NYSACRA

IMPORTANT BALLOT PROPOSALS TO VOTE ON TOMORROW

On the ballot tomorrow on Election Day, are two propositions.  Proposal One would amend the State Constitution to shift power from the Governor to the Legislature and provide so-called budget reform.  Proposal Two is a $2.9 Billion Transportation Bond Act.

The Legislature had failed to pass an on time budget for 20 years, this year they finally did, without the changes to the Constitution offered in this amendment.  The current Constitutional clause in Article §7 was added under Gov. Al Smith in 1927, to check the unlimited power given to the Legislature.

Essentially, this new Constitutional amendment would do the following: change the fiscal year to May 1st from April 1st; set January 15th as the Governor’s Executive Budget deadline, it’s now the second Tuesday following the first Wednesday of the year; shorten the Governor’s 30-Day Budget Amendment privilege to 21 days; create a “Rainy-Day Fund”, which the Governor currently has, but it would now also be controlled by the Legislature; create an “independent” budget commission, all of whom are appointed by the Legislature, to determine the State’s finances, currently haggled out between the Governor and the Legislature; allow for a contingency budget to take effect upon the failure of the Legislature to act on the Governor’s Executive Budget by May 1st, set at exactly the previous year’s spending levels and programs; but most importantly, it would create a new provision allowing the Legislature to develop its own omnibus budget bill, that will add to or subtract from the contingency budget, still subject to the Governor’s line-item Veto, yet circumvent his Budget.

On the plus side, by requiring all budget changes to be in an omnibus bill, you can be sure you didn’t miss some small, obscure, 11th hour change.  On the down side, omnibus bills are easy to hide things in, hard to find anything in, and generally not fairly voted upon because there is something in there for everyone, so no one dares to vote against it.  The omnibus bill would provide for a 2-year education budget, helping them out significantly.  Further, any part of the contingency budget not amended by the omnibus bill would remain in effect and unchanged.  How does this affect OMR funding?  Currently, under this Governor, OMR is essentially provided a unique blank check of about $3 Billion, with very few itemizations.  Furthermore, with so much federal matching money, huge portions are not affected by State action or inaction now, except contractual payments.  This is how OMR can continue to pay out trends and other Medicaid money even without a State budget in place.  The only question is what this new process would do to such trends, etc.  All sides see the fiscal benefit to the State of the money coming in from the federal government and are somewhat concerned about its human benefits, so it’s hardly touched.  But part of that is because the Legislature has so many bigger fish to fry, it’s not worth playing with these numbers.  If they are the new architects of the OMR budget, from scratch, they can play with them all day, perhaps to your benefit, perhaps not.  Commissioner Maul and OMR would no longer be the driving force behind its budget.

The contingency budget would be a plus, but the stated goal of on-time budgets seems hollow, since this amendment would permit them to simply wait until May 1st to ignore the Governor’s Budget and enact their own, thus ensuring a late budget every year, even if only by a day.

It is supported by all major labor unions, and many other special interest groups, as well as NYPIRG, Common Cause and The League of Women Voters.  See links below to opinions and the proposal.

NYSACRA recommends reviewing the actual text of the Proposal/Amendment and also the current State Constitution as well as any Op Ed or other assessment you can find, before making a decision.

On the $2.9 Billion Transportation Bond, if your roads and bridges are bad, vote yes, if you’re tired of state debt, vote no.  Half of the money goes to NYC, half is for the rest of the State; every county and most every town will see some of it, and it all comes with about a $4 Billion federal match, if passed.

Follow links for opinions, pdf of Proposals, NYS Constitution, etc:

http://www.nypirg.org/goodgov/voteyesprop1.html  (NYPIRG)

http://www.hightaxesnewyork.com  (The NYS Business Council)

http://www.lwvny.org/pdfs/BudgetReformFinalReport.pdf  (Common Cause, NYPIRG, LWV)

http://www.state.ny.us/governor/press/05/1102051.htm  (Governor Pataki)

Attorney General Spitzer

NYT Editorial

2005 General Election Ballot Questions  (pdf 3MB) (42 Pages)

http://www.dos.state.ny.us/info/pdfs/cons2004.pdf  (NYS Constitution) (PDF 450 kb)

SAVE THE DATE:  NYSACRA LEGISLATIVE DAY 2006 –
 JANUARY 31, 2006

Next year’s NYSACRA Legislative Day 2006 comes early on Tuesday, January 31, 2006.  Invitation letters and sign-up sheets will be sent out shortly, but you can sign-up any time online by visiting www.nysacra.org/nysacra/legday2006.htm or just Click Here or print the form and fax in.