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A little noticed, relatively inexpensive item in New York's massive state budget could be a life saver. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature found $1 million in a nearly flat budget to change the way buses are inspected in New York following a bloody year on the road.

Today on "The Capitol Pressroom":

Economic development is the centerpiece of the newly agreed-upon budget. Governor Andrew Cuomo will discuss some of the plans with us on the show.

Then, reaction to the budget agreement.

We begin with Stephen Acquario of the New York State Association of Counties on the Governor’s plans for mandate relief and a state takeover of Medicaid.

There is new money in the budget as well as a new 3-year Foreclosure Prevention plan that Kirsten Keefe of the Empire Justice Center will have details about.

Not everyone is pleased with the plan – advocates for education like Billy Easton of the Alliance for Quality Education say policies in Albany are making educating our children less effective rather than more.

For show archives, please visit The Capitol Bureau's website here.

Courtesy of the Governor's office

Governor Andrew Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos announced Tuesday that a final agreement has been reached on this year’s $133 billion budget. It marks the second year in a row the state’s budget has come in balanced and before the deadline.

"For the second straight year, New York State has worked and created a balanced budget based on fiscal responsibility, job creation, government efficiency, and the premise that we must invest in our communities," Cuomo said in a statement announcing the final agreement.

The final agreement comes a week after Cuomo and the legislative leaders agreed to a number of the Governor’s policy items, including the creation of a new DNA databank, an agreement on teacher evaluations and a scaled back version of the pension reform he outlined in his budget proposal. The deal also saw new state legislative districts, drawn by the legislature, passed alongside an agreement to push forward a constitutional amendment to change the decennial redistricting process beginning in 2021.

This year’s budget closed the remaining $2.1 billion budget gap left over after last year’s tax restructuring, which left higher income earners paying more but helped reign in an initial gap of $3.5 billion. The final budget limits spending growth to two percent, while investing in infrastructure job programs, restoring education aid, and eliminating or consolidating dozens of government agencies.

“This agreement puts us in a position to deliver another early budget that controls spending and taxes, and builds on the bipartisan successes we achieved last year,” Skelos said in the statement.

“This budget includes much needed increases in education spending, including an increase in base aid for community colleges for the first time in five years, and vital restorations to programs that protect our state’s neediest citizens,” said Silver in the statement.

Some of the budget highlights include:

Today on "The Capitol Pressroom":

Legislative leaders were in high gear last night: With a Saturday midnight budget deadline starting them in the face, they got down to business, hammering out agreements on infrastructure spending; a new broadly defined commission on gambling and gubernatorial power to transfer money from one agency to another. Newsday’s Albany Bureau Chief Yancey Roy joins us with an update on where things stand.

Then, what will NOT be in the budget? Legislation to create a health care marketplace in New York. Blair Horner of the American Cancer Society will share his thoughts on what that could mean for New York as we head deeper into health care reform.

General Contractors are thrilled by the money that will be spent on transportation infrastructure. Mike Elmendorf, President & CEO of the New York State Association of General Contractors will have reaction.

Plus, Senator Liz Kruger and Senator Bill Perkins, both Democrats, want a bill currently sitting in the Senate Codes committee to be pulled off the shelf. The bill authorizes the use of deadly force in self-defense. Senate Dems say that in light of the Trayvon Martin shooting tragedy the bill invites vigilantism.

For show archives, please visit The Capitol Bureau's website here.

Today on "The Capitol Pressroom":

Governor Andrew Cuomo will join the show at 11:06 am.

The AP’s Michael Gormley and Bloomberg’s Freeman Klopett will update us on the status of the budget; the challenge behind passage of health insurance exchanges; the trouble with Cuomo’s so-called transfer language. Plus their analysis of this week’s legislative races & the fracas over funding for Somos.

According to more than one analysis, the Governor’s decision to include transfer language in his budget means that unless the two legislative leaders stand their ground – to the point of shutting down state government – Andrew Cuomo may leave Albany this session as the most powerful Governor New York State has seen in recent history. We speak to “the woman who stopped the Westway”, Marcy Benstock of the NY Clean Air Campaign about her latest quest.

And then some music for the weekend. Ruth Pelham, the founder of the Music Mobile, joins us with Pulitzer Prize winning author William Kennedy to talk…and sing…about the role of music in education.

For show archives, please visit The Capitol Bureau's website here.

By Karen DeWitt, New York State Public Radio Capital Bureau Chief

Courtesy of the Governor's office.

