The Remarks Of Speaker Sheldon Silver

Response To The 2006/07 Executive Budget

State Capitol, Speaker's Conference Room
Tuesday, January 17, 2006 [2 P.M.]

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver explained to reporters of the Capital press corps that the governor's budget includes tax cuts that are mostly aimed at benefiting the wealthiest one percent of New Yorkers. He noted the governor continues the sales tax on clothing, even though it was scheduled to expire on March 31, 2006. Silver was joined at the news conference by (from left) Assemblymembers Patricia Eddington and Felix Ortiz. Audio Excerpt 1 (25 seconds) Audio Excerpt 2 (27 seconds) Audio Excerpt 3 (28 seconds) Audio Excerpt 4 (30 seconds) View Transcript

Before commenting on the Governor's proposed budget, let me reiterate that the Assembly Majority is wholeheartedly committed to working with the Senate in a process that will again produce a fair and on-time budget.

Make no mistake about that!

However, we do have hurdles to overcome.

Obviously, we're just beginning to study the details of the Governor's spending plan.

Nevertheless, it is clear that the Governor has - for the twelfth consecutive year - primed us with lofty rhetoric only to follow up with ideas that insufficiently empower our school children, our college students, our elderly, our disabled, and all of this State's hardworking families.

Yes, this is a good budget unless you're planning on remaining in New York, which clearly, the Governor is looking beyond.

It's a good budget unless you're a senior citizen who requires prescription medications.

It's a good budget unless you're looking for a good job in Upstate New York.

It's a good budget unless you're a second-grader in New York City.

Before I take your questions, let me address the Governor's budget proposal in light of the key issues facing New Yorkers.

The Governor's 2006/2007education budget, like the rest of his education legacy, can be summed up in eleven words:

AN EIGHTH GRADE EDUCATION IS SUFFICIENT FOR NEW YORK STATE'S CHILDREN.

In his spending plan, the Governor ignores, once again, C.F.E..

He completely disregards Mayor Bloomberg's plea for a down payment on CFE, and for a partnership with the State on school construction.

He ignores universal pre-K and the Regents recent recommendation for universal full-day kindergarten.

He ignores the Regents' standards for education and doesn't fund them.

He ignores the education needs of many of our disabled children.

The Governor fails, totally, to increase operating aid, notwithstanding his rhetoric.

He cuts reimbursement aid, transportation aid, building aid, special education aid, and BOCES by $278 million.

He claims in his rhetoric a record increase in education funding. There is no record increase in education funding.

The Governor recommends $375 million fund for something he calls "Sound Basic Education."

He provides no district-by-district appropriation and no distribution formula, only the promise that his budget director will approve a plan for this $375 million.

His S.B.E. plan depends upon the success of video lottery terminals, so once again, the Governor is gambling with our children's futures.

By inadequately supporting our school districts, the Governor is refusing to provide real property tax relief.

On top of that, the Governor does not pay for the additional auditors that we all agreed the State Comptroller needed in order to root out the fraud that has apparently become prevalent in many of our school districts.

The Comptroller has done a number of audits in places such as Long Island, where it has been shown that individual school districts have squandered millions of dollars.

The Governor fails to pay for the additional auditors that are necessary to bring about the changes needed to remedy these findings.

Let's face it.

Surrouned by members of the Assembly Majority, the speaker oultlined the Assembly's concerns with the the 2006-2007 state budget Gov. George Pataki unveiled this week. From Left: Assemblymember Charles Lavine, Barbara Lifton, Paul Tonko, Felix Ortiz, William F. Boyland Jr., Adriano Espaillat,Ways and Means Committee Chair Herman "Denny" Farrell, Daine Gordon and Ron Canestrari.

It is far too simple to suggest that the Governor is simply out-of-touch when it comes to educating our children.

It is - and always has been - his intention to avoid resolving the school-funding issue.

With this budget proposal, the Governor is passing the challenge of C.F.E. on to the next Governor. That means one more class of New York State's children will be left behind in the global race for the best jobs and the best careers of this new millennium.

When it comes to higher education, the Governor is right. Higher education is the key to modern economic growth.

