After a total of 1,089 state employees received authorization by mid-November to retire with a $20,000 severance payment, Gov. David Paterson’s Division of the Budget is extending the program until Jan. 20 to see if the state can get more participation.

   Paterson ordered a total of $500 million in mid-year budget cuts at state agencies, part of his strategy to close a $3.2 billion budget gap. Agencies can offer the severance packages as a means of helping them make the reductions.

   “It has come to our attention that thousands of employees expressed an interest in participating in the program, but certain agencies chose not to accept these employees into the program,” Budget Director Robert Megna wrote in a letter to commissioners.

   “As you are aware, the State continues to face serious fiscal challenges. To address this situation, the Governor has instructed agencies to aggressively offer severances to reduce the State workforce and maximize savings,” Megna wrote.

   Megna said commissioners should “make every effort to increase the utilization of the Severance Program.” Employees have to file applications under the extension by Dec. 22.

   The Budget Division doesn’t have final numbers of how many employees ultimately took the buyout but expects to know sometime around the beginning of next month, said Matt Anderson, Paterson budget spokesman.

Agency Severance Letter

    Attorney General Andrew Cuomo would get the support of 72 percent of registered voters in the state in a primary against Gov. David Paterson, according to a Marist College poll released today. Twenty-one percent of voters would select Paterson, who plans to run for election next year.

   “Right now, Andrew Cuomo has a clear path to become governor,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College poll. “If he could fast-forward to next November, I’m sure he would.”

   The poll is being released a day after Republican officials confirmed that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is not going to run for governor. The poll found that Cuomo has a lead over former U.S. Rep. Rick Lazio in addition to Paterson. Lazio is the only Republican who has announced he is running for the seat.

   If Lazio ran against Cuomo today, Cuomo would win by a 3-to-1 margin—69 percent to 24 percent, the poll found. If Lazio ran against Paterson, 44 percent of the electorate would support Paterson and 44 percent would choose Lazio. Twelve percent are undecided.

   Cuomo has not announced whether he intends to run and Paterson has said he will stay in the race, despite his paltry poll numbers.

   Marist found that 63 percent of registered voters don’t want Paterson to run for governor and 30 percent want him to be in the race. In a Marist poll two months ago, 63 percent of voters surveyed said they wanted Paterson to drop out and 25 percent wanted him to continue his campaign. Read more of this entry »

With the state facing a cash crunch, Gov. David Paterson warned today he may have to resort to steps that other states have taken—such as layoffs, furloughs or shutting down pre-kindergarten program—if lawmakers don’t make budget cuts this month.

A report from Moody’s Investors Service this week, meanwhile, said the state could lose its stable credit rating “if there is no action taken by the state to close the gap, or if action is taken but is largely one-time in nature (therefore increasing the structural imbalance in the out years).”

Paterson is at odds with lawmakers over cutting aid to schools and health care to help close a $3.2 billion mid-year budget gap. After four days of failed negotiations in Albany, lawmakers went home Thursday and plan to return Monday.

But Paterson continued his tough talk today against legislators who don’t want to make cuts. He said spending reductions now would also help lower the deficit next fiscal year, which he estimated may be at $9 billion. The current fiscal year expires March 31.

Come late December, the state faces running out of money if cuts aren’t made, he and other state officials said. That means the state would have to borrow and possibly delay payments to local governments in schools.

Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli warned today that the state faces a $1.4 billion cash deficit next month. Paterson said that if all the state’s money was pooled together next month and all the bills were paid, the state would have about $30 million in the bank – a remarkably low amount for a state with a $132 billion budget.

“We can’t afford to fall back on the old ways of addressing a long-standing problem with short-term fixes,” DiNapoli said. “It hasn’t worked, and it won’t work. A patch today is a problem tomorrow.”
Without close the budget gap, Paterson said New York would have resort to what other states have done, such as laying off state workers, instituting unpaid weeks off or even eliminating programs, such as early childhood programs and pre-kindergarten classes.

