Going by the principle that you should never underestimate the importance of superficial factors, this morning's Red Room event at the Capitol showed off a clean-shaven Gov. Paterson (looking dapper and younger) and two brand new participants at the leadership table: Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch and Senate Democratic conference leader John Sampson. The Assembly minority leader, Brian Kolb, is pretty new, too, while Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is the permanent government.
Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos, who had sued Paterson over the Ravitch appointment, was gracious in the wake of his 4-3 loss (and Paterson's win) this week at the Court of Appeals, welcoming Ravitch and presumably signaling there will be no further GOP legal action in the case. Kolb suggested that Ravitch chair deficit-reduction meetings of legislative and executive staffs, which seemed to get general support. Kolb also came closest to suggesting an actual significant spending reduction, in suggesting implementation of more of the Tom Suozzi-chaired commission report on school property taxes (which included sensible proposed savings in areas such as special education). But I couldn't get Assemblyman Jim Hayes, the minority's budget guru, to let me see his list of proposed specific budget cuts.
Nor was there any general agreement on any specific cost-cutting measure, and Paterson just said he hoped next week to set a date for a special legislative session. Cuts must be made, he said, or the state would likely run out of money to meet its obligations before the end of the fiscal year, which would negatively impact its credit rating.
This year's deficit, officially estimated at $2.1 billion, is on track to be about $1 billion bigger than that, the governor said. More problems loom in future years, especially if and when federal stimulus dollars run out at the end of 2010. Ravitch warned that the recession and financial crisis have resulted in the large-scale transfer of debt from the private to public sector.
Paterson noted that Skelos had in the past opposed both tax increases and spending cuts. Silver said we would soon see if promised bipartisanship is real and "we're all in it together." Kolb complained Paterson hadn't returned his call(s), and the governor responded "there may have been some communication issues we need to clear up." Sampson said we need to protect "core values," which might indicate resistance to budget cuts, although it was tax increases he came out against, along with endorsing "transparency and accountability" (prompting stifled yawns and eye-rolling).