PlanetAlbany

Assembly passing budget bills, Common Cause indignant

It's 1 in the morning, and Speaker Sheldon Silver has just taken the chair from Peter Rivera as the Assembly continues to pass budget bills. (I'm cheating -- watching on the computer which meant I had to download the "Real Player".)

A few hours ago, Common Cause/NY issued this statement:

"The virtual lock-down of the State Capitol today to prevent ordinary citizens from personally observing their elected representatives conducting what is supposed to be the people’s business offends all notions of good government and civic engagement. This action would be objectionable at any time, but is even more so during the debate on this year’s budget bills.  Given the financial challenges our state faces, the budget bills are arguably the bills which will have the most immediate and direct impact on millions of New Yorkers.  It is outrageous that the Legislature is so frightened of ordinary New Yorkers that they will not allow anyone other than staff and the press to observe the debates in person.  This flies in the face of long-standing American tradition and is simply wrong.”

They adjourned at 1:08 a.m.

 

Vindicating Bruno-Silver economics

The New York State Legislature draws a lot of (justified) flak for its dubious ethics and overspending, with the latter widely seen as driving up costs for the private sector and driving out business. The recent U.S. Census figures, however, show the Capital Region as a bright spot for population growth, and this is the very region where former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno and (to a lesser extent) Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver have poured in aid for high-tech nanotech research and private-sector jobs.

Even the cities of the Capital Region have apparently reversed decades of population decline, as opposed to cities in the western part of the state which continue to free fall. Schenectady is the region's fastest-growing city, which reflects the bipartisan, corporatist approach that led to the state's creation of the Metroplex Development Authority in 1998, as well as encouragement of Guyanese-American immigration. Susan Savage's "Miracle of Schenectady" campaign slogan in a Senate race last year was widely mocked and didn't help her win (nor did it help that she was running against the foremost creator of Metroplex, Sen. Hugh Farley), but she had a point.

Schenectady County had the second fastest growth rate to the region's perennial leader, Saratoga County. While that might seem an argument against the corporatist model, given the low-tax conservative rhetoric of the No. 1 county's Republican leaders, the situation is more complicated than that. Saratoga, much of which was in Bruno's district, was a prime target of his largess (Global Foundries being the No. 1 exhibit). But the fundamental reason for Saratoga County's growth is a massive government project dating from the 1960s -- construction of the toll-free Adirondack Northway (I-87).

The Cuomo budget

The budget deal announced last night by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders builds on the fiscally responsible record of the governor's underappreciated predecessor, David Paterson. The $170 million in cuts to the historically profligate and unaccountable court system were justified, and education, too, has been lavishly funded over recent decades and thus was a reasonable source for savings -- although targeted cuts and reforms in bloated areas like special ed would have been preferable, along with a property tax cap.

The rhetoric about how this budget takes on the special interests is largely hokum. The trial lawyers' lobby, which has a special relationship with the Assembly leadership, succeeded in killing medical malpractice reform. Local pols got a partial restoration of state aid to areas hosting harness tracks -- a subsidy with no rational basis.

More significantly, the millionare's tax will be allowed to expire, leaving the state income tax system with five different rates, the top one for a single earner kicking in at the ridiculously low annual figure of $20,000. A rational tax-cutting agenda would eliminate taxes on those earning less than $20,000, but those people are not an interest group that politicians pay attention to. The drive to let the millionaire's tax expire was driven by the Democratic governor and supported by Senate Republicans, who as a result will see even more prisons than anticipated close in their upstate districts, with possibly harmful results to the state crime rate. Assembly Democrats made a less-than half-hearted and completely ineffective effort to save the tax -- as opposed to their vigorous and successful defense of the trial lawyers.

Diaz bills on committee agenda

The state Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations will meet at 12:30 tomorrow to consider seven bills sponsored by Bronx Sen. Ruben Diaz. Some of them, such as one "prohibiting outside work by a legislator during the term of office" would appear to have little chance of passage, and the one "prohibiting the use of lottery funds for any purpose other than education" wouldn't seem to accomplish much. But I wonder if the Republican leaders of the Senate, which they control by virtue of a one-seat two-vote majority, are going out of their way to accommodate Diaz, a socially conservative and economically liberal Democrat who is the most independent legislator in Albany. The meeting is in Room 810 of the LOB.