“I’ve been telling you what happened in the other states,” Paterson told reporters this morning. “That’s what we’re going to have to do. I told you that 26 states shut down their early childhood education and pre-kindergarten programs, and that’s what we’re going to have to do.”

Paterson said he spoke to legislative leaders this morning to advise them of the dire predictions. But he said lawmakers have so far offered no cuts to schools and only about $100 million in cuts to health care. Paterson has proposed about $1.3 billion in cuts.

“I think this is a lot more serious than the interest of some of the legislators who would rather go home and be heroes saying look I didn’t cut school aid or look I didn’t cut health care,” Paterson said.

Nys Go Report 1109

If you recall, state Assemblyman Greg Ball, R-Patterson, released a poll this week showing him running pretty close to Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, in his bid to unseat the congressman.

Some, though, took issue with the way the poll was conducted, pointing out it didn’t sample the entire Congressional district and it oversampled Putnam County, where Ball lives and where his Assembly seat is based.

Two more items related to this whole thing –
1. Here’s a defense of the poll sent out last night by Ball’s Congressional campaign.

Todd Vitale of Vitale & Associates dismissed the criticisms of the poll.

“We’re on solid ground.  Sounds like DC insiders trying to muddy the waters in order to avoid having to explain the incumbent congressman’s vulnerability to Greg.  Our poll shows that Greg is strong in the most competitive parts of the district, and Putnam and Westchester are indeed porportioned as they should be based on projected turnout in 2010,” Vitale said.

“When we do a full CD19 poll later in the campaign, our N=300 sample will include n=44 in Putnam (15%), and n=79 in Westchester (26%), based on estimated 2010 turnout contribution by county – the same county vs. county ratio of interviews in the poll we just released.   The only difference will be that in a full CD19 poll, we will also include a full set of interviews to include Orange, Rockland and Dutchess—which have traditionally been Republican strongholds – and therefore which will only IMPROVE the results for Ball,” Vitale said. “Thus, we should stand by our poll, which has presented a proportionally accurate snap-shot picture of voter attitudes in the most competitive parts of the district.”

Jim Coleman, a spokesperson for the Ball campaign, concurred.

“Fearful of an Independent Republican like Greg Ball, Washington insiders are trying to manufacture a candidate. But that candidate’s 2% name recognition shows they are failing miserably, despite enlisting rival vendors to question the methodology of a national pollster with fifteen years experience working on national campaigns,” Coleman said. “New Yorkers have abundant evidence of Washington insiders stepping in to throw their weight around, and we know what the result was: the Democrats won.”

Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is coming out with a report today will show that the state’s cash crunch is getting even worse.

DiNapoli said his office will release a report that shows New York faces a cash-flow deficit of up to $1.4 billion in late December, higher than projections from Gov. David Paterson’s budget office.

It means the state is running out of money to pay its bills, DiNapoli warned. Paterson’s office last month predicted a $1.1 billion cash-flow deficit in late December.

“The state does run the risk of running out of cash in a significant way in December,” DiNapoli told Gannett’s Albany bureau. “It really underscores the need for the governor and the Legislature to come together on a deficit-reduction plan.”

DiNapoli urged that spending cuts need to be part of the budget deal, which so far lawmakers have resisted.

Without a budget-cutting plan, state officials said New York may have to delay payments to schools and local governments or borrow to pay its bills, which would hurt the state’s credit rating and its ability to borrow money.

The state has been dipping into a fund controlled by the comptroller called a Short Term Investment Pool, which mainly invests in short-term treasury bills and allows the state to borrow from it to pay monthly bills. But even that fund faces being almost depleted by the end of the year, officials said.

“We’re on a razor’s edge when it comes to cash flow in December in terms of the resources of the Short Term Investment Pool,” said Paterson’s budget spokesman Matt Anderson.

Former Gov. George Pataki will be at a parkland ceremony near his home next week in Garrison.

