The 2nd Department of the Appellate Court ruled that Richard Ravitch can stay on as lieutenant-governor -- for now -- but he cannot preside over the Senate.
I haven't read the actual decision yet, so I won't comment beyond saying that this strikes me as truly weird. Presiding over the Senate is the minor power, and being ready to step in as Governor should the need arise is the major power. While this is still being argued, if the court didn't want to grant Ravitch full power, wouldn't it make sense to let him do the small stuff but not the big stuff, and not the other way around?
More to come once I've read the actual decision. Meanwhile, this ruling is only in effect until August 18.
In what is certain to be only the first of several rounds, State Supreme Court Justice William R. LaMarca has ruled that Governor Paterson's appointment of Richard Ravitch to be lieutenant-governor is unconstitutional, and has granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting Ravitch from acting as such.
The text of the judge's decision is available here.
I'm not a lawyer, but since the judge agreed not only with my conclusion by also with my reasoning I find the decision to be clear and well-written; others may disagree.
In an opinion piece in the Albany Times-Union, former Chief Judge Sol Wachtler called the appointment of Richard Ravitch as lieutenant-governor "clearly unconstitutional, contrary to existing precedent and itself a dangerous precedent."
I've been saying this ever since I read the relevant portions of the state constitution, current state law, and the Ward v. Curran decision, under which proponents of this appointment claimed it was legal -- but which really had nothing to do with current law. I'm glad to be joined by so eminent a legal mind in my opinion.
I have now read Ward v. Curran, and I am convinced that Governor Paterson's attempt to appoint a Lieutenant Governor is not supported by this case.
In 1943, Lt. Gov. Thomas V. Wallace died, Joe Hanley became the Acting Lieutenant Governor. An Albany judge ordered that a special election be held that November to fill the position.
The court in this case ruled that since Art. XIII Sec. 8 (now Sec. 3) of the state constitution only provides for a temporary gubernatorial appointment to last until the end of the "political year" (which means calendar year), and §42 of Public Officers law required a special election. The fact that the Temporary President of the Senate was acting as lieutenant-governor was not sufficent for the court, since a senator is chosen by a district and the lieutenant-governor is a statewide office.
The court ordered the special election to go forward in 1943.
Times have changed, however. Specifically, §42 of Public Officers law has been amended to exclude the governor and lieutenant-governor from the provisions of the special election. In addition, a new §43 has been added, which seems to allow the governor to appoint a new lieutenant-governor.
The problem is that Governor Paterson's appointment, based on §43, violates the state constitution, specifically Art. XIII, Sec. 3, which only provides for a temporary appointment, in the year the vacancy occurred (i.e. 2008), and lasting only until the end of that year.
Never mind that the whole system is screwed up -- Governor Paterson has no constitutional authority to appoint a lieutenant-governor this year. Period.
Yesterday I wrote about the hold-up in Governor Paterson's "Quick Fix" plan to plug the gap in MTA funding. As you may remember, MTA is on the brink of massive rate hikes and service cuts. Governor Paterson's proposal would plug the funding gap through a 1% payroll tax on businesses in the metropolitan New York area. Yesterday I reported that four suburban Senators were holding up the plan. At the time it looked like Senators Stewart-Cousins and Oppenheimer agreed to support the plan but Senators Foley and Johnson had not.
Thankfully, after a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, it appears that Senator Foley and Johnson will support the plan.
Phillip discussed Governor Paterson's dismal poll numbers earlier today and there is one part of this poll that I found very intriguing:
It appears that Paterson's decision to sacrifice transparency in favor of a timely budget backfired. When presented with 10 potential factors for the Governor's declining popularity and more than half of voters say that his handling of the state's finances, giving raises to his staff and negotiating the budget in secret were factors that greatly contributed to his falling approval ratings.
Sixty-three percent of voters said that the secrecy of the budget proceeding "contributed greatly" to his declining popularity, while another 24 percent said it "somewhat contributed."
It appears that at long last, transparency and budget reform has become a salient issue for votors. It's not clear why this is suddenly becoming an issue because after all, Paterson is not the first Governor to conduct budget negotiations in secret, not by a long shot. But perhaps there is a voter backlash developing because for decades in the Senate minority and during his brief stint as Lieutenant Governor, Paterson was a harsh critic of the secret budget process.
