 |
"In The Still Of The Night", May 2008
In 1937, the great American composer Cole Porter wrote a wonderful love song, "In the Still of the Night." In 1954, a group, the 5 Satins, recorded a doo wop version, but it was still a love song. And, sometime in 1933, famed pianist Peter De Rose, wrote "Deep Purple," a haunting love song that was recorded by many stars, (including Donny & Marie in 1976). Deep Purple also was Babe Ruth's favorite song and was played at all his birthday parties. There's a line in the song that talks about how two lovers will be reunited "in the still of the night." |
Aside from giving you insight into my being old and having a head filled with trivia, why do I share this with you? Well, I'm a romantic. I think the "still of night" is for making love -- NOT BUDGETS. But, that's exactly what our leadership did the night of Tuesday, April 8, 2008, they made a budget. And, it's a beaut! And, I waited three weeks to write this, just in case I was overreacting. I wasn't. It's a beaut. The governor already is saying revenues were overestimated and cuts have to be made.
At a point in time when we are facing an almost $5 billion deficit (and some say it's larger), we increase our spending about five percent over last year. We throw the single largest increase, ever, at education -- $1.8 billion, to a record $21.4 billion. We already have the highest per capita expenditure in the nation for elementary and secondary school pupils AND WE RANK A PATHETIC 43 IN HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION RATES. It's not about the amount of money, it's about how the money is spent. But, this is an election year for all of our legislators so we'll re-visit this after November 4th.
In an address to the Association for a Better New York, Governor David Patterson shared some disturbing information about the state's revenue collection. He noted, "In the last quarter of 2007, we did not receive many taxes from our 20 largest taxpayers, corporations and banks. To be specific, by the third week in March in 2007, we had received $533 million from those top 20 donors." He then shared that by the third week of March, 2008, the state received only $72 million from those same top taxpayers. But, we still increased our budget over last year and allude to making up the difference with the famous "Albany-speak" for raisng money without raising taxes -- fees, one-shots and surcharges. But, it still comes down to $1 billion in new taxes.
Let me share what other states, faced with similar situations, are doing. Florida is facing a $2 billion deficit and they're looking to eliminate $2 billion from their budget. What a novel idea. New Jersey faces a $3 billion deficit and is planning a half-billion dollar reduction in spending compared with last year. And, California, faced with a $16 billion deficit, is looking at a 10 percent across-the-board spending cut.
Our leaders did something else that should be particularly offensive to all of you -- they showed a blatant disrespect for Rockland. For many years we have fought for the elimination or modification of the antiquated Wicks Law. We're the only state in the nation that has such legislation. It requires four general contractors for municipal construction over $50,000. It has been estimated that this policy increases the cost of these projects by as much as 20-30 percent. Even though it was not expected that Wicks would be addressed in this year's budget, we found that "in the still of the night" a deal was made to modify Wicks. The change increased the thresholds for triggering Wicks to $3 million in New York City, $1.5 million for the suburban counties around NYC and $500,000 for upstate. But wait, Rockland, which is part of the NYC Metropolitan Statistical Area, only got the half-million dollar threshold. Aren't we, like Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk, a downstate suburban county? Aren't our costs of doing business comparable to our neighbors in Westchester and Long Island? Aren't we part of the MTA? How come, when it comes to Wicks, we're part of "upstate?" You think, maybe, the power of the construction unions played a role in this?
As my colleague Andrew Rudnick, President & CEO of the Buffalo Niagra Partnership and a member of Unshackle Upstate, put it, his group is upset by the lack of transparancy in the whole process, "which resulted in late-night horse trading for pet projects and resulted in a three-tiered Wicks Law provision being included in the final bill without any discussion." In an Op-Ed piece in the Buffalo News, he went on to say the "bill sets an insultingly low threshold upstate, which will not provide the region with measurably lower costs, and mandates project labor agreements, which will more than likely offset any cost savings." I could not agree more. And, for us in Rockland the insult was even greater.
One bright note, in his address to the NYC group, the governor said he was committed to a reduction of 5-10 percent in the next budget. He said he's going to take a hard look at the 629 unregulated public authorities, at the validity of the STAR program and at our economic development programs. I hope he'll also look at the costs associated with unfunded mandates, the viability of some tort reform and a willingness look at the real problems with our education system. And, I truly hope that all this is accomplished in the "light of day" and not "the still of the night." |
