State of the State: Annotated Excerpts

Here are excerpts from Governor Paterson’s State of the State address today that jump out at me. Analysis is forthcoming, especially as the particulars of the proposals become evident. I have inserted my initial reactions in italics within brackets.

Health Care

An estimated 225,000 New Yorkers could lose their jobs in this recession, so many of them may also lose their health insurance. That is why expanding access to health care is more important than ever.

Last year, we expanded our program to cover every child in New York. This year we will partner with Washington to cover an additional 400,000 New Yorkers. We will pay for this by asking Washington to let us use the Medicaid savings we have already achieved.

[And with an Obama administration, this is more likely. For many years, Medicaid has been one way the federal government addressed the fact that New Yorkers pay a lot more into the federal government than they receive from it. Thus our Medicaid program has traditionally been larger than most states – but it was one way (however imperfect, what with state and local matches – that we drew down federal dollars]

However, one in three New Yorkers from the ages of 19 to 29 are still uninsured. This is unacceptable. That is why I will propose a bill allowing families to cover family members up to the age of 29 in their family coverage plans at their own cost.

[Very interesting… we’ll need to see how it works for families]

We must systematically remove the barriers until we can enroll every New Yorker who is eligible for publicly-funded coverage.

[Expanding eligibility in programs such as Family Health Plus would be a good move also.]

Education

Another way we can protect our children and build a brighter future is to ensure that every child in New York receives a good education.

This current crisis should teach us that the only way to restore our long-term economic competitiveness is to build the world’s best system of education.

We can do it, but we have a long way to go. Today, three in ten New Yorkers do not graduate from high school and don’t even have a chance to go to college. The numbers are even worse for children of color and children from low-income families.

We must do better. We must ensure that every child is prepared for college — and that every child can afford to go…

I have always fought for more resources for our schools. The road to economic competitiveness and renewal runs right through our schools. However, during this downturn, we simply cannot spend more — so we must spend more effectively.

[The Governor’s budget proposal slows down the multi-year funding to high-need school districts pursuant to the CFE decision, but many high-need schools have long been in crisis themselves.]

Economic Development

… Most importantly, we must lower the cost of doing business in New York. Property taxes are too high. We should cap them. State mandates are too burdensome. We should relieve them. Local government is too costly. We should help it become more efficient. We should act on the recommendations of the Commissions on Property Tax Relief and Local Government Efficiency.

[Capping property taxes evokes the disaster of California passing Prop 13 in the 1970’s. Public schools were never the same. And not a word about adjusting our disgracefully flattened income tax rates.]

Community

Just as we invest in the programs that are working, we must also address the strategies that are not working. Few public safety initiatives have failed as badly and for as long as the Rockefeller Drug Laws. These laws did not work when I was elected Senator in 1985, and they do not work today.

We enacted modest reforms to the Rockefeller Drug Laws in 2004. Yet these reforms still did not go far enough to expand the availability of drug treatment programs, allow judges to order low-level offenders into mandatory treatment, and assure that prisons are used for the most serious drug offenders.

At the end of this month, the New York State Commission on Sentencing Reform will deliver its report. I look forward to reviewing the Commission’s recommendations in partnership with the members of the Legislature. Together, we should move forward to reform the Rockefeller Drug Laws — and institute a smart, safe and effective approach that keeps drugs off our streets.

[Hallelujah! We’ve wasted more money and lives on what was essentially (in my opinion) a political gimmick by a “liberal” Republican Governor intent on ingratiating himself with his party’s conservative base. The drug laws were supposed to go after “drug kingpins,” but fell most heavily on the small-timers who didn’t have the knowledge or connections to bargain with prosecutors.]