Another Idea for Cutting State Aid to Schools

March 23, 2010, 6:40 pm
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

As state lawmakers struggle to close a projected $9 billion budget gap by the end of the month, school aid is emerging as the main battleground.

Gov. David A. Paterson has proposed cutting $1.4 billion in state school aid out of next year’s budget, cuts that Democrats in the State Senate endorsed on Monday.

The Democratic-controlled State Assembly, however, is balking at those cuts, which some lawmakers in the chamber say would go too far and cripple schools. On Wednesday, Assembly lawmakers are likely to unveil their own budget resolution, one that several said would restore perhaps half of Mr. Paterson’s cuts, though the exact amount had not been finalized.

But a few Assembly Democrats have another idea. Teachers should consider putting off their automatic raises this year, and so avoid layoffs, three Democrats said in a letter sent to the state teachers’ union on Tuesday.

“Staff salaries are the single largest fixed cost in every school budget,” the lawmakers — Sam Hoyt of Buffalo, Ginny Fields of Suffolk County and Michael Benjamin of the Bronx — wrote. At a time when many people in the private sector have had their earnings drop significantly, they argue, public sector employees should give back something, too.

By voluntarily postponing automatic raises, the lawmakers estimated, the teachers could save school districts just over $1 billion, “nearly canceling the worst impacts of the proposed budget cuts.”

No deal, said Richard C. Iannuzzi, president of New York State United Teachers, the umbrella teachers’ union for the state.

While some local unions may negotiate such postponements, Mr. Iannuzzi said, teachers had already sacrificed enough; more than 5,000 were laid off last year. A better option, he said, would be tax increases to raise more revenue, in combination with some spending cuts and some salary bargaining at the local level.

Referring to Mr. Hoyt, Mr. Iannuzzi said, “He’s asking about a choice that doesn’t exist: If you take revenue, state aid cuts and local decisions, and local sacrifices, and put all that together, then you could forge a budget.”

“The assemblyman is correct,” Mr. Iannuzzi said. “It’s time for some bold steps, and those steps are going to include some real looks at the revenue side of the ledger.” He added that the union’s top priority was to reimpose the stock transfer tax, a move that Mr. Paterson opposes.

“It could be a temporary decision, but it is certainly something that should be looked at,” Mr. Iannuzzi said.

Party lines tell tale in state budget vote

By RICK KARLIN, Capitol bureau
First published in print: Tuesday, March 23, 2010

ALBANY — The state Senate, voting along party lines, passed a budget blueprint Monday that leaves intact many of Gov. David Paterson’s cuts to education and health care but ignores a proposal to borrow $2 billion.

The resolution to move forward on the $136.2 billion plan still needs fine-tuning through joint Assembly-Senate committees. As of press time, the Assembly had not put forward its own resolution.

All 32 Senate Democrats voted for the resolution Monday afternoon, while 29 Republicans voted against it. (Sen. Tom Morahan, R-New City, remains out due to an illness.)

Republican Minority Leader Dean Skelos complained his members were shut out of talks, and claimed the plan doesn’t do enough to restructure state spending.

“This is just a sham and a gimmick,” Skelos said before his vote.

But Senate Democratic Majority Conference Leader John Sampson said Monday’s resolution is a step toward finalizing the 2010-11 budget.

“He claims he wants an open and bipartisan budget process, but refuses to vote for a bill that begins the process,” Sampson said of Skelos.

Republicans last year voted en masse against the final budget. If Monday’s vote is any indication, this year could bring a replay of that 32-30 Senate vote.

If that’s the case, Sampson will have to continue to work hard to keep all 32 of his members on board, a tall order given the political hazards of supporting a spending plan that includes school aid cuts in an election year.

Monday’s 32 votes came despite earlier rumblings that some Democrats would oppose education cuts. Sixteen Senate Democrats had written Paterson saying they couldn’t in “good conscience” support a budget that cut school aid.

The budget resolution, which several Democrats described as a road map, made no mention of the plan recently developed by Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch that includes $2 billion in borrowing along with some new constraints on future budgets.

