The New York Sun
January 19, 2005
Mayor: Pataki's Offer Is 'Way Too Low'
By Dina Temple-Raston
Governor Pataki's budget proposal offered Mayor Bloomberg little in the way
of financial help in his struggle to fill a $3 billion city budget gap at
a time in which he is trying to convince voters to give him another four
years in City Hall.
In his 40-minute speech from Albany, Governor Pataki offered about $280 million
more in education funding for New York City and other troubled school districts,
$19 billion in funding for the Metropolitan Transit Authority, and a cap
on Medicaid spending increases, which could be difficult for the city to
juggle in the short-run.
Mr. Bloomberg had been hoping - publicly at least - for more. He had asked
for $1 billion for the city's schools after a special masters commission
ruled that students in New York City had been shortchanged by the state and
needed more money from Albany to get the same quality education other students
in the state receive.
Similarly, the mayor asked for some $27 billion for the MTA to help pay for
new railcars and buses, and expansion of some of its lines. Experts said
that the $19 billion earmarked in the governor's budget will be enough to
keep the transportation authority running, but won't be enough to pay for
its expansion plans.
Mr. Bloomberg's initial reaction was predictable: he was careful to tip-toe
around the issues instead of antagonizing the governor.
"I think the allocation for funding is much too low and we'll talk about
that," Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday morning during an event in Brooklyn.
"I will testify up in Albany on Monday and lay out the specifics of the problems
we have with the budget and where we'd like to see changes."
The response was a softball compared with the salvos traditionally fired
in Albany's direction from City Hall after budgets are unveiled. Previous
administrations have made wrangling with state legislators a blood sport.
Mr. Bloomberg has preferred to keep his disagreements with Mr. Pataki out
of the public eye.
"The governor's budget shows that the mayor's speak-softly-and-carry-a-carrot
strategy hasn't worked," a Baruch College political science professor, Douglas
Muzzio, said. "He should see the amount of education funding Pataki offered
as a complete slap in the face, and it makes Bloomberg's strategy of making
nice look totally ineffective. He didn't get anything he wanted."
A budget expert from the Manhattan Institute, E. J. McMahon, said the mayor
couldn't have been surprised by Mr. Pataki's budget proposal given that the
governor, too, faces a multibillion dollar budget shortfall.
"Whatever he says in public, Bloomberg couldn't have been too surprised by
this," Mr. McMahon said. "The governor has been in court saying the special
masters went beyond their mandate when they told the state how much they
needed to pay New York. The Medicaid stuff was all telegraphed, so he knew
what to expect."
The governor's staff briefed Mr. Bloomberg on the specifics in the budget
on Monday night in a phone call that the mayor characterized as the governor
telling him he was doing the best that he could given the states own budget
shortfalls.
"The governor has to worry about 18 million people, and I've got to worry
about 8 million people," Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday. "The time to talk
to him about individual specifics and getting him to change is over the next
30 days when he has a chance to change his executive budget."
Mr. Bloomberg didn't talk about one other education issue that could anger
another city constituency: students. The governor said he would move to increase
tuition at the State University of New York and City University. Mr. Pataki
said SUNY tuition would go up by $500 a year and CUNY students would pay
another $250 a year if the state legislature embraces Mr. Pataki's budget
proposal. This is the first increase in tuition since 2003.
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