Gov. ON WBEN: Shutdown = "Anarchy"

Exclusive WBEN Audio Hear Governor Paterson on WBEN. An interview in 2 parts, with WBEN's Susan Rose and Dave Debo Part  I  | Part II

New York Governor David Paterson says  he’ll push lawmakers to cut welfare and mental-health spending in the next weekly appropriations bill needed to keep state government operating while its annual budget remains unfinished.  But he tells WBEN that he is pushing back hard against lawmakers who threaten to vote against the plan, and force a shutdown of state government,

" I dont think that ... they understand what a government shutdown is . It means you won't be paying police, you won't be paying firefighters, you could have anarchy, literally." it means you wanted be paying police you won't be paying firefighters.. you could have anarchy literally"

For weeks a Republican bloc has been voting against the Governor's temporary spending bills, and late Wednesday a pair of Democratic state Senators were threatening to join them - in an unprecedented move that could shut state government down Monday.

While shrinking the deficit by cutting programs in weekly spending bills isn't’t normal, “piecemeal is better than no meal,” Paterson said Wednesday  at a meeting in Albany with Assembly and Senate leaders. Without “emergency action” to reduce its costs, he said the state would eventually become “insolvent.”

The reductions would help close an $8.5 billion budget gap for the year that began April 1. Paterson said the adjustments to the programs were part of the $955 million of cuts and savings he proposed for the two areas in his 2011 budget earlier this year. He intends to include them in the bill he plans to send to lawmakers for a vote June 14.

With no spending plan in place 70 days into the fiscal year, the state has fewer than 10 months to cut costs or raise enough money to close the budget gap, Paterson said.

The next appropriations bill may include annual spending cuts and savings of $150 million in mental-health programs and $175 million from welfare and other human services, said Erik Kriss, a spokesman for the division of budget.

Democrats and Republicans spent much of Wednesday  blaming each other for the budget impasse and saying which side would be responsible if Paterson’s next weekly spending bill doesn't’t pass, leaving the state without authority to pay workers and some of its bills.


Thursday morning on WBEN's Buffalo's Early News, Paterson said he wished that the room for some of those meetings was "bugged" so he could show how often lawmakers play politics by saying that they will savage his cuts, and be a hero to the voters.


Senator Pedro Espada, a Bronx Democrat who helped shut down the chamber in June 2009 by switching his vote to the Republican side, has threatened to do so again on the next emergency appropriations bill.

“I will not continue to hurt the people in my district by voting for an extender with massive cuts to education and other programs,” he told the New York Post.

Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson of Brooklyn, after speaking with Espada late yesterday, said today he still will muster the 32 Democratic votes needed to pass the spending bills in that chamber. Democrats hold a 32 to 30 majority in the Senate and a 108 to 42 advantage in the Assembly.

Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos of Rockville Centre, Long Island, said the risk of a state shutdown could be reduced if Paterson included in next week’s bill additional spending cuts to Medicaid, human services and mental health recommended by Republicans. After meeting Paterson today, Skelos said the governor agreed to consider the proposals.

Earlier this week, lawmakers narrowed the gap from $9.2 billion by approving a stopgap spending bill that included $775 million of annual cuts and savings in other health-care programs and Medicaid, the state’s second-largest expense.
********************************************************************************

Paterson's Emergency Spending Bill to Cut $300M

Albany, NY (AP/WBEN) -- Governor David Paterson is calling for more than $300 million in spending cuts in his latest emergency spending bill, most of them to health care services and welfare programs. The Legislature will vote on the bill on Monday, and if the legislation is rejected, state government will begin shutting down.

Paterson's bill was negotiated with legislative leaders today, and more talks are expected to take place over the weekend.

Democratic Senator Ruben Diaz Sr. said Friday he won't vote for another emergency bill that cuts funding to the poor and needy in his Bronx district. If he holds to that, the Senate's razor-thin Democratic majority would need at least one Republican crossover vote to pass the bill.

