WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE-EXAMINER. December 18, 2008: Councilwoman Rita Malmud has issued this statement to WPCNR on the Common Council 5-2 decision to reject the three year contract ratified by the Police and Fire unions, last night. Here is Ms. Malmud’s statement:

 

Councilwoman Rita Malmud, August 5, 2008

 WPCNR: Would you care to give me a statement on why you and your colleagues rejected the police-fire contract?

 WPCNR: 2. What is next? According to the best of your knowledge?

 

WPCNR: 3. Why did the council not make it’s uncomfortableness with the contract known before scheduling this voter?

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WPCNR THE DUMP NEWS. By John F. Bailey. December 17, 2008 UPDATED 11:30 P.M. E.S.T.: A press spokesperson from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation told WPCNR today that the DEC has received completed test results of wells testing executed last spring, and that their team of technicians has determined that the TCE-contaminates found in the City Dump are still leaking leachate into the Mamaroneck River in a quantity that requires remediation.

Wendy Rosenbach, spokesperson of the DEC office in New Paltz, told WPCNR a final report is awaited from the city, but regardless of what that reports says, the DEC will require some form of cleanup of the contaminants, the extent of the remediation has yet to be determined. No other information was immediately available, according to Ms. Rosenbach, except that remediation will be required of the city.

Paul Wood, Executive Officer of the city, when asked for a statement on the DEC decison told WPCNR late Thursday evening, “Tomorrow I’ll check with Bud and corp council (Edward Dunphy).” 

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WPCNR CITY HALL CIRCUIT. Interview with City Executive Officer Paul Wood. December 16, 2008: WPCNR interviewed Mayor Joseph Delfino’s Executive Officer on the layoffs announced Monday by the Mayor and the police and fire contracts scheduled to be voted upon by the Common Council this evening. The Police and Fire unions assume a 12-hour duty tour and 24-hour duty tour with first year raises of 3.75% and second and third year raises of 4% in the new contracts. Mr. Wood discussed with WPCNR the cuts in the workforce first, and the union settlement second. Here is that interview:

Paul Wood, Executive Officer. City of White Plains.

 

 

WPCNR: On the job cuts, how will the work done by the part-time persons being let go be handled?

Paul Wood: We changed full-time positions hours to cover the cuts in the  part-time positions. You saw what happened in Yonkers, now everybody’s crying that they laid off 300 people. If we don’t do anything, we get  criticized us for doing nothing, if we do something, we it’s going to be painful, and we’re trying to minimize the pain, but if we were doing nothing, everybody’d be screaming we were doing nothing.

WPCNR: Would the part-time workers being replaced by hours, does that mean overtime for the full-time workers?

Paul Wood: No absolutely not – in their work schedules. They’ll be working regular time.

WPCNR: There’s supposedly a hiring freeze, does that mean the Budget Analyst advertised for is not going to be hired?

Paul Wood: The only position that’s been released to be hired is the Budget Analyst. ( Advertised  last Sunday at $56,000)

WPCNR: Are you planning on keeping David Birdsall as Acting Budget Director?

Paul Wood: Let’s look at it this way too, John:  $300,000 was cut from the reserve by the Democrats (Councilmen). We voted against our own budgeYes. Mr. Birdsall as the acting Budget Director. We had a very good Budget Analyst (Sandra Bullock) who left us to become treasurer in Cortlandt. She was the last one standing. I can’t function like that. The Council doesn’t want to consolidate the departments and yet when we go and try and go and create a budget department, then they’re angry about that and  so it’s damned if you do and damned if you don’t.t. That money may have been able to fund these part-time positions.  That’s where the anger should be.

WPCNR: Why cannot you use Undesignated Fund balance to cover?

Paul Wood: We can’t use (undesignated) fund balance until we run a deficit. It’s against the law. So, I can’t go into fund balance now and fund the position. It has to wait until we’re running a deficit, then I can go into fund balance, but that $300,000 that was cut from the reserve may have lessened the pain.

