Legislative Updates

Memo

2010-11 Budget – Deadline Missed – Negotiations Continue

The deadline of April 1st for the 2010-11 was missed and as such, both Houses of the Legislature passed the Governor's Emergency Spending Extender bill which expires April 11th. Both Houses of the Legislature are scheduled to leave today and return on Monday, April 12th at which point they are expected to pass another Emergency Spending Extender bill submitted by the Governor. Negotiations continue between both Houses but no agreement has been reached and to date, a goal for completing an agreement has not been established. There are a number of major issues still to be resolved the most important of which is the projected deficit of $9.2 billion. There are also other major issues dealing with cuts to school aid, health care and the borrowing of $2 million as proposed by Lt. Governor Richard Ravitch. So far, the Legislature has agreed on only $3.3 billion in cuts as compared to the Governor's $4.8 billion. Then there is the differences in the Senate and Assembly budget which are about $700 million, with both budgets exceeding the Governor's proposed budget of $134 billion by $3 billion. To date, there have been no agreements to hold Conference Committees to resolve the differences between both Houses.

Senate Democrats Announce Set of Budget Reforms

Although the State spending plan for 2010-11 is already one week late, Senate Democrats announced on Wednesday of this week an ambitious set of reforms to New York State's budget process. The Democrat's plan enumerated by Senator Liz Krueger, (D-Manhattan) the Chair of the Senate Committee on Budget and Tax Reform, includes the creation of the following. The establishment of a two year budget process which would require the Executive Branch to submit a 24 month proposal, moving to generally accepted accounting principals which would more closely align spending and revenue, the creation of a 13 member Empire State Performance Commission to create a plan to trim government and cut waste, the creation of a non-partisan Legislative Budget Office to "remove the politics from revenue forecasting," moving the beginning of the State's fiscal year from April 1st to June 1st, requiring the Executive to list a cost benefit analysis of all tax break programs numbered by the Democrats to be at more than 380 and lastly, requiring a periodic review of all tax break programs and establishing automatic five-year sunset dates for those that currently lack any sunset.

"New York's budget process is a mess said Majority Conference Leader Senator John Sampson at the Democrat's press conference announcing the reforms. Sampson blamed the Republicans for "pushing off the problem for their own gain, creating a vicious cycle year after year" during their four decades in the majority. Minority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Long Island) responded by indicating that he had no problem with the majority of the Democrat's reforms, just the timing of their being announced in the middle of the budget process. "Practically every single reform that was proposed today we passed in the Senate when we were in the majority" said Skelos.

Governor Paterson – Holding Back Funds for Scheduled Pay Raises

Indications are that Governor Paterson's latest budget extender that he will send up to the Legislature will not include the scheduled 4% raises for State union workers an administration source told the Daily News. The source said the administration believes it has the power since it is not cancelling the raises, just holding them back. "It's not impoundment, we're not taking it away from them. It's like how we're withholding school aid as well as the money we are withholding for construction contracts. We will withhold the 4% raises until there is an enacted budget" the source indicated. The source also added that Governor Paterson met privately with the Civil Service Employee Association, President Danny Donohue and Public Employment Federation President Ken Brynien to break the news.

Unions – Not so Fast Governor

As the result of the above, the Public Employees Federation has threatened legal action against Governor Paterson's plan to withhold the scheduled 4% pay raises until a new budget is enacted. A spokesman for PEF called the action by the Governor "a violation of our contract." The raises were scheduled to go into effect on April 1st, the start of the new fiscal year. But a Paterson administration source said the Governor does not plan to include the raises in his bear-bones two-week budget extender to keep government operating that he will send to the Legislature for them to act on when they return Monday, April 12th.