Critics Say Paterson Needs to Act on Budget Gap Soon

By Karen DeWitt

Albany, New York – Governor Paterson this week took what he called the first step in closing the state's budget deficit, by slashing half a billion dollars from state agencies. Critics say the governor needs to do more, and soon, to manage New York's growing fiscal crisis.

The Governor ordered half a billion dollars in reductions to state agencies and New York's public colleges. The cuts represent about 16% of the $3 billion dollars in savings that Paterson has said is needed to close the deficit.

The governor has said the remaining gap is growing at a rate of $83 million dollars a day, and will only get worse if nothing's done.

"We're right up against it with this budget," said Paterson.

Critics say action on the rest of the growing gap needs to come soon. And they say it's up to the governor to come up with the rest of plan. EJ McMahon, with the conservative leaning think tank, The Empire Center, says in past fiscal crises over the last several decades, governors, including Carey, Cuomo and Pataki, set the agenda and presented plans to the legislature. The state's constitution says that governors must propose a budget plan, and the legislature's role is to react to those proposals. McMahon says this week's action by Paterson represents just the bare minimum of what needs to be done.

"It kind of begs two questions," said McMahon. "Where's he been and where's he going?"

The governor and his budget officials have known about the new gap since the end of July. But Paterson has been reluctant to devise a list of cuts, taxes, or one shot revenue raisers that would close the gap. He's said for months now that he prefers to get ideas from legislative leaders first. The governor, who now has a less than 20% approval rating in public opinion polls, says when he proposed spending cuts in the past, interest groups complained, launching millions of dollars in negative TV ads against him.

"The problem that I find when you put out a menu of options, is you then get a menu of negative advertising, trying to turn the public against specific ways of budgeting," said Paterson earlier this year.

McMahon says that's not a good reason for inaction.

"That's what comes with the job," McMahon said.

Steve Greenberg, with Siena College Polling, says if Governor Paterson is worried that delivering more bad budget news will hurt his standing with the public, he's mistaken. Greenberg says last fall, when Paterson was proposing plans to cut the deficit, and introducing a budget plan with spending cuts and numerous new fees, his popularity was at it's highest.

Greenberg says in the past, even though Paterson was the bearer of bad news, voters rewarded him for looking like a leader.

"The voters are looking to the governor to provide the leadership and the effectiveness to get it done," said Greenberg. "They're not looking for political chatter, they're looking for real significant action."

The Governor's budget director, Robert Megna, who briefed reporters in a teleconference on the $500 million dollars in budget cuts, says the governor and legislative leaders are "working collaboratively" to try to come up with a solution by the end of the month. The top Senate Democrats, however, will not be available for much of October to make budget decisions. Senate President Malcolm Smith and Senate Conference Leader John Sampson are embarking on an extended trip to China.

The head of the Senate Finance Committee, Carl Kruger, says Senate Democrats are working on "creative cost saving measures that avoid typical Albany cuts", but offered no specifics.