Senate leaders said the Ravitch plan wasn’t specifically precluded, however. And the Assembly could offer a borrowing component with their budget road map.

Also missing was Paterson’s proposal for a tax on sugary drinks, increased cigarette taxes, tighter regulation of health insurance rates, and a long-debated proposal to allow the sale of wine in grocery stores.

The Democratic plan does call for raising $700 million by refinancing the income stream from tobacco bonds that the state currently gets.

Paterson has previously rejected that idea — attractive to Wall Street — as a “one-shot” that would cost more in the long run.

In efforts to close next year’s estimated $9.2 billion budget gap, Senate Democrats also count on $250 million from taxing cigarettes sold on Indian reservations — a measure which, like wine sales in grocery stores, has been debated for years.

The Senate Democrats’ willingness to include education cuts drew considerable notice, with school groups warning it would lead to mass teacher layoffs. Education escaped the budget knife last December, when a deficit reduction plan agreed to by Paterson and lawmakers included health care cuts.
Some said they believed that’s why those cuts were proposed now. And others wondered if the $1.4 billion in school cuts may later serve as cover for a tax hike of some kind.

Several observers wondered if lawmakers, who expect to face unhappy voters during this November’s elections, may present the sugar tax or an additional, temporary “millionaire’s tax” as a less painful alternative to teacher layoffs or school/property tax increases.

Legislators in both parties and both chamber have steadfastly insisted they won’t raise taxes this year.

Some of the Senate Democrats’ proposals raised eyebrows with critics who claimed they reflected the inexperience of the conference.

These included the elimination of $100 million in high technology research grants, many of which the governor has already promised to colleges and universities across the state.

All told, Senate Democratic Finance Secretary Joseph Pennisi said the resolution would bring the state’s all funds budget — the total amount of expenditures, including federal monies — from $133.1 billion to $136.2 billion with the general fund portion going from $53.3 billion to $54.3 billion.

The big jump in the all funds amount, Pennisi explained, is due to the state’s pushing forward some expenses with their roots in earlier years, such as payments due from a 2005 debt restructuring.

Officials conceded the plan doesn’t eliminate future deficits. “There’s no doubt that there are out-year problems in this budget,” said Pennisi.

The 2010-2011 fiscal year begins April 1, although many officials have acknowledged that the budget is unlikely to be finalized by the deadline.

The Legislature is back in session today through Friday, but is off from March 29 until April 7 due to the Passover and Easter holiday break.

Rick Karlin can be reached at 454-5758 or rkarlin@timesunion.com.

At a glance

Highlights of the Senate Democratic budget plan, as passed in a resolution Monday; it’s subject to negotiation and approval in the Assembly and by the Governor.

State General Fund: $54.3 billion (same as the governor’s plan).

State All Funds (including federal dollars): $136.2 billion ($100 million, or one-tenth of a percent, larger than the governor’s budget).

Revenue-raisers proposed by governor, rejected by Senate:

Soda tax on syrup ($465 million)

Cigarette tax increase ($210 million)

Wine sales in grocery stores ($253 million);

Gross receipts tax on health care providers ($216 million)

Cuts contained in the Senate resolution:

$1.4 billion to school aid

$800 million to higher education

Numerous reductions to most state agencies

Source: Senate Democratic conference

NYSUT outraged by Senate embrace of harmful education cuts

NYSUT Media Relations – March 22, 2010

ALBANY, N.Y. March 22, 2010 – The State Senate’s embrace of Gov. Paterson’s proposed $1.7 billion in cuts to education would devastate New York’s schools, colleges and communities, hurting students and scuttling the state’s economic recovery, according to New York State United Teachers.
Noting that the proposed $1.4 billion in cuts to K-12 amount to a 7.5 percent reduction in operating aid for schools, NYSUT President Richard C. Iannuzzi called today’s Senate vote “completely unacceptable.”

“If this budget is allowed to stand, we will be looking at a drastic reduction in electives and AP courses, the elimination of summer school and after-school programs, and much larger class sizes. The Senate’s vote today, coupled with its tax cap vote last week tying the hands of local school districts, are a significant step backwards from the progress that New York schools have made in recent years,” Iannuzzi said.

