Note: while this was written before I read NYCO's diary hopefully it adds a bit of info the story
Last night the budget deadline for NYS passed for the 20th year in a row without a budget having been completed. I would say this puts NY in a class of its own regarding state budgets, but the state has been there for years already. Things are so screwed up in the process in Albany that three men with egos too huge to comprehend are holding the state hostage.
Granted, there are some requirements which are ridiculous for the the players involved. The deadline for the budget, April 1, is before the deadline for residents to pay their taxes. The Legislature is flying blind on the amount of money which will entering the coffers, and this is made worse since NYS doesn't make any sort of budget forecasts. There are some movements towards adjusting these limitations and shortcomings, however with how things are run through the Triumvirate (Silver, Bruno, Pataki) I have doubts that the movement will sustain momentum into 2006 which is the earliest the new procedures could take effect.
Also, as much as I think Sheldon Silver (the Speaker of the House) is a large part of the problem, some of his reasons for holding up the budget I see as valid (school and social funding). However, the reason the budget is taken hostage for these funds is because of the total lack of accountability in Albany.
Mr. Silver, the Assembly speaker, said the public should understand that is better to have a good, late budget than an early, bad budget. "The stakes are important," Mr. Silver said. "The timeliness is important but the education of their children is more important, plain and simple."
Ahh, the children, it's always about the kids. How about instead of having the dicotomy of good/late and bad/early we throw in a couple more choices like amazing/on-time, horrific/late-as-hell and all variations inbetween?
Luckily there is some noise being made out in Long Island about going after incubments to create some sense of urgency in Albany:
From NYTimes article on NYS budget
"The system is dysfunctional," said Thomas R. Suozzi, the Nassau County executive, a Democrat who is trying with little visible success to encourage a voter revolt against Albany incumbents of both parties. "It just shows a total disrespect for the law."
From NYTimes article on "Fix Albany" Group
The group ... is trying to raise $100,000 for the effort. They seek to get legislators to endorse their goal [of stopping the shift of Medicaid costs to local taxes], and to recruit candidates to challendge incumbents who resist.
Mr. Suozzi rankled legislative leaders when he first suggested wich political challenges last year. "I'm not going to be very popular with the Albany politicians," he said.
Suozzi, like Tim Bishop came into office on the rising wave of Democrats in Long Island and has given me some hope about the party in New York. There's such a huge "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" mentality amongst the parties here that even in districts which are stupidly tilted against the incumbent, the opposition party doesn't mount a credible challenge. I'm skeptical that these new faces will continue to challenge the status quo and the machines, but I am an eternal optimist at heart so I maintain a small glimmer of hope.
However, there isn't much hope amongst the experts that the masses will rise up in revolution though:
Gerald Benjamin, the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at [SUNY] New Paltz, said the problems in the budgeting cased New Yorkers to "check out" of the political process.
"My view is that it is delegitimatizing, in a great range of areas, the way government works," he said. "It enforces cynicism and skepticism about government's meaning and value and importance as a place where good things happen."
I guess the only real conclusion I can come to is, I guess we'll see. Both Dean and Clark had rather strong organizations here, which are still running to some extent, showing that people can dig an insurgent cause/candidate, but whether they will maintain to carry on to victory definitely isn't certain.