Simply put, Paterson's reputation may have led voters to believe and hope he would change things in Albany and by turning all three branches of state government over to the Democrats last fall, voters were actually expecting change. And so far it's not an understatement to say those hopes been tragically unfulfilled.
I do not think this bodes well for the 2010 elections. The GOP are of course, no better. The whole dismal state that is Albany was largely the fault of Joe Bruno and Dean Skelos for the time they were in power, and giving the Senate back to the GOP will not make anything more transparent. But as Paterson's own career illuminates, the out-of-power call for reform can be a compelling political message.
So now, if not for the ethical and democratic reasons, at least that the voters are paying attention, I think it's time to shape up before we get shipped out.
The Governor's numbers continue their swan dive in to record "holy crap" territory in today's new Siena Poll.
The numbers for Paterson are pretty much universally bad, but the one that really sticks out is this one. Only 12 percent of New Yorkers are prepared to vote for Paterson next year. A whopping 71 percent are looking to vote for an unnamed "someone else." The Governor even loses out to his immediate predecessors as New Yorkers would prefer to see Mario Cuomo, George Pataki, or even Eliot Spitzer back in office over Paterson.
"Voters are pining for the days of Mario Cuomo (39 percent) and George Pataki (33 percent) as Governor," Greenberg said. "A plurality of Democrats and independent voters would choose Mario and a majority of Republicans chose George. While 14 percent of all voters want to see Spitzer back in the Capitol, only eight percent would opt to have Paterson as Governor if choosing among the last four to hold that office."
That's gotta hurt.
In other news, a majority of the state now supports Marriage Equality for all New Yorkers, support that is strongest in New York City, but is strong in all regions of the state.
In this video at the 2007 Reform Day, then-LT Paterson boldly stated that "we can do better" regarding the process by which the 2007-08 budget was passed. After Paterson became Governor, Phillip noted of Paterson:
I thought it might worth digging out the video I shot at Reform Day in Albany last April. It shows an extremely bright, talented and very funny Lt. Governor, a man with an impressive grasp of reform issues and a man willing to level criticism at the very Executive branch of which he is a part. Paterson is a genuine reformer and it shows.
At the time, that is a statement I and just about everybody on this blog agreed with and continued to agree with in the early days of Paterson's tenure as Governor. I myself called Paterson the "realest reformer". After the secret way the 2008-09 budget was passed, I gave Paterson a mulligan as he had been in office less than a month at the time.
Well, this year there are no excuses. While there is a lot of good in this year's budget- namely the millionaire's tax and the Bigger, Better Bottle Bill- the secrecy in which this budget was dictated by the 3 men in a room is frankly a betrayal of the trust that reformers had placed in Paterson. We can do better, a lot better. But we haven't.
The news just keeps getting worse for Governor Paterson. A new Q Poll shows that he now has the highest job disapproval ever recorded for a New York Governor and that more than half of New Yorkers think he shouldn't even run for a full term next year. The poll also shows stellar numbers for Attorney General Ancrew Cuomo and Paterson losing badly to Rudy Giuliani in a general election. Even a majority of Democrats say he should hang it up. Ouch.
Voters Say 3-1 Paterson Does Not Deserve Election, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Most Say He Should Announce Now He Won't Run
New York State voters disapprove 60 - 28 percent of the job Gov. David Paterson is doing, the lowest approval ever for a New York Governor, and say 63 - 22 percent that he does not deserve to be elected to a full four-year term, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.
Gov. Paterson's approval is so low that he should announce now that he won't run for election to a four-year term next year, 53 percent of voters tell the independent Quinnipiac University poll, while 39 percent say he can restore his reputation and should run next year. Even Democrats say 49 - 45 percent that he should drop out of the race now.
New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, with a near-record high 75 - 14 percent approval rating, tops Paterson in a Democratic primary 61 - 18 percent.
In a general election, Republican Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, tops Paterson 53 - 32 percent.
