Politics on the Hudson

   Gov. David Paterson issued a Thanksgiving Day message to the state. Here it is in its entirety (622 words):

   “On behalf of Michelle and the Paterson family, I would like to wish all New Yorkers a very happy Thanksgiving.

   “Today, even as we face a painful economic crisis, New Yorkers have much to be thankful for.

   “We are forever grateful for the heroic service of our men and women in uniform. We can never fully repay our veterans for their service, but we must do all we can to try.

   “We are deeply appreciative of the more than 200,000 state employees who keep New York running. Their dedication to this state is exemplary.

   “And we can be also thankful for the unique opportunities our nation provides all of us to improve the lives of others.

   “Yesterday (Wednesday), I visited the Equinox Thanksgiving Community DInner in Albany. Tonight (Thursday), volunteers there will provide 8,000 Thanksgiving dinners to New Yorkers who would otherwise go without. These volunteers join thousands of others who are working to make sure that every New Yorker has something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

   “As governor, it has been my privilege to support the compassionate work performed by so many of our citizens. In trying times, we are doing all we can to ensure that every New Yorker is taken care of.

   “We are working to keep New Yorkers in their homes during this terrible mortgage crisis. In August, I signed a comprehensive package of reforms to assist New Yorkers facing foreclosure. Our reforms will also help to prevent a crisis like the current one from occurring again.

   “We are working to help those who have lost their jobs in the economic downturn. I teamed with the New York Congressional delegation to push for an additional seven weeks of federal emergency unemployment benefits—an extension signed into law last week. In addition, on November 5, I joined with the governors of New Jersey and Connecticut to request a $48 million National Emergency Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. This grant would enable us to help approximately 51,000 workers affected by the current downturn enhance their skills for future employment. (more…)

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, took some jabs at his Senate counterpart this morning on Talk 1300 Radio in Albany. Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, have both been criticized for not taking action last week on an emergency budget-cutting plan proposed by Gov. David Paterson.

Paterson called for a special session to vote on his $2 billion in budget reductions and he asked for input from lawmakers. Neither Silver nor Skelos presented ideas to the governor, and they decided against putting Paterson’s plan up for a vote in their chambers.

Silver said on the radio that he was willing to work with the governor and had told Paterson and others that “everything is on the table.” Silver said Skelos “effectively killed” the deal because he said he would need to see Paterson’s 2009-10 proposal before voting on this one. Silver said he thinks Skelos may want to leave everything to Democrats so his party doesn’t get blamed. The Republicans lost the majority in the Senate last month, the first time in more than 40 years, but the GOP is pushing several conservative Democrats to vote for a Republican majority leader and keep the party in power.

Skelos has expressed concern throughout the process that cuts in state funding not affect aid to schools and government and potentially create a need for property tax increases.

   About 450 librarians and library supporters rallied against budget cuts at the Capitol Tuesday. Gov. David Paterson has proposed $20 million in cuts to libraries, which the New York Library Association would bring library aid down for the state’s 73 library systems to a level not seen since 1993. State aid to libraries was flat between 1998 and 2006, according to the group. It was reduced from $103 million in 2007 to $100 million in April, then $99 million in August.

   “The library community is outraged by this proposal and the continued targeting of libraries to solve the state’s budget shortfalls. Library aid has already been cut twice this year, in April by 2 percent as part of the adopted 2008-09 state budget and then again at the special session in August by another 6 percent,” Michael Borges, executive director of the association, said in a statement.

   The governor called lawmakers into an emergency session Tuesday to make mid-year budget cuts, but legislators did not take any action. Paterson has warned that the state faces a budget deficit of $1.5 million and growing this year.

    “No other educational institutions have been targeted for a 20 percent cut in state funding. There seems to be no recognition by state budget makers that library usage has skyrocketed over the last year as more people turn to libraries for finding jobs, improving their literacy skills, and for free reading materials and programs for their families,” Borges said.