Iannuzzi cited a report released today by the state School Boards Association and the Council of School Superintendents, which projected the loss of nearly 20,000 education jobs – through layoffs and attrition – if lawmakers do not restore the budget cuts.

“This not only means taking away the livelihood of thousands of professionals, but it means adding to the economic woes of communities already struggling with high unemployment,” Iannuzzi said.

NYSUT Executive Vice President Andrew Pallotta said the Paterson-Senate budget is already $4.2 billion below what was promised after the Campaign for Fiscal Equity court case, which ordered New York to provide a sound, basic education for all students.

“How many times is the state going to break its promise to our children?” Pallotta asked. “The cuts that the Senate has endorsed would hurt all students, but especially students in high-needs districts. The Senate is doing exactly what it was ordered by the court not to do.”

In addition, the Senate failed to restore any of the governor’s proposed cuts to CUNY and SUNY four-year colleges. This resolution also takes steps to limit student access and privatize public higher education. These cuts follow disproportionate cuts to higher ed in each of the lasts several years, totaling more than three-quarters of a billion dollars.

Pallotta said NYSUT and its pro-education allies would work with the state Assembly to undo the damage proposed in the Paterson-Senate plan. Both Iannuzzi and Pallotta acknowledged that the state is experiencing difficult fiscal times and cited the loss of 5,000 education positions during this academic year.

“Keeping the promise to our school children is the right choice for our state,” Iannuzzi said. “Instead of delivering on that promise, the Senate has decided to deliver pink slips.”

Reporters and Editors: Attached is a preliminary list of the number of jobs that would be lost (PDF) under the Executive Budget in districts reporting to date. The list is growing every day.

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.

BALCONY Health Care Reform Symposium Rescheduled to April 14

MARCH 26th BALCONY SYMPOSIUM WITH SECRETARY KATHLEEN SEBELIUS RESCHEDULED FOR APRIL 14th

Dear Friends,

Mid-day on Tuesday March 23rd, we at BALCONY were alerted by the Department of Health and Human Services that Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will be unable to attend BALCONY’s Symposium on the Status of Health Care Reform, originally scheduled for this coming Friday, March 26th, at 8:00 a.m. The new date is Wednesday, April 14, 2010.

This last-minute change is due to the necessity of the Secretary being in Washington Friday to lobby the Senate on reconciliation of the recently passed health care reform bill. Fortunately, Secretary Sebelius’ office has notified BALCONY that the Secretary will be available to speak on April 14th.

Consequently, BALCONY is rescheduling its Symposium on the Status of Health Care Reform for the morning of Wednesday, April 14th, 2010. The event will remain at the Hard Rock Cafe (1501 Broadway at 43rd Street ).

We apologize for any inconvenience this rescheduling may cause. If you have already purchased a ticket to the March 26th event your ticket will be automatically transferred to the symposium on the 14th of April. If you have already purchased a ticket but cannot attend the event on April 14th please call us at (212) 219-7777 for refund information.

Thanks again for your interest in this event.

Click here for more information about this event: Symposium

News From Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard N. Gottfried: Health Care Reform Passes; New York Must Work to Build Universal Coverage

Contact: Ryan Streeter, 518-455-4941

For Immediate Release: Monday, March 22, 2010

The House of Representatives passage of the health care reform bill is an historic and important step forward. It is a victory for democracy and social justice. The Senate must immediately pass the reconciliation bill.

Congress has now raised the floor for health care for the country. There is an extraordinary amount of good in the bill, but let’s remember that it does not mean universal health coverage. In New York, we need to work to use the tools in the Federal legislation to build universal health coverage.

The bill will help reform the health care delivery system to strengthen primary care and the development of integrated health systems. This will promote better outcomes and control costs. It also expands Medicaid to provide comprehensive coverage to millions more low and moderate income Americans, and would provide an additional $1 billion in Medicaid funds to New York.