Why, then, does he cut the Tuition Assistance Program by $190 million?

Why does he raise tuition at the State University by $500, and at the City University by 300 dollars?

Why does the Governor index future tuition increases?

Why does he ensure that New Yorkers will pay higher and higher college tuition every year?

Why doesn't the Governor take advantage of our biomedical research capability and make this State a leader in what has become the cutting edge of biomedical research, specifically, stem cell research?

Clearly, this is a budget that needs work.

In keeping with his well-established "M.O.," the tax cuts the Governor is touting are intended to benefit the wealthiest one-percent of New Yorkers.

A perfect example is the sales tax on clothing. This exemption should have been in effect this year.

The Governor joined us in promising this relief for working families. Now, he is reneging on that promise.

He's proposing a $600 million sales-tax increase and he is eliminating the Estate Tax, which predominantly impacts the wealthiest New Yorkers.

Why?

When it comes to taxes, the Governor's budget is clear.

Instead of targeting tax relief to working families and senior citizens currently burdened by taxes, especially the property tax, the Governor provides the greatest benefit to those New Yorkers who need it the least.

His property-tax-relief plan is completely arbitrary. He excludes the City of New York from the property-tax rebate. In addition to that, he only provides relief to taxpayers who live in school districts that cap school expenditures.

He dumps an "out-year" tax burden on New Yorkers that we will have to dig ourselves out of long after the Governor has left office.

As for establishing a foundation for the future, let's not forget the past.

Throughout the Governor's first term, New Yorkers were told over and over and over how the Governor overcame a $5 billion deficit left behind by the previous administration.

Today, after patting himself on the back for leaving a $2 billion surplus for the next administration, the Governor's own documents show that he is creating a two-year total deficit of $5.7 billion.

He arrived in Albany with a $5 billion deficit and he is leaving behind a $5.7 billion deficit.

When you factor in that there is a judgment in the CFE case that is for over $6 billion, that means that he is leaving a deficit of $11.7 billion to the next administration.

Totally irresponsible!

Speaking of failed policies, this budget does nothing to address the health-care crisis in New York State. Apparently, that's not important to the Governor.

The Governor fails to address in any way, shape or form the uninsured of this state.

He offers the same, old cuts to programs that are essential to the elderly and the disabled.

In fact, he imposes a $258 million "sick tax" on nursing homes.

The Governor cuts Medicaid by $675 million.

When you factor in the federal money that we will lose as a result of this action, the total Medicaid cut increases to more than $1.3 billion.

Silver was crtical of the governor's budget for its failure to address CFE and the impact it would have on the state's abililty to prepare our young people for the jobs of the future. He told reporters that Gov. Pataki's budget was differing the challenge of resolving the court ordered mandate to increase education aid to the state's neediest schools to the next governor. Also particiapting in the newsconference were (from left) Assembly members Barbara Lifton, Paul Tonko, Felix Ortiz and Ways Means Committee Chair Herman "Denny" Farrell.

Let us remember that we talked about innovative ways to save money in Medicaid without denying services, such as looking at the diseases that cause the most expenditures and trying to find the most economical ways to deal with them.

There is nothing in this budget like that. It is simply denial of services; not economies, not efficiencies.

The Governor is not talking about it, he has been unable to deliver, and he probably hasn't tried to get a greater federal share of Medicaid dollars.

Governor, please, let's not make a bad situation worse.

The Governor has also decided that if you are elderly or disabled, a bureaucrat in our Health Department - and not a doctor on appeal - will decide which prescription drugs you can receive.

He mandates that those senior New Yorkers currently enrolled in the EPIC program enroll in the national calamity known as the "Medicare Part D" program.

The Governor's true priorities are not New Yorkers' true priorities.

We had hoped that the Governor would have been more concerned about his New York legacy.

We hope that he will strive to make this State a picture of individual and economic health, a picture of education and opportunity, a picture of compassion and service, and that he will not settle for a legacy of failed leadership.

We're ready to work with him - and with the Senate - to craft that better budget and a legacy befitting a Governor of the Empire State.