More Reax

The reaction to the Governor's proposed cuts continue.

This will round out all the pressure points of the proposed cuts, legislators are voicing opposition to proposed cuts in member items during an election year, it is difficult to feel their pain.

Member items, an Albany euphemism for pork projects, would be cut in half this year to $100 million.

In an election year, some legislators could find those cuts especially stinging.

“It puts us in an incredibly tough spot right before primaries, right before the general election,” said Micah Z. Kellner, a Democratic assemblyman who represents the Upper East Side of Manhattan. “It’s the hardest thing in the world to say, ‘Sorry, I promised you $10,000 for your playroom at your kindergarten center, but I don’t have that $10,000 to give you anymore.’ ”

This is from the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities.

News Notes

Vol. 15 , No. 22 , August 11, 2008 In this issue... ·         Call to Action: Governor Paterson proposes six percent cut to TAP, “Bundy” Aid, and opportunity programs; E-mail elected officials now to protect student and institutional aid.

Facing a projected State Budget deficit of $6.4 billion for SFY 2009-10, earlier today Governor Paterson proposed a six percent cut to all local assistance programs (except school aid and welfare) including the state Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), Direct Institutional “Bundy” Aid, Higher Education Opportunity Programs (HEOP), the Science and Technology Entry Programs (STEP/C-STEP), and Liberty Partnership Programs.

The Legislature will be asked to vote on more than $600 million in total cuts during a special “economic” session called by the Governor to begin next Tuesday, August 19. If passed by the legislature, the cuts would take effect immediately.

With a grim budget forecast and a short timeframe to act, cIcu is calling on the higher education community to e-mail state legislators to express support for student and institutional aid programs. Click here to contact your elected officials.

The Governor has already proposed more than $100 million in cuts on SUNY and is imposing $50 million in cuts on CUNY in addition to those reductions already enacted. Public institutions face a 10 percent total budget cut. Additional higher education funding is at risk as the Governor has proposed a reduction of 50 percent for all Legislative and Executive Branch member item spending authorized in the 2008-09 Enacted Budget. 


For more information on Governor Paterson’s $2.6 billion Budget savings plan, click here.

— Abe Lackman

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Reax To Budget Cuts

As predicted the various parties have come out against the Governor's proposed cuts.

Medicaid Cuts: (which truthfully is not a cut, it is a reduction in spending growth)

Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) is saying this is not shared sacrifice if certain sectors are exempted, such as state education.

“Moreover, this plan in no way can be considered a balance of shared sacrifice when entire sectors are exempted from it."

Greater New York Hospital Association and union SEIU issued a joint press release.

"By any measure, these are staggering cuts that would devastate New York’s health care infrastructure and severely threaten access to care. For New York’s already financially struggling hospitals, they would simply be unsustainable."

SEIU President George Gresham suggested a tax increase.

"I strongly encourage the Legislature and Governor to look instead for revenue options, including a surcharge on the wealthiest New Yorkers, in order to protect hospitals, nursing homes and home care services.”

Aid to local communities cut:

New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC) is warning of property tax increases, executive director Stephen Acquario said in a press release.

"We still have to spend taxpayer money to deliver the state’s programs we just have less of the state’s funding to pay for it. If we are going to make the hard choices than we need to be reducing state programs and services, not simply shifting more costs to property taxpayers.”

Beyond funding cuts, the legislature has to accompany these cuts in funding with a reduction in mandated programs in order to make this work properly. 

Meanwhile groups like the Citizens Budget Commission are applauding Governor Paterson.

"We applaud the Governor for coming forward with a set of options that encourages debate on how to curb spending. The Governor is right to keep pressure on the State Legislature and to insist that tax increases be considered only as a last resort"

Join The Fan Club

Convention Themes

The Democratic National Committee has released their themes for each night of their convention, and while the Republican National Committee has not yet released their themes, they have been leaked.

MONDAY

Democrats: One Nation

Republicans: Service

TUESDAY

Democrats: Renewing America’s Promise

Republicans: Reform

WEDNESDAY

Democrats: Securing America’s Future

Republicans: Prosperity

THURSDAY

Democrats: Change You Can Believe In

Republicans: Peace

Thoughts on the themes?

Obviously the last night's theme are centered around the candidate and Wednesday night is the VEEP's night, so the themes are potential clues to the VEEPS and Clinton speaks on Tuesday night.

Paterson's Cafeteria Axe

Governor David Paterson has produced a list of cuts and asking legislators to pick their poison cafeteria style. 

$506 million in Medicaid 

(This will have SEIU and hospitals howling)

$250 million aid to local governments, 6% which is $250 million this year and $420 next year.

(This will have local governments threatening property tax increases, while they should be looking for cuts themselves)

$232 million reduction in pork, which is a 50% reduction in member item money and a postponing of legislative programs.

(This will have good government folks cheering, while special pet project recipient crying)

$50 million from CUNY

Together these total over $1 billion in potential cuts, which Paterson wants the end result in cuts to come in around $600 million.

These cuts are in addition to his agency cuts of 7% that were already ordered, which is expected to produce $630 million in savings.

To read more detail of the cuts click here

Two Former Rivals Continue To Haunt Obama

The tale of the gift that keeps on giving.