Governor Andrew Cuomo, in an interview with public radio, says he’s still trying to hash out an accompanying statute to go with a constitutional amendment to change redistricting reform.

Cuomo says the legislature’s proposed constitutional amendment, as currently written, is not good enough, and any final deal hinges on how tightly structured the proposed law would be. Cuomo says of the legislature’s efforts to reform redistricting, “my trust is low, my skepticism is high”.

The governor says if there’s a failure to reach an accord, and the legislative lines are ultimately drawn by a federal magistrate, then the resulting maps would “probably get you somewhat better lines” than any product from the Senate and Assembly.

On pensions, Cuomo says talks on reforming the system are on going, and in order to reach a deal, he’d accept reforms that are not in the form of a new benefit tier, as long as the savings are there. He warns the alternative to pension reform is “thousands of layoffs” of employees in local governments around the state.

Union sources have accused the governor of playing politics, and staging a fight with organized labor as part of a strategy to run for President in 2016. Cuomo denies this, saying it’s “not about future campaigns, this is about past campaigns’ saying unions did not back him in 2010 governors’ race. He says the reason is that he told union leaders at the time that he intended to change the public pension system.

Cuomo also clarified his position on the reproductive health act, which would further protect a woman’s right to choose abortion, saying he “fully” supports it.

“I’ve been a long supporter of pro choice issues going way, way back, and I always will be,” Cuomo said.

This story has been updated from an earlier version.

Today on "The Capitol Pressroom":

Governor Andrew Cuomo joins us at 11:06am to discuss Tier VI and redistricting.

Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari will have highlights from the Assembly's budget.

Then, how can the state & municipalities earn revenue from hydrofracking, while at the same time, paying for the costs associated with it? It’s a question that Carol Chock and Dan Barber have been trying to figure out. They are part of a working group associated with the Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCCOG), which is urging New York State to refrain from issuing gas drilling permits until "it can capture appropriate taxes and fees and allocate them to cover costs to all levels of government, based on sound policy and verifiable data." Both Chock and Barber will join us to explain.

And the New York Immigration Coalition is pushing for a New York State version of the Dream Act that would provide TAP funding to illegal immigrants attending New York State colleges and universities. Chung-Wha Hong, Executive Director of the NY Immigration Coalition and 23 year old CUNY student Yajaira Saavedra will join us.

For show archives, please visit The Capitol Bureau's website here.

By Karen DeWitt, New York State Public Radio Capital Bureau Chief

Governor Andrew Cuomo is set to release his state budget plan on Tuesday. He will have the challenge of closing a $2 billion dollar budget gap.

But the good news is, it’s far less than last year’s $10 billion dollar gap. It’s smaller than it was projected to be as recently as a month ago. That’s because Cuomo and lawmakers in December struck a deal on major changes to the state’s tax code. The changes will bring an estimated $1.5 billion in additional revenue.

The bad news, for Cuomo, is that he does not have lot of options to close the gap. He’s already said he does not want to raise taxes. Yet he’s holding to a commitment to increase spending on schools and health care by four percent in the new budget.

Today on "The Capitol Pressroom":

Capital Tonight’s Liz Benjamin & the NY Daily News’ Glenn Blain on what we should be looking for in Tuesday’s budget address. Also, if I can convince them, we will share our most embarrassing moments while covering state government in Albany.

While New York City now has mandated sex ed in public schools, the Shenendehowa School District in Saratoga County recently discontinued its sex ed program taught by Planned Parenthood. As Seinfeld would say, ‘What’s the deal with Sex Ed?” We’ll speak with Tracey Brooks, President & CEO of Family Planning Advocates of NYS & the Reverend Larry Phillips, pastor of Emmanuel Friedens Church in Schenectady, and a member of the Concerned Clergy for Choice.

And former State Assemblyman Michael Benjamin has been an outspoken critic of mandated sex ed in NYC schools. He joins us with another perspective on this upstate district’s recent decision.

A new report from the Rockefeller Institute at the University of Albany concludes what has been an open secret: downstate communities, including New York City, get back less in state spending than they put in in taxes.

The entire report is below, but here are the important numbers during the 2009-2010 budge cycle:

• New York City pays 45 percent of the state's tax other revenue burden. We receive back only 40 percent of the state's expenditures.
• Downstate suburbs pay 23.6 percent of the tax burden, but only receive 18 percent of the state's funding.
• By comparison, out of the remaining 48 counties--not including the Capital Region--in the state paid 24 percent of the state's taxes, yet received 35 percent of the state's dollars.
• And in the Capital Region--Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady counties--those communities paid 4 percent of the state's tax share, but received nearly double that much back at 7 percent.