I feel bad for Recs and Parks the most because they got caught midseason. You asked why we chose to do this at this time. Two years ago we did the same thing, mid-year cuts.  Obviously as I said, people would be screaming and hollering that we did nothing, if we did nothing, even if  though there’s no tangible evidence (of a deficit). We’re just going by intuition. We feel revenues are going to be down. That’s something we cannot control. But, what we can control is the expense side. If we didn’t do anything people would be yelling and screaming. When we do something, people are yelling and screaming. It’s damned if you do and damned if you don’t again, so it’s like we’re preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. Unfortunately they, Ebersole got caught in the middle, all Rec and Parks had left was basketball and Ebersole (rink programs). There wasn’t any other places to go (to cut).

WPCNR: Does the Rec Department pay for any parades?

Paul Wood: The parades are all paid for by their own sponsors.

 WPCNR: What did the Rec Department  spend on the first six months?

Wood: Camps, concerts, noontime concerts. More sporting activity in the parks during the summer. That’s why I’m saying if we have the opportunity next budget season, to examine their whole budget, rather than in a six month time slot, some of these (eliminated part-time) positions will be returned.

WPCNR: How much is the city spending on the New Year’s Eve Ball Drop?

Wood: $12,000.

WPCNR How much is the city saving dropping these part-time persons?

Wood: Ebersole alone is about $20,000. The DPW, six workers, $35,000.

WPCNR: Are the Commissioners and Deputy Commissoners going to take any pay cuts?

Paul Wood: No. I can’t do that.

WPCNR: Why not?

Wood: Because their salaries are set at the beginning of the year.

WPCNR: Well, that doesn’t stop us from cutting it.

Paul Wood: Why do you think they’re overpaid? They’re underpaid.

WPCNR: I didn’t say that. I asked. They make far more than these part-time workers so I would think  a cut would hurt them less than the part-time workers.

Paul Wood: And we’d lose a lot of good people (Commissioners). Most of the Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners work 12 hour days. The majority of them took a pay cut, I consider it a pay cut,  last year because they didn’t get a pay raise as the same rate of inflation (3% was the raise). And inflation has been up over 4 forever.

WPCNR: Not really, Paul.

Paul Wood: It was over four, only in the last year. If you get a raise of 3% and there are some months 5.7% and 4.7% then it’s 2.7% less than you worked the previous year for. Contrary to what everyone says, o.k.?, we’re not giving raises that outpace inflation. It’s been made up by somebody. It’s just not true.

The other thing is, why don’t we cut the management. This city has grown by 7,000 people. That’s a village in this county. We’ve got less people (because we’ve got a hiring freeze on), doing more work , including police and firemen by the way. That fire (at 20 N. Broadway) could have been a major disaster. They did excellent work. 

I’ve got one person in the budget department, for crying out loud. Gina (Cuneo-Harwood) did all that work for two years and it nearly killed her. And she had two other people in the budget department. Everyone has left because the salaries elsewhere are better. I lost my budget analyst to Cortlandt, you know why? The salary was better.

I’m not cutting salaries on persons who are working their fingers to the bone here, in a city that’s grown by 10,000 people where we have less of a head count (on the payroll) than we had ten years ago, because we’re not hiring people. It would be absolutely ludicrous to say we’re going to start cutting salaries. Who’s going to work here? You’re not going to have anybody left. There’s no fat. That’s the problem. There simply is not a lot of fat here (in the budget). There’s more activity. With a hiring freeze on they’re working twice as hard.

WPCNR: Is the City Budget 08-09 running a deficit at this time?

Wood: No.

WPCNR: Then these cuts are in anticipation?

Wood: Yes.

WPCNR: So if we are on target, than why cut?

Wood: If we do nothing and end the year with a huge deficit, people are going to say we sat around here and did nothing.

WPCNR: But you have the fund balance to make that up?

Wood: Don’t forget we budgeted fund balance the more of that that gets eaten up means there’s less fund balance to put in next year’s budget, then after that, God forbid, we have another bad year we end up with no fund balance.

WPCNR: But what good is an (undesignated) fund balance doing, doing nothing?

Wood: The fund balance that we allocated to 2008-2009 was about 9 or 10 Million dollars some of that will definitely get used up and we’ll still probably have to run a deficit. You can’t be in a position we’re in and go in to fund balance. It just has to run a deficit and then we’ll have to use some more fund balance in next year’s budget. You’re right. We should be using fund balance now in the time of a recession. That’s what it’s there for. People refer to it as a rainy day fund, and it’s raining like Hell, so there’s no reason not to use it.