Cuomo tops Giuliani 53 - 36 percent in a head-to-head matchup.
Voters disapprove 70 - 19 percent of the way Paterson is handling the New York State budget. Democrats disapprove 63 - 25 percent.
"So long, David, voters tell Gov. Paterson. His job approval tanks at 28 percent. The slide started with the Caroline Kennedy flap and deepened with the humongous state budget passed last week. The budget was an opportunity for Paterson to reverse his slide, but voters disapprove almost 4-1 of the way he handled it," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
"Don't wait for 2010, Governor, New Yorkers say. Announce now that you won't run. Voters say almost 3-1 Paterson doesn't deserve a full 4-year term."
Voters aren't the only ones sending Paterson a message either. Liz reports that top Dem donors are telling the Governor privately that he'd better turn his numbers around quick, November at the latest, or he should forget about a 2010 run for a full term.
Top New York Democrats have privately set a deadline of early November for Gov. Paterson to turn his poll numbers around or they'll urge him not to run next year.
"The idea is to let him get through the budget and get through the summer," said a prominent Democratic donor who sees the fall elections as the cutoff for Paterson's improvement.
"Nobody really wants to go to a sitting Democratic governor who's African-American and say, 'Hey. You're a disgrace. Get out.'"
Paterson allies hold out hope he'll be able to mount a timely comeback, but admit his historically low job approval rating - a March Siena poll pegged it at 19% - presents a significant challenge.
"Even if he went up 100%, it wouldn't be much," the donor said. "The goal is to be close to 50, but I think if he could climb over 40%, he can begin to show real momentum."
I'm sure that Rudy Giuliani hopes that the Governor is able to make something of a comeback, at least enough of one to make a credible run and scare off any potential Dem primary challengers. Smelling blood in the water, Giuliani is once again hitting the GOP fundraising circuit and making noises about a run for Governor. (He could use a new gig as his firm, Giuliani Partners, is tanking) Giuliani would be crushed in a general election against Cuomo, but could most likely beat soundly a mortally wounded Paterson. Rudy's only real shot at the Governor's mansion is keeping Paterson on the ballot.
Given this, it shouldn't surprise anyone that a majority of New Yorkers seem to want Paterson to hang it up.
The State Senate has posted a full breakdown -- by budget area -- of the agreed to budget online. This a first, as far as I can tell. I suspect that Andrew Hoppin's Senate CIO team played a part in making this happen, though it's certain that it wouldn't be there without direction from the Senate Majority Leader. Definitely a step in the right direction.
Gov. David A. Paterson and legislative leaders on Monday defended their secretive negotiations and the eye-popping $131.8 billion budget they produced over the weekend, even as they warned that further deterioration in the economy could force them to return to the bargaining table in the coming months.
In a subdued appearance in the Capitol, Mr. Paterson, joined by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm A. Smith, described the deal as a necessary consensus between cutting spending and finding new revenue in the face of a large, and continually growing, budget gap.
"I think that there's a balance now between taxes on higher incomes and taxes on everybody, so that there's a shared sacrifice," Mr. Paterson said. He also said that he might have to revisit cuts to services and so-called nuisance taxes - like levies on sugared sodas and downloaded songs - that he agreed to abandon in the new deal.
"I would like to tell you that this budget brings about the end of our fiscal crisis, but I can't do that; that would be intellectually dishonest," Mr. Paterson said. But the deal was an important step, he added. "We can see the light at the end of the tunnel."
But as outside analysts began poring over hundreds of pages of the budget, they said they saw little evidence of stern spending discipline, even in the face of a major recession. In closing a budget deficit that in the end surpassed $17 billion, lawmakers relied on billions of dollars in new taxes and fees, some of which may not even raise as much revenue as hoped if the economy continues to worsen. And like every Albany budget, whether in good years or bad, this one includes $170 million worth of what critics call pork-barrel spending for lawmakers' pet projects.
"The disappointment from the business community is that the Legislature doesn't seem to understand how serious this crisis is, and that it threatens our future," said Kathryn S. Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, a business trade group. "The response - of holding the state budget basically harmless - just doesn't fly with people who are cutting salaries, laying people off and aren't sure where their business is going."