While this will hopefully give comfort and fodder to those pushing back on the idea that New York City is gobbling up disproportionate amounts of the state's resources, it's also worth looking at this in the context of redistricting.

I posted a lengthy piece digging in to downstate redistricting maps proposed by Common Cause. Their maps would work, among other things, to balance out the concentration of State Senate seats so New York City was better represented in that chamber. As the Rockefeller Institute shows, those political realities--who represents where--make a difference.

Update: Some good reactions from key folks, courtesy of WNYC's Ilya Marritz.

Governor Andrew Cuomo is receiving significant praise for the (all but certain) passage of a tax reform package today. Sure, not everyone loves it, but for the most part Cuomo has yet again managed to expertly sail the gale-blown political seas in Albany, all the while avoiding the siren calls from either end of the political spectrum.

So how did he do it? With geometry! He employed a three-dimensional solution to a two-dimensional problem.

Josh Gershman of the Wall Street Journal has what may be the definitive piece on Cuomo’s slow turn on tax reform. But the truth is the Governor was able to solve a singular problem—the debate over the millionaires’ tax—by going beyond it to solve a bigger problem—the tax code—all the while outmaneuvering those on both his left and right.

On his left he had labor unions and progressive members of the state legislature, emboldened by the Occupy Wall Street movement, demanding the Governor not sacrifice spending on things like education, and programs for the poor for a promised lower tax rate on higher-income earners starting January 1, 2012.

On his right he had Senate Republicans and business leaders echoing back to him those same promises not to raise taxes at a time when the State’s economy remained weak. Likewise, Cuomo has put a lot of stock in his efforts to make New York appear “Open for Business”—changing the state’s image as a high-tax, high-regulation state is crucial to the Governor’s sensible centrist mission.

As I reported a month ago, the Governor couldn’t afford to look like he was backpedalling or caving on his previous promises and positions—despite reports that he wasn’t keen on doing so. What the Governor needed was an opportunity:

Courtesy of the Governor's office

Details are still emerging on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s tax overhaul that state legislators are expected to review either later this week, or early next. But the basic elements of an agreement, according to news reports, appears to have been reached.

The assiduous Nick Reisman at Capital Tonight reports that the administration will seek to expand the tax breaks to five new ones. Upper-income earners will get relief from the upper-income “millionaires’ tax” surcharge, but will pay more than what they would if rates were to reset to pre-surcharge levels at the end of the month. Middle income earners will, according to a number of reports, be looking at a tax cut.

According to Reisman, the new brackets would be:

• $40,000 and below
• $40,000 to $150,000
• $150,000 to $300,000
• $300,000 to $2 million
• $2 million and higher

Jimmy Veilkind at the Times-Union has a great review of current and potential tax brackets here, just as a reference. The tax plan would raise an estimated $1.9 billion for the state, which isn’t quite enough to fill that $3.5 billion hole Cuomo expects next year.

The economic package, as the Governor is pitching it, would also include some non-tax pieces according to Ken Lovett of the Daily News:

By Karen DeWitt, New York Public Radio Capital Bureau Chief

The New York State Assembly is coming back to Albany next Tuesday for an afternoon conference, and possibly a special session. Governor Andrew Cuomo has been seeking help from the legislature to close the growing budget deficit.

Assemblymembers have been told by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to come back to the Capitol for a 3 pm conference on Tuesday. They will go into session afterward if there’s anything at that time to vote on.

Governor Cuomo said earlier this week that “there is a need” for a special legislative session to address a $350 million dollar budget gap in the current fiscal year, and a growing $3.5 billion dollar gap for next year.

Among the items Cuomo is seeking is an overhaul of the state’s tax code, with could result in higher taxes on the wealthy, along with tax incentives to help spur job creation. Other steps could include budget cuts or one time revenue raisers. Another option, Cuomo says, is that he could ask the legislature for authority to make the decisions on specific budget cuts.

A Senate source on the Democratic side said they was confident they would be back as well. However, Senate Republicans say they have not scheduled anything for next week at this time.

With Colby Hamilton

By Karen DeWitt, New York Public Radio Capital Bureau Chief

Getty

Governor Andrew Cuomo is not ruling out a special session of the legislature in December to deal with a growing state budget deficit.

