Message from Liz...
This year’s budget negotiations are taking on a different flavor from previous years, as Governor Cuomo has included a variety of provisions in his executive budget appropriations bills that link funding of specific programs to the implementation of his policy goals. For example, he has tied various capital funding projects to ethics reform, eligibility for property tax relief to local governments complying with a local property tax cap, a portion of state education funding to implementation of his education reform agenda, and continued funding of the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) to approval of the Dream Act and a controversial tax credit bill.
Since the Legislature is constitutionally prohibited from changing language inserted into these appropriations bills, it cannot delink these issues, and must accept or reject the language – and the budget – as a whole. That is why for the first time in several years, both the Governor and some legislators are suggesting we may have a late budget.
While there are constitutional limits on the Legislature’s power in the budget process, there are also limits on executive power, and at least with regards to education funding, it would seem that the Governor is pushing up against those limits. Michael Rebell, the Columbia professor who brought the Campaign For Fiscal Equity (CFE) case regarding fair funding for New York City schools, wrote an analysis of this issue here: http://educationalequityblog.org/2015/01/30/governor-cuomos-education-budget-proposals-ignore-childrens-needs-and-violate-the-constitution/. The gist of the analysis is that the courts determined in the CFE case that by underfunding New York City schools, New York State was violating the constitutional requirement to provide a sound basic education. There is nothing in the constitution which makes that requirement negotiable, so the Governor cannot make funding conditional on implementing a specific policy agenda.
This is particularly true because the Governor’s budget does not meet the funding levels provided for under the CFE agreement. If the formula developed in the wake of CFE was being followed, New York schools would have an additional $5.6 billion in funding for the coming fiscal year.
The Alliance for Quality Education recently did an analysis of how this funding would translate down to individual schools. Since funding is based on need, the schools in my Senate district are less underfunded than many communities, but even our relatively well funded schools would receive an additional $43.3 million this year if the CFE agreement was being followed.
Beyond the constitutional question regarding education funding, I do have broader concerns about this new strategy by the Governor. While I do like some of his policy goals – I support his ethics reform proposals, and argued last month they should go farther – the broad use of these linkages by the Governor has the potential to take the legislature out of the policy making process. And that is the basic function of legislatures in our system of government.
I was struck by a quote from E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank in this Daily News column: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/bill-hammond-cuomo-pushes-envelope-article-1.2136366. McMahon said “It comes down to how you feel about the ends justifying the means. Think of the worst thing you can think of a governor trying to do, and then picture him trying to do it through an appropriations bill.” E.J. McMahon and I might disagree on what the worst thing the governor could do is – though we agree on more than you might expect given our differing political philosophies – but that’s why we have legislatures. Their role is to argue and deliberate over policy options rather than having decisions dropped by fiat from on high.
Despite the imperfections of some individual legislators, the “3-men-in-a- room” model of decision making leaves much to be desired, and an “only-one-man- the-room” model is fraught with dangers. Our state has 19.5 million people who deserve to have their elected legislators play a role in crucial budget and policy decisions.