Troops may miss pay

My daughter, who is on her second tour of duty in Afghanistan, and her fellow soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division have been told by their commanders they will likely not get paid during a government shutdown, if that happens. The linked article says Sen. John McCain is trying to avert this result, and I wish him well. Meanwhile, soldiers in the line of fire are left to worry about meeting financial obligations back home, and hope the U.S. government will not prove quite that irresponsible.

Budget solutions

So The New York Times comes out against malpractice reform, the largest piece of savings identified by Gov. Cuomo's Medicaid redesign commission. That editorial  will likely please Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, the king of torts. On another budget issue, Silver has been objecting to the governor's plan to kill the millionaire's tax. The fiscally sensible compromise would be to reform malpractice while leaving the millionaire's tax in place -- but Albany is not exactly renowned for that kind of constructive politics.

Senate GOP fails to show up

The Legislature is now meeting in joint session in the Assembly chamber to consider nominations for the state Board of Regents. In the chamber are chairs designated for all the senators, but the Republican chairs sit empty because the members are not there.

The Regents "are responsible for the general supervision of all educational activities within the State, presiding over The University and the New York State Education Department," according to their Web site, and are elected by the Legislature for five-year terms. Because the Legislature meets as a whole to do this, and while the Senate is closely divided the much larger Assembly is overwhelmingly dominated by Democrats, Democratic members dominate the process and the Assembly speaker is the key player in appointing the board.

Senate Republicans have customarily protested this state of affairs by failing to show up, which strikes me as a lousy strategy. If they object to any nominee, or want to present their own, they should do so, regardless of the perceived chance of success -- and if they object to the process, they should do that, too, on the Assembly floor.

Catholics at the Capitol

It's Catholics at the Capitol day today, and I caught the end of Mass at Albany's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Knights of Columbus headed a procession back from the altar to the main entrance, halting, turning into two ranks and doffing their elaborate headgear to make way for various altar servers, priests and about 15 bishops, including New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan bringing up the rear. Dolan, a large "lovely spring broth of a man" (as I think Jimmy Breslin once called Tip O'Neill, although Google unaccountably cannot immediately confirm this) was smiling and thanking everyone like a regular politician.

Then Albany Bishop Howard Hubbard took a few questions from a Brooklyn TV station (I think a Catholic one, whose two young female reporters did a good job) and a New York Post reporter, smoothly dodging inquiries about Gov. Andrew Cuomo's nomarital status and saying there is "no tension at all" between the bishops and the governor. "We disagree with the governor on some issues," the bishop said, "but that doesn't mean we can't work together for the common good." Regarding Catholic schools, Hubbard said the bishops hope to at least to get state money previously committed for state-mandated services.

The bishops are scheduled to be meeting with Cuomo now in the Executive Mansion, and will hold a 2:15 p.m. news conference in the LCA press room (which I unfortunately will be unable to attend).

"Lenient and Elastic Eligibility Criteria Burden Medicaid"

Following up on my failure to read the Medicaid redesign Web site, if the plan doesn't include these common-sense savings on nursing home costs by reducing payouts to the middle class and wealthy, it should.

Smooth sailing on OASAS nomination (updated 2X)

Another Cuomo administration nominee, Arlene Gonzalez Sanchez, got kid-gloves treatment from the Senate committee considering her nomination (chaired by Independent Democrat Jeff Klein), with Republicans along with Democrats immediately expressing their support. The meeting of the Alcohol and Substance Abuse Committee has just ended, lasting barely 15 minutes before approving the nomination, sending it on to the Finance Committee where Republican Sen. John Boancic said it would have his support. I didn't recognize any reporters at the sparsely attending hearing in an LOB conference room, but a bunch of them plus other interested parties like NYPIRG's Blair Horner were listening to a news conference in the LCA press room across the hall, where Ed Koch and others were pushing redistricting reform.

Sanchez was on the Medicaid restructuring panel, so maybe addicts will still be able to get Medicaid to pay for their treatment.
Update: I tried to ask her about this after the hearing, but her handlers said I would have to go through John Milgrim in the governor's press office -- which didn't seem like a productive pathway.

Second update: But as I was chatting with a trooper who has long been stationed outside the second-floor governor's office I ran into Milgrim, and felt obliged to ask him the question. He referred me to this Web site,
http://www.health.ny.gov/health_care/medicaid/redesign/
which I confess I have not yet perused.