Cuomo, who is facing a $350 million dollar budget deficit this year, and a $3.5 billion dollar hole in next year’s spending plan, says there’s a need for a special session of the legislature. But he says he won’t call back lawmakers just for the “theater” of it, and will first try to agree on a deficit reduction plan with legislative leaders.

“There’s no doubt that the numbers are collapsing,” said Cuomo. “And collapsing quickly.”

The governor says there are budget reductions that he can do on his own, without the legislature, or he could simply ask the legislature for authority to cut the budget, without requiring lawmakers to agree on a specific plan. He would not say whether large payments due to schools and local governments in December would be deferred, saying all options are on the table.

Courtesy of Sen. Klein's office.

Governor Andrew Cuomo may be talking about as much as a $3.5 billion budget gap next year, but that didn't stop State Senator Jeff Klein, the leader of the Independent Democratic Caucus, from arguing that the state needs to continue partially funding foreclosure services programs.

"We know that many programs and agencies faced similar circumstances in last year’s budget as everyone worked with Governor Cuomo to balance the finances of New York and put our great state back on track. We also know that each of these programs and agencies did important work all of our communities," said a report put out by Klein's office yesterday. "But we argue that the benefits of legal services and foreclosure counseling for struggling homeowners in New York is too great to ignore and the chance of not funding them for a second budget cycle in a row is too risky."

The reported said that a $50 million program to prevent foreclosures assisted 80,000 homeowners and saved at least 14,000 homes. With 250,000 homes in danger of, or going through the process of foreclosure, the report argues, the math makes the case: the loss of these homes would cost an estimated $61 billion in reduced property value and lost taxes.

“Preventing foreclosures not only keeps hard-working New Yorkers in their homes now, but saves our neighborhoods from devastating ripple effects later,” Senator Klein said in a statement. “We know that this will be another tough budget year - that's why we're starting this discussion early in order to help protect our neighborhoods and preserve the American dream across New York.”

As the Times-Union's Jimmy Vielkind noted on this yesterday, Klein managed to bring some interesting support to the press conference on this yesterday:

It’s also interesting to me that Klein, ringleader of the Independent Democratic Conference, is uniting in this way with Senate Democrats, some of whom are open in their disdain for his renegade klatch.

Perhaps this portends a coming soothing. Or at least courtship.

Courtesy of the Governor's office.

In a set of radio interviews with Albany political reporters Fred Dicker of the New York Post and the Capitol Bureau's Susan Arbetter, Governor Andrew Cuomo blasted the Congressional budget deficit "supercommittee" for failing to come up with a plan, which--at least for now--triggers some $1.2 trillion in Federal spending cuts.

"To the extent it roils the financial markets, it roils the New York economy and the New York budget," the Governor said during Dicker's show this morning.

This point speaks to the heart of what Cuomo's office is now worried about. The earlier statements about 155,000 jobs being lost and the cuts to Medicaid and transportation spending are off the table--at least for now. The focus is, first, on the $5 billion over 10 years figure his office put out yesterday. That averages to less than one half of one percent of the state's budget--not a doomsday figure, as I pointed out yesterday.

But it was pointed out by an official in the administration that, last year, Cuomo asked for a 10 percent cut from agencies that resulted in $1.4 billion in savings. The $500 million figure is talking about direct Federal funding into the state's coffers--money that does help with things like infrastructure, education and other important, non-entitlement services.

But this isn't the real point of concern. "The $5 billion is the tip of the iceberg," the Cuomo administration official said.

The bigger issue for the Governor's office, which he was point out today, was the broader effect the uncertainty coming out of Washington will have on the economy. The most significant short term issue is with Wall Street.

To the extent this destabilizes the market...it's very bad for us," Cuomo said. As it stands, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down again today. Continued losses on Wall Street--for good or bad--means less tax revenue for the state, and a grimmer budget situation for next year.

"There's a confidence deficit," he said. That issue, the thinking goes, is more of concern than even the direct cuts we could face if the "sequestration" as it stands ends up lopping a trillion dollars out of the Federal budget. A continued lack of confidence--in government, in the recovery--could lead to more widespread economic problems.

That, again, is how the thinking goes at least. The fact of the matter is, as the Governor stated, no one really knows what's going to happen. Which may be as bad, if not worse, than any agreement the supercommittee could have come up with.