WPCNR: Couldn’t that be used now?

Wood: No, because you don’t get all your numbers in til the end of the year.

WPCNR: Since you’re not running a deficit…?

Wood: But we’re very confident we will be running a deficit by year end, that I can assure you.

WPCNR: When will you know what the deficit is?

Wood: Probably won’t know anything definitive until April or May, and even then we won’t definitively know.

WPCNR: There’s no way the city cannot take a short term bond, (rather than lay off)?

Wood: No. You can’t bond for jobs.

WPCNR: There must be some financial instrument … you’ve explored all avenues of apparently what is a short term cash problem.

Paul Wood: It may be. In July, or April,  when we do the new budget, we may be hiring back some of these people. Some of these people laid off from Ebersole will be working for us in the summer any way. We’re worried about $20,000 at Ebersole. It doesn’t sound like much but it is. It contributes. There are no sacred cows. I can’t have one department be pained and another one left untouched, just because everybody loves the rink. The fact is that everyone should be jumping for joy that we’re reinventing government here by saving part-time salaries, changing the schedules of full time employees and having them cover, so there’s very little minimal impact to our services so that the public is not getting reduced services, it’s just that we’re having our full people work different hours – which they’re not happy about by the way. That’s too bad. They are lucky they have jobs at this point. In order not to reduce full-time jobs. They have longer time with the city. They move into another department and bump another person out. You don’t want to do that to full-time employees. One of the mayor’s best friends is affected by these cuts. We don’t like doing it.

WPCNR: So if the city was in such good shape in August, how come we have to cut now?

Paul Wood: If we don’t do anything  now, ok, by the time we get the bad news, how much we’re going to run a deficit, all the departments will have spent all their money and there will be nothing to pull back. So we have to do it in anticipation that we’re going to have a bad year here. We can’t….we’re not an island. If Yonkers laid off 300 full time employees, Mount Vernon’s laying off people, everyone, New Rochelle, same thing. There’s things that everyone is doing because the economy is obviously in a tailspin. We cannot anticipate, although our sales tax was up, which is fantastic, god willing and everything being equal, we’re on budget, and we don’t have to make the cuts we have to make. As you can see from the Mayor’s memo,   we have to reinvent the way we do things we just can’t keep raising taxes. We have to look at operations and how we can save money for the future. We’ve got to look at long term solutions, not just emergency, got to do it.

The Rec department unfortunately already had programs under the way. The DPW six part-timers, we hire them every season, and they’re not going to be hired. We’re not going to open the Renaissance Square Fountain for a month. The same guys that prepare the ballfields will come back and prepare the ball fields first then come back and open the fountain.

 

THE POLICE AND FIRE SETTLEMENT

WPCNR: In light of the belt tightening, what is the justification for the police and fire settlements?

Paul Wood: That’s very easy. First of all the numbers are well  below the CPI which is 4.72%. You want to go to mediation on that, and come walking away with a 4.72. I don’t think so.

WPCNR: But that is only very recent that number…

Paul Wood: It’s only been very recent, it was up to 5.7 two months ago. But you go to mediation and they look at the snapshot, and they look at the economy and of course they’re going to say, got to give them 4s and 4-1/2s.

Number 2 they made a ton of concessions. When you look at the contract we have, they started out with  a list of 20-24 items,  each one (union) including longevity, which is normally given in a contract. They wanted  additional money for tuitions. They wanted a host of things.

We began to talk about the schedule. With the schedule change (12 Hour tours for police) I get on police 2 to 4 extra police per shift, O.K.? That ‘s like hiring four to eight extra cops that I’m not going to have to hire. That’s 4 to 8 cops. That’s a lot of money

With  the firemen, they made a major concession, both did, on training. We were spending a load of money on overtime, because they had to pay these guys overtime when they were on training, which was ridiculous. Both police and fire removed that from their contracts. That’s going to save a ton of money.

