Fiscal follies

Gov. David Paterson and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli issued dueling press releases Friday afternoon (a fine time to bury bad news) after the latter revealed what he plans to do to make up for the 26.3 percent decline in the state pension fund. Get the money from local taxpayers is the short answer, although part of the comptroller's plan would let local governments put off some of the pain. Paterson is right that hiking property and other taxes is the last thing the upstate economy needs, and DiNapoli is right that the money has to come from somewhere. Both men are former legislators, who along with virtually every other Democrat and Republican for many years supported bills dictated by public employee unions which dug this hole, including a 2000 law eliminating employee contributions and providing automatic cost-of-living increases for pensioners. Paterson, unlike DiNapoli, Sheldon Silver or Andrew Cuomo, has moved a bit away from this lockstep by proposing modest cost containment such as a new Tier 5 for the pension system. He could revive his dismal poll numbers and election prospects by continuing to focus on such measures, along with the school property tax cap he has come out for. Cuomo's focus on local government consolidation is worthy enough, but won't save nearly as much money as he implies. And when the attorney general (and possible gubernatorial candidate) talks about reducing and not capping taxes he is obviously grandstanding, given his failure to propose or support substantive or politically feasible measures to contain spending and taxes.