Assembly Speaker Silver and Governor Paterson

There’s really nothing quite so annoying (aside from your boss) as Albany’s A-team proclaiming themselves “great” leaders for solving some terrible crisis or another when they in fact do nothing of the sort.

Today’s episode features absurd statements from Democrats and Republicans alike after the Democratic majorities of the Assembly and State Senate reached an agreement with the Democratic Governor to close a $1.6 billion gap in the current budget (which ends in less than two months).

The agreement essentially avoids almost any of hard choices by using more than $630 million in unspent state and federal funds, $300 million in health insurance fee hikes, $100 million in delayed payments to NYC,  a SUNY tuition hike, and a bunch of other little things.

Governor Paterson said “these are real, and half of them, recurring cuts,” detailing a few of the programs (arts grants, environment, member items) that he wished weren’t being cut but had to be, he said,  considering the economy.

Newly-installed Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith declared, “We are prepared to make the tough decisions that were not made two months ago,” at a news conference trumpeting the agreement. You’ll recall in Mid-November Republicans, then in control for only another six weeks after losing seats in the election, refused to even deal with Governor Paterson on his deficit reduction plan which contained politically toxic mid-year cuts to school aid and to the growth in the health care budget.

So of course, then-Majority Leader now-Minority Leader Senator Dean Skelos wants nothing to do with the agreement. Skelos called the health care cuts/fee hikes a disaster for “hard-working families.” Yet he offered no alternatives.

On the other hand Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said the deal was “a prudent and thoughtful response” making “difficult choices in difficult times.”

Oh please! Politically prudent perhaps but when 50% of the $1.6 billion in “tough choices” involves using unspent money, unexpected court settlements, or by delaying payments by a month,  the definition of “tough choices” is stretched. And despite all the belly-aching about fee hikes on health insurance, New York will still spend more than last year on health care and still rank #1 in per capita Medicaid spending by a very wide margin (twice what other big states and 25% more what other Northeastern states spend).

Carol Kellermann of the Citizens Budget Commission called the agreement “disappointing” with “no structural change.” She also pointed out that the health fees will be paid by health insurance companies. Paterson has said those companies could fund these increases through “their reserves” while at the same time saying the state couldn’t use it’s rainy day fund because it wouldn’t be smart. I guess what’s good for the goose may not be good for the gander….

To his credit Paterson has been crying “crisis” since the day he took office and not many have wanted to hear it. His multiple proposals for budget cuts all last year have faced very tough opposition from unions, industry groups, and Albany lawmakers. Maybe this is the best he could get for now. It does not bode well, however, for the next round of negotiations on how to close the $13 billion deficit in the next budget — which is due April 1.