But Republicans haven't said yet whether they will make up for Diaz and support the bill, or reject it.
**********************************************************************************
ALBANY - Gov. Paterson went into full doomsday mode Thursday, warning of chaos and anarchy in the streets if the government shuts down.
"It would create unimaginable chaos around the state and the greater metropolitan area," Paterson said on WCBS Radio 880 this morning.
Paterson warned that the state would run out of money to pay its workforce - including troopers and correction officers - and eventually would not even be able to put gas in state vehicles.
Even stop-gap measures, such as the state Controller issuing IOUs, would work for only so long.
"Eventually the banks aren't going to pay based on IOUs, and you now have no money to pay your police, you have no money to pay your correction officers, your firefighters, your emergency health care workers," Paterson said.
On WBEN in Buffalo, Paterson went so far as to warn of runs on banks and financial institutions that have not been seen since the Great Depression.
"You could have anarchy, literally, in the streets when the government shuts down," Paterson said.
Despite the dire warnings, Paterson did try to tamp down his war of words with Sens. Pedro Eapada and Ruben Diaz over their threats to vote against his budget extenders.
Paterson yesterday cited "disingenuous" lawmakers who are not looking out for the public good. While not mentioning Espada and Diaz by name, he said, "I'm not going to respond to any threats, any thug activity. I'm not going to respond to any blackmail."
But Thursday morning he told Daily News columnist Errol Louis on his WWRL 1600-AM radio show that he was referring to last year's Senate coup and he wasn't going to be treated that way.
"I didn't mention their names or imply they were acting like thugs," he said. "Last year there was a lot of that kind of activity involving a lot of people who were involved in that coup and what were some very nefarious practices at that time."
"I didn't mean they were doing it now. I was just saying that I'm not going to back down because of threats."
He then went on to criticize Espada, who was a central figure in last year's coup, and Diaz, who was not. He said Diaz, who Wednesday warned that the governor will see what a thug can do when the next extender comes up for a vote on Monday, was twisting his words.
"What I said about those two senators is that I just don't think they understand what a government shutdown is," Paterson said. "They think this is just the regular back and forth that goes on in politics, saying nasty things about the person you don't like and saying you're not going to pass the extenders because you oppose the healthcare cuts."
Paterson saved his harshest criticism for Senate Republicans, whom he says have consistently called for Medicaid cuts and then voted against them when he included them in the extenders.
"Who are they trying to fool?" he asked. "I have a lot of sympathy for what the Democrats are doing. They at least voted for the cuts and bit the bullet, Sen. Diaz and Espada included.
"What Republicans do is they talk that Republican talk like they do in Washington and then they run back to the special interests and say, 'Hey look, the Democrats are cutting. When we get back in power we're not going to do it."
Frustrated with a lack of progress toward a budget that is now 71 days late, Paterson has begun inserting major cuts into his weekly emergency spending bills designed to keep government operating.
With every Senate Republican voting against the extenders in recent weeks, the Democrats have needed all 32 of their members to vote 'yes" for the measures to pass.
If the GOP doesn't relent and Diaz and Espada, who backed off their threats somewhat Wednesday, don't relent, then the state faces an unprecedented government shutdown.
Paterson on Thursday urged the Republicans and the "couple of Democrats" to consider the consequences of there actions.
"All I'm saying to the couple of Democrats and the 30 Republicans, you don't want to be responsible for what will come of this," Paterson said. "Read history, look what happened to the people who forced it on the president in Washington in 1995."


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/06/10/2010-06-10_gov_paterson_shutdown_over_budget_would_cause_unimaginable_chaos_crime_in_new_y

*******************************************************************************
Chaos, Anarchy To Reign If Paterson Shuts Down NY

Monday Could Be Doomsday If Budget Deal Can't Be Reached
Shutdown Would Mean Closing Of State Parks, DMV, Courts, N.Y. Lottery


Marcia Kramer ALBANY (CBS

Chaos and anarchy. That's what New York Gov. David Paterson is warning if he's forced to shut down the government in a few days.

The clowns in the state Legislature, now deadlocked for 71 days on the budget, are ready to take down the "big tent" and bring state government to a standstill. At least that's what Paterson thinks.

"No one knows the full ramifications of a government shutdown," said Paterson. "It would create unimaginable chaos around the state and the greater metropolitan areas."

Such chaos includes closing all state parks, motor vehicles offices, courts, and even the lottery. Public assistance payments would not be made and unemployment payments might also be held up.

The governor is in this pickle, in part, because wild cards like Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. (D-Bronx) and possibly scandal-scarred Sen. Pedro Espada (D-Bronx) might not go along.

Sources said the next emergency bill from Paterson will have up to $350 million in cuts to human services and mental health. But Republicans, who could become Paterson's new allies in the budget battle, aren't satisfied with that.

They want $750 million in new cuts like:

Delaying the 10 percent welfare grant increases
Withholding welfare from those who don't comply with employment requirements
Reducing the personal needs allowance of people in drug and alcohol programs

Diaz will not go along with that.

