Pataki: Ballot Initiative To Amend Budget Process Is a ‘Dangerous Proposal’

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The New York Sun

A ballot initiative that would amend the state budget process is “a dangerous proposal” that would allow the Legislature to go on a spending spree, Governor Pataki said yesterday in urging New Yorkers to vote it down.


The proposed constitutional amendment, Proposal 1 on the November 8 ballot, would allow lawmakers to establish a “contingency” budget if they do not approve the governor’s proposed budget by the start of the fiscal year.


“Proposal 1 is wrong for New York’s hard-working taxpayers, it’s wrong for the fiscal stability of our state, and it’s wrong for future generations of New Yorkers,” Mr. Pataki told the Citizens Budget Commission in a speech at Manhattan’s Grand Hyatt Hotel.


The governor said the proposal would “turn the hands of time back to the dark ages of New York’s history, one of rapidly escalating state spending, irresponsible and unrestrained borrowing, and oppressive taxation.”


The proposal is a response to the annual jostling between legislators and the governor over state spending plans that has resulted in the budget being delivered late every year for two decades. This year, it was finally enacted on time.


Mr. Pataki said he favored a budget reform proposal that would require a balanced budget, implement binding revenue forecasts, and increase the state’s “rainy day” fund to 5% of the budget. The current proposal would bump up the fund to 3% of the budget from 2%, he said.


Supporters contend the amendment would lead to more transparency and accountability in state government and would guarantee a budget if the governor and the Legislature cannot reach an agreement. A spokesman for the Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, said Proposal 1 would “fix a dysfunctional budget process.”


“The plan is a good start to turning Albany around and improving the budget process,” the spokesman, Mark Hansen, said.


He said that under the current system, when a budget is not passed on time, schools, hospitals, and nonprofit groups are left to guess how much funding they will have.


Critics of the plan include a former governor, Hugh Carey, and the state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, the Democratic front-runner in the 2006 governor’s race. They say the proposal is a “power grab” by the Legislature designed to undermine the governor’s constitutional authority over the budget.


“At the end of the day, there has to be one person accountable,” Mr. Pataki said. “And that person has to be the governor.”


Also at issue is whether the proposal would encourage an on-time budget. Proponents say the amendment would promote a timely budget because it starts the process earlier. Others say it would have the opposite effect.


“It virtually guarantees [the budget] is going to be late,” the executive vice president of the Citizens Budget Commission, Charles Brecher, said. Mr. Brecher said the option of enacting a contingency budget would prompt the Legislature to wait until the deadline, at which point they could ignore the governor’s proposals, with certain spending restrictions.


Mr. Pataki, who has said he will not run for re-election, sought to use his lame-duck status to his advantage by suggesting he had little to gain if voters rejected the amendment. At the same time, he made an extensive slide-show presentation that highlighted, in areas from high credit ratings to low crime rates, his administration’s success since he took office in 1995.


The governor acknowledged that he was speaking to an organization that had already denounced Proposal 1, but he said mere opposition was not enough. “Get a little more fired up, get a little more involved,” Mr. Pataki told the commission.


The New York Sun

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