In New York, we must make sure that the anti-abortion language in the bill does not undermine choice and access to the full range of reproductive health care. This may require new state action to fill gaps in the federal law.

I will be working with consumer advocates, health care providers, labor, and others to build a better structure on the new federal platform. I believe New York should offer publicly-sponsored, publicly-funded health coverage, like Medicare or Child Health Plus, but for everyone, with broad-based financing based on ability to pay. That is what my New York Health Plus bill would do.

As the late Senator Ted Kennedy wrote to President Obama, “What we face is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country.”

822 Legislative Office Building, Albany, NY 12248 – Tel: 518-455-4941
250 Broadway, #2232, New York, NY 10007 – Tel: 212-312-1492
GottfrR@assembly.state.ny.us

Sound judgment: 9/11 responders are lucky to have Judge Alvin Hellerstein

Finally, after almost nine long, painful, shameful years, someone has stood up for the rights and the well-being of the Forgotten Victims of 9/11.

Manhattan Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein courageously served justice by refusing to sanction the wholly inadequate settlement offered to 10,000 people who have claimed they were sickened at Ground Zero.

His decision was also a stunning rebuke to the attorneys who asked their clients to accept far less than they deserved while gouging them for outrageous legal fees.

Only last week, lead lawyer Marc Bern went ballistic at the mere suggestion that Hellerstein could trim his bonanza. Now, fury will likely target all the lawyers – from clients burning with a sense that their attorneys made a shambles of this mass litigation and tried to take an anticipated $200 million and run.

After listening to a number of sick rescue and recovery workers, Hellerstein nailed three points:

First, that the $657 million offered to the claimants if they unanimously accepted the deal, and the $575 million they would split if 95% bit, fell far short of fairness.

Second, that lawyers grossly overreached by demanding one-third of all recoveries, plus costs.

Third, that the settlement proposal was a convoluted mishmash that gave claimants absolutely no way to figure out how much money any one individual stood to receive.

“I will not preside over a settlement that is based on fear or ignorance,” Hellerstein said.

One good measure of how lacking the proposed settlement was is the certainty that City Hall would have leaped at the deal had the plaintiffs’ lawyers offered it, oh, three years ago.

Another good measure is that the average payout would have been in the $40,000-to-$60,000 range – a piddling amount compared with the average injury award paid by the 9/11 victims’ compensation fund before it closed: $392,000.

The long-term solution is that Congress must reopen the fund under legislation that is inching through the House. In the short term, Hellerstein must remain the fair guardian of the interests of thousands of people who now have grounds to question whose side their attorneys are on.

As a first step, as we have urged, the judge should require Bern and partners Paul Napoli and David Worby to provide a full public reckoning as to the merits of those 10,000 cases. No one knows how many are legitimate and how many specious.

Hellerstein should insist that, after five years of litigation, the time has come for the lawyers to stop waging the fight based on the quantity of cases rather than on their quality.

Yesterday, he told them to start getting real. They have much further to go.

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Democrats Say Health Bill Will Pay for Itself in the Long Run

By ROBERT PEAR and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

WASHINGTON — House Democrats initiated a 72-hour countdown Thursday on their yearlong effort to overhaul the health care system, unveiling a nearly final version of the legislation that promptly won additional support with a promise that the bill would more than pay for itself over the next decade.

Armed with detailed legislative language and a report on the bill’s costs from the Congressional Budget Office, Democratic leaders and White House officials kicked off a new round of arm-twisting to line up the votes they will need to pass the legislation when it comes to the House floor in the face of intense Republican opposition on Sunday.

House Democratic leaders were still struggling Thursday to lock in the 216 votes they need to pass the bill. They are believed to be at least a half-dozen votes short, but say they are confident they can secure the needed votes.

With the fate of his top domestic priority still up in the air, President Obama postponed a foreign trip that he had been scheduled to start Sunday to be on hand for the final House vote and a subsequent round of voting that would begin in the Senate next week to complete work on the bill.