Firemen gave up one extra day, when we figure that out over the year that works out to hiring almost two more firemen. Two more salaries,  two more firemen. We have two more on the streetThat’s fantastic. I put more on the street. I can run at a higher vacancy rate which we are doing. The money that that saves us is incredible. Six cops, benefits and salary, that about $400,000, $500,000. Two firemen, that’s $200,000 right there. So that alone helps us, the work changes, schedule changes.

We used the schedule changes (12 hour tours for Police; 24 Hour tours for firemen), as bargaining chip to do away with 14 other items.

When you look at the CSEA contract that the county gave out, when you look a similar police and fire contracts that were settled at the same amounts or more, than what we’re proposing to settle at, you will see longevity increases.   That affects everybody. That’s where they hide the percentage, so when you say Greenburgh or the CSEA got a 3.5% increase, no they didn’t, they got a 4-1/2% increase because they got a bump in longevity and they got all those other perks that are hidden in those contracts.

They’re getting nothing here, absolutely nothing. The only thing they are getting is a differential for managerial, like lieutenants and captains, (1%) and that is only to make them equal to most of the other cities in the county. Right now, White Plains police and fire are toward the bottom of the scale of salaries across the board for the cities and towns we look at.

If you recall eight or nine years ago, we had a thing called badge drain. That’s what we’re afraid of. We don’t want to start investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in police and firemen then having them leave the city to go somewhere else because they’re so well trained. This increase will only put them in the middle of the scale of where we’ve surveyed.

It’s also, when you look around, not unthinkable, these increases. They’re on par with what everyone else is getting, they’re below CPI, unlike a letter writer who keeps complaining we’re giving raises beyond the rate of inflation. The Hell we are. That’s not true. Not true. It’s over four. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  If you go to mediation at this snapshot in time.

This is one helluva contract. There are only four things on the table and none of them  are significant. In fact, the amount of money this will save on overtime, the training concessions the unions made, they gave up increases in longevity.

Their contract by the way is considered the model contract. They say every contract in the city should be like the police, who contribute towards their medical. You can’t ask two unions, who are the model contract on medical benefits, to cut back on their medical insurance. That’s ridiculous, you’d get laughed out of the room. They’re saying look, we’re the model and this is one of the reasons why we wanted to settle with them, because they are the model (on medical benefits), and that’s what we intend to do.

WPCNR: If this contract has them giving so much,  as you say, why did they accept it?

Paul Wood: A couple of reasons. They realize the hard economic times we’re in. Number two, the chart changes not only work very well for the administraton. They also work very well for the individual, fire fighter or police. They wanted the chart (schedule) changes. So we used it as a bargaining chip. When Commissioner (Frank) Straub did the analysis, we figured we could do this, and were able to offer that, everything else came off the table. Because this is what they’ve been seeking for years.

Seventy-five per cent of all fire departments operate on this schedule. Policemen do 12 hour shifts throughout the country. It started in California and it’s been continuing. We have some police on 12 hour shifts. We have 12, 10, 8 hour shifts. They say it gives them additional time off. They don’t have to go back to work for 12 hours. It was  a bargaining chip we used. But it also works extremely well for the city.  It allows us to cut back on hiring and gives us and extra 1.6 firemen. And the training was killing us on overtime – a major concession on their part.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. From Governor David A. Patterson’s Office. December 16, 2008: The Governor of New York State today issued his budget cuts to rein in the 2008 Budget, and his complete Executive Budget for 2009-10, the earliest the budget has ever been delivered to the legislature. Here is the news release detailing the historic submission:

Governor Paterson  delivered a balanced Executive Budget Tuesday, more than one month prior to the State constitutional deadline, which would eliminate the largest budget deficit in State history,  a $1.7 billion current-year shortfall and a $13.7 billion 2009-10 deficit. This proposal includes a series of difficult decisions across every area of State spending, as well as targeted increases in revenue, to address an unprecedented fiscal and economic crisis. The Budget also includes several reforms that will increase government efficiency and lower taxpayer costs in the future.

