WXXI: Paterson Promotes Cuts (2008-11-10)

Governor David Paterson is trying to promote his plans for budget cuts to the people of the state, in the days leading up to a special session he's called for November 18 in Albany. But so far, members of the legislature aren't cooperating.

Paterson has arranged town hall meetings, shown on public television, and launched a new website, to promote his ideas for controlling the state budget deficit, estimated at nearly $14 billion dollars for the remainder of this fiscal year and for 2009.

Paterson, speaking at the first town hall meeting in Westchester, has focused on spending cuts, saying new taxes would only "exacerbate" the crisis. A second town hall meeting occurs in Syracuse on Tuesday.

The governor, speaking in Puerto Rico, said he was willing to cut school aid, even in the middle of the academic year, as well as Medicaid, and re-negotiate existing contracts with state worker unions. The President of the Civil Service Employees Association, Danny Donahue, said reopening the contracts is "unacceptable".

So far, the legislature has not agreed to any of Paterson's proposals. The governor asked leaders of the legislature to submit cost cutting proposals to him by last Friday. No legislative leader responded. In fact, the Leader of the Senate Republicans, Dean Skelos, who's had a tense relationship with Paterson, issued an analysis saying things might not be quite as bad as the governor is claiming.

Ron Deutsch leads New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, a coalition of human services groups, religious organizations, with union backing that advocates for alternatives to budget cuts. Deutsch dismisses Paterson's efforts to promote the budget cuts as a public relations campaign.

"This is almost an exercise in the governor trying to increase his poll numbers," said Deutsch.

Deutsch also criticizes the governor's use of a website that invites the public to cut the budget, saying it's too simplistic. And he says Paterson is not considering alternatives, like using the state's rainy day fund, or increasing taxes on the wealthy. He says the governor should also wait and see if a federal stimulus package emerges, before demanding steep cuts of $2 billion dollars from this year's budget.

"One of the things that we find problematic is that the governor is in such a rush to get these cuts enacted right now," said Deutsch.

Deutsch says the biggest problem is that state leaders have made a number of commitments in recent years, including greatly increasing funding for education in answer to a court ruling, and allowing a partial state takeover of Medicaid, without creating a steady stream of revenue to pay for it all.

Now that the legislature has left it up to the governor to make the first move to try to resolve the budget crisis, Paterson is expected to release his specific cost cutting proposals later in the week.