Spitzer’s plans for changing NY start to come into focus

By SHERRY HALBROOK
Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s promised “Day 1” when “everything changes” arrived with his January 1 inauguration in Albany.

Changes have begun, but what they really mean in practical terms for PEF members and the services they provide as state employees is still hard to pin down. It will be much clearer January 31 when Spitzer presents his first Executive Budget.

“Encouraging” is how PEF President Kenneth Brynien described Spitzer’s State of the State Address with its emphasis on reforming the ethical practices of both elected and appointed government officials and increased transparency and accountability in the way New York conducts the public’s business.

“We support the governor’s vision to reform public authorities, invest in the state’s infrastructure and strengthen transparency and accountability in state government,” Brynien said. “Those goals are right in line with our Go Public accountability campaign.

Crunched again
“PEF also applauds Spitzer’s call for reducing the state’s cost structure,” Brynien added.

And that is where the rubber will meet the road, because Spitzer wants to cut middle-class property taxes by $6 billion over three years without hiking other taxes to make up for it.

He acknowledged New York is already headed for “deficits...in the tens of billions of dollars” in the coming years, driven mainly by state tax cuts approved in past years and designed to grow.

Spending cuts will be the only way to balance the budget.

“We hope Governor Spitzer will save the state hundreds of millions of dollars each year by reducing the use of private-sector consultants,” Brynien said.

“Our Cost-Benefit Analysis bill — that was passed by the Legislature last year, but vetoed by the former governor — would require the state to comparison shop for the best bargain before awarding state contracts for services. We are asking state legislators to reintroduce and pass it in 2007, and we are very hopeful this new governor will sign it,” Brynien said.

Meanwhile, the union is looking closely at Spitzer’s speeches and executive orders in the first days of his administration for glimpses of what’s to come.

On his radar screen
Among the targets Spitzer has said he is singling out for change are: health care, public authorities, transportation, housing, education, workers’ compensation, economic development, energy, environment, technology, agriculture, public security, emergency preparedness, and criminal justice.
The kind of changes he has in mind are likely to be deep and structural with the emphasis on “rethinking” both the state’s goals in these areas and the best ways to achieve them. Some specifics include:

Health care —
“We must rethink and restructure our delivery system to provide care at a price we can afford,” Spitzer said.

He said Medicaid has gone from gobbling up 14 percent of the state’s general fund in 1991 to 35 percent of it in 2006 — money he needs to pay for other things.

Spitzer will propose two new laws to attack Medicaid fraud. He also wants to cover 500,000 more uninsured children in 2007 and to enroll 900,000 more Medicaid-eligible uninsured adults over the next four years.

He said the state will be “forced to close and consolidate hospitals that have been mainstays of their communities,” and shift spending from nursing homes to community and home-based alternatives.

PEF’s first concern here is to protect the three SUNY teaching hospitals in Stony Brook, Brooklyn and Syracuse that were targeted for privatization in the Berger Commission Report which Spitzer generally supports.

Public authorities —
Spitzer said he will propose laws to make public authorities more transparent and accountable.

“We will promptly review each of the authorities and develop a plan to consolidate and eliminate those that have outlived their usefulness,” the governor pledged. “And we will staff our authorities with experts picked for what they know, not whom they know.”

Transportation —
Spitzer called for breaking “political gridlock” to complete priority projects including: the Peace Bridge to Canada; I-86 in “the Southern Tier;” Second Avenue subway in lower Manhattan; planning for replacement of the Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River; NYC access to Long Island and Queens; and the expansion of Stewart Airport in the lower Hudson Valley.

Housing —
He called for an inventory of state-owned lands “to determine which parcels can be used for housing,” and to partner with business on employer-assisted housing programs.

Education —
Spitzer called for longer school days and school years, improved teaching quality, and establishment of a Commission on Public Higher Education.
“We look forward to working with Governor Spitzer on all of these issues and more,” Brynien said. “We are confident he will recognize the important role the public sector will play in helping him realize his vision of ‘one New York’ and revitalizing the state’s economy.”

The Communicator Feb. 2007

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