Secretive N.Y. State Leaders Outline Budget Deal- Release the Convicts- Close 3 Prisons- Raise the Property taxes!!F#$K the People

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YOU CANT BELIEVE THE PRIORTY"S OF THESE PEOPLE< FREE the convicts, raise property taxes on home owners, cut nurses pay, fire the correction officers and close three prisons in the worst ecconomy in the country Upstate NY...Wow F%$K the People or What???!! Carl4NY

N.Y. State Leaders Outline Budget Deal

Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
Gov. David A. Paterson with State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in March.

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and DANNY HAKIM
Published: March 29, 2009
ALBANY — 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.

With the stimulus money and other federal grants, total spending would rise over the next year by $10.5 billion, or 8.7 percent, a major expansion, though the state’s direct spending, which excludes federal funds, would rise by about $3.3 billion, higher than the rate of inflation. Over all, New York received $7.2 billion in federal stimulus money for the next fiscal year, some of it directly allocated to programs like unemployment insurance and food stamps.

Factoring in the elimination of $1.5 billion in property tax rebates, New Yorkers will pay around $7 billion in new or increased taxes and fees next year — the price, officials said, of closing a budget gap of more than $16 billion.

Mr. Paterson said in a statement that he and the Legislature had made tough choices in a time of severe economic pain.

“Over the last year, New York faced a historic fiscal crisis that tested our resolve,” Mr. Paterson said. “But by working together cooperatively with our partners in the Legislature, we made the tough choices necessary to address that challenge through shared sacrifice and responsible budgeting.”

Many critics of the state’s spending practices sharply disagreed.

“It is impossible to view this budget as a path to economic recovery,” said Kenneth Adams, chief executive of the Business Council of New York State. “Businesses and jobs will hasten their departure from the state, and how can you blame them? Albany treats them with disdain.”

Blair Horner, legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, said the negotiating process this year, shrouded in even more secrecy than usual, “stunk to high heaven.”

Mr. Paterson said the budget would include $6.5 billion in recurring spending reductions, including major savings wrested from New York’s large and politically potent health care sector. Officials claimed the plan would sharply cut future deficits, but they provided only preliminary details.

Reflecting the changing balance of power in the Senate, which came into Democrat control last fall, the budget will close three prisons upstate, which were long protected by Senate Republicans as a source of good jobs in blighted regions. The budget would tap stimulus money to restore about $328 million in proposed cuts in municipal aid to New York City, a boon for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

While the so-called foundation aid sent to school districts will remain constant compared to last year, overall education aid will rise by about $1.2 billion, increased in large part by federal stimulus money. State officials will, however, stretch out new payments required by a 2006 court ruling, saving billions in the current and coming fiscal years.

Though described by lawmakers — and viewed by some special interests — as an austerity budget, the proposal includes a welter of new taxes and fees.

A major part of the tax portion will come from a plan to temporarily raise taxes on New York’s highest earners, starting with single filers who earn more than $200,000 and married and joint filers who make more than $300,000. New Yorkers will also pay new or increased fees to obtain a driver’s license, operate a boat, hunt and fish, rent a car, and buy wine, beer and cigars. The deal would also raise $557 million in taxes on utilities.

“It’s no wonder this budget was negotiated in complete secrecy, because it is a complete disaster that could push New York from recession to depression,” said Senator Dean G. Skelos, the Republican minority leader, who, like Assembly Republicans, was almost entirely frozen out of the negotiations.

Mr. Paterson and legislative leaders are still wrestling with a rescue plan for the financially troubled Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which voted on Wednesday to raise fares and cut service. Officials in Albany held out hope that an agreement could come as early as Monday.

Mr. Silver was able to achieve several of his major goals. Beyond the income tax increase — which Assembly Democrats have long sought — the budget would restore a cost-of-living increase to the supplemental Social Security income checks and move to June a planned increase in the basic welfare grant.

“We went into this budget saying over and over again that the sacrifices will be shared, that the wealthiest New Yorkers would be asked to pay more, that we wouldn’t decimate education and health care to balance the budget,” Mr. Silver said.

The budget deal would also eliminate proposed cuts to tuition assistance programs at state schools and $185 million in cuts from special-education programs. The deal would overhaul Medicaid reimbursement rates and tilt spending away from expensive inpatient treatment and toward less expensive preventative care, which officials say will save hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Overall, budget officials said, Mr. Paterson won $2.3 billion out of the 3.5 billion in health care cuts he had sought.

But many of Mr. Paterson’s original budget proposals were swept aside. He had long resisted a tax on the wealthy as counterproductive, but relented to one of Mr. Silver’s top priorities. While Mr. Paterson had already abandoned many of his highest profile taxes, including levies on music downloads and nondiet sodas, the final budget was composed of a significantly steeper proportion of taxes, and fewer cuts, than he proposed.

Senate Democrats were not able to convince Mr. Silver to agree to a replacement for the existing property tax rebate, an urgent concern of Democrats from suburban and upstate districts. But the income tax will expire in three years, as Mr. Smith wanted.

“For New Yorkers across the state, we have created a budget that confronts the dire economic problems responsibly and positions us to achieve the long-term economic growth we need to get our state back on track,” Mr. Smith said.

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significantly steeper proportion of taxes, and fewer cuts, than he proposed."
what a suprise..C.