Court ruling undercuts Legislature’s budget power
Shifting legal ground makes slippery slope for PEF’s budget efforts
By SHERRY HALBROOK
As if the state budget process weren’t convoluted enough, a decision issued by the state Court of Appeals on December 16, 2004, changed the balance of power between the Legislature and the governor and puts the 2005-06 budget negotiations on a new footing that favors the governor.
In a 5-2 decision, the Court of Appeals judges ruled the Legislature violated the state constitution in 1998 and 2001 by altering the governor’s Executive Budget appropriations bills. The ruling addressed two cases, one brought by Governor George Pataki and the other by state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
While Pataki, a Republican, hailed the decision as “historic” and an encouragement to reach balanced budgets and fiscal integrity, Silver, a Democrat, said it “reduced New York’s budget process to a one-sided charade.”
The third top player in the annual budget bouts is state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a Republican, who said the decision just makes the budget process more dysfunctional.
“The judges essentially ruled that 212 legislators can either rubber-stamp an executive budget or take no action and attempt to force a governor to negotiate a budget once it is late and pressure builds for all sides to compromise and reach agreement,” Bruno said.
In mid-February, Silver said, “In a nutshell, the court’s decision seems to permit the governor to trump laws on the books, without any ability of the Legislature to amend his actions if he mixes those changes with budget appropriations. Thus, there is legislation without any input from the people through their elected Legislature. And, for that reason, I have repeatedly asked the governor to remove the host of programmatic changes his budget language makes to existing state laws and programs. I urge him to amend his 30-day amendments so that his budget is presented in an untangled, clear and straightforward format.”
Amend NYS Constitution?
Meanwhile, both Silver and Bruno have said they favor amending the state constitution to restore power to the legislative branch. Such a bill would need to be passed by two successive legislatures before it could go to the voters. Or the lawmakers and Pataki could resolve the issue through legislation if they could reach an agreement on it.
Silver introduced a constitutional amendment in the Assembly in February to address the court decision. It would:
• Require that proposed spending in an appropriations bill be consistent with existing law or proposed legislation, and provide for a “fast-track” review process when that consistency is questioned;
• Allow the Legislature to go beyond simply reducing, striking or accepting Executive Budget proposals that are not consistent with existing state law;
• Permit the Legislature to add spending to the governor’s budget proposals; and
• Require the Legislature to explain how much its additions to the budget would cost and how it would pay for them.
Silver also said he expects the Assembly to act on a separate budget reform amendment to the constitution that both legislative houses passed last year. If they both pass it again this year, it would go before New York voters for ratification on the November 1 ballot.
What’s it mean for PEF?
The shifting legal ground makes for tough fiscal sledding as PEF tries to get legislators to restore funding for state programs eliminated, transferred, merged or reduced in the 2005-06 Executive Budget proposal.
The union is concerned about the potential effect on its budget priorities that may require changes to the Executive Budget appropriations bills.
In many cases a negotiated agreement between the Legislature and the governor may be necessary to stop a merger or transfer of state services, or to add funding for additional state agency personnel.
PEF is pursuing all of its possible options for addressing this issue.
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