Mr. Paterson and his staff appear to have won significant concessions from the health care sector by overhauling outdated Medicaid reimbursements, while shifting money away from expensive in-patient care to preventative care and clinics. Over time, officials said, that shift would save both operating costs and capital money.
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"What does the future hold? One way of looking at that is, New York - and every other state - are going to be in desperate straits if the federal stimulus money runs out in two years," said Robert B. Ward, deputy director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, an Albany research organization. "It won't be long until the drumbeat starts to make this a longer-lasting enhancement of federal aid."
Mr. Silver, the powerful and cagey Assembly speaker, achieved what he wanted in the budget that emerged from the shadows of the statehouse this weekend, cementing his newfound role as the capital's center of gravity.
He won the policy fight, forcing Gov. David A. Paterson to raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers, an idea that the governor decried as potentially disastrous three weeks ago. The $131.8 billion budget, which could hardly be called austere, is largely a reflection of the liberal tilt of Mr. Silver, and the Assembly's predilection for big spending on social programs, no matter the economic climate.
Mr. Silver also dictated the process, turning back the clock to the most secretive budget negotiations the capital has seen in years, casting aside the open government that Mr. Paterson and other Democrats once said would follow the party's sweeping victories in recent state elections. He argued that technicalities in recently passed budget reform legislation allowed the Legislature to circumvent requirements for open meetings among those negotiating the spending plan.
And the speaker preserved the Legislature's cherished spending on pet projects, pushing successfully for $170 million for members to dole out in district spending, leaving that pool of money essentially untouched, despite the fiscal crisis.
He argued that "nonprofit organizations throughout the state have been devastated by the economic downturn," but lawmakers appropriated money for gun clubs, churches, a yoga foundation and the Wantagh American Legion Pipe Band, among thousands of other projects.
Critics say Mr. Silver, a Democrat from the Lower East Side who has been speaker for the last 15 years, is the symbol of all that is broken in state government, a man who long ago forsook principle for power. They also say that he lacks the fiscal discipline to prudently manage the state's escalating future deficits.
Allies say he is the only senior Democrat in state government fielding a competent staff with the expertise to lead the state, and that he will usher in a more activist left-leaning agenda on important policy issues, like the recent agreement among state leaders to eliminate many of the remaining stringent Rockefeller era penalties for drug offenses.
New York's ruling Democratic triumvirate took a giant generational leap backward yesterday to the destructive days of John Lindsay, Abe Beame and Nelson Rockefeller.
The budget created by Gov. Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith is a monstrously bloated, tax-and-spend plan that, in one fell swoop, reverses a three-decade-long effort to strengthen business and prevent taxpayers from fleeing the state.
The wrecking ball of a new state budget, approved in Kremlin-like secrecy by the troika, also ranks as one of the biggest betrayals in process and substance by a governor in New York history.
The reform effort being reversed by Paterson & Co. began in 1975, when then-newly elected Democratic Gov. Hugh Carey, ending 16 years of Republican rule, famously declared that the "Days of Wine and Roses" were over.
Gov. David A. Paterson emerged from behind closed doors Monday to defend the state's newly proposed $131.8 billion budget, but business groups railed against its massive tax hike package as education and health care special interests complained it does not spend enough.
Critics of the 2009 budget rushed to the Capitol and flooded lawmakers' telephones to try to unravel support, especially those from upstate.
But Paterson, who in a session with reporters appeared to undermine some elements of the plan he had just negotiated, said there were few options for a government that saw its projected deficit leap by billions in just a couple weeks, to $17.7 billion.
"None of this makes sense," he said of a plan that imposes record tax increases and cuts many popular programs. But he said the choices were difficult and a "shared sacrifice" by all New Yorkers. "This is in response to a crisis," he said.
...
But several Senate Democrats emerging from a caucus meeting said their 32-member coalition is holding steady and will back the budget despite GOP criticisms that it especially targets upstate for cuts and tax increases. With the GOP vowing to vote no, it would take only one Democrat to vote no, resulting in an unbreakable tie because the state has no lieutenant governor.