The Governor is taking to the airwaves this morning. He'll be on Fred Dicker's radio program on 1300 AM out of Albany. You can listen to a live stream here starting at approximately 10:10 am.

Less than an hour later, Cuomo will be stopping by (calling in?) to Susan Arbetter's program, The Capitol Press Room, at about 11:07 am. That's also streamable, and you can catch it here.

Expect the Governor to talk about the Congressional "supercommittee" failing to come to a budget agreement and the impact this could have on New York State.

Courtesy of the Governor's office

It's official: the Federal Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction has failed.

And Governor Andrew Cuomo didn't have anything nice to say about the fact:

Washington's inability to get its fiscal house in order and work in a bipartisan fashion to create jobs represents a fundamental failure of government that has bred frustration and anger among the people and prolonged the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression.

That quote was taken from a statement put out by the Governor shortly before the final death cry of the supercommittee was heard. What were indefinite statements about how the "sequestered cuts"--the big $1.2 trillion in across-the-board and defense spending cuts triggered by the committee's failure--would affect New York can now be looked at as best estimates.

According to the statement, based on the current automatic cuts, "the Budget Division estimates that New York could lose approximately $5 billion in federal funding over 10 years beginning this coming fiscal year."

That $5 billion sounds like a big figure, but that averages out to $500 million per year. New York State's budget this year was nearly $133 billion, so we're talking about less than half of one percent of the budget. And considering the fact that Federal funds make up about a third of the budget, the impact on just the federal funds coming to New York State seems minimal.

No one wants to have to tack on more money to next year's budget gap--are we looking at being closer to $4 billion now?--but it's worth noting what wasn't in today's statement. Unlike last week's letter to the state's Congressional delegation, the Governor didn't mention the loss of 155,000 jobs or massive cuts to transportation, school aid or Medicaid.

Does this mean Cuomo's office now considers these areas safe for the most part? Today's statement didn't say.

This isn't to say there aren't larger, macro-economic impacts that cutting over a trillion dollars from the Federal budget could have. A good example: the markets closed down sharply today, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down almost 250 points.These Federal cuts could come as a major economic shock to the system, hurting the already sluggish recovery.

Of course, these cuts wouldn't happen for more than a year. In numerous conversations about the impact of the supercommittee's failing, there was healthy skepticism about the cuts ever even coming about.

But that doesn't mean we should expect Cuomo to back down on the worst-case scenarios any time soon. "Sustaining a crisis mentality helps executives," noted SUNY professor Gerald Benjamin. Heading into another budget session, the Governor is surely looking for any help he can get. How and why, exactly, still remains to be seen.

Courtesy of the Governor's office.

Anticipating what Governor Andrew Cuomo's office is calling potential loss of billions in Federal aide dollars, a conference call later today with the Governor's Council of Economic and Fiscal Advisors will discuss how to handle the likely failure this week of the Congressional "supercommittee," which was charged with finding a bipartisan compromise to avoid massive cuts to the Federal budget.

The council was formed during the Governor's transition, and represents interests in labor, business, social justice and government. A statement on the substance of the call will come after, but one thing is certain: large-scale Federal cuts, triggered by the supercommittee's failure to produce a plan, will have an immediate impact on the state's budget outlook.

"I recognize the fiscal challenges facing Congress at this critical moment in our nation's history. Rising federal deficits and debt pose a serious threat to the economic viability of this nation and must be addressed in a bi-partisan way with shared sacrifice coming from all Americans," Governor Cuomo said in a letter to the state's Congressional delegation last week. "These are difficult times that require tough decisions. However, the burden of cuts or reductions in tax deductions must be shared evenly by all states and, as New York's representatives in Congress, I urge you to work to minimize the potential damage to New York."

The state receives nearly $40 billion in funding from the Federal government, according to the Governor's office, which represents nearly 30 percent of all funds in the budget. More than half of those funds help pay for Medicaid services.

The AP reported that the Governor's office is saying the triggered cuts could result in the loss of as much as 155,000 jobs--likely a high-ball figure. The most likely hits would come in areas like construction related to transportation and health care services. According to the administration, Federal funds support more than 670,000 jobs in New York State. An administration source said the job loss numbers were based on potential scenarios the state could face if Federal funds went into effect.

Likewise, concerns are being raised over the effect the committee's failure to reach a deal will have on Wall Street. As New York relies heavily on Wall Street profits to fill its tax coffers, a tumble in the markets could have an out-sized affect on next year's budget gap.