Seven upstate Democrats reject all 9 state budget bills
Hoyt, 6 others reject all 9 budget bills
ALBANY — The state budget cobbled together this week by the Democratic leaders who run state government lacks reforms, raises taxes too much, isn’t friendly enough to businesses and is overly generous to New York City interests at the expense of upstate.
Tough words from an out-of-power Republican in the State Legislature?
How about Sam Hoyt, a Buffalo Democrat who has never voted against a state budget since coming to the Assembly in 1992.
But this week, Hoyt joined six other Assembly Democrats — including Robin Schimminger from Kenmore, Bill Parment from Jamestown, David Koon from outside Rochester and Joseph Morelle, who is also head of the Monroe County Democratic Party — in voting against all nine budget bills.
Others, like Francine DelMonte from Niagara Falls and Dennis Gabryszak from Cheektowaga, voted against all but one of the bills.
Buffalo’s other Assembly members had mixed votes: Crystal Peoples voted no on three of nine bills, while Mark Schroeder did so on five of nine bills.
And 23 Democrats — nearly a quarter of the party’s conference — voted no on a massive bill involving health care spending.
What’s going on? Why would so many Democrats buck their leadership on such a crucial matter?
One answer is because Democrats control the Assembly with a highly secure 109-41 margin, leaving plenty of wiggle room to let some members avoid making a politically uncomfortable vote without affecting the overall outcome of a bill the leadership wants passed.
But constituent anger was at the heart of it. Consider the e-mail sent to The Buffalo News from a reader: “I sincerely hope that every state politician who votes yes on this budget expects to get voted out at their next election.”
Such outcries, received on voice mails, in mailboxes and e-mail accounts of state lawmakers, especially from upstate, clearly resonated with a number of Assembly Democrats.
“I heard overwhelming opposition to this budget,” Hoyt said.
In the Senate, though, Democrats have just a narrow two-seat edge over Republicans and have held together as a bloc as they continued voting Thursday for a third straight day on the budget. It would take only one Democrat voting no to block the budget’s implementation.
That has put enormous pressure on some Democrats, like Sens. William Stachowski of Lake View and Antoine Thompson of Buffalo. They have been pushed, prodded and tugged to vote against the budget all week.
For those senators, it’s not an easy choice: risk alienating an unknown number of voters back home or a known number of Democratic leaders in Albany with the power to end political careers. But all the Senate Democrats are sticking together to approve the budget.
“There are different parts of this budget that I absolutely hate, but we don’t have any room for margin,” Stachowski said of the Democrats’ 32-30 edge over Republicans in a chamber where 32 votes are required to approve a budget. “We have to pass the budget.”
Final passage in the Senate is expected today.
Stachowski sounded just a bit annoyed that some Assembly Democrats who are able to vote no will take credit later on for budget dollars going to popular projects back home.
“It’s nice to be able to get what you want in the budget and announce to everybody that you got all these things and then vote no on how you’re going to pay for it,” Stachowski said. “How do you do that? I’m not beating up my colleagues. It’s just nice to have a cushion like that.”
The no vote by so many Assembly Democrats was used by budget opponents and Republicans to pressure — unsuccessfully — Democrats like Stachowski and Thompson. Unshackle Upstate, a business group, Thursday sent a thank-you notice to Assembly Democrats who opposed the budget.
Senate Republicans also had some fun with the situation. Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos talked on the Senate floor Thursday of the “courage” shown by those Assembly Democrats who voted no.
“Sen. Stachowski, four of your Assembly [members] voted against this bill. Maybe the bill isn’t as grand as you are being told it is,” Sen. Thomas Morahan, a Rockland County Republican, said on the Senate floor.
Stachowski said that while he doesn’t like parts of the budget, such as the nearly $600 million hit on gas and electric utility ratepayers or the bottle bill expansion, a $17.7 billion budget hole had to be filled. “There’s not a lot of options out there to fill the hole,” he said.
Asked if he would like to be able to vote no, Thompson said, “You can always vote no. But we’re part of leadership. It’s like anything in politics. If you look at a budget bill long enough, you’ll find things you don’t like.”
While only in his second term, Gabryszak broke with the Democratic leadership, he said, because the budget fails to follow the path many families have taken: serious belt-tightening. He worries the spending sets up future deficits when the federal stimulus money runs out in 2011.
“There’s a big difference between the way upstate legislators think and vote and what happens downstate,” Gabryszak said.
There is little in the way of tax breaks in this budget. One, however, gives $350 million this year to the movie and television industry, which Hoyt said almost exclusively benefits New York City.
Meanwhile, he said, his call for a tax break to encourage rehabilitation of older buildings — which would boost development in many upstate communities — was not included, even though it would cost nothing in 2009 and $87 million over six years.
“There’s no real attention to Western New York and upstate,” Hoyt said of the budget.
He called the budget “a missed opportunity” to take advantage of the economic crisis to drive through reforms like merging state agencies and reducing the state work force.
“If I were the deciding vote on the budget, I would have voted no. That’s not to say Stachowski or Thompson should act differently,” Hoyt said.
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