Senate Democrats rebuff governor on special session
ALBANY -- Reducing the state's soaring deficit, legalizing gay marriage, slowing property tax growth and toughening drunk driving laws are among the items on the agenda for a special session of the Legislature that Gov. David A. Paterson has scheduled for Tuesday.
The governor, though, is being rebuffed by his fellow Democrats who run the State Senate in his quest to address both houses a day earlier in a rare joint session in which he hopes to convince them of the need to cut state spending to trim the $3.2 billion deficit.
But Democrats in the Senate, where Paterson served for years before becoming governor, have rejected that notion. Senate Republicans plan to attend the Monday session, as do Assembly Democrats and Republicans.
Austin Shafran, a spokesman for the Senate Democrats, said such sessions cost taxpayers $60,000 in legislative per diems and other charges. Shafran said Senate Democrats 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.
"We would certainly prefer to use that time productively," Shafran said of offers by Senate Democrats to use Monday to negotiate with the Assembly and governor rather than listen to a speech by the governor.
The governor's agenda, to be sure, is ambitious and, in fact, many have died 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. He 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 the governor's attempt to improve his dire poll numbers -- is to do something about the deficit for the fiscal year that ends March 31.
Despite some signs nationwide of an economic rebound in the works, the deficit in New York has been worsening since the budget was cobbled together back 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 putting down on a line item an expectation to get 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 presents major problems for lawmakers, 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 this afternoon. "New York can no longer afford delays, and New Yorkers will no longer stand for delays. I have met with my colleagues in government and I understand and agree with the need to lessen the impact that these reductions will have on all New Yorkers -- but the surest way to mitigate the pain is to act now."
The "extraordinary session" at noon Tuesday is a constitutional right for the governor, and both houses have to show up at the Capitol and gavel into session. They do not, however, have to act on any of his proposals -- something the governor has learned in past special sessions over the last year.
But the governor also was planning to call both houses together in a joint session -- usually done only for gubernatorial State of the State messages in January -- on Monday to give them a pep speech for the need to go along with his plan.
Before Paterson made his special session announcement for Tuesday, Shafran said the Senate Democrats will return to Albany "when there's an agreement." But he said the Senate would abide by the constitution if Paterson calls for the special session on Tuesday, as he threatened a couple weeks back.
Besides the budget, gay marriage and spending cap measures on the agenda, Paterson also wants lawmakers to consider ways to help lower property taxes by helping local governments save money through cooperative health benefit plans for public employees and to more easily share in various government services across the lines of localities. A new pension tier for future state and local government workers would be created, calling for greater contributions by the workers to their retirements.
On the criminal justice front, he wants to overturn state provisions that end up permitting some felons to get parole earlier than intended by judges. In the aftermath of some high-profile crashes downstate, Paterson also wants stronger penalties for driving while drunk or under the influence of drugs, and to make more convicted drunk drivers use ignition interlock devices.
The session comes as Paterson is trying to rehabilitate himself among voters as he insists he is running for election in 2010 to a full term. Behind the scenes, though, is Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who wants Paterson's job. An indication of the depth of Cuomo's support among lawmakers will possibly be on view next Tuesday -- which, if Cuomo is successful, could make it even harder for Paterson to achieve some of his legislative goals.
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