One of 50 Mini-Hoovers? Yep.

The Deficit Reduction Plan passed. Austerity will be the name of the game in New York State government for the remainder of this year’s budget. Yesterday the legislature approved a third round of cuts for this year alone. Because New York, like most states and unlike the federal government, must balance its budget, four options, in any combination, were open to the Governor and legislature:

• raise revenue
• seek help from the federal government
• use reserves
• cut the budget.

Revenue increases are under consideration for next year’s budget through an assortment of fee increases, but the elephant in the room – New York's virtually flat income tax brackets is not (top bracket of 6.85% applies to adjusted gross incomes of $20 thousand for single filers, $40 thousand for joint filers.) Although billions of dollars could be raised through adjusting those rates, on Monday Governor Paterson reiterated his disinterest in restoring a progressive income tax system to New York State:

"What I'm saying is if you tax the rich right now, while the economy is disintegrating, you're going to lose jobs and you're also going to lose from the tax base as people leave the state...I don't think that taxing the rich is the best way to go right now."

The Governor is repeating the very same claims made by his predecessor's predecessor, which were refuted by the facts after New York placed a temporary surcharge on upper incomes, in the wake of the post-9/11 recession and a $12 billion New York State budget deficit, in 2003. It also is of some concern that the term "tax the rich" evokes images of class struggle, when advocates simply are calling for restoring a progressive tax system commonly regarded as just since ancient Greece.

Governor Paterson also dismissed pleas to wait for federal stimulus funds:

“Regardless of any action that may be taken at the federal level, it is clear that New York has a responsibility to get its own fiscal house in order. Any stimulus aid we receive will only cover a fraction of our long-term deficit. We cannot simply look to Washington to solve all of our budget problems.”

No advocate called for Albany to "simply look to Washington to solve all of our budget problems," and the inference is unfortunate. Advocates had asked Albany to wait and see to what extent the federal government might help. That's quite different.

Finally, New York’s rainy-day fund was not considered, presumably because times are not hard enough, despite Governor Paterson's claim that "the economy is disintegrating."

The Albany Times Union has a good summary of the cuts, to which you can link here.

[Of particular note: many non-profits get their funding from the pool of funds known as New Legislative Programs. Funding for new legislative programs will be reduced by 20 percent of remaining spending. Here is a link to the chart that details all of the new legislative programs cuts.