Camp Pharsalia to remain open
By Jay Gallagher
and Joseph Spector
Albany Bureau
PRESSCONNECTS.com

After passing on-time budgets in two of the last three years, the state Legislature was resigned Monday to missing the April 1 deadline this year — probably not wrapping up until late this week.

Passing a budget on time is a hallmark issue for state lawmakers after the Legislature went 20 straight years without meeting the deadline. They had an on-time budget in 2004 and 2005, and missed the deadline by a day last year.

The frantic pace to get a deal done on time this year was marred by the resignation March 17 of Gov. Eliot Spitzer because of his involvement in a prostitution ring.

But some good-government groups said that excuse, while legitimate, shouldn’t allow lawmakers to rush the process at the expense of openness.

Gov. David A. Paterson, who took over two weeks ago, has been eager to get an on-time budget to show that state government is running smoothly, despite the transition.

“There were extraordinary circumstances this year, nobody is doubting that,” said Barbara Bartoletti of the League of Women Voters. “But the legislative leaders have been doing this for a long time. They get this budget process, and it’s really disheartening that we could not do a more open and transparent process.”

Sen. Thomas W. Libous, R-Binghamton, said this year was the “most secretive open process” he’s seen in Albany.

Budget committees “just stopped meeting, and more got accomplished behind closed doors,” he said.

Some legislators expressed frustration about the process, with many not knowing yet how much aid would be returned to their districts.

The Senate and Assembly passed short-term spending measures to keep state operations running until April 9 after the new fiscal year begins today. They were expected to pass some budget bills late Monday, but none of consequence.

Still, some decisions have apparently been made, according to legislators.

Four prisons slated to be closed by Paterson will stay open, said Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, Rensselaer County. He made the announcement Monday as hundreds of prison guards rallied at the Capitol.

The decision to keep the prisons open will cost taxpayers about $10 million next year, as well as $30 million to fix them up, according to the state Budget Division.

The four facilities affected are three minimum-security camps: Pharsalia in Chenango County, Gabriels in Franklin County and Mount McGregor in Saratoga County, as well as the medium-security Hudson Correctional Facility in Columbia County. About 500 jobs would have been affected.

But judges won’t get a raise this year, Bruno and other lawmakers said. The state’s top jurist, Judge Judith Kaye, promised to sue Paterson and the Legislature “sooner rather than later” if a raise isn’t forthcoming.

Kaye and other advocates of a raise pointed out that judges haven’t had a salary increase since 1999. Supreme Court judges make $136,300 a year.

The judges and prison guards joined dozens of other interest groups in last-minute jockeying over how the state should spend $124 billion next year — a hike of more than 4 percent, or almost $6 billion, from the present fiscal year, which ended at midnight Monday.

The state’s fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31.

Paterson and legislative leaders announced a “conceptual agreement” Sunday evening on the size of the new spending plan that would raise aid to local schools by $1.8 billion and impose an extra tax on cigarettes — between $1.25 to $1.50 per pack.

Charging $3 would bump New York’s ranking from 16th highest to first in the nation for the amount of its cigarette tax.

New Jersey is now first, at $2.58 a pack.

The American Cancer Society, American Heart Association and Academy of Family Physicians all are backing the increase, while the New York Association of Convenience Stores and the tobacco lobby are against it.

New York is losing $1 billion a year because of “tax-free” sales by Internet vendors, Native-American tribal stores to non-Indians and the black market, said James Calvin, president of the Association of Convenience Stores.

Julianne Canfield of the American Heart Association said in a statement that a higher tax would cut health-care costs due to smoking-related illnesses.

Republican senators said Monday that they planned to add back about $14 million to keep State Troopers posted at 118 school districts across the state.

Lawmakers also said counties will not have to pay extra for juvenile delinquents and some social-service programs, as Spitzer had proposed.