More on Paterson , Suozzi, schools and taxes

Marissa Shorenstein, Gov. Paterson's deputy director of communications, today sent me items in addition to Tier 5 and the Wicks Law in which the Paterson budget proposal to some extent follows the Suozzi commission report. She writes:

"Health Benefit Reform

The Commission Proposal: Encourage health benefit trusts in order to facilitate additional collaborative participation in health benefit cooperatives throughout the State.

 The Executive Budget Proposal: The Governor’s plan also seeks to encourage the creation of health benefit trusts by easing the requirements to form cooperative health benefit plans.

 School District Mandate Relief

 The Commission Proposal:  The following recommendations to address the burden of excessive school district mandates were put forth by the Commission.

·         No new legislative or regulatory mandates without a complete accounting of the fiscal impact on local governments, which must include full documentation, local government input and proposed revenue sources to fund the new mandates.

·         Mandate accountability through an annual report from the Office of the State Comptroller, which should include the cumulative cost to localities of complying with all new regulatory and legislative mandates.

·         Centralize and streamline school district reporting to decrease personnel and other costs associated with sometimes duplicative and unnecessary forms and other filing requirements.

·         Increase threshold amounts for purchasing under competitive bidding requirements.

The Executive Budget Proposal:  The Governor’s proposal includes similar mandate relief items.

·         Delaying the Effective Date of Mandates.  Any new mandate with a cost would not be implemented sooner than the following school year to allow districts the opportunity to build those costs into their budgets.

·         Reducing Paperwork.  This proposal would streamline existing reporting requirements and eliminate required reports that are outdated or no longer serve a public policy purpose.

·         Reforming Procurement.  This would allow school districts additional contracting flexibility by increasing existing bidding thresholds and allowing them to piggyback onto existing contracts.  This provision would also benefit other types of local government. "

But even from this comparison, it is clear that the governor is offering much less mandate relief than Suozzi proposed. Further, there is nothing in the budget following Suozzi's recommendations about a school district property tax cap, or controlling costs by reforming special education or the Taylor Law, or centralizing collective bargaining, increasing employee health insurance premiums, promoting consolidation and shared services. Nor does the budget include other sensible reforms, such as cutting the state's share of building aid and reforming the law so that districts do not have an incentive to neglect old buildings and construct expensive new ones. Nor could Shorenstein say if and when the governor will propose implementing the rest of the Suozzi report.

If he doesn't, he's going to drive the entire budget process into the ditch. Paterson is making it increasingly clear that he will eventually support higher income taxes on the wealthy, which is fine. But does he really think it plausible to increase income taxes on the upper middle class at the same time he takes away their STAR rebates (which his budget proposes), while school districts respond to a 3.3 percent cut in operating aid (also in the Paterson budget) by raising property taxes through the roof? Ain't no way the Legislature will let that happen, which means the governor will guarantee huge holes in the budget unless he ignores objections from NYSUT and other interest groups, revs up the Suozzi train and climbs aboard.