January 19, 2010

Click here for the BUDGET presentation

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March 24, 2010

SUMMARY OF
SFY 2010-11
ASSEMBLY ONE-HOUSE PROPOSALS

Education; Health; Higher Education; Human Services, Labor and Aging;Environment, Energy, Agriculture and Parks; Public Protection; Mental Hygiene; Economic Development; Transportation; Housing; Local Government

Click here for the full report: Assembly

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March 22, 2010

NYS Senate Passes Budget Resolution

On Monday the New York State Senate passed their budget resolution. It closely mirrors the Governor’s budget proposal (released in January) in terms of the major cuts to areas like education although it does restore some of the reductions the Governor had called for. The Senate rejected most of the Governor’s revenue building proposals, including the proposed soda tax and raising taxes on cigarettes.

Click here to read the Senate Majority’s budget resolution: Senate

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March 5, 2010

Albany – The New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) has launched a statewide television, print and Web advertising campaign in an effort to educate the public and legislative leaders on the impact of proposed budget cuts.

PEF recognizes the seriousness of the current economic crisis, but the governor’s budget has the potential to seriously hamper services New York taxpayers rely on. The ads point out that, at a time when demand for state services is increasing, the size of the state work force has decreased. There are 45 hundred fewer state jobs
today than in 2008.

The ads will begin running March 6 on broadcast and cable television statewide. Print advertisements have been placed in targeted newspapers across the state and will be supported by ads on newspaper Web sites including the New York Times, New York Post and Daily News.

The television, Web and print ads can be viewed at www.pef.org.

PEF is the state’s second-largest state-employee union, representing 58,000 professional, scientific and technical employees.

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January 21, 2010

Statement of CSEA President Danny Donohue
on Gov. David Paterson’s proposed state budget.

“Gov. David Paterson’s unwillingness to address the misuse of $62 million in taxpayer money on temporary state workers should be evidence that there are still better budget choices to be made. Hiring and shortchanging temporary workers in dozens of state agencies for years on end is a misguided priority and a violation of the law. Before the governor asks union-represented state employees for concessions he needs to change his own administration’s practices that undermine working people.

CSEA will address these issues and so many others in the course of the weeks ahead with the objective of protecting jobs and services and their impact on the quality of life for New Yorkers.”

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January 20, 2010

Albany – The governor’s proposed 2010-11 budget calls for a quarter of a billion dollars in negotiated give-backs from state employees, when the savings could easily be achieved by reducing the state’s reliance on costly private consultants, instead.

The New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) applauds the governor for recognizing savings can be achieved by reducing the use of consultants. The governor recently proposed to reduce the use of information technology consultants for an estimated savings of as much as $15 million per year. The governor also identifies a savings in his proposed budget by reducing the state’s use of more costly private contract insurance examiners.

However, the governor’s consultant reduction plan is only the tip of the iceberg and does not go far enough. Our more aggressive proposal to cut the use of consultants across-the-board in state government can easily achieve the quarter of a billion dollars the governor is targeting from the state work force to close the budget gap.

I cannot and will not go to my members and ask them to reopen the contract we negotiated with the state in good faith when many of my members are sitting alongside more costly private contractors doing the same work. However, we are always willing to discuss issues that do not involve reopening our contract.

We await more details on the closures and consolidations the governor is proposing for the Office of Children and Family Services. We will seek to preserve the vital services our members provide to the state’s troubled youths and ensure that troubled and sometimes dangerous youths are not recklessly cast into our communities without adequate support.

PEF has identified significant potential savings for the state, such as the reduction in the use of consultants and reducing workplace injuries and their associated costs and have communicated these proposals to the governor.

PEF is the state’s second-largest state-employee union, representing 59,000 professional, scientific and technical employees.

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New York State Nurses Association statement: Executive Budget relating to health care

LATHAM, NY – Jan. 19, 2010 – The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) warns that the Governor’s proposed $1 billion in healthcare provider cuts is a number so large that its impact on facilities will be devastating.

Budget information obtained early Tuesday morning outlines nearly $1 billion in reductions to health care and an additional $240.2 million in assessments and surcharges.

Proposed cuts to hospital services, nursing homes, and home care and personal services will leave providers understaffed and put the public at risk. “These cuts, coupled with a lack of state regulation to ensure safe staffing, provide a formula that will negatively impact patient care and compromise patient outcomes for years to come,” said Tina Gerardi, MS, RN, CAE, Nurses Association CEO.

The Nurses Association urges the legislature to put the well-being of New Yorkers first and reject the Governor’s proposed healthcare cuts that impact patient care.

