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Again:
deadline, no budget Albany --
As fiscal year begins, lawmakers fail to reach deal for 18th year
By
JAMES M. ODATO and ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau
First published: Monday, April 1, 2002
Optimism that a budget deal will be struck within a few days of
today's arrival of the new fiscal year has faded once again. After
the past few weeks, as legislative leaders and Gov. George Pataki
repeatedly demonstrated that seemingly minor differences would not
be quickly resolved, several long-standing legislative officials
said they could not guess when this year's budget will be passed.The
state today marks its 18th consecutive year of missing the budget
deadline.Three government-reform groups -- Common Cause, the League
of Women Voters and the New York Public Interest Research Group
-- planned to note the occasion with a mock birthday party, complete
with cake and decorations.The budget completion date likely will
be only a few weeks late and not compete with the 126-day record
for tardiness set in 1997 and matched in 1999, political watchdogs
said."This is not easy,'' Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno
said. "We're trying to forecast the economy of this state for
the next two years, and we have one impression, the governor has
another and the speaker has another. Who here knows what we're going
to look like at the end of the year? Who knows what we're going
to look like next year?''Complications holding up the process include
Pataki's relatively pessimistic outlook for revenues. He is expecting
at least a $5.7 billion shortfall in revenues for the new fiscal
year."We have to be prudent,'' he said, pointing to hits from
a softer economy and from devastation to New York's financial district
from the Sept. 11 attacks.Senate Republicans believe the state will
have $439 million more in revenues and can find $500 million in
other reserves Pataki hasn't acknowledged.Assembly Democrats say
the state will take in $599 million more than the governor's estimates,
and they haven't tried to estimate the reserves other than to agree
the Senate isn't off base.Plus, legislative leaders, particularly
those in the Assembly, want more details on Pataki's plans for $10
billion to help rebuild lower Manhattan, $200 million for the newly
created Office for Security and $750 million for an Economic Opportunity
Fund for upstate job creation.No deal will be made this week because
lawmakers are in the middle of an 11-day break and an emergency
spending bill they passed gives them until April 10 before having
to consider another budget extension.Under a law passed in 1998,
lawmakers won't get paid until they adopt a new budget.Still, some
budget watchdogs said the budget's completion date won't be too
deep into spring, in part because this is an election year.Barbara
Bartoletti, legislative director for the League of Women Voters,
said "It will be done probably by mid-April, or, at the very
latest, the end of April.'' Among people interviewed, her prediction
was the closest last year when she said Halloween could be the finish
date; the final financial decisions for the past fiscal year were
banged out in October."The whole process is tied up with redistricting,
so it all depends which they want to get done with more quickly
and with the least media attention,'' she said.Frank Mauro, director
of the Fiscal Policy Institute, adds that he thinks a deal will
get announced by the middle of the month and be wrapped up by early
May.He said there doesn't seem to be any quarrel over about $300
million in new tax cuts set to begin this year, even though some
economists suggest that deferring the breaks would make better sense.Much
of the holdup in recent years stems from Pataki's veto of more than
1,000 items in the legislative budget worked out openly by the Legislature
in 1998 but without including the governor. The Assembly in particular
has been reluctant to move forward with a budget until it has an
agreement with Pataki and assurances that he will not veto items
in the settlement.
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