The legislation’s chances seemed to be improved by the budget office report, which estimated that it would reduce projected federal budget deficits by $138 billion over the next decade, with additional tax revenue and Medicare savings. Many of the House Democrats who have continued to waver over the bill had been concerned about its long-term costs. The bill would provide insurance coverage to most of the uninsured, put new restrictions on insurers and seek to lower rising health care costs.

The version of the bill unveiled on Thursday is based on the bill passed by the Senate in December, but it incorporates a package of changes that would address concerns raised by House Democrats. Under the timetable outlined by Democratic leaders, the House on Sunday would pass the Senate bill and then immediately approve a package of changes. If signed by Mr. Obama, the first bill would become the law of the land, but the second one would go to the Senate, where it could be approved by a simple majority, using a procedure intended to avoid the threat of Republican filibuster.

Representative Bart Gordon, Democrat of Tennessee, cited the deficit-reduction figure in announcing Thursday that he would switch his vote and support the new bill. Mr. Gordon, a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, voted against the House bill in November.

Another Blue Dog Democrat who voted no in November, Representative Betsy Markey of Colorado, said she too would support the new measure.

But a few House Democrats, including Representatives Michael Arcuri of New York and Stephen F. Lynch of Massachusetts, said they were moving in the opposite direction.

Mr. Arcuri, who supported the bill in November, said he would vote against the new package because it did not do enough to lower insurance costs.

Mr. Lynch issued a statement saying he was opposed to the Senate bill — and to a plan being considered by Democratic leaders to pass it without explicitly voting for it. The House should take “a straightforward up-or-down vote on a bill of this magnitude,” he said.

The No. 3 Democrat in the House, Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, said, “We are absolutely giddy” over the report from the budget office.

Republicans minimized the significance of the latest cost estimate, deriding the 10-year budget savings as paltry compared with what they called the staggering scale of the government’s debt.

Democrats see no prospect of obtaining any Republican votes for the bill, a top priority for Mr. Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.

“Passage of health care reform is of paramount importance, and the president is determined to see this battle through,” Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said in announcing that Mr. Obama had postponed until June his plan to travel to Indonesia and Australia.

Officials said that Senate leaders would spend Friday conferring with the Senate parliamentarian over the specific legislative language to determine if any provisions may be struck out for failing to meet the requirements of the complex process being used to alter the Senate bill, known as budget reconciliation.

Senior House Democratic aides said the decisions by the Senate parliamentarian could result in a final package of amendments, in the hope that the House could approve a bill on Sunday that would not require any further changes in the Senate.

Under the bill, the budget office said, the federal government would spend $940 billion over the next 10 years to provide coverage to 32 million people who would otherwise be uninsured.

The price tag, though higher than $875 billion cost of the Senate bill, is lower than the limit of $950 billion suggested by Mr. Obama.

The cost of the bill results from a significant expansion of Medicaid, to cover 16 million more low-income people, and the payment of federal subsidies to help moderate-income people buy health insurance on their own.

House Democrats said they had reduced the impact of a proposed tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health plans. White House officials have described the tax, included in the Senate bill, as a way to slow the growth of health spending.

Labor unions dislike the tax, but the A.F.L.-C.I.O. endorsed the overall legislation on Thursday.

Richard L. Trumka, the group’s president, said unions would “do everything we can” to lobby Congress on the bill.

Under the Senate bill, the tax on high-cost health plans would have raised $149 billion over 10 years. The new legislation delays and reduces the tax, slashing expected revenues to $32 billion.

Democrats would make up for some of the lost revenue by increasing the Medicare payroll tax and extending it to capital gains, dividends, interest and other “unearned income” of people with adjusted gross incomes over $250,000 for married couples and $200,000 for individuals.

The new Medicare tax would raise $210 billion over 10 years, more than twice as much as the $87 billion generated by the comparable provision of the Senate bill, according to the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. Fees and taxes under the new bill would total $438 billion over 10 years, up from $399 billion in the Senate bill.

Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois, said he decided to vote for the health care bill on Thursday after receiving assurances from Mr. Obama that the White House would press forward with an immigration overhaul this year.