"We don't like the things that are in there," said Sen. William Stachowski, a Lake View Democrat. He said he would support the budget today. "We've never had to deal with a $17 billion budget hole," he said.
Governor David Paterson and the leaders of the Legislature have struck a deal to create two new tax brackets for those earning above $300,000 and $500,000. The new tax structure would raise an estimated $4 billion annually.
This is largely due to the work of State Senator Eric Schneiderman, the Working Families Party, and others who responded to the state's $15 billion budget deficit by asking the wealthy to pay their fair share and demanding an end to the injustice of people earning $20,000 per year paying the same tax rate as Bernie Madoff, Donald Trump and the hedge funders -- 6.85 percent. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was instrumental in making progressive tax reform part of the final budget negotiations.
Initially, Gov. Paterson proposed the same tired conservative economic policy that has dominated the past thirty years--$9 billion of harsh cuts in education, healthcare and social services, and $5 billion in new taxes that would hit the struggling poor and middle-class the hardest. No sacrifices for the wealthy. Although there are still cuts that will cause a lot of pain for working people and the poor, this budget will be vastly improved.
Dan Cantor, executive director of the Working Families Party, told the Times: "It's a profound breakthrough for tax fairness." In the perennial balancing act between a transformative politics aimed at a more humane and sustainable society, and the necessary compromises to begin addressing people's immediate needs, progressives have scored an important and timely victory.
Gov. David A. Paterson and leaders of the Legislature have reached a deal to temporarily raise taxes on New York's highest earners in order to close the state's yawning budget deficit, lawmakers and officials involved in the talks said on Saturday.
The new plan, which would expire after three years, would represent the largest state income tax increase in recent history, significantly larger than the surcharges imposed from 2003 to 2005, when the state last faced a major recession.
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Currently, New York's highest tax rate, 6.85 percent, kicks in for couples and joint filers making more than $40,000.
"It's a profound breakthrough for tax fairness," said Dan Cantor, executive director of the Working Families Party. "The era of phony prosperity has ended, and a new era of real shared sacrifice must begin."
Concluding the most secretive budget negotiations in recent memory, Gov. David A. Paterson and leaders of the Legislature outlined a $131.8 billion agreement on Sunday that would close the state's gaping deficit with billions of dollars in new taxes, financing from the federal stimulus and a substantial slowdown in the growth of health care spending.
The final days of negotiations between Mr. Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm A. Smith have been conducted under a veil of secrecy so profound that even well-seasoned Albany cynics were taken aback.
And despite the enormous fiscal pressure the state faces, the budget contains $170 million in financing for pet projects - an amount unchanged from last year - suggesting that Albany's appetite for with what critics call pork-barrel spending appeared to be undiminished. Listed in the budget were grants to gun clubs, an upstate museum dedicated to bricks and brick-making, the Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta and an organization known as the Urban Yoga Foundation.
A lot of people would probably love to have the headaches of someone who earns more than $500,000 a year. But those headaches grew over the weekend with the announcement in Albany of new tax brackets for the highest earners. While there were no tears spilling into Champagne flutes over brunch on Sunday, there were voices of frustration among those facing higher payments to the State of New York
Jorge Colmenares, founder and owner of Miracol Energy, an investment firm in renewable energy, said that he earned more than $500,000 and that he was happy to do his part. But he wondered about the negative effects of higher taxes on consumers.
"If you continue to take away from people in the form of taxes, it is restricting them more in spending," he said while shopping on Madison Avenue. "On the one hand, I would agree: With the wealth that you can create, you should give back. But is the government using that money correctly? There's a lot of skepticism these days as to whether that's actually going to be the case."
Carmine A. Nicoletti, 51, of Great Neck, who owns a printing company in Queens, declined to state his income, but said that his household earned enough to fall into one of Gov. David A. Paterson's proposed tax brackets.
"I'm O.K. with it," he said of paying more taxes, while at Via Quadronno restaurant on the Upper East Side. "I'd rather pay my share if the economy is going to benefit. I mean, I don't like to pay taxes, but I don't mind if it helps my country. It shouldn't affect my family."
