It goes without saying that March is usually a tough month in Albany, but this year may have been the roughest time for state government in recent history.
Starting with dismal early year economic projections, including reduced sales tax revenue and a depressed housing market, and moving right into the Eliot Spitzer scandal that forced the governor’s resignation during crucial stages of state budget negotiations, state leaders have had to deal with problem after problem, including new Gov. David Patterson’s revelations about sexual affairs and questionable hotel stays. Through it all, the specter of passing a budget on time – the state’s deadline was April 1 – loomed as a nearly impossible goal, even after leaders reversed a decades-long late trend within the last few years.
And although the state Legislature is expected to complete the budget process later this week, and Albany has never been removed from corruption or political games, it’s tough to understand how state leaders could approach one of their key issues – passing an on-time budget – with an inability to get it done. If the sexual misdeeds of our elected state leaders aren’t enough to shake our faith in the system, maybe, just maybe, this fractured budget process might be.
To start with, much of the budget discussion has taken place in shuttered chambers and in secretive meetings. Sen. Thomas Libous (R-Binghamton) was quoted this week as saying that budget committees, “just stopped meeting and more got accomplished behind closed doors.” Not the most encouraging assessment on the eve of the release of this year’s budget, is it?
Residents of the State of New York have long had to deal with ineptitude at the state capital; New York’s leadership is widely regarded as some of the most bloated and bureaucrat in the county. But the events of the last few months in Albany are mind-blowing. And regardless of what affect Spitzer’s decision to hire prostitutes or Paterson’s choice to stay in a hotel (on the taxpayers’ dime) 20 minutes from his home had on this budget process, it’s worth noting that state leaders, despite pledging to put out an on-time budget year after year, are consistently unable to do so. And with the level of fiscal uncertainty and the possibility of a recession that state legislators are facing, this budget should have been systematically and thoroughly vetted and broken down. Instead, what the taxpayers received was a hastily schemed document that will no doubt require constant maintenance through the fiscal year. In their rush to put scandal behind them and pass a working budget, state leaders have made a mockery of the process, prolonging the sideshow of scandal that Govs. Spitzer and Paterson have perpetrated and cast serious doubt about the effectiveness of our current administration. Considering the state of our economy, that’s a frightening prospect indeed.