“New York is at a crossroads, and we must seize this opportunity, make hard choices and set our state on a new path toward prosperity.”
That was one year ago, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo rolled out his first budget proposal as New York”™s head honcho and proceeded to take Albany by storm.
There was a decidedly more upbeat tone last week when Cuomo came to Yonkers Jan. 18 to present his 2012-13 state budget proposal, complete with $426 million in infrastructure projects for the Hudson Valley.
This year, having already re-established the credibility of the state government, Cuomo devoted much of his budget initiatives toward economic development, education reform and mandate relief.
“We have to get serious about economic development,” Cuomo said in Yonkers. “Now is the time to rebuild the state”™s infrastructure.”
The executive budget proposal unveiled by Cuomo on Jan. 17 closes a projected $2 billion deficit and includes $132.5 billion in spending, a decrease of $225 million from the 2011-12 fiscal year, which runs through March 31.
The budget proposal addresses concerns that have been raised by lawmakers, business advocates and special interest groups over the past several months, including increases in Medicaid spending, abuses of the pension system, an education system plagued by underachievement and an aging transportation network.
In other words, numerous challenges still await legislators over the next several months as they attempt to tackle the budget. The difference is, there is a palpable air of confidence emanating from Albany this year, Cuomo observed.
“Compared to what we went through last year, this is incredibly manageable,” Cuomo said in his Jan. 17 address in Albany.
His budget closes the projected $2 billion gap by keeping state agency operations spending flat compared with last year, which will save $1.3 billion, and by only increasing aid to localities by 2.6 percent, rather than the scheduled 3.9 percent, which will save $756 million.
Chief among Cuomo”™s proposals are plans to leverage $25 billion in combined state and federal funds and private dollars to support infrastructure and development projects across the state.
How he plans to arrive at that total, however, remains unclear.
Of the $15 billion in infrastructure funding that is outlined, only $3 billion originates from direct state and federal funding sources.
The remainder includes $3 billion in private investments and $9 billion that will be drawn from “other authorities” to fund projects such as a new Tappan Zee Bridge and other state developments.
The remaining $10 billion in economic development activity includes a $1 billion state investment in the city of Buffalo; $1 billion that would result from an amendment to legalize gambling; and another $8 billion in privately funded projects to build a convention center in Queens, revamp the Javits Center in Manhattan and strengthen the state”™s energy grid.
In all, $12 billion ”“ or nearly half ”“ of the total economic development dollars are linked to privately financed projects, while $9.8 billion is said to originate from other unspecified authorities.
Cuomo spokesman Matthew Wing said he had no further details about the other authorities that funding would be derived from.
In order to accelerate several of the major development plans, Cuomo said he would utilize the new Design-Build rules that were passed last December.
Included in the N.Y. Works fund is $426 million slotted to go toward 75 infrastructure projects in the Hudson Valley, which will create some 4,100 jobs.
Those projects include a $148 million investment to renovate Stewart Airport, $106 million to rehabilitate the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge and $24.2 million to replace the Sprain Brook Parkway overpass at Route 119.
In a bid to appease cash-strapped municipalities, Cuomo also outlined plans to tackle the rising burden of unfunded mandates.
“Mandate relief is something everyone wants to do in concept, except nobody wants to really do it when they hear what it is. Hopefully this year it”™s different,” Cuomo said.
Municipal government officials from across the state have been clamoring for mandate relief measures ever since the state Legislature passed a 2 percent tax levy cap in June.
Cuomo proposed in his budget that the state would phase out all county contributions to increases in the cost of Medicaid over a three-year period, addressing what amounts to the biggest unfunded state mandate; Medicaid alone will cost Westchester County $211.2 million in 2012.
Currently, counties are responsible for paying 3 percent of any annual increases to the cost of Medicaid.
Under the plan, by the 2015-16 fiscal year, the state will pay 100 percent of the year-to-year Medicaid growth.
The executive budget proposal also calls for the implementation of a Tier VI pension plan that could save the state and local governments outside of New York City $83 billion and New York City $30 billion over the next three decades.
Cuomo simultaneously called for reforms that would limit pension padding by removing overtime pay from formulas that calculate pension payments, but stressed the changes to the pension system would only impact future workers and not current state employees.
“We never said pensions were a lifetime legacy for future workers who aren”™t hired yet. It never says anywhere the taxpayer must pay for benefits in the future.”