Julian N. Carter, 42, of the Upper East Side, said that he fell into the $500,000-and-higher tax bracket as a banker at Société Générale and that he supported the new tax.
"I'm absolutely in favor of it," he said outside the restaurant Frederick's Madison on Madison Avenue. "Listen, the reality is that someone has to pay the bill, and it has to come from taxes. You can't be selfish. My view is you have to redistribute."
Gov. Paterson and legislative leaders unveiled a record $131.8 billion tax-and-spend budget deal Sunday night.
Despite Paterson's repeated warnings about the state's fiscal crisis, total spending actually increases by $10.5 billion, or 8.7%, according to state leaders. The bulk of that, they say, is $7.2 billion in federal stimulus money that is required to be spent in the coming fiscal year.
The remainder includes $2 billion in spending cuts rejected by lawmakers as well as $1.3 billion in capital and debt service spending. Even without factoring in the stimulus money, state taxpayer-supported funding should grow by at least $800 million, Paterson's office said.
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Among those are vehicle registration fees, a cigar tax, a beer and wine tax, a utility assessment, an auto insurance surcharge, driver's license fees, a rental car tax and a registration fee for tobacco sellers. Bottled water drinkers will pay a nickel more because the drink has been added to the 5-cent bottle deposit law.
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After spending most of yesterday not commenting even on the size of the new spending package, Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) finally released the details Sunday evening.
To close a record two-year deficit of $17.7 billion, they say, the budget contains a combination of $5.2 billion in spending cuts, $5.2billion in new taxes, $1.1 billion in nonrecurring revenue and the use of $6.2billion in federal stimulus money.
They also say it increases state taxpayer-supported spending by just 1% for the fiscal year beginning Wednesday and reduces New York's long-term deficits 80%.
"We have produced a budget that provides a solid foundation to move forward and address challenges ahead," Paterson said. "We have accomplished this with a budget that holds government accountable to the people of New York, and protects those who cannot protect themselves."
Democratic leaders yesterday released details of a state budget deal that would push spending to a staggering $132 billion next year -- an increase of 10 percent -- while they ask residents to fork over a record-breaking $7.8 billion in taxes and fees.
The huge spending plan is $10.7 billion higher than the bare-bones plan Gov. Paterson released less than four months ago in a call for fiscal austerity.
It comes in the wake of a $4 billion soak-the-rich income-tax hike, the elimination of a $1.5 billion property-tax rebate plan, and $2.3 billion in new and extended business taxes and nuisance fees.
Among other things, the budget would add nickel deposits to bottled water, ratchet up taxes on beer and cigars, and raise income taxes at least 14.5 percent on families making more than $300,000 a year.
But Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) refused to give up even a dime of the notorious $170 million slush fund lawmakers use to dole out grants to favored nonprofits and community groups.
More than $6 billion in aid from Washington forestalled much of Paterson's proposed reductions to schools, hospitals, nursing homes and other health care institutions. But $6.5 billion in cuts and $4 billion from increasing taxes on the rich were required to close a two-year deficit of $17.7 billion.
The budget "closes the largest deficit in state history, stabilizes our finances and institutes critical reforms that will help eliminate waste and inefficiency in our government," Paterson said in a statement.
The plan boosts myriad taxes and fees on everything from driver's licenses to marine fishing licenses.
Still, elimination of the popular STAR rebate checks is sure to anger hard-pressed homeowners. The checks sent $1.4 billion back to taxpayers statewide - $370 million to Nassau and Suffolk residents - helping offset ever higher school levies.
The basic STAR and enhanced STAR exemptions - which reduce tax bills - are unaffected.
School taxes may rise in some districts despite the restoration of $1.1 billion in cuts proposed by Paterson. Superintendents said they were disappointed that education aid would grow by just $405 million, with the Island receiving 5 percent instead of its traditional 13 percent share.
The state's new, inflation-busting budget will require New Yorkers to pay more to go fishing and hunting, drive a car or motorcycle, have life insurance, operate the lights and heat in their homes, buy cigarettes, own a cell phone and drink beer, wine and bottled water.
Single taxpayers making more than $200,000 a year will see a jump in taxes, as will bus companies, nuclear plants, food processing companies, racehorse owners, farmers, pesticide applicators, grocery stores and anyone wanting to open a hospice.
