation this week. Mr. Paterson and Senate Democrats are seeking to convince the Assembly speaker, Mr. Silver, to accept some version of a plan that would allow the state’s public universities to set their own tuitions without legislative approval.