Frustrated NY reps disparage ‘stealth budget’

Lawmakers fear extenders could set precedent

By Susan Campriello
Hudson-Catskill Newspapers

Published: Saturday, June 12, 2010 2:14 AM EDT

CATSKILL, NY — Greene County’s frustrated state representatives are concerned with the legacy that may be left by Gov. David A. Paterson and the Legislature's passage of emergency spending, or budget extender, bills.

Assemblymen Pete Lopez, R,C,I-Schoharie, said he believes the threat Paterson has made to shut down the state government if the Legislature does not pass an emergency spending bill due Monday is a smoke screen for moving his agenda forward.

Lopez pointed out that one extender bill included roughly 40 percent of the state budget and cuts to health care spending.

“I am calling it the ‘stealth budget,’” he said.

He referred to the situation as a “marriage of convenience”; legislators who approved the measure can blame an outgoing governor for the budget because they fear a government shutdown while not taking full responsibility themselves.

“It allows [legislators] to hide from the full budget process,” he said.

He said such a process prevents “a full public process that puts the budget in front of everyone and gives the public a chance to review and balance objectives and priorities and look at total revenues and expenditures at once.”

Assemblyman Tim Gordon, I-Bethlehem, whose district includes New Baltimore and Coxsackie, said approval of the extenders create move of a dis-incentive for a governor to agree to a budget on time.

“It is a technique that as been demonstrated that the governor can use to his advantage,” Gordon said Friday, adding that he worries that  this year’s unique emergency spending bills may become the norm.

“It creates much more of an incentive for the legislature to come to an agreement before April 1 because the technique that Governor Paterson has been using is apt to be adopted by future governors,” he said.

He said the budget input from the legislature has been “significantly diminished” by the governor’s extenders and threats to shut the government down.

Gordon said that although he has not heard this week from constituents concerned with the possibility of a government shutdown, constituent support for the state to hold a constitutional convention before 2017 has been growing stronger.

Conventions may be called every 20 years but the most recent was held in 1967. New Yorkers voted against holing conventions in 1977 and 1997.

State Senator James L. Seward, R,C,I-Oneonta, also expressed the need for a more inclusive budget process in a statement Friday afternoon.

He said conference committees should convene, in accordance with state law, and negotiate a final budget.

“Without a complete plan there is no way of knowing how each provision in an extender relates to an overall budget,” he said. “Passing a budget piece by piece is a poor strategy, and one I cannot condone.”

Seward said he is concerned that the extenders will fail to meet the state’s needs, such as aid to schools and lost revenues for thousands of construction workers who have been out of work due to state cutbacks.

According to the state Department of Civil Service, roughly 1,600 Greene County residents are employed by the executive, legislative and judicial branches of state government as well as by the State University of New York and the City University of New York. The number does not reflect employees of certain state agencies, such as the Thruway Authority, according to department spokesman David Ernst.