“For years, record revenues from Wall Street allowed State spending to increase at an unsustainable rate,” said Governor Paterson. “With the financial services industry in the midst of an unprecedented crisis, we must fundamentally reevaluate what our State can afford to spend. Change is unavoidable, and the proposals I have put forward today begin the difficult process of adapting to a new fiscal reality. Just like thousands of families across New York, our State government needs to tighten its belt and limit spending to what we can afford.”

 

Governor Paterson’s Executive Budget is structured in a unique manner in order to address the challenge of closing a mid-year shortfall. It contains two main components, both of which were delivered to the Legislature today. The first component is a 2008-09 Deficit Reduction Plan. This stand-alone legislation includes a series of actions that are necessary to close the State’s current-year $1.7 billion shortfall. The State financial plan assumes enactment of these actions by February 1.

The second component is Governor Paterson’s complete 2009-10 Executive Budget proposal, which will close the 2009-10 fiscal year $13.7 billion deficit. Consistent with Governor Paterson’s goal to start reducing State spending as soon as possible, the savings actions included in that proposal assumes the budget will be enacted by March 1, 2009, one month prior to the April 1 start of the fiscal year.

Spending Growth

Under Governor Paterson’s Executive Budget proposal, 2009-10 General Fund spending would remain flat compared to 2008-09 levels at $55.4 billion. State Operating Funds spending would total $79.8 billion, an increase of $400 million or 0.5 percent.

All Funds spending would total $121.1 billion, an increase of $1.3 billion or 1.1 percent . which would represent the lowest level of growth since 1996-97 when the All Funds budget declined by 0.4 percent. Unlike in 1996-97, however, Governor Paterson and the Legislature, have worked throughout the fiscal year to reduce the size of the 2008-09 budget to address plummeting revenues. If these reductions had not occurred, 2009-10 All Funds spending would have declined compared to 2008-09 by $548 million or 0.5 percent.

2008-09 Deficit Reduction Plan

Governor Paterson’s 2008-09 Deficit Reduction Plan includes $1.7 billion in savings initiatives that are necessary to close the state’s current-year state budget shortfall. This proposal includes $1.0 billion in proposals that were originally put forward for consideration by the Legislature at a November special session as part of an overall $2.0 billion package. Major prior recommendations that will be put forward again include $500 million in health care savings; a $50 million reduction in Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) spending and a $25 million sweep of uncommitted EPF funding; an expansion of the 5-cent bottle deposit to non-carbonated beverages ($118 million in 2009-10); a $620 increase in SUNY annual undergraduate tuition from $4,350 to $4,970, which has been approved by the SUNY Board of Trustees ($62 million); a 10 percent reduction in Community College Base Aid ($15 million); and others.

Of the original $2.0 billion in savings proposed in November, over $1.0 billion are no longer possible to achieve before the end of the fiscal year. They have been replaced by $771 million in new savings put forward today.

These $771 million in new savings initiatives include the elimination of a planned transfer to the Community Projects Fund for member items ($45 million); the implementation of strict state agency spending controls to eliminate non-essential spending ($100 million); the transfer of uncommitted funds from the Department of Law’s special revenue account ($91 million); the transfer of New York Power Authority assets and excess operating funds to the General Fund ($306 million); the use of $100 million from various other fund balances; and other actions. A complete listing of each proposal included in the 2008-09 Deficit Reduction plan is available at www.budget.state.ny.us.

2009-10 Executive Budget

Governor Paterson’s $13.7 billion Executive Budget General Fund savings proposal includes $9.5 billion in recurring spending reductions, which represent 70 percent of total actions. It also contains $3.1 billion in recurring revenue actions, and limits non-recurring actions to eight percent of the overall plan or $1.1 billion.

Governor Paterson said: “The Executive Budget proposal I have put forward today represents a balanced plan for a balanced budget. The vast majority of my plan focuses on recurring reductions across every area of state spending. In order to protect core services, however, it also contains targeted increases in revenue. Given the magnitude of our current crisis, the only way we are going to overcome our budget problems is by acting comprehensively through shared sacrifice.”

