Libraries to Benefit from Politics
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

ALBANY – Moving to protect lawmakers who voted against overriding his budget vetoes, Governor Pataki is promising extra money for libraries located in the districts of Assembly Republicans.
The Assembly minority leader, Charles Nesbitt of Monroe County, confirmed yesterday that he and the governor are negotiating discretionary aid payments to libraries in his members’ districts, to make up for some of what they lost when Mr. Pataki vetoed $4.4 million in library aid.
Monday night, Republicans voted unanimously against overriding any of Mr. Pataki’s vetoes, helping to deny Democrats the 100 votes they needed for a two-thirds majority. The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, also accused the governor of persuading three of the 102 Democrats to stay home, leaving them with 99 yes votes.
The overture to Mr. Nesbitt looks like another hardball tactic as Mr. Pataki works to avoid being overridden on the budget a second year in a row.
The chairwoman of the Assembly Libraries Committee, Sandra Galef of Westchester County, accused the governor of “politicizing the whole library system.”
“There are going to be kids and adults in communities that are going to be suffering just because they don’t live with the right legislator in their district,” Ms. Galef said. “This is a real low for the New York State Legislature.”
Mr. Nesbitt said the special treatment for Republicans was no different than the “bullet aid” for schools and libraries that goes overwhelmingly to the districts of majority members. Ultimately, he said, he hopes the governor and the Legislature will reach a three-way agreement on the budget that restores library aid throughout the state.
In issuing his vetoes last month, Mr. Pataki said he regretted some of the cuts, but felt he had no choice because the Legislature had not approved his proposals for cutting the costs of Medicaid, public employee pensions, and other programs.
“That’s what this exercise is all about,” Mr. Nesbitt said. “The governor has some concerns. They’re legitimate. We can’t keep doing business the way we have been. We have to face the facts that there are fiscal constraints.”
“We’ve made a commitment to try and seek alternative funding sources and we will do so, even as we continue to seek Medicaid and pension reforms that would save hundreds of millions of dollars and help make it easier to fund important priorities such as libraries,” a spokesman for the governor’s budget office, Scott Rief, said yesterday.
Mr. Pataki’s vetoes trimmed a total of $1.8 billion from the Legislature’s $101.3 billion budget, including $235 million in current-year spending and $1.6 billion in borrowing. Originally passed on August 11, more than four months into the fiscal year, it was the latest budget in state history.
Mr. Nesbitt said the library aid, which he had discussed with the governor before Monday, was not offered as a quid pro quo. However, some Assembly Republicans had planned to support overriding the veto of library aid and changed their minds when they learned of the governor’s offer.
He said he did not know how much money would be available, where it would come from, or how it would be distributed. He also could not forecast the impact on the New York Public Library, which serves a city represented in the Assembly by dozens of Democrats and only two Republicans.