   The Campaign for Fiscal Equity could pursue reopening its court case or new litigation if state lawmakers and Gov. David Paterson implement the governor’s $836 million in cuts this school year to elementary and secondary schools in the state, Geri Palast, CFE’s executive director, said today.

   The reduction would hamper the state’s four-year plan to provide equitable funding in under-served districts statewide by boosting state education aid by more than $7 billion. (This is the second year.) The increase in funding was the state’s answer to a longstanding lawsuit filed on behalf of New York City schoolchildren. (CFE filed that lawsuit in 1993 and it wasn’t fully resolved until a few years ago.)

   The courts decided that all children in New York deserve a “sound basic education.” Lawmakers and the governor implemented a plan to boost funding to cover the whole state, although the courts prescribed that New York City schools receive a minimum increase of $1.93 billion over the four years plus inflation, Palast said.

   “Certainly, if the numbers were to fall below the court minimum we would certainly be able to go back to the court under the current case, and … we’re looking at all options,” she said. “I think our first choice is to try to resolve this with the governor, not in a litigation situation.”

   There is a potential for new litigation if the New York City numbers don’t work out or there is no solution worked out with Paterson and legislators, Palast said.

   She and other education and community advocates spoke out Monday against planned budget reductions to education. Under the Paterson proposal, the average classroom would lose $6,371, with some districts set to lose as much as $12,000 per classroom, according to an analysis by the labor-backed Fiscal Policy Institute. (more…)

   The state could could put a big dent in what it pays for funding school districts by changing employee contributions to health-care premiums and public pensions, 80 percent of school-board members said in an informal poll conducted by the state School Boards Association.

   In responding to an e-mail poll, 409 school-board members named the deficit-reduction measure that would have the most impact in their districts, rather than slashing $836 million this budget year, as Gov. David Paterson has proposed to help reduce the state budget. These are the results:

  —39 percent said requiring a minimum health-care contribution in employee contracts.

  —38 percent said requiring employee-pension contributions throughout the duration of employment.

  —23 percent said eliminating salary-step increases under expired contracts.  

   As for what individual school boards could do that would have the greatest effect; 26 percent said joining a health-care consortium; 20 percent said sharing services with other districts; 19 percent said joining a regional transportation agreement; 18 percent said participating in a regional energy-purchasing cooperative; and 17 percent said merging with another district.

   “These results indicate that Governor Paterson and state lawmakers should be trying to help school districts during this time of economic crisis, rather than making devastating mid-year cuts to education,” Timothy Kremer, head of the School Boards Association, said in a statement.

   The growth in personal income taxes continued to decline last month, according to state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s October Cash Report. Business taxes were significantly below what they were last year and are expected to continue dropping off, the report said.

   “The big picture is becoming even more dismal,” DiNapoli said in releasing the report, a day before lawmakers meet in a special budget-cutting session to deal with the state’s $1.5 billion-and-growing deficit this fiscal year. “The numbers continue to fall, and it’s expected to get worse in December and January. The massive losses in the financial sector aren’t over yet.”

   DiNapoli encouraged lawmakers to take action now, rather than wait, as some legislative leaders have proposed.

   Here are some statistics from the report:

  —General fund revenues of $31.3 billion were $44.8 million below the Budget Division’s projections.

  —General fund business-tax collections were $35.6 million in October, slightly higher than anticipated. However, general-fund business tax collections have been reduced by more than $900 million since the fiscal year began.

  —Collections of personal income taxes were $251.8 million for October, $24.8 million below what was projected through October. Total personal income-tax collections of $14.5 billion are $1.8 billion higher than last year at this time. Withholding collections have remained strong throughout the year, but growth appears to be slowing.

  —Total spending of $67.5 billion was $437.9 million below what has been planned. The difference is mainly due to lower-than-expected spending for local assistance programs, and lower-than-anticipated spending for general state charges and capital projects. This was offset by slightly higher-than-expected spending for other state programs.