In all, the total number of new taxes, fees and various assessments and surcharges will top $7 billion in the new budget that state lawmakers will vote on beginning Tuesday. The governor's office put the number at $5.3 billion, but that misses a number of levies.
The higher taxes will help pay for a budget that will soar to $131.8 billion-$10.7 billion more than what Gov. David A. Paterson proposed just three months ago. Federal bailout money accounts for two-thirds of that sharp increase, with the rest coming from new spending and debt.
The higher tax figures do not include the financial hit from some tax breaks being rescinded. Gone, for instance, are the annual STAR property tax rebate checks that arrive each fall right before Election Day. That will cost taxpayers $1.5 billion this year.
New York Magazine - Tax the Rich! How did the poor win the New York tax war? Welcome to the era of the moneyed underclass.
"It's not an easy time to defend the rich," says Kathryn Wylde, head of the Partnership for New York City. "In the current environment, with the anti-Wall Street sentiment, it's just politically unattractive."
Dan Cantor, who runs the labor-affiliated Working Families Party, gave his own diagnosis. "We just work much harder than the right-wingers. They think they can just do it by writing checks to the politicians. We don't have money. We have our passion."
That's not quite true. In Albany, the wealthiest and most well-connected groups often are representing the little guy. The teachers unions burn through $4 million a year on donations to state lawmakers and lobbying expenses, rivaling the outlays of the state's hospital associations, which also pressed for a tax hike.
Since December, the supporters of the rich tax-an alliance of organized labor and community-activist groups-waged a campaign that further weakened Governor Paterson. They spent millions on ads attacking him and staged feisty protests. (At one near City Hall last month, 1199 SEIU president George Gresham mocked his adversaries: "Where are the wealthy going to go? Iowa?")
Cantor says his party also banged on 72,000 doors, collecting over 12,000 "handwritten" notes calling on Albany to raise taxes.
At the last minute, real-estate and business trade groups pulled a long-dormant nonprofit group, Taxpayers for an Affordable NY, out of the mothballs. But it hasn't done much good. The deeper problem, says Real Estate Board head Steven Spinola, is that "the business community is not as monolithic as the unions."
New York Gov. David Paterson and legislative leaders have agreed to ease drug laws that were once among the harshest in the nation and led a movement more than 30 years ago toward mandatory prison terms.
The agreement rolls back some of the tougher sentencing provisions pushed through the Legislature in 1973 by then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, a Republican who said they were needed to fight a drug-related "reign of terror."
Critics have long claimed the laws were draconian and crowded prisons with people who would be better served with treatment.
Paterson says Friday that judges will now be able to use techniques like treatment and counseling that have proven more effective than prison for low-level offenders. At the same time, penalties will be toughened for drug kingpins.
It's long overdue and I'm very curious to see the reactions to the details from those who have been following this decades long tragedy closest.
The full press release from the Three Men is in the extended entry.
UPDATE: Senator Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) just released this statement:
"I am very proud to be a part of history today and finally see the Rockefeller Drug Laws reformed. The reforms announced today will restore judicial sentencing discretion and substantially expand alternatives to incarceration for non-violent drug offenders.
It has been a long hard fight to reform these archaic drug laws and today is the culmination of decades of hard work and advocacy from countless people, all of whom deserve praise for helping to achieve these needed reforms."
It appears that deal has been reached to ask a bit more of those New Yorkers who can most afford it instead of balancing the state's budget on the backs of the poor and middle class. Liz has the scoop.
There is a tentative three-way deal on hiking the personal income tax on wealthy New Yorkers, multiple Democratic sources confirm.
The agreement - assuming it holds - sets up the following three tiers:
- $300,000 to $500,000: 7.97 percent.
- $500,000 to $1 million: 8.47 percent.
- $1 million and above: 8.97 percent.
This increase will sunset in five years.
The current top rate is 6.85 percent for those who make $40,000 and above.
I'd add the Working Families Party to the winners column along with the Assembly Democrats and I agree with Liz that the losers column includes The Governor, The Mayor and the Senate Majority Leader.