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Nurses Association opposes budget cut to SUNY nursing education LATHAM, Jan. 20, 2010 – The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA)
opposes Governor Paterson’s recommended $143,100 cut to funding for expanded SUNY nursing programs.

While the SUNY program is just one part of nursing education, it is integral to the larger effort of meeting the long-term needs of the nursing shortage. “While we applaud the Governor’s extension of funding for the Senator Patricia McGee Nursing Faculty Scholarship Program and continued funding of private nursing education, we cannot ignore the need for funding at our SUNY institutions,” said Tina Gerardi, MS, RN, CAE, Nurses Association CEO. “Without sufficient nursing programs, the nursing shortage will worsen and patient care will be severely compromised,” she said.

NYSNA urges the legislature to address the current nursing shortage and reject the Governor’s damaging cuts to SUNY’s nursing education programs.

Contact: Erin Silk, 518.782.9400, ext 224 The New York State Nurses Association is the voice for nursing in the Empire State. With more than 37,000 members, it is the state’s largest union and professional association for registered nurses. It supports nurses and nursing practice through education, research, legislative advocacy, and collective bargaining.

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State Budget: Governor’s proposal would hurt kids, taxpayers
NYSUT Media Relations – January 19, 2010

ALBANY, N.Y. January 19, 2010 – New York State United Teachers today said massive cuts proposed for education would force schools to cut teachers and programs, jeopardizing student progress while stalling the state’s ability to create jobs and revitalize the economy.

“How can you race to the top with an education budget that’s laden with red ink?” asked NYSUT President Richard C. Iannuzzi. “NYSUT understands the pain that the state’s deep fiscal crisis has inflicted on so many; our members and our professions have been hit hard too. Yet, slashing more than $1.1 billion from public schools and again hacking away at SUNY, CUNY and community colleges totally contradicts the major investment the Obama Administration is seeking for education through Race to the Top.”

Iannuzzi said Gov. David Paterson’s education budget leaves school districts in the unenviable position of either proposing double-digit property tax increases, or eliminating the programs and teachers that New York’s children need. More devastating cuts to SUNY, CUNY and the state’s community colleges, already reeling from years of budgetary ax-swinging, “would slam shut the door to higher education for many of New York’s students, especially the unemployed seeking retraining and preparation for new careers. This derails the state’s efforts to build a knowledge-based, high-tech economy in upstate New York,” he said.

Iannuzzi said NYSUT, along with its higher-ed affiliates, have grave concerns about the impact the proposed Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act impact would have on access to, and quality at, our public university systems.

“The next generation of New York’s workers must come from New York public schools and universities,” Iannuzzi said. “Employers are going to demand it, and state policymakers must ensure that New York’s education system can meet that demand.

“Promising a knowledge economy without an investment in knowledge is a hollow promise,” Iannuzzi said.

NYSUT Executive Vice President Andrew Pallotta noted that, historically, the governor’s proposal is the first word in the annual budget battle. “We are confident that legislators from both parties will understand the impact this proposal would have on the ability of schools – both charter and regular public schools- to meet the needs of students, and the property tax increases homeowners would likely face,” Pallotta said. “As always, we will be working with the Legislature and the governor to improve this spending plan to ensure the final budget – the last word – meets the needs of our public schools and colleges.”

NYSUT, the state’s largest union, represents more than 600,000 teachers, school-related professionals, academic and professional faculty in higher education, professionals in education and health care and retirees. NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.

January 20, 2010

By DANNY HAKIM and NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson proposed on Tuesday what would be the largest cut to school aid in more than two decades and nearly $1 billion in new or increased taxes and fees as he unveiled his budget, a plan that is likely to be the first chapter in a prolonged battle with the Legislature.

Searching for new sources of tax revenue amid a fiscal crisis, the governor proposed legalizing mixed martial arts, allowing the sale of wine in grocery stores, taxing bottled soft drinks, taxing cigarette sales on Indian reservations and deploying speed-enforcement cameras in highway work zones.

He even proposed charging fees to many families that enroll in an early intervention program for children with autism, attention deficit disorder and other special needs, and delaying one of his signature achievements — a plan to increase monthly welfare allowances.

Facing a $7.4 billion deficit this year, the governor is presenting a relatively lean budget by the standards of a state government accustomed to unrestrained spending. His office also delivered more sobering news, projecting that the state’s income will not return to the levels seen before the financial crisis until 2013.

The overall budget, including federal matching funds, would grow to $134 billion, up $787 million, or 0.6 percent, from the current fiscal year, which ends on March 31. State spending would increase $745 million, or 0.9 percent, to nearly $80 billion.