"I am not voting for any more cuts. I understand that it is painful," said Diaz. "But the governor is leaving me no choice."

The other renegade, Espada, thinks there might be a budget deal in the offing, but, he said, "I would vote no if such a massive cut were included because the state needs a fiscal plan.

Paterson called both men "thugs."

Espada, like some in both houses of the Legislature, thinks lawmakers will find a way to avoid bringing the government to a grinding halt.

"There will not be a shutdown on Monday. We've never wanted a shutdown," he said.

It's really too early to tell what is going to happen. Will Espada and Diaz back down? Will Paterson make a deal with the Republicans? Or will pigs fly?
************************************************************************
(Reuters) - Cash-poor New York state might have to pay its bills with IOUs next week to avoid the "anarchy in the streets" that could result from a government shutdown, Governor David Paterson said on Thursday.

It's a political variation of "Hotel California," a game the Democratic governor doesn't particularly want to play.

Like California, which last year issued $2.6 billion of IOUS during a lengthy budget battle, New York might have to pay its bills this way for the first time since the 1980s because the Legislature has not enacted a $135 billion budget more than two months after the deadline.

So far, New York state has dodged a shutdown -- the equivalent of a mass strike by public workers -- because the Legislature has enacted Paterson's emergency spending bills.

But now two Democratic senators have suggested they might reject next week's temporary spending bill, forcing Paterson to seek the votes of Republican senators.

"You could have anarchy literally in the streets if the government shut down," Paterson told WBEN radio.

Experts are unsure if the police, firefighters, prison guards, emergency and healthcare workers can go to work if they cannot be paid.

"We are meeting with the comptroller. We are talking with different agencies about how to manage a government shutdown," Paterson said.

Government shutdowns can have severe consequences for politicians, as former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich found out in 1995, Paterson said. New Jersey furloughed 45,000 workers and closed 12 Atlantic City in its 2006 shutdown.

However, IOUs are not without risk: Banks that do business with the state could reject them, a problem New York's former Democratic Governor Hugh Carey had in the 1980s, Paterson said.

Last year, California had a similar problem with big banks.

MORE UNKIND CUTS COMING

The Democrats who run New York's Legislature have rejected over $2 billion of cuts in education, healthcare and the like that Paterson says are needed to close a $9.2 billion deficit.

In a first, Paterson got the Legislature on Monday to approve a full year's worth of healthcare cuts totaling $775 million by including them in his one-week spending measure.

His next emergency bill will slice human services and mental health care by hundreds of millions of dollars.

To woo Republican Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos, Paterson said his next bill will also have the deeper cuts Skelos wants.

Skelos in a statement recommended $775 million of cuts -- $276 million more than Paterson. The GOP would, for example, delay hikes in welfare grants and lower personal allowances for people in drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers.

Medicaid, which costs the state about $1 billion a week, should be cut another $400 million, Skelos said.

Skelos told WCBI radio that Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch, who can preside over the Senate, should be able to cast a tie-breaking vote to avoid a government shutdown.

Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said there was still no agreement on any tax hikes or borrowing plans.

"I am hoping that we can come to an agreement on everything and begin to enact it next week," he told WCBI radio.

Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, a Democrat, outlined the risks of a shutdown.
***************************************************************************
State shut-down? Not if some GOP Senators can help it (Updated 2X)
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 2:08 PM by Rick Karlin in Budget 2010, General, Hugh Farley, Roy McDonald


Much of the current budget shut down drama being played out hinges on the assumption that Senate Republicans, voting in a solid bloc of 30 could vote against Monday’s extender. Then, if a couple of what Gov. Paterson has described as “rogue” Democratic senators such as Pedro Espada and Ruben Diaz Sr., vote no as well, the state’s funding spigot would close and the process of government shut-down would start until such time as another appropriation is passed or the 2010-11 budget is finalized.

But how secure are those 30 GOP votes?
They aren’t a given, at least according to Saratoga-area Republican Roy McDonald who just said he can hardly think of any circumstance in which he would vote for a shut-down.

“Nobody’s going to vote to shut down state government and neither am I. That’s my personal opinion,” said McDonald. He added he is confident that is fellow Capital District GOP counterpart, Hugh Farley of Niskayuna wouldn’t vote for a shut-down either. (I have a call into Farley).

Part of this may be driven by geography. McDonald and Farley represent a good part of the Capital Region, including Saratoga, Rensselaer and Schenectady counties, where there is a high concentration of state employees. To vote for a shut down, could amount to supporting a furlough on these employees since they are being told to stay home on Tuesday if there actually was a shut down.