Good news from Albany. Hopefully this "tentative" deal will hold.
They are still apparently working out the details, but it appears that an agreement has finally been achieved on repealing our ridiculous and cruel regime of narcotics laws. It's fantastic news for those who dearly need treatment for their addictions, for the families torn apart by mandatory minimum sentences, for the judges about to have their hands untied and even for the three men in a room who desperately need a win on something, anything, after the last few weeks.
Gov. David A. Paterson and New York legislative leaders have reached an agreement to dismantle much of what remains of the state's strict 1970s-era drug laws, once among the toughest in the nation.
The deal would repeal many of the mandatory minimum prison sentences now in place for lower-level drug felons, giving judges the authority to send first-time nonviolent offenders to treatment instead of prison.
The plan would also expand drug treatment programs and widen the reach of drug courts at a cost of at least $50 million.
New York's drug sentencing laws, imposed during a heroin epidemic that was devastating urban areas nearly four decades ago, helped spur a nationwide trend toward mandatory sentences in drug crimes. But as many other states moved to roll back the mandatory minimum sentences in recent years, New York kept its laws on the books, leaving prosecutors with the sole discretion of whether offenders could be sent to treatment.
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Passing drug law revisions would give Senate Democrats a significant legislative victory at a time when Republicans are hammering them, saying they are disorganized and ineffective.
Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, a Manhattan Democrat who has led the effort in the Senate to overhaul the drug statutes, said he was confident he had support in the Senate to pass the plan.
"It's no secret the Senate's old majority was the primary barrier to reforming our drug laws," he said. "But this is one of the reasons we fought so hard to take the majority. This is what our supporters have expected us to do."
This four decade long experiment proved to be an utter disaster that destroyed families, especially those of people of color, denied judges the discretion to serve justice and led to the distortion of the state's political system by taking poor urban drug offenders from their communities and placing them in rural upstate prisons where they were counted as residents for purposes of apportionment, funding and redistricting.
It's profoundly disappointing that it has taken so long to finally repeal much of this sad abomination, but I guess it's better late than never. And let's face it, those folks in Albany needed this pretty bad as well, particularly Paterson and Smith.
Today is Doomsday. After months of epic failure in Albany, the MTA today voted to pretty drastically increase fares as well as a cut in services. It really didn't have to be this way, but this what dysfunction looks like. There's plenty of blame to go around, from the two and half men in a room, to the preening antics of the Diva Three, to the MTA itself, an entity few trust and for good reason, the entire episode just reeks of massive, epic, irretrievable FAIL.
Or, at least that what he is threatening. After failing to wrest concessions from the public sector unions that represent most state employees, Paterson says he's going to put almost 9,000 jobs on the chopping block.
Citing a $16.2 billion budget deficit that appears to be growing larger by the day, Gov. David Paterson this afternoon said his administration will eliminate 8,900 jobs, starting this summer.
"This is not a decision that has been reached lightly," said a letter that went out minutes ago from Paterson's state operations director Dennis Whalen.
"However, given the fact that savings through labor concessions were not achieved, Governor Paterson was forced to make this difficult decision for the good of the entire state."
Budget Division spokesman Jeffrey Gordon said the job cuts will probably start in July and they apply to "full-time equivalents," which means some of the target might be reached by attrition.
In his message to agency heads, Whalen said they will be providing updates and bulletins over the next few weeks.
Still unknown was where most of the cuts may fall, by geography and by agency.
That's pretty damn harsh, especially given that huge chunk of change we just got from the feds, funds that were supposed keep states from having to lay off staff in the middle of a severe recession.
Dennis Whalen's full letter is in the extended entry.
UPDATE: Malcolm Smith's office just released this statement:
These are difficult times and no segment of the state is immune to the harsh reality of the fiscal crisis. We urge the union leadership who represent the public sector workforce to step up and renegotiate a fair agreement that is consistent with the principle of shared sacrifice all New Yorkers must accept during times of economic distress. Public employees are among the most vital contributors to our workforce, but at the same time, they must also be our partners as we strive to change the structure of our state's budget and get New York's economy back on track.
