New York Lawmakers Put Themselves Before State, Paterson Says
Paterson warned he may have to shut services if the Legislature didnt take immediate action to narrow a $10 billion, two-year budget deficit. As much as $15 billion in payments to state vendors, pension plans and local governments through March may have to be delayed or met through expensive, short-term borrowing, he said.
“When you look at the avoidant behavior and the almost denial that many of the legislators seem to be in, you recognize that they have let their political issues usurp doing whats right for the people,” Paterson said at a news conference in his Manhattan offices yesterday.
Paterson, 55, called lawmakers to Albany for a special session two weeks ago to push them to adopt a plan that would reduce spending by $3.8 billion over two years. It would include $1.2 billion in one-time revenue actions, such as a tax amnesty, a bond sale by the Battery Park City Authority and $200 million from developers of a slot machine parlor at Aqueduct Race Track in Queens.
While Rome Burns
The plan would close this years $3.2 billion gap in the $133.2 billion budget for the current fiscal year ending March 31, and trim about $2 billion from the $6.8 billion deficit officials project in the year beginning April 1, 2010.
Since Paterson, a Democrat, proposed his plan to close the deficit a month ago, he has battled lawmakers eager to avoid unpopular cuts in education and health-care spending, the two biggest outlays in the states budget.
He said Republican state senators who have balked on approving the cuts rely on “estimated revenues that dont exist and they overestimate what we can receive from areas such as Medicaid fraud recovery.” Senate Democrats hesitate to propose any reduced spending out of political fear, he added.
“I think its irresponsible,” Paterson said. “This is basically fiddling while Rome is burning.”
Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos said in a statement that a plan to reduce spending and close the deficit has been proposed and that Assembly Democrats and Speaker Sheldon Silver are the “only roadblock” to getting the bill done.
Silver was unavailable for comment.
Furloughs, Firings
Paterson has tried to persuade the Legislature to reduce spending at a time when public opinion polls show his job approval rating to be at a historic low for a New York governor, and when he faces potential election challenges both within the Democratic Party, from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and from Republicans, next year.
Paterson, when asked whether his standing in the polls might have emboldened lawmakers to disregard his warnings, said the issue isnt about “political popularity,” rather the “fear that legislators have about ramifications if they favor doing whats right for the people.”
“I dont have the time to sit around and speculate with you about whos running, whos not running, why theyre running,” Paterson said yesterday. “It will be such a shock to the public when they find out how serious the financial peril that were in actually is, that they will be angry at everybody; those who have been unable to solve the problem and those who sat around not even commenting on it.”
Squeaking By
Even if Patersons plan were enacted, “we would still be just squeaking by in December, barely able to meet our financial obligations,” the governor said, citing projections he had just received in a telephone briefing with state budget officials and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
The comptroller, who has estimated that the states current deficit could be as much as $4.1 billion, warned Nov. 20 the state may be $1.4 billion short of funds needed to pay December obligations, even after borrowing from its short-term investment pool.
The state collected $85.3 million less than expected in the seven months ended Oct. 30, while spending was $390 million above projections, the office said in its monthly cash report.