The town of Philipstown, which includes the lush hamlet of Garrison, is dedicating a sign, Let’s Take a Hike,  to the past state leader “for his love of the great outdoors,” said Amber Stickle. Director of Recreation and Parks at Philipstown Recreation Department.

The ceremony and reception is at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 24 at the Claudio Marzollo Community Center on Route 9D, just south of Route 403.

Currently, Pataki is involved in private legal practice, so he said at a forum Nov. 16 at the New-York Historical Society on Central Park West. He was a panelist talking about the future of New York.  He was optimistic about New York City saying that it remains a cultural and economic epicenter for many.  Apparently, his neighbors want to honor him  for his appreciation of the scenic landscape in Putnam County.

The Westchester County Association President William Mooney today blasted the county board chairman, saying Bill Ryan is “missing the mark” in his criticisms of WCA having outside auditors review the county’s $1.8 billion budget proposal.

“Mr. Ryan is quoted today as saying that accountants aren’t capable of being ‘qualitative’ in their thinking,” Mooney said. “That statement alone clearly shows how far removed he is from the realities of the business world.”

Mooney challenged Ryan’s assumption that WCA has no public policy focus. He said he hoped Ryan would take a “less antagonistic approach and seek to work collaboratively to assure Westchester’s future viability as a business location and place to live.”

In a story published today, Ryan said the budget matter wasn’t an accounting problem, but a public policy one. He said the tough choices aren’t what dollars to cut, but rather what services to slash. Read the story here.

Ryan, through the county board’s press secretary, declined comment.

County Executive-elect Rob Astorino met with Westchester County Board of Legislators Chairman William Ryan, D-White Plains, this afternoon to discuss issues the two leaders will have to address in the New Year.

Central to the talks were the federal housing settlement and the county’s $1.8 billion budget proposal, which legislators are now reviewing — they must approve it by the end of the year. Outgoing County Executive Andrew Spano pitched his budget earlier this week; it raises taxes by 4.9 percent.

The two men met at Astorino’s transition headquarters in White Plains. They previously served together on the  county board when Astorino was a legislator.

Ryan and Astorino also talked about future of county government, developing a bipartisan working relationship and brainstorming on opportunities to streamline, cut costs and improve county government operation, county board spokeswoman Tara Martin said.

Martin said the meeting, a first in-person since the election, was “cordial and productive.”

   A new Marist College poll that coincides with news today that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has decided not to run for governor found that he would easily win over Democratic Gov. David Paterson but would have his work cut out for him if Attorney General Andrew Cuomo ran instead of Paterson. 

   Among registered voters, Giuliani would get 60 percent to Paterson’s 35 percent, according to the poll. But Cuomo would get 53 percent and Giuliani would garner 43 percent of the vote in a hypothetical matchup.

   If Giuliani ran for U.S. Senate, which he has not ruled out as a possibility, he would have more of a chance of success. Fifty-four percent of voters said they would vote for Giuliani, a Republican, over freshman Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat. One-third of Democrats surveyed said they would opt for Giuliani.

   Marist found that if a GOP primary for U.S. Senate were held today, 71 percent of voters would choose Giuliani, compared to 24 percent for former Gov. George Pataki, who has also been talked about as a potential candidate.

   Republican Rick Lazio is considering a run for governor, so not having Giuliani in the picture would help Lazio. Lazio, a former U.S. representative, would garner 13 percent of the GOP vote compared to 84 percent for Giuliani, according to Marist.

   “It’s good news for Andrew Cuomo and Rick Lazio but potentially a huge problem for Kirsten Gillibrand,” Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Poll, said in a statement. “If Giuliani were to capture the U.S. Senate seat from heavily Democratic New York State, it would return him to the national spotlight big time.”

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., is coming to Mahopac on Tuesday. An announcement on The Greater Mahopac-Carmel Chamber of Commerce’s Web site says:

Senator Gillibrand will have a conversation with local business and community leaders on  economic development and how she can assist and promote local growth.