   Here’s a breakdown of where Gov. David Paterson has identified $2 billion in budget cuts and savings. He has called legislators to Albany Tuesday for an emergency economic session and is asking them to cut $2 billion. The state deficit is $1.5 billion and growing, according to the governor, and is projected to be $12.5 billion in 2009-10.

   Medicaid/health care—$572 million, 28.3 percent

   School aid—$585 million, 28.9 percent

   Higher education—$115 million, 5.7 percent

   Other education—$36 million, 1.8 percent

   State workforce—$137 million, 6.8 percent

   Local governments—$134 million, 6.6 percent

   Human services—$20 million, 1 percent

   All other—$424 million, 21 percent

   Judith Kaye, New York’s first woman and longest serving chief judge, will deliver her final annual State of the Judiciary report tomorrow in Albany. Kaye is stepping down Dec. 31 because she is “aging out” of the judicial system, which has a mandatory retirement age of 70.

 As leader of the state’s highest court for 15 years, Kaye has ruled on cases that put an end to the death penalty in New York and required the state to pour billions more dollars into the New York City school system. She has been unsuccessful, however, in securing pay increases for the judiciary. Lawmakers, who traditionally align their pay hikes with those of judges, have not taken up the cause. Judges’ pay has not increased since 1999. Judges have filed a lawsuit to force the Legislature into approving raises. The suit is pending.

   Kaye, a native of Sullivan County, speaks at 1 p.m. She will be at New York University to deliver her address, which will be webcast.

   A commission has been charged with vetting potential successors and recommending seven names to Gov. David Paterson by Dec. 1. The governor will announce his pick by mid-January.

(National Archives photo.)

For those craving more information on how what happens in Albany trickles down to your community, the New York State Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials has launched www.StopTheTaxShift.org. Its purpose is to educate policymakers, the media, the public and, more specifially, New York’s overburdened real property taxpayer.

With New York’s fiscal crisis, mayors and other local officials are preparing to fight back any potential threats to state aid they receive. Last week, members of the New York Association of Counties and the County Executives Association cautioned that reductions in state aid could negatively affect communities and result in property-tax hikes. Gov. David Paterson has asked lawmakers to hold a special budget-cutting session in Albany next week. New York faces a $1.5 billion shortfall this year, which is expected to grow, and $12.5 million in 2009-10.

“New York is at a crossroads,” Cohoes Mayor John McDonald, president of the Conference of Mayors, said in a statement. “Will our leaders repeat the near fatal mistakes of the early 1990s, when local aid was slashed, and from which many communities have never recovered? Or will the governor and state legislators take the right approach and protect municipal property taxpayers from the devastating effect of cuts in AIM (municipal aid) funding?”

Features on StopTheTaxShift.org include a blog by “Joe Taxpayer” and a “Mandate of the Week” section.

   The Assembly just released its take on New York’s budget crisis. Like the report issued earlier today by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, it doesn’t contain good news. Employment and wages are expected to fall in 2009 and the decline on Wall Street will drive down other revenues to the state.

   “The New York State economic outlook is bleak,” according to the Assembly report, prepared by the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.

   The mid-year update of revenues and the state’s economic outlook is required by the state budget process.

   Some of the other Assembly findings: 

  —Tax revenues for 2008-09 will be $61 billion, $252 million below the estimate by Gov. David Paterson’s Division of Budget. That’s $1.8 billion less than the Budget Division’s first quarter estimate. Anticipated revenues for 2009-10 are $59 billion, much of which can be attributed to the forecast for personal income tax.

  —A slowdown in consumer spending is expected to limit 2009-10 growth in sales tax revenue to 1.9 percent. Business taxes are expected to decrease by 1.1 percent from 2008-09.

   The Ways and Means Committee predicts state school aid will increase $1.33 billion. A report issued by Assembly Republican Ways and Means Committee forecasts that school aid will increase about $1.9 billion in 2009-10, bringing the total to $23 billion.