Major actions include:

Education: The Executive Budget reduces School Aid in 2009-10 by $698 million or 3.3 percent from 2008-09 while maintaining a commitment to both long-term increases in education investments and the formulas created to equitably allocate these funds. Even after reductions, funding for School Aid would still total $20.7 billion in 2009-10, a 42 percent or $6.2 billion increase compared to 2003-04. Proposed reductions are structured progressively based on district fiscal resources and student need. Savings are also achieved through reductions or eliminations in categorical programs to prevent further reductions in direct aid to schools. Governor Paterson remains committed to the education investment plan advanced in 2007-08 to increase School Aid by $7.0 billion over a multi-year period. But significant funding increases in Foundation Aid and Universal Prekindergarten that were scheduled to be phased-in over a four-year period will now be phased-in over an eight year period to reflect the need to adapt to the difficult fiscal environment. The Executive Budget also proposes mandate relief measures to help school districts control costs.

Medicaid/Health Care: If no actions were taken to control costs, State Funds Medicaid spending would grow 12 percent to $17.3 billion. The Executive Budget proposes taking actions to limit State Funds Medicaid spending to $16.0 billion, an increase of 3.8 percent from 2008-09. The recommendation focus on reforming ineffective hospital, nursing home and home care reimbursement systems to direct spending to more appropriate primary and community based settings. Even after these actions, total federal, state and local Medicaid spending would still increase by $432 million or 1.0 percent compared to 2008-09 to a total of $45.4 billion, and New York’s program would still be the most expensive in the nation.

STAR: The Executive Budget eliminates the STAR rebate program ($1.4 billion). The rebate is a check issued to homeowners and has no relation to an individual’s property tax bill. A corresponding enhanced New York City personal income tax credit ($364 million) added in conjunction with the rebate will also be eliminated. The value of the credit will return to pre-rebate levels, declining from $290 to $125 for married couples and $145 to $62.50 for individuals. Funding for the STAR exemption program, which directly shields a portion of an individual’s assessed home value from local property taxation, as well as the standard New York City rebate will still total $3.3 billion . approximately equivalent to spending on the program prior to the creation of the rebate.

Higher Education: Based on the recommendations of the New York State Commission on Higher Education, the Executive Budget would establish the New York Higher Education Loan Program (NYHELPs) which will provide a minimum of $350 million in loans to approximately 45,000 New York State residents attending New York higher education institutions. The loans will be offered at rates well below those currently available in the private loan market. Additionally, a SUNY ($620, 14 percent) and CUNY (up to $600, 14 percent) tuition increase tied to an investment plan is also recommended, which will provide a year-to-year increase in core instructional budget resources for those universities.

Human Services: For the first time in 18 years, the Executive Budget would increase the basic welfare grant. The grant would increase by 10 percent, from $291 to $320 in January 2010; by another 10 percent to $352 in January 2011; and by a final 10 percent to $387 in January 2012. The budget also preserves funding for core programs such as foster care, adoption, child and adult protective services, and domestic violence services. Savings are achieved by reducing or eliminating a number of non-mandated services, many of which have provided valuable services but are supplemental to the state’s core mandated programs.

State Workforce: The state workforce is expected to total 196,292 in 2009-10, a decrease of 3,108 compared to the prior year. This would still represent, however, an increase of 8,927 compared to 2003-04. The 2009-10 decline includes an estimated 521 layoffs, which are mostly limited to the impact of agency consolidations, facility closures, or program eliminations. The Budget also advances proposals to reduce spending for state employees in ways that will minimize further layoffs during a time of economic distress and avoid service disruptions in critically important programs. Proposals include deferring five days of salary payments until a state employee leaves service or the fiscal crisis is declared to have ended; eliminating a scheduled three percent general salary increase for 2009-10; and requiring state employees and retirees to contribute greater amounts to health care coverage. Even after these proposed actions, most public employees will have received a general salary increase of 20 percent compared to 2003-04.

Pension Reform: The Executive Budget creates a new tier of pension benefits (Tier V) for state and local employees. Many of the requirements for Tier V would simply remove pension enhancements added in recent years to Tier IV, including restoring the minimum retirement age to 62 instead of 55, requiring employees to contribute to the pension fund after their tenth year of service, restoring the minimum years of service required to draw a pension from five to ten, and others. New requirements for Tier V include excluding overtime compensation when calculating pension benefits, which will prevent “salary spiking” in an employee’s final years of service. Under the state constitution, Tier V requirements can only apply to new employees. The Executive Budget also includes a proposal to implement a new tier of pension benefits for newly hired City of New York uniformed employees. This proposal is being advanced at the request of the Mayor of the City of New York and will not be acted upon without the consent of the City Council.

