Countdown to April 1, minus distractions

Will April again be the cruelest month? The deadline to balance the state’s budget is only a few short weeks away, yet Albany appears hobbled by scandal and consumed by its own self-serving politics. The 2010-2011 budget is due on April 1, and we owe it to taxpayers to get back to work and pass it on time. With unemployment still buffeting Central New York, my colleagues and I must work to enact a fiscally responsible state budget as well, one that does not raise taxes or crowd out private-sector growth with unnecessary government spending. Lawmakers cannot let the cloud hanging over Albany, its allegations of egregious abuse and justice obstruction, distract us from the task of serving the people of the Empire State. Failure is not an option.

Jobless rates in Oneida and Oswego counties are at 8.4 and 11.6 percent respectively. For both their annual average is the highest it’s been since the unemployment of the 1992 recession nearly two decades ago. More than 800,000 New Yorkers are out of work. Meanwhile, we have some of the highest property taxes in the nation. These taxes are poised to increase yet again as counties face a sales-tax shortfall due to a severe drop in consumer demand. It seems like raising income and other taxes is the last thing a state government should do in this fragile economic environment; however, Albany’s downstate leaders are proposing another $1 billion in taxes and fees tacked onto last year’s $8.2 billion total taxes. Unfortunately, this is not a revenue problem. It is a spending crisis, and we make it worse by feeding this habit with ever-higher tax hikes.

A new forecast illustrates the extent of the problem. The two-year general fund budget deficit now stands at $9.05 billion, according to a report by the minority Ways and Means Office. It seems the administration rosily overestimates total tax receipts by $1.35 billion. Moreover, the recovery already being felt in other parts of the nation will not begin in New York until the middle of this year, according to the forecast. This despite a $1 billion tax hike approved last year – a tax increase which I voted against – and focused mostly on personal income. Now that revenue has not tracked as closely to rate increases as Albany bureaucrats had originally expected, New York’s red ink submersion grows deeper. The Empire State is hooked on income taxes – it’s approximately 55 percent of our total receipts – and when these fail to materialize, current taxpayers, already soaked by other taxes and fees, are expected to keep a bloated state government afloat.

The answer to the state’s fiscal emergency is not raising taxes on hard-working families or delaying tax refunds or pursuing another temporary federal bailout, but to focus on reducing the size of government. The only way we can hope to put people back to work and turn the economy around is to cast partisanship aside and work together to pass a budget which caps state spending and cuts taxes on the middle class. As a newly appointed member of the joint budget commission’s public protection committee, I am calling for an open and honest conversation about how we can achieve an on-time, fiscally responsible budget and get Upstate New York’s economy moving again. April, as T.S. Eliot wrote, may be cruel; but there is no reason why Albany should be indifferent.