“This is not a budget of choice; this is a budget of necessity,” Mr. Paterson said in a speech to the Legislature on Tuesday morning. “Ladies and gentlemen, the days of continuing taxation and the days of continuous spending have got to end,” he added. “The era of irresponsibility has got to stop. The age of accountability has arrived.”

Several dozen lawmakers skipped the speech, which took place in a large egg-shaped auditorium here, and those who did attend greeted the governor’s remarks with polite, if tepid, applause. Mr. Paterson has had a tense relationship with fellow Democrats, who control the Legislature, sometimes by design as he has sought to capitalize on voter discontent with the array of scandals emanating from Albany.

Lawmakers expressed a mix of caution and skepticism on Tuesday. “Some of the stuff is retreads from last year that never quite made it, and I imagine they’ll probably meet the same fate,” said Senator Diane J. Savino, a Democrat representing Brooklyn and Staten Island, who singled out the soda tax and the proposal to allow groceries to sell wine.

Senator Malcolm A. Smith, a Queens Democrat, said the governor should not have allowed for an even modest rise in spending. “I don’t think we really should be increasing it at all,” said Mr. Smith, the Senate president.

Senator Dean G. Skelos, leader of the Senate Republicans, said, “The greatest danger” was “the one posed by Assembly and Senate Democrats who no doubt will push to further increase spending and taxes just like they did last year.”

The leaders of the Legislature — Senator John L. Sampson of Brooklyn and the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver of Manhattan — said they needed more time to review the proposals.

As he faces an uphill election battle, Mr. Paterson’s budget is also a break from the typical practice of robust budgets in election years. With no money to throw at preferred interest groups, Mr. Paterson is betting that voters will reward him as a responsible steward instead of punishing him as a Scrooge.

His plan would cut school aid by 5 percent in a state with the highest per-capita spending on education. It would also slow the growth of spending on Medicaid, reduce by $1 billion spending on state agencies and eliminate $300 million in undesignated annual aid to New York City.

But Mr. Paterson avoided harsher medicine. He has made no significant cuts to the state’s work force and even assured union leaders that he would not seek layoffs this year, a risky move as the state faces huge deficits in the coming years.

His plan also assumes that there will be a significant recovery this year in the state’s tax collections and relies on a number of recycled proposals. A new tax on sugared sodas, $1.28 per gallon, would yield $465 million, similar to a proposal that Mr. Paterson made last year but dropped amid resistance from the Legislature and companies like PepsiCo Inc., which is based in Purchase, N.Y.

Mr. Paterson is also proposing an increase in cigarette taxes, raising the tax per pack by $1, to $3.75, a change that would bring total taxes in New York City to $5.25 per pack.

One of the most controversial measures is Mr. Paterson’s proposal to slash school aid. Under the plan, wealthier districts would be hit hardest, a strategy that has long been fought by the State Senate, especially by senators from Long Island. Billy Easton, executive director of the Alliance for Quality Education, called it “a colossal reversal of New York State’s commitment to providing every child with a real opportunity to learn.”

Mr. Paterson is also seeking to shrink the state’s troubled youth prison system, which is facing federal scrutiny and a class-action lawsuit. He wants to close perhaps the most infamous institution, Tryon Boys Residential Center in Fulton County, where a 15-year-old boy died in November 2006 after workers pinned him to the floor. Mr. Paterson also proposes consolidating or shrinking three other youth centers.

Another proposal would introduce fees to a state program that provides early intervention services for about 74,000 special-needs children. Families would be charged on a sliding scale, with fees starting at $180 a year for those with a household annual income of at least $55,126 and topping out at $2,160 a year for those earning at least $198,451.

Mr. Paterson is also proposing new assessments totaling $240 million on the state’s powerful health care industry on top of the nearly $1 billion in cuts in payments to health care providers.

He would close two tax loopholes, including one that allows people earning severance packages to avoid paying state income tax if they move out of the state. And he is proposing to restructure the state’s property tax relief program, known as Star, to make it less beneficial for the wealthy.

Budget watchdogs had a mixed reaction, although most said that the governor’s proposal lacked the gimmickry that had characterized many previous budgets.

“It looks pretty clean,” said Elizabeth Lynam, a deputy research director at the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit organization. “On the whole, I think it makes a reasonable down payment on the problems the state is facing.”

Edmund J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a conservative-leaning research group, said the governor was still proposing to spend too much.

“What they’re saying is, ‘Look, we’re below inflation now — isn’t that great?’ ” Mr. McMahon said. “The problem is you were several multiples of inflation ahead of personal income during one of the steepest recessions in recent history and you’ve got a lot of catching up to do, so this isn’t good enough.”

Click here for the complete budget presentation: BUDGET

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