SUSAN ARBETTER ON ccSCOOP

Budget Day. Boring Day. Calloo Callay.

Not only has the annual budget deadline been missed, there are only a handful of legislators here.

Before you wonder who these conscientious lawmakers are (working on vacation and all), please note that this morning the handful called a press conference simply to say, "We're here, working on vacation and all."

April Fools Day – 3:30 p.m.

The lawmakers who were here are now gone.

To be fair, Governor David Paterson may be plagued by three separate ethics investigations, but the guy is putting in a 40-hour work week. He has been utilizing his bully pulpit in the absence of a working legislature to remind voters of his take-no-prisoners attitude when it comes to the budget.

Reporters here in the press room call this more alpha and less "I'm a swell guy let's party" side of Paterson his "attack mode."

Here's how it manifested itself this week:

On Tuesday, the Governor announced he was withholding aid payments to schools and state construction projects citing cash-flow issues. Anyone who thought he was exaggerating was disappointed today by a press release issued from the office of NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli confirming that the state's financial picture is as bleak as the Governor suggested:

“The state ended the fiscal year with money in the bank only because of last-minute payment delays and budget manipulations. But these actions may cause a serious cash shortfall in the first quarter of the new fiscal year. New York’s fiscal problems persist. This must be a transformative year for New York. We need the Governor and the Legislature to agree on a budget that holds together and doesn’t come unglued. The last thing New Yorkers need is a replay of last year’s buy-time budget.”

But today the namby-pamby side of Paterson returned during a radio appearance in which the Governor threatened to lay off state workers if unions don't make concessions.

"It didn't come to this because I changed my mind; it came to this because we're not getting any cooperation."

Reporters here in the press room call this less than completely honest side of Paterson his "Paterson mode."

While on the surface, to someone from Nebraska, layoffs might sound like tough medicine, here in New York, those of us who follow politics have built up what medical doctors now refer to as "spin calluses," enabling us to know beyond the shadow of a doubt that Paterson is full of it. Paterson frittered away layoff power over the unions last year when he promised, well, I think the exact terminology was "no layoffs," in exchange for the relatively anemic pension and health care benefit breaks in "Tier 5" reforms that the big unions— PEF snd CSEA—agreed to.

Moreover, those Tier 5 benefit cuts will only affect future state workers. And by "future" I mean the cuts will affect unknown humans at some point sometime in the future. In fact, chances are good that the state workers who will receive these less-than-Maserati-more-like-used-BMW pension and health benefits may be currently indulging in beer bongs in Fort Lauderdale.

Getting back to layoffs, Paterson may still hold sway over some management-confidential-type workers (about 12,000 workers who are not permitted to organize), but he's not making the rank and file sweat. Come to think of it, only in New York would unions be immune to the double-drubbing they're taking today. Besides the lousy press they're getting for not coming to the table to discuss concessions, they are weathering a hailstorm of bad press, thanks to a previously negotiated 4 percent pay raise that goes into effect today. For their part, the unions reject Paterson's characterization of them as being uncooperative. At the same time, they will not agree to reopen their contracts.

April Fools Day - 5 p.m.

The joke’s on us. It’s actually Ground Hog Day.

Susan_Arbetter@wcny.org

Cell: (518) 852-5033
Syracuse: (315) 453-2424, ext. 238
Albany: (518) 449-2672

Syracuse Address
WCNY Public Broadcasting
506 Old Liverpool Road
Liverpool, NY

Albany Address
LCA, State Capitol
P.O. Box 7340
Albany, NY 12247

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