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Budget Games
Last week Governor Pataki unveiled his proposed state budget. The big news was that the Governor proposed to spend over $110 billion and recommended billions in tax cuts. No surprise there, the Governor has a long history of spending more and proposing tax cuts – and indirectly, incurring more debt. But it was what the Governor was hiding from the public that should also be news. The Governor crowed about his success in accumulating a budget surplus for the current year and used that to justify some of his tax cuts. But what he didn’t say was that while the state is flush with cash, he is proposing to hike tuition to public colleges by $500 and cut financial aid for needy students. Yes, you heard that right – the state has at least a $2 billion surplus and the Governor is proposing to make it harder for students to attend college. The Governor made no mention of his plans. The scheme to hike tuition was buried in the budget presentation. In order for anyone to find out this tidbit of information, you would have had to look on p.323 in the “economic and revenue outlook” of the Governor’s budget books. Thankfully one enterprising reporter did find the Governor’s plan in advance of the Governor’s news conference. At that news conference, the Governor did a little “tap dance” to make it appear that the tuition hike proposal was not really a hike at all. The reporters wouldn’t fall for that one and the news got out. The Governor also had another gem for the public. Last year, surveys of prescription drug prices in New York found some remarkable differences. In one area, just a few miles apart researchers found that consumers could be paying $80 more for their medicine in one pharmacy than in another one nearby. That’s right, $80 more for the exact same prescription. Consumer and senior groups believed that New Yorkers should have easy access to prescription pricing information so that consumers can shop smart and save money on their medicines. So last year a law passed that requires the state to create a prescription drug price website that would allow consumers to comparison shop. Those groups thought Governor Pataki agreed with the legislation when he signed it last July. But they were wrong. Tucked away in his budget, Governor Pataki proposed repealing the law that he just approved five months ago. That same law that allowed consumers to compare drug prices and that he approved. The old saying that the “devil is in the details” is right on the mark when you watch the Governor and his budget. Underneath the Governor’s “feel good” budget rhetoric lurks a deceptive budget policy. The more his budget is analyzed, the more there is to complain about. The Governor is even proposing to eliminate a state law that requires the collection of tobacco taxes for cigarettes sold on native America reservations to non-Indians. In Albany rarely are things as they seem. The Governor’s public presentation of tax cuts and increased spending on some popular programs masks a budget that makes it harder for students of modest means to afford college, a budget that makes it easier for tobacco bootleggers, a budget that makes it harder for the uninsured to pay for needed medicines. New Yorkers should pay close attention to the tricks being played by the Governor in this budget. It is not only that he is proposing things that New Yorkers probably won’t like, but also that he has the power to make it happen. New York’s Governor has more control over the state’s budget process than virtually any other chief executive in the nation. Meaning that if the public doesn’t rise up in protest, what the Governor wants in the budget, the Governor gets. That’s all for now. I’ll be keeping an eye on the Capitol and will talk to you again next week. |
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