{"id":894,"date":"2014-01-20T11:23:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-20T16:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=894"},"modified":"2015-05-12T06:46:07","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T10:46:07","slug":"the-budget-battle-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/the-budget-battle-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"The Budget Battle Begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen: http:\/\/wamc.org\/post\/blair-horner-budget-battle-begins<\/a><\/p>\n

The New York State budget fight begins this week with the governor offering his budget plan.\u00a0 The governor\u2019s budget will be massive \u2013 probably $135 billion of spending.\u00a0 Over 95 percent of it will become law without much fuss.<\/p>\n

The budget is really about two things: spending, and the policies that trigger that spending.\u00a0 The budget includes two sets of bills \u2013 bills to set spending limits and bills that propose policy changes that are necessary for the governor\u2019s proposed spending.\u00a0 How the budget battle plays out will likely hinge on whether \u2013 and to what extent \u2013 the legislature agrees with the governor\u2019s proposed spending and with his policy initiatives.<\/p>\n

If state spending levels are maintained and adjusted for increased costs, New York is facing a $1.7 billion deficit. \u00a0The governor maintains that his budget will turn that into a surplus big enough to fund tax cuts worth $2 billion.<\/p>\n

In order to pull off his plan, the governor would essentially have to keep spending flat at most state agencies over several years. \u00a0The governor has pledged to offer a budget that caps the increase in state spending to no more than 2 percent.\u00a0 Yet Medicaid and education aid spending are projected to far exceed that cap \u2013 increasing somewhere around 4 percent.<\/p>\n

And the governor wants to fund tax cuts.\u00a0 How does all that add up?\u00a0 The governor will either have to offer ideas for new revenues for the state, or he will have to cut other state programs.\u00a0 And the governor has said that he will not increase taxes.<\/p>\n

Last year, the governor\u2019s budget was enacted with similar assumptions.\u00a0 The increase in overall spending was kept to under 2 percent, and spending on education and health were increased by more than 2 percent.\u00a0 How did he do it?<\/p>\n

He cut funding to other programs.<\/p>\n

For example, the governor demanded \u2013 and obtained \u2013 big cuts to public health programs.\u00a0 So services to help people with Alzheimer\u2019s, help treat lead poisoning, provide breast cancer screening \u2013 to name a few \u2013 were cut.\u00a0 And that was without a cut tax.<\/p>\n

Some observers are not sure how the governor can achieve his plans without cuts.\u00a0 State Comptroller DiNapoli has said that, “My main concern is how does it all add up.\u00a0 At the end of the day, it\u2019s all about policy choices.”<\/p>\n

Cutting services,like funding for breast cancer screening,may be one of the governor\u2019s policy choices.\u00a0 Or will he avoid cutting cancer screening by cutting other<\/em> programs?\u00a0 Will he offer new revenue ideas that can be generated without increasing taxes?\u00a0 We\u2019ll know soon enough.<\/p>\n

In addition, the governor\u2019s budget will propose policy changes to implement his spending priorities.\u00a0 One of the governor\u2019s top priorities is to advance reforms made in the wake of the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption\u2019s first report.<\/p>\n

According to media reports, the governor will propose spending some money to create an independent campaign finance enforcing agency, presumably to replace the anemic state Board of Elections\u2019 lack of enforcement, as well as “seed” money for setting up a voluntary system of public financing of elections.\u00a0 According to the New York Times, the governor\u2019s budget will propose $4 million to make both happen.<\/p>\n

Given the incredibly complex and expanding world of campaign financing, whether $4 million will be enough to police the current system, monitor independent expenditures and do it all fairly is an open question.\u00a0 Adding to that the cost of setting up a system of public financing \u2013 in which candidates have the choice of joining a voluntary system of receiving public dollars to fund their campaigns \u2013 and which would also have to be regulated by this new entity, may mean that $4 million is far too little.<\/p>\n

But given the unending series of scandals plaguing Albany, the governor\u2019s proposal \u2013 if the Times is correct \u2013 offers a starting point for the Legislature.\u00a0 It\u2019s a plan that lawmakers must enhance in order to begin to restore the public\u2019s battered confidence in Albany.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listen: http:\/\/wamc.org\/post\/blair-horner-budget-battle-begins The New York State budget fight begins this week with the governor offering his budget plan.\u00a0 The governor\u2019s budget will be massive \u2013 probably $135 billion of spending.\u00a0 Over 95 percent of it will become law without much fuss. The budget is really about two things: spending, and the policies that trigger that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1485,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions\/1485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}