Aid and Incentives for Municipalities (AIM): The Executive Budget achieves savings by maintaining AIM funding at current year levels, which would eliminate a previously scheduled $61 million increase, and by eliminating New York City’s AIM payment. Even after these actions, AIM Funding for municipalities outside of New York City will still have increased by $290 million or 62 percent compared to 2004-05 and total $755 million. Unlike other municipalities, which rely more heavily on the AIM program, AIM payments represent 0.5 percent of NYC’s overall revenues. To help offset recommended reduction in AIM and other local government assistance, the Budget advances a range of cost-saving mandate relief initiatives and local revenue enhancements. In particular, Tier 5 pension reform, additional Wicks Law relief, and an expanded red light camera program will provide substantial fiscal benefits for New York City. Other municipalities will also benefit from revenue actions such as removal of sales tax exemptions.

Empire Zone Reform: The Executive Budget would require all of the current Empire Zone program participants to demonstrate that they are producing at least $20 in actual investments and wages for every $1 that the state invests in order to remain in the program. The reformed program will continue until its sunset date of June 30, 2011, excluding certain sectors such as utilities, retail, and real estate from future participation. These actions are expected to produce savings of $272 million in 2009-10, $292 million in 2010-11, and $310 million when fully annualized. A portion of the demonstrated savings from these reforms would be redirected to a new job creating grant program administered by ESDC and to new research and development tax credits. These initiatives will receive $100 million when fully annualized by 2011-12.

Rightsizing State Government: The 2009-10 Executive Budget lays a strong foundation for improving state operations, beginning the process of streamlining state government by eliminating duplicative services, consolidating overlapping state agencies, closing underutilized facilities, lowering the cost and size of the state workforce, and consolidating back-office operations. To achieve this goal, seven state agencies would be eliminated, merged or integrated with existing agencies. These include the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR) and Department of Economic Development, which would integrate with the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC); the State Employment Relations Board, which would merge with the Public Employment Relations Board; The Northeastern Queens Nature and Historical Preserve Commission and the Hudson River Valley Greenway Communities Council and Conservancy would merge into the Department of State; The New York State Theatre Institute would merge with the Empire State Plaza Performing Arts Center Corporation (“The Egg”) and the Office of the Welfare Inspector General would merge with the Office of the Medicaid Inspector General.

In addition, the Executive Budget would also establish a new Council on Shared State Operations to oversee the development of a “shared services” model in New York, which seeks to centralize back-office operations to both decrease costs and improve services offered. This approach has been used by the private sector for years and has been increasingly adopted in the public sector. Consolidating administrative functions shared by multiple agencies will free agencies to focus on their core missions of providing essential services to New Yorkers, rather than administrative tasks.

Facility Closures/Downsizing: Several underutilized state facilities would be eliminated or downsized. The Executive Budget recommends closing four prison camps and several annexes, three Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) evening reporting centers and six underutilized OCFS youth facilities, as well as downsizing two OCFS youth facilities. Additionally, the Office of Mental Health would eliminate 450 beds (11 percent) from its inpatient psychiatric system, moving those patients to more appropriate settings, and the Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services would close its Manhattan Addiction Treatment Center.

Revenue Actions: The Executive Budget includes a balanced package of revenue enhancements. These proposals do not include any broad-based income tax proposals, but do include $3.1 billion in recurring General Fund revenue actions. These proposals ensure that tax burdens are fairly distributed, improve consistency with other taxing jurisdictions, and close loopholes, among other objectives. The budget also includes new or increased fees or fines, most of which finance specific activities and have not been changed in several years.

