Senate Democratic chiefs spurn invitation to budget speech that’s called ‘photo op’
Paterson’s call for joint session is rebuffed by own party
ALBANY — In their latest snub to their party leader, Democratic leaders in the State Senate are turning down an invitation to a special joint session of the State Legislature that Gov. David A. Paterson called for Monday to address the state’s soaring deficit.
While Senate Republicans will attend along with Assembly members from both parties, Senate Democratic leaders say they don’t want to waste the time or taxpayer money to be present for, in the words of one Senate official, a “photo op” for the governor.
The rare joint session — which will feature only Paterson giving lawmakers a speech on the budget — comes on the final day of a five-day conference in Puerto Rico that some Senate Democrats are attending. But officials say that two of the Senate’s top leaders— John L. Sampson of Brooklyn and Pedro Espada Jr. of the Bronx — will be back from San Juan on Sunday night and that the annual Latino-led gathering in the Caribbean has no bearing on a decision to boycott Paterson’s Monday speech.
Senate Democratic leaders say they will be in Albany on Tuesday to attend an “extraordinary” session called by Paterson to deal with the budget’s $3.2 billion deficit — along with a kitchen-sink assortment of other ambitious items, including another bid by the governor to legalize gay marriage, control property tax increases and enact tough laws against drunken driving.
The largely ceremonial session Monday will cost taxpayers $60,000 in legislative per diems and other charges, said Austin Shafran, a spokesman for the Senate Democrats. Democratic senators do not want to “spend money to talk about reducing it when everything we anticipate hearing we’ve already heard” in recent hearings and public sessions with Paterson and legislative leaders, Shafran said.
“We would certainly prefer to use that time productively,” Shafran said of offers by Senate Democrats to use Monday to negotiate a deal rather than listen to a speech.
But some rank-and-file Senate Democrats — who risk being portrayed as obstacles to a budget deal — will be rebuffing their own Senate leaders. One senator said that most of the upstate Democrats are planning to attend.
“As long as we’re there, we’ll probably go, unless somebody calls us and says we can’t go, but I don’t see that happening,” said Sen. William T. Stachowski, D-Lake View.
Sen. Antoine M. Thompson, D-Buffalo, said he is planning to be in Albany on Monday anyway. Asked if he would attend, he said, “I will see where we are.” He added, “If he’s having a session, even if I just drop by for a minute, I’ll be around.”
But Morgan Hook, a Paterson spokesman, dismissed the contention by a Senate Democratic official that the Monday event is merely a Paterson “photo op.”
“A photo op is going to China for a trade mission while ignoring the widening state budget gap,” he said of a recent trip by some Senate Democrats. “Addressing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression is no photo op, and hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who have lost their jobs or homes should be insulted by the insinuation.”
If the state were to run out of money and therefore not pay its bills, Hook added, “we’ll see if these unnamed Senate officials want to snap photos next to our plunging bond rating.”
The governor’s agenda for Tuesday, is ambitious, to be sure, yet many of the items have been derailed before. The gay marriage bill faces hurdles among some Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, while the Assembly has rejected his calls in the past to set a ceiling on the future growth of state budgets.
Paterson is trying to lure supporters to the spending cap by also pushing property tax relief for certain New Yorkers based on income, a plan that falls short of his earlier proposal for firm limits on annual property tax increases for all residents.
The chief reason for the Legislature’s return — besides Paterson’s attempt to improve his dire poll numbers going into an election year — is to do something about the deficit for the fiscal year that ends March 31.
Despite signs of an economic recovery nationally, the deficit in New York has been worsening since the budget was cobbled together in April.
Two-thirds of the governor’s plan presents no major problems for lawmakers, such as “sweeping” funds from off-budget accounts into the state’s general fund or including as a line item an expectation of getting at least $200 million in franchise fee payments from the successful bidder for a casino at a Queens racetrack.
But nearly $1 billion of his $3.2 billion plan poses problems, notably his plans to cut state aid to public schools in the middle of their fiscal years and another round of cuts to hospitals and nursing homes.
“The time to act is now. The deficit-reduction plan, while painful, is necessary to keep our state afloat,” Paterson said in a statement. “New York can no longer afford delays, and New Yorkers will no longer stand for delays.”
Calling the “extraordinary session” at noon Tuesday is an exercise of constitutional authority by Paterson, and both houses must attend. They do not, however, have to act on anything.
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Reader comments