“I feel that what I have from the White House is a commitment to bring more enthusiasm, to make it a great priority to get immigration reform done this year,” said Mr. Gutierrez, who voted for the House bill in November but was noncommittal in recent days.

Ms. Pelosi said she was ready for a fierce fight. Insurance companies “will do anything to stop this legislation,” she said, asserting, “They have made a fortune off of the misfortune of the American people.”

The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said the new legislation was “worse than the Senate bill.” Republicans said the new numbers should not provide any comfort to people worried about the deficit. In the first decade, they said, the picture is too rosy because many of the taxes and fees would start immediately, while the major costs would not show up for several years.

Hurdles Still Remain for Ground Zero Settlement

by Mireya Navarro

Sgt. Dawn Sorrento says she looks on the years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as a blur of doctor’s visits, ambushes by illnesses she had never heard of and growing resentment toward the city that challenged her injury claims.

Yet on Friday, Sergeant Sorrento, a police officer who is among some 10,000 rescue and cleanup workers at ground zero who sued the city for health damages, felt a grim sort of satisfaction. She had expected her case to be among the first to go to trial this spring; instead, both sides announced a legal settlement of up to $657.5 million Thursday night.

“It’s nice that someone took responsibility, finally,” said Sergeant Sorrento, 43, who helped coordinate the movement of cranes, dignitaries and cadaver-hunting dogs in and out of ground zero in September 2001. “The city finally acknowledges that 9/11 diseases do exist and that people are suffering.”

Officials cast the settlement as righting a historic wrong on Friday and predicted that it would assure speedy and just compensation to the workers, who have waited more than six years for a legal resolution. But significant hurdles remain.

Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, of the United States District Court in Manhattan, has made clear that he intends to play a role in assuring that individuals are compensated fairly.

At a hearing on Friday, Judge Hellerstein said he would take a week to review the terms of the agreement and convene again next Friday to give his “initial impressions” and to hear from interested parties, including plaintiffs.

He also scheduled a formal “fairness hearing” on the agreement for April 12.

Lawyers from both sides have said that the settlement does not require the judge’s approval. But Judge Hellerstein warned them in January that in the event of a settlement, he would hold hearings to determine whether the settlement treated individual 9/11 workers fairly.

On Friday he also cautioned them that he planned to review the fees going to the plaintiffs’ lawyers and would reserve the right to reduce them as he has done in some other cases, to as low as 15 percent.

This means the lawyers, who stood to collect a third of the settlement under agreements with their clients, could see their anticipated rewards more than halved.

Initial reactions among the thousands of 9/11 workers have so far been mixed, and some will not venture an opinion until they learn more details. A fuller picture of the range of sentiments is likely to surface when plaintiffs turn out to address Judge Hellerstein at the hearing next week.

Still, lawyers for the plaintiffs said they were confident that the 95 percent consent threshold the agreement requires would be met and emphasized that most of the clients they had heard from were expressing relief.

“We’ve had numerous calls and by far the calls are very, very positive,” said Marc Jay Bern of Napoli Bern Ripka, the law firm representing more than 9,400 of the plaintiffs. “The clients are quite relieved that there’s an end in sight.”

But John Feal, an advocate for 9/11 workers through his FealGood Foundation, said he had been inundated with e-mail and phone calls from angry plaintiffs fretting about their potential individual compensation as word of the settlement spread Thursday night.

“A lot of people still want to see all the facts before signing on,” he said.

In a telephone conference with reporters Friday morning, the city’s corporation counsel, Michael A. Cardozo, said city officials were “delighted” that the legal battle that pitted the “heroes” of the recovery effort against the city could soon be over.

“We believe strongly that this settlement is fair not only to the city and its contractors but to the plaintiffs,” he said.

On the same call, Kenneth R. Feinberg, the former special master of the federal compensation fund that paid awards to families of 9/11 victims in a system similar to what the settlement for the workers now calls for, called the settlement “long overdue.”

He noted that the only reason many of the workers had not been compensated under the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund was because they had not fallen ill by the time the fund closed in 2003.