Some notable revenue increases include: A new, additional 18 percent sales tax on non-diet soft drinks to combat obesity and related diseases, with revenues directed to health care; eliminating the sales tax exemption on clothing and footwear under $110, replacing it with two exemption periods during which clothing and footwear under $500 would not be subject to sales tax; imposing a sales tax on cable and satellite TV/Radio services consistent with the practice of 23 other states; conforming the state sales tax to New York City’s practice of taxing personal services, such as barbering, massages, and hair salons, and credit rating services; repealing an ineffective sales tax cap on gasoline, for which there is no documented evidence provides savings that are passed on to consumers; permanently increasing the assessment on utility companies from 1/3 of one percent to one percent of gross intrastate revenues plus an additional one percent temporary surcharge on those revenues; and other actions.

Budget Deficits

In October, the Division of the Budget projected budget deficits of $1.5 billion in 2008-09, $12.5 billion in 2009-10, $15.8 billion in 2010-11, and $17.2 billion in 2011-12 . a cumulative total of $47.0 billion. Based on greater than anticipated declines in projected revenues, this budget deficit has increased to $1.7 billion in 2008-09, $13.7 billion in 2009-10, $17.1 billion in 2010-11, and $18.6 billion in 2011-12 . a total of $51.1 billion.

Governor Paterson’s proposal would eliminate the 2008-09 shortfall and 2009-10 deficit, as well as make important strides toward long-term structural balance. After implementing the actions contained within the Executive Budget, which will produce $45.2 billion in savings over the next four years, the state’s out-year budget deficits would total $1.8 billion in 2010-11 and $4.0 billion in 2011-12 . a cumulative total of $5.8 billion.

Reserve Levels/State Debt

The 2009-10 Executive Budget proposal maintains $1.2 billion in reserves, equal to 2.2 percent of General Fund spending. State debt is projected to grow by $2.6 billion (5.0 percent) to $54.2 billion, largely due to investments in economic development, transportation, and higher education.

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WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. From New York State Governor David Patterson. December 16, 2008: In a communication just received  by WPCNR from Governor Patterson, who released his 2008 budget cuts on time as promised today, the Governor reaches out to the people of New York to explain his cuts.

Governor Patterson In White Plains, November, 2008

My Fellow New Yorkers,

Today, I released my budget for the coming fiscal year, proposing a package of targeted tax and fee increases, significant spending cuts, and streamlining or eliminating programs that are not working, in order to close our state’s estimated $15.4 billion deficit, the largest in New York State’s history.

These difficult times require making difficult choices, and it’s painful to have to make some of these decisions. I have repeatedly said that nothing is off the table when it comes to addressing this deficit, and I have recently found myself having to veto bills as Governor that I sponsored when I was a State Senator. However, we are in the midst of the greatest economic crisis we have endured since the Great Depression. People are suffering, and action must be taken.

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As a former State Senator from Harlem, I know from experience the effect of budget cuts and fee increases on working families, which is why I carefully considered the reductions in spending to education and Medicaid. However, taken together, education and health care represent over half of our budget, and reductions are necessary if we’re going to get our state back on track. In the coming days, we can expect to read stories and watch commercials about these proposed cuts, and while cuts to education and health care cannot be avoided, they can be done smartly to minimize the impact on the classrooms and the hospitals and clinics.

However, I am also acutely aware that there are families struggling to provide basic needs for their loved ones, which is why I have proposed increasing funding to a number of social initiatives aimed at helping the poorest New Yorkers through these challenging economic times, including an increase to welfare grants for the first time in 18 years, expanding the state-financed Family Health Plus health insurance program to cover 19- and 20-year-olds who no longer live with their parents, and increasing services to CUNY & SUNY colleges and universities.

I encourage you to learn more about my budget priorities by reading the news stories below:

Closing the State Deficit Requires Prudence (Albany Times Union)

NY Gov. Paterson’s state budget in brief (Newsday)

As I’ve said time and again, these extraordinary circumstances are forcing us all to take a hard look at our fiscal priorities and to make some difficult choices in an effort to keep our state solvent. I submitted my budget five weeks early because I want to give New Yorkers, legislators, state agencies, and various interest groups sufficient opportunity to discuss the steps we need to take next to put New York back on the right path. I will deliver my State of the State address on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 to continue that conversation with all New Yorkers.

These are difficult times, but I am confident that New Yorkers, together, will rise to meet this great challenge.

Sincerely,
Governor David A. Paterson