| It's going to be an interesting week in Albany as the Governor has called the legislature back to address an ever increasing multi-billion dollar gap in the state's finances. The one thing that all parties seem to agree on is that they don't agree on anything. The lame duck nature of the leadership in the Senate complicates things even further. Things could get pretty hairy before the week is over.
Now consider this new poll from Siena. The poll shows that New Yorkers think the budget gap should be closed with cuts in spending as opposed to tax increases. When asked where the budget ax should fall - on education or healthcare, the biggest expenditures in the budget - a plurality said "somewhere else."
Three-quarters of voters think the state budget gap should be closed by cutting spending, while 10 percent support increasing taxes and nine percent favor borrowing money. At least two-thirds of voters from every region and party support spending cuts. When given a choice of five areas for the state to cut, 23 percent chose aid to local government, 18 percent transportation/infrastructure, seven percent education, six percent health care, and the winner was 44 percent for "something else." When matched head-to-head regarding what to cut, voters are evenly divided - 39 percent for each - between cutting health care and education.
"Voters are loud and clear about opposing tax increases to close the state budget gap. Read our lips, 'no new taxes,' is the message to the Governor and Legislature," said Steven Greenberg, spokesman for the Siena New York Poll. "On the other hand, when asked whether Governor David Paterson would be able to hold to his current position of opposing tax increases only 19 percent of voters thought he would, compared to 77 percent who believe he will wind up supporting a tax increase.
"When it comes to the issue of what to cut, voters don't have a lot of good advice for the Governor and lawmakers. It's clear, however, that they don't want cuts in the two largest areas of the state budget - education and health care," Greenberg said. "And when it comes to which tax to raise, nearly two-thirds of voters say raise business taxes, one-quarter say sales tax, and only eight percent say raise the income tax."
The Governor is in a tight spot. Dean Skelos has no incentive to play ball and is steadfast against any cuts to education spending. Shelly Silver is essentially untouchable and has no real reason to produce a plan of his own. The public wants him to cut billions of dollars of spending on "something else" instead of raising revenues and has what appears to be a rather limited understanding of what the budget actually is and where the money is.
There seems to be little oxygen in the room for what seems to me the fairest way to bridge this gap, namely cuts and revenue increases on those who can afford it most. Balancing the state's budget solely on the backs of working families and services like public education they consume is neither fair nor will it be sufficient to solve the problem. Slashing aid to local governments will cost taxpayers far more than the savings in Albany as those local governments will raise property taxes and cut services. Cutting billions of dollars of "something else" isn't a plan either. The burden of closing this gaping hole in our state's budget should be spread amongst all New Yorkers.
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that any of the current "three men in a room" sufficiently get that. Neither does a large part of the public. |