Update: I just heard from Farley, who like McDonald said he doesn’t envision a shut-down, although he also stressed he needs to see Monday’s approp bill before voting on it.

“I don’t see any scenario where government is going to get shut down,” said Farley.

He added, “I can’t consider voting on a bill I haven’t seen. Who knows what’s going to be in there,” he said.
But he stressed that he believes a shut down is simply not in the cards.

Update: Senate Democratic spokesman Travis Proulx said his conference was gratified the Republicans would now vote for the budget given their prior votes. “Senators Hugh Farley and Roy McDonald have voted to shut down government; five times, in fact. Given this record, we’re pleased the senators are finally reconsidering the consequences of their actions, and like all New Yorkers hope they will oppose their leader’s threat to shutter the services and programs New Yorkers rely on,” said Proulx.
*********************************************************************************
Newt Wants Gov’t Shutdown…Those Who Forget The Past Are Condemned To Repeat It…
by Teeluck on Jun 10, 2010


Since more Repub­li­cans are con­ced­ing the full repeal of health reform is unlikely to occur on Pres­i­dent Obama’s watch, Gin­grich offered a two-tiered approach that is becom­ing increas­ingly pop­u­lar among conservatives:

Here’s my promise: … When we win con­trol of the House and Sen­ate this fall, Stage One of the end of Oba­maism will be a new Repub­li­can Con­gress in Jan­u­ary that sim­ply refuses to fund any of the rad­i­cal efforts.

Once upon a time, I used to be Speaker of the House and I actu­ally under­stand the leg­isla­tive process. And the truth is, under our Con­sti­tu­tion, the Con­gress doesn’t have to pass the money. If EPA gets no bud­get, it can’t enforce cap-and-trade.

So Stage One of Oba­maism being gone is to sim­ply win this fall and not fund it for two years. Stage Two is…to ensure Obama joins Jimmy Carter in the tra­di­tion of one-party pres­i­dents. And, that in that con­text, that we be pre­pared to com­mit that a Repub­li­can Pres­i­dent and a Repub­li­can Con­gress in Feb­ru­ary and March of 2013 will repeal every rad­i­cal bill passed by this machine.

Gingrich’s remarks were met with roars of approval from the right-wing crowd at the South­ern Repub­li­can Lead­er­ship Con­fer­ence in April 2010.

Gin­grich is recy­cling from his old play­book. As Salon’s Mike Mad­den describes the “new” strat­egy, “In other words, shut down the gov­ern­ment.” For approx­i­mately three weeks in the win­ter of 1995, Gin­grich orches­trated a shut­down of the entire fed­eral gov­ern­ment by refus­ing to fund its oper­a­tions, either by pass­ing a bud­get or a con­tin­u­ing res­o­lu­tion. CNN reported at the time, “The cur­rent shut­down began at mid­night Fri­day, when Con­gress did not extend a tem­po­rary spend­ing mea­sure put in place after the last closure.”

Newt’s bud­get show­down with Pres­i­dent Clin­ton caused the for­mer Speaker sig­nif­i­cant polit­i­cal dam­age. His per­sonal dis­ap­proval rat­ings reached a high of 65 per­cent. For­mer House Major­ity Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) crit­i­cized Gingrich’s han­dling of the shut­down, say­ing he “made the mis­take of his life.” It’s a mis­take that Gin­grich appears will­ing to make again.

As Dave Weigel notes, “Gin­grich propos­ing the same endgame as” Rep. Michele Bach­mann (R-MN). She told G. Gor­don Liddy this week, “I sup­port the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives defund­ing Oba­macare so that the bill is denied the funds it needs in order to be able to work.”

Jed Lewin­son notes that Gin­grich acknowl­edged in 1996 that his shut­down strat­egy failed. The New York Times reported, “Speaker Newt Gin­grich acknowl­edged in a recent inter­view, ‘our strat­egy failed’ because Mr. Clin­ton and his allies, instead of sur­ren­der­ing and mak­ing a bud­get deal, ‘were tougher than I thought they would be.’”

From Teeluck…Quite sim­ply, those who for­get the past are con­demed to repeat it…we can­not afford to re-elect the “Repub­li­can Reces­sion Mak­ing Party” (The RRMP)… This is what they have planned to do.

Orig­i­nal arti­cle on ThinkProgress.org by Faiz Shakir