Budget Battle Continues
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- November
- 19
The war of words continued today over the failure of Gov. David Paterson and the Legislature to reach a deal to close the state’s $3.2 billion mid-year budget gap.
Paterson said he continues to get pushback from state senators, Democrats and Republicans, over his plan to cut aid to schools and health care.
Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said he’s telling his conference to return to Albany on Monday – signaling that a deal is not near.
“It’s likely we’ll be back next week,” Silver said on WGDJ-AM (1300) in Albany.
Paterson has kept lawmakers in Albany every day this week to get a budget deal in advance of about $6 billion in payments due in December to schools and local governments. Paterson said the state only has about $3 billion to pay the bills.
“Some of the legislators, I must say, do understand this crisis,” Paterson said on WOR-AM (710) in Manhattan. “They tell it to me. They want to get out of here and balance the budget. Others think of excuses.”
The trouble, Paterson suggested, lies in the state Senate, where Democrats hold a narrow 32-30 seat majority. A number of Democratic senators oppose cuts in school spending, while Republicans have not indicated a willingness to go along with Paterson’s budget plan. Paterson has proposed about $1.3 billion in cuts, mainly to schools and health care.
Paterson said some lawmakers want to link cuts to a cap on state spending, which Senate Republicans support but is not backed by Assembly Democrats. Senate Democrats, meanwhile, want no cuts to schools and are proposing inflated revenue projections from the potential collection of taxes on Native American reservations, Paterson charged.
“You wonder how you get a negotiation going on with that kind of element injecting itself in the process, obviously trying to placate other interests,” Paterson said.
Senate Democrats have proposed about $650 million in cuts, mainly to health care, but would leave schools harmless. Legislative officials contend that Paterson is seeking about $850 million in cuts as a compromise.
Silver put the blame on Senate Republicans, suggesting that Democrats don’t have the 32 votes in its conference to pass a budget agreement.
“The Republicans are not interested in governing. They’re all about politics,” he said. “They are all about rhetoric and the people will not be fooled by that.”
Senate Republicans countered that Silver hasn’t offered any proposals publicly to close the budget gap, while the other legislative conferences have.
“The speaker has not put anything on the table,” said John McArdle, spokesman for Senate Republicans. “What the speaker has admitted is what everyone has known that he has no proposals to close the deficit.”
This entry was posted
on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 12:27 pm by Joseph Spector.
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