The honeymoon’s over

 

The new sheriff in town up in Albany is taking aim at waste in the state agencies.

It looks like he drew on the themes outlined by Gov. Eliot Spitzer in his State of the State address in January. Nothing wrong in doing that, despite the drama in his personal life, the former governor too was looking to restore the empire in the Empire State.

It appears Gov. David Paterson retained the same writers with weaknesses for weather analogies who were involved in the State of the State. In calling for an $800 million reduction in state spending last week, Paterson said: “With economic storm clouds gathering on the horizon, I knew that this was the only prudent choice.”

In his speech, Spitzer said, “First, we must rein in New York’s high cost of living and doing business – that perfect storm of unaffordability that is battering so many hard working New Yorkers.”

But, we digress.

Paterson is holding the agency commissioners’ feet to the fire by demanding they come up with a 3.35 percent cut in projected spending by May 16. Should they fail to do so, either by offering some unachievable proposal or something that is just a stop-gap measure and not a recurring measure, then the ax will be wielded by the governor. He said he had several “corrective actions” he would initiate. Hoping not to have to go to that extreme, Paterson said the actions include “withholding an amount of budgeted funding needed to hit your savings target or implementing a hard hiring freeze at your agency.”

Let’s hope he stays true to his word. Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and other power brokers will be watching very closely. Dear governor, please don’t forget the head-butting Spitzer endured.

Paterson wants the agency chiefs to throw out the deadwood. He asked specifically in his memo to the commissioners that they rethink their hiring practices. If the jobs aren’t “absolutely essential,” they should be left vacant. That’s a no-brainer.

Paterson also offered up this ominous harbinger: “I have an ambitious vision for our state’s finances and these reductions are only the beginning.”

Just to make sure the commissioners weren’t dozing, he added, “In the current environment, complacency is unacceptable.”

And either to hammer the message home or maybe the governor doesn’t trust the agency chiefs to be very forthcoming and compliant, the next day Paterson announced the formation of a group to find places to cut next year’s budget.

Made up of staff from his administration and the Division of the Budget, the group must have a report on Paterson’s desk before the end of the legislative session. The group will focus solely on state operating funds, whose spending has increased by more than 7 percent over the last five years. “In the best of times, growth of this magnitude would be generous. In difficult times, it is unsustainable,” Paterson said, adding that the recently passed budget slowed this growth to 4.5 percent.

The state operating funds upon which the group will cast a critical eye, was chosen, Paterson said, because it is “the most accurate measure of state spending funded by taxpayers.”

Like with the agency memo, Paterson also suggested specific areas of focus, including activities that do not serve an important statewide purpose, programs that are obsolete or are no longer serving their intended purpose, spending by public authorities and capital projects that are not needed to protect the health and safety of the public.

Another thing to focus on would be the amount of money the state is losing by funding businesses in Empire zones that don’t meet their staffing or production benchmarks. And, of course, the number one thing to focus on is the recommendations that are forthcoming from the state Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness. There’s plenty of ways to save money there since the state has about 9,000 taxing authorities and 6,000 governments. Consolidation is a concept worth embracing, governor.

Sharing services would provide a bounty of savings. As we reported two weeks ago, the Local Government Efficiency Grant program has $29.4 million with which to promote consolidations and major service-sharing arrangements.

Towns and villages that merge services can receive a 25 percent increase in current state aid or incentive funding equal to 15 percent of the combined property tax revenue of consolidating localities. The cap would be $1 million annually, or a $250,000 flat amount that would phase down over five years.

The one thing the governor should do is remove from his vocabulary the words upstate and downstate. During a speech in Syracuse last week, Paterson said in one breath that an improved public-private partnership has the potential to reverse job losses. But then in the next breath he insulted us by saying the state should make “upstate more competitive by lowering the cost of doing business.”

Come on. Enough with this upstate-downstate. As a reminder, governor, the Hudson Valley is neither upstate nor downstate. Consider it side-state. Don’t leave us in the lurch. We face the same problems as everyone else, except we might handle it a bit better. So, don’t be a stranger; please drop by and visit us.

You have to pass by us when you go to a Yankees or Mets ball game.

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