Obama's two chief rivals continue to haunt his campaign with their moments in the news. Edwards, with his recent admission, has the Clinton campaign saying, what if! What if Edwards would have come clean sooner; Clinton would have won the Iowa caucus and then the primary outcome would have been entirely different.

According to Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson:

"I believe we would have won Iowa, and Clinton today would therefore have been the nominee."

The Edwards story is not going any place anytime soon with the Democratic National Convention in a couple of weeks this sub text will divert coverage from Obama.  

Now, Clinton's people, mainly Mark Penn, keep on dropping email bombs of how they portrayed Obama during the primary, which will assist the Republicans against Obama.

Mark Penn, a Clinton strategist, portrayed Obama in emails as anything but American.

"I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values."

"Let's explicitly own 'American' in our programs, the speeches, and the values. He doesn't. His roots to basic American values and culture are at best limited."

So much for party unity!

Quid Pro Quo

Sheldon Silver is determined to prevent the tax cap legislation from reaching a vote in the Assembly. He is adamantly opposed to it and he has the backing of the powerful New York State United Teacher's union (which proves the union does not care what you pay in taxes) as well as many Assembly Democrats from New York City.

The problem is the tax cap is overwhelming supported by a majority of New Yorkers and is the centerpiece of the state's top Democrat, Governor David Paterson and Silver does not want to appear to be in a battle with Paterson, nor does Paterson want the image of battling with another Democrat.

Here is the trade off:

Assembly Democrats want to raise taxes: they want taxes on incomes above a million dollars to be raised from 6.85% to 7.7%, but that is unlikely, as it will not be supported by the GOP Senate, nor does Paterson, who wants to be seen as a fiscal moderate, want to pass it.

In order to get the tax cap passed in the Assembly it is likely to take increased spending and it will come in the form of home heating subsidies for low income, elderly, and disabled. This is likely to get the Assembly Democrats off the mark and pass a tax cap if they are able to get this assistance package passed.

If you have listened to Addie Jenne Russell on the campaign trail, she is toeing the party line of the Assembly Democrats.

VEEP Announcement By Text

The Obama campaign will announce their VEEP selection via text message. Below is a direct lift from Barack Obama's website.

Danger Democrat would have brought this to you, but he is taking a hiatus for 3 days, so you all are stuck with P IV. In the spirit of good play, balance will be attempted.

Sign up and be the first to know the Democratic VEEP selection.

From BarackObama.com

Barack Obama is about to make one of the most important decisions of this campaign -- choosing a running mate.

You have helped build this movement from the bottom up, and Barack wants you to be the first to know his choice.

Sign up today to be the first to know.

You will receive an email the moment Barack makes his decision, or you can text VP to 62262 to receive a text message on your mobile phone.

Once you've signed up, please forward this email to your friends, family, and coworkers to let them know about this special opportunity.

No other campaign has done this before. You can be part of this important moment.

Be the first to know who Barack selects as his running mate.

Thanks,

David

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

Democratic Party Platform In Brief

Late yesterday the Democratic Party announced their party platform to go before the convention in Denver later this month. Party platforms are stated principles of the party, while adopted by most candidates, they are not mandatory.

Here are the highlights from the platform committee.

Guaranteed Heatlh Care for All: they say this is not universal health care and not a single payer government system but they fail to define how they would guarantee it. 

Iraq War: expect to complete redeployment within 16 months.

Woman's Rights: it makes mention of "18 million cracks in the highest glass ceiling," a direct reference to Hillary, who believed she was the victim of sexism during the primary.

Energy Rebates: something John McHugh and Hillary have already proposed.

It also identifies pension subsidies, crackdown on predatory lending, an increase in taxes for higher income families (wealth redistribution) and re-working NAFTA

Diplomacy: high level diplomacy without preconditions, such as the talks Obama suggested he would have with Iran.

The party increased their abortion stance. Right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay.

Various other items include: tough, practical and humane immigration reform, calls for a ban on assault weapons and "reasonable regulation" on gun ownership, and calls for the closing of Gitmo.

Succumbing to Pressure

Senator Aubertine succumbs to the pressure and voted in favor of the tax cap plan proposed by the Governor and supported by the Republican majority. He voted in favor of it after a disastrous hostile circuit breaker amendment, that he supported, failed.

This is a lift from Daily Politics Blog.

Tax Cap Passes, 38-20

Gov. David Paterson's tax cap bill has passed the Senate, 38-20.

It's not really a surprise, given that all the GOP members are present, with one empty seat that belonged to ex-Sen. Joe Bruno, and they all voted in the affirmative (as they say here in the chamber).

The Democrats are down three members. A number of those who are here joined with the Republicans in voting "yes," including Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith and Deputy Senate Minority Leader Jeff Klein, not to mention two of the upstaters (Aubertine and Valesky) and the lone Long Islander, Craig Johnson.

The "no" votes were all Democrats. They were:

Adams, Breslin, Connor, Diaz, Dilan, Duane, Gonzalez, Hassell-Thompson, Huntley, L. Krueger, Montgomery, Onorato, Parker, Perkins, Sampson, Savino, Serrano, Stavisky, Stewart-Cousins and Thompson.