A veteran state legislator offered his take last week on the state of the state and doesn”™t like what he sees, either economically or politically. GOP Sen. John Bonacic said voters should rethink their decision to oust his party from power in the Senate come November 2010 or risk turning the state into “Massachusetts.” Â
New York state is temporarily better off in the wake of approval of the federal stimulus plan, said Bonacic, a Republican representing the upper Hudson Valley. But he fears it only buys the Empire State a two-year respite from having to grapple with multibillion-dollar deficits. “We”™re in a crisis mode,” Bonacic said, adding that with the demise of fortunes on Wall Street, “We have lost our golden goose.”   Â
Politically, he predicts that unless Republicans can re-take the majority of seats in the state Senate in 2010, the next election cycle, “This state will be like Massachusetts,” Bonacic said. “It will be lost forever.”
Bonacic, a six term Senator representing the 42nd Senate district in Ulster, Orange, Sullivan and Delaware counties was addressing a subdued breakfast meeting of the Ulster County Republican Committee. In the wake of November”™s election, where Democrats gained a two-seat majority in the state Senate, Bonacic is adjusting to his new career track in the Senate minority, part of a state Legislature infamous for delegating minority parties to second-class status.
Bonacic is a pragmatic legislator and sought to outline what New York state will receive from the federal stimulus package. “This is the Obama gamble,” he said of the roughly $780 billion federal stimulus package, which Bonacic reported will provide $26 billion directly to New York State government.
“We will use the stimulus money because it is there,” Bonacic said. Given that New York state is facing a budget deficit of about $15 billion for its next fiscal year, Bonacic said that the stimulus funding will stave off disaster. “What will probably save this state is the stimulus package,” he said.
He noted that before the federal package was prepared, Gov. David Paterson had prepared and submitted a “draconian” budget. He called on the governor to submit a new budget proposal in the wake of the adoption of the stimulus measure.
But Bonacic said that he would have supported different priorities in the stimulus package. “I don”™t think enough stimulus went for small business and infrastructure.”
He said that another way to spend the money would have been to give cash directly to Americans. And regarding the overall package of the stimulus, he had concerns. “What happens when the money is gone? This is scary stuff. We are moving toward a more socialistic form of government.”
Bonacic noted that New York state is somewhat better off than other areas nationally in terms of home foreclosures. While one in 2,300 homes in New York is in the foreclosure process, one in 70 homes is in the foreclosure process nationwide.
Bonacic was critical of steps announced by President Obama to reduce the foreclosure rate. He said if allowed, the free market would resolve the problem because when homes are foreclosed, new buyers would emerge over time. “It will happen naturally,” Bonacic said, asking, “What about the 90 percent of homeowners who are not in foreclosure?”Â
Bonacic said that New York has lost the balance in government that four decades of Republican control of the Senate exerted on the Democratic control of the state Assembly. Republicans lost the majority in the Senate in November”™s elections and now control only 30 of the 62 seats in the body.
“Keep in mind, Democrats from New York City now control the state of New York,” Bonacic said, noting Gov. Paterson, Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver are all from New York City. “I am fearful of what we are going to come up with.”
He said the GOP can recover its electoral mojo just by returning to their traditional positions, “Now the George Bush who spent too much is gone. Republicans are on the right side of history now. There”™s been so much hate of Bush for eight years he has poisoned things for Republicans.”
But he also cited substantial ways Republicans need to improve their party to improve their electoral outcome. He said, for example, the party must modernize its method of getting political messages out. “We”™re poor in Internet marketing and that”™s the new wave,” said Bonacic. “We”™re not technologically savvy and the Democrats are.” Â
On taxes, Bonacic has been advocating a plan that would substitute a progressive income tax instead of the regressive property tax that New York uses to fund local education. “Income tax increases should go to a lockbox and at least partly used to relieve property tax burdens,” said Bonacic, adding that “We”™ve been brutalized” by property taxes on Long Island and in upstate New York.
New York City relies on income tax to fund programs. Thus Bonacic said, the centers of power in the state legislature, who hail from New York City, have no incentive to tackle property tax reform. He said that is an example of an issue that could be used to recruit effective candidates and begin the process of restoring Republican power in New York, especially upstate.
