New York Desk

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.

The New York Sun
NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

ALBANY


PATAKI: STATE CAN BALANCE NEXT YEAR’S BUDGET WITHOUT TAX HIKE


Governor Pataki said yesterday that he will close projected budget deficits in the next two years without raising taxes and while proposing tax cuts. The state faces an estimated deficit of $2.5 billion in the 2006-07 fiscal year, and budget officials project the deficit will grow to $4.4 billion in 2007-08. “Those numbers will have reforms and revisions and we’re certainly not going to have tax increases,” Mr. Pataki said. Instead, he said he would push for tax cuts. Pataki administration officials said yesterday that the state’s projected surplus has grown to $1 billion, up 66% from the beginning of the fiscal year. They said increased tax revenues offset higher-than-expected Medicare and fuel costs. The state budget enacted by Mr. Pataki and the Legislature had a “built-in” surplus of $600 million.


– Associated Press


GROUPS RENEW PUSH ON BOTH SIDES OF BUDGET PROPOSAL ISSUE


Advocates on both sides of a state budget proposal renewed pushes yesterday for and against the amendment, which would give the Legislature power to approve a contingency budget if one is not enacted on time. In Midtown, the state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, gave a speech to the Citizens Budget Commission opposing the change. His talk at the Grand Hyatt came less than two weeks after the man he hopes to succeed, Governor Pataki, made a similar plea to the commission. Though many elected officials outside the Legislature oppose the initiative, Proposal 1 on the ballot, three advocacy groups – Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, and the New York Public Interest Research Group – held a news conference at City Hall to support it. They said the measure would improve a budget process that has resulted in late budgets in 20 of the last 21 years. The two sides have campaigned aggressively, and both sides acknowledge they have little idea what voters will decide.


– Special to the Sun


STATEWIDE


HOMELAND SECURITY ISSUES PSA ON EMERGENCY PREPARATION


The Department of Homeland Security will begin a series of public service announcements this month to help small- and medium-sized businesses prepare their employees in case of an emergency. Homeland Security partnered with the Advertising Council to sponsor a series of public service announcements targeting the business sector. The Ad Council found in a survey last month that while 92% of small businesses find it important for companies to take steps to prepare for a catastrophe, only 39% have actual disaster plans in place. Targeting the managers and owners of the businesses in a number of industries, the ads will also aim to dispel myths about the costliness of such preparations, which can include creating plans for evacuation and fire safety, and reviewing insurance coverage.


– Staff Reporter of the Sun


MANHATTAN


EX-MANAGER OF THE BAND KISS PLEADS GUILT Y TO A MISDEMEANOR


A psychiatrist who once managed the band Kiss pleaded guilty yesterday to a federal misdemeanor charge that he failed to pay child support. Jesse Hilsen, 65, has been in prison for the past year and three months awaiting trial on charges that he failed to pay support to his ex-wife, Rita Hilsen, and their two children, now grown. “I knew it was wrong not to pay child support,” Mr. Hilsen told a U.S. magistrate judge, Theodore Katz, as he entered the plea. He also agreed to pay nearly $162,000 in restitution. The plea to a misdemeanor rather than a felony will enable Mr. Hilsen to keep his license to practice child psychiatry and to work off his debt. He remained incarcerated after the plea and after agreeing to disclose all his assets to the government. No sentencing date was immediately set. Mrs. Hilsen, who has lived in a homeless shelter in Manhattan for the last decade, originally sued Mr. Hilsen for $2 million.


– Associated Press


BROOKLYN


CROWD PROTESTS PLANNED L TRAIN DISRUPTIONS


Plans to suspend weekend service on the L train for at least seven weekends next year drew a crowd of protesters in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, yesterday. Although transit officials have not said exactly when they will shut down the L train tunnel between Manhattan and Williamsburg, business owners fear the loss of Manhattan shoppers will significantly hurt sales. The New York City Transit Authority has said it will provide shuttle buses to the line’s 150,000 daily commuters on parts of the line where repair work shuts down train service. The repairs will upgrade signals along the line in preparation for trains to be computer-operated starting at some point in 2007.


– Special to the Sun

NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

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.


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