Albany Deadlock Continues,

GOP Turns to Lazio Again

But Donovan Has Best Shot

By Henry J. Stern
June 3, 2010

Day 64 - without a budget

This problem need not be restated at length. Of a budget gap of over 9 billion dollars (out of $130 billion or so), the players (Senate, Assembly, Governor) have agreed on about $6.5 billion in reductions. They disagree on the remaining $2.5 billion. The Senate is bizarrely insisting on a billion-dollar property tax reduction, which would add to the deficit. The Assembly - Sheldon Silver and the UFT - wants $1.4 billion more for education, which they say they would find a way to fund elsewhere in the budget.

Governor Paterson's emergency budget extension legislation, adopted by the legislature weekly to keep government agencies operating, will include substantive reductions this week, he says. He added that he doesn't want to govern that way, but the legislature, through its inaction, has forced him into it. Rule 18-X-6: "The Devil made me do it."

The City, complying with its Charter, is in the midst of its budget adoption process, holding hearings this week on individual agency budgets. It is not easy to consider a budget when one doesn't know how much money is available to spend, but at a salary of $112,500 per member, the City Council should be able to figure out what to do, at least after they are enlightened by the Speaker and the Mayor.

This principle of budgeting in a deficit, of course, applies to cities, states, authorities and private businesses: the longer necessary cuts are postponed, the deeper they will have to be in order to eliminate the deficit. Our solons in Albany presumably know that, but for the four and one half months since Governor Paterson presented the executive budget on January 19, the two houses, including the divided senate, have not come close to reaching agreement.

Nonpartisan Elections

In 2003 Mayor Bloomberg, through a Charter Revision Commission headed by former Schools Chancellor Frank Macchiarola, proposed nonpartisan elections for municipal offices. The idea has merit for a number of reasons. First, is that there is no Republican or Democratic way to clean streets, as Mayor LaGuardia is supposed to have said. Second, partisan nominations in what is essentially a one-party city deny all other voters the right to participate meaningfully in the selection process. Third, they make party clubhouses centers of activity, and smoke-filled rooms, as they used to be, are often repellent to people who want to make up their own minds on whom to support.

Nevertheless, nonpartisan elections are highly unlikely to be adopted, because nearly every organized group opposes them. It is easier to exert pressure on legislators through their leaders, who operate through the party system. For many years, including the time I served on the City Council (1974-83), the Democratic county leaders made important decisions, including the choice of a Speaker, who in turn dominated the members.

Aware of this tradition, and wanting to test it, during my first year on the Council, an issue arose on which I had no opinion. I called Alex Rose, the Liberal Party leader, and asked him what he thought of a finance proposal by Mayor Beame, whose details escape me in 2010. I vividly remember his answer, delivered in his inimitable Yiddish accent, "You decide. That’s vy ve elected you."

Direct political domination of the City Council is on the wane, but it has been replaced by deference to special interest groups, labor unions with phone banks and splinter parties. Some people always need someone else to tell them what to do, and if their old master falters or is overthrown, they will look for a new one. They lack confidence in their own judgment, and in that attitude at least, they are entirely justified.

Republican Convention

The Republicans this week nominated one candidate who has the potential to be elected. He is Daniel M. Donovan, district attorney of Richmond County. We do not know how much money he has or will be able to raise, but he will oppose the winner of a five-way Democratic primary, in which the supporters of the four losing candidates are potential votes for the Republican. Donovan starts out as an underdog because of the weakness of the rest of the ticket - no well-known candidates for the two Senate seats or Comptroller, and Rick Lazio for governor.

However, there is some merit in having an Attorney General from a different party than the Governor - that is one reason the position is elected independently. The two would presumably keep their eyes on each other, especially since they are likely to compete directly in some even-numbered year.

Donovan would need a program to run on, showing himself as tough but fair and impartial. He should offer innovations in crime-fighting, as well as assuring the public that he, although a Republican, will not abandon the investigations into corporate practices which Attorney Generals Spitzer and Cuomo conducted. He should maintain the professionalism of the AG's office, rather than staff it with failed Republican candidates and political favorites. Relatively unknown to the public outside of Staten Island, he has the chance to define himself and create a public personality before negative commercials define him.

Until September, we will listen to what his five Democratic rivals say about each other. The percentage the winner will receive will be a strong indicator of how he or she is likely to fare in November against Donovan. At this point, the race is the Democrats to lose.

StarQuest #675 06.03.2010 907wds