Christine LaSala, chief of the WTC Captive Insurance Company, the city insurer that will pay the settlement out of a federally-financed $1.1 billion fund, said a tort management firm has already been chosen to handle the claims. The administrator responsible for evaluating the cases and deciding the awards will be appointed within a few weeks, she added.

Ms. LaSala said that once the settlement is final, the first claimants will start receiving payouts within months and the entire process could be completed within a year. Each plaintiff must submit proof of medical history and presence at ground zero to guard against fraud.

Under the point system envisioned to determine severity of illness, a serious condition such as pulmonary fibrosis or scarring of the lung could result in an award of more than $1 million, according to Mr. Bern, the plaintiffs’ lawyer.

Many plaintiffs have said they are not only hobbled by illness but also haunted by the idea that they could become 9/11 casualties themselves.

“I’m sick that I even participated” in the recovery effort at ground zero, said Kenny Specht, 41, a firefighter who received a diagnosis of thyroid cancer in 2008. “It was a dangerous thing to do, but I thought it was the place to be.”

Sergeant Sorrento, who is single and lives on Staten Island, said she counts herself among the lucky ones even as she struggles with “reactive airway disease,” a condition similar to asthma involving a tendency to wheeze and cough from exposure to irritants.

Now a detective in Coney Island, she can still work full time. But when her symptoms worsen in severe heat or the winter cold, she said, her detectives have to pick up the slack.

“What happens 10 years from now?” she said.

Leaders agree to bipartisan budget panels

Democrats bow to GOP pressure to not exclude them from process, as happened in 2009

By JIMMY VIELKIND, Capitol bureau

ALBANY — After weeks of complaints by Republican lawmakers, the Democrats controlling both houses of the Legislature are scheduling bipartisan committees to hammer out a budget.

“Conference committees are set to begin … and are important to ensuring a fair, responsible and bipartisan budget,” said Travis Proulx, a spokesman for the Democrats who control the state Senate.

Proulx said the plan is to release today a specific schedule of hearings, as well as the members of each party who will take part. Lawmakers are required to pass the state’s budget by April 1. Gov. David Paterson has proposed a spending plan for the next year totaling $134 billion.

Democrats control the governor’s office and both the Senate and Assembly, leaving Republicans with little leverage in the budget negotiating process.

In 2009, Democrats used their dominance as justification to forego joint committees of the Legislature, during which a draft budget is debated and amended.

Republicans, particularly in the closely divided Senate, cried foul then — no GOP senator voted for the 2009 budget — and repeated their criticism last week.

“Despite what they think, we have ideas, too. We have good ideas. But if they don’t let us in, that’s arrogant and that means they’re not listening to the public,” said Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Long Island.

Skelos unveiled a plan to reduce property taxes, and charged Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson are “afraid” of such an airing.

“I trust my members to go out and project, in an open forum, in a conference committee process, to project what we feel is an appropriate budget,” Skelos said. “Why are Senator Sampson and Speaker Silver afraid to put their members out in a conference committee process so we can have an open and frank discussion?”

It was this pressure, and the fact that Democrats have recently had trouble corralling the members of their conference for a party-line majority vote, that led to the agreement. (There are now 31 Democratic seats; a special election this week will fill the seat of ousted former Sen. Hiram Monserrate.)

“At this point, we’re working through our committee process, and then the Speaker will be having conversations with the other leaders as the budget process continues,” said Melissa Mansfield, a spokesman for Silver.

Paterson, who proposed his budget in January, used the inaction as an excuse to bash legislators during a radio interview Friday.

“I have put it out there, nobody else has,” he said. “Everybody talks about what’s distracting me. I don’t know what’s distracting everyone else because I’m exactly where I should be right now.”

Lt. Governor Richard Ravitch’s 5 year plan

On March 10th, 2010 Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch released a five year plan with recommendations for revisions to the state budget system in order to address the New York State $9 billion budget deficit. We at BALCONY strongly urge our members and visitors to read the plan. BALCONY has yet to take an official position on the Lieutenant Governor’s recommendations. (To view the plan please click the link here: 5YearPlan)