The only adult in Albany

Gov. David Paterson has finally given up on the state Legislature, realizing that the politicians so beholding to special interests are unable to function in times of fiscal crisis, and he has delayed payment of state aid to schools and municipalities that was due today. In doing that, he has gored the oxen of many special interests, and brought outraged threats of lawsuits from the state’s Association of School Boards and various teacher and public employee unions.

And that threat reveals exactly what state leaders are facing if they try to rein in runaway spending. The special interests that hold so much sway with the Legislature – many use the term “stranglehold” when they talk about the situation – are largely the reason the state has slowly sagged into a morass of fiscal quicksand. The more the politicians posture and preen, the deeper the state sinks into the swamp.

When people think of special interest groups, they often turn to business and industry – the tobacco industry, the drug industry. But groups in New York that hold some of the heaviest sway with both the governor and the legislature are the powerful teachers unions and the associations of school boards and school superintendents. While it might appear there are forces at cross purposes here, the reality is that these natural adversaries (think of negotiations for new teacher contracts) are a united front when it comes to how and what the state doles out in state aid to schools.

According to a Monday Bloomberg News Service story, “Aid to New York’s school districts, set at $21.9 billion in the beginning of the year, is the largest segment of the $133.2 billion state budget. New York schools spent $15,981 per pupil in 2007, the most of any state and 65 percent more than average, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.”

It is within this reality that Paterson is trying to stave off bankruptcy for the state. Paterson is largely acting alone; to date, only Assembly Majority Leader Sheldon Silver has given Paterson any support, and that was couched with a veiled promise that withholding the aid is only a temporary measure – even though Paterson has said it might have to become permanent.

The issue of school spending deserves a major treatise of its own. What I want to point out here, however, is how Paterson, our unelected, underappreciated governor, is the only state political leader responding in any positive way to a crisis brought on by years of unrealistic spending and a suddenly dire economy that is not pumping scads of corporate and individual tax money into the state’s bank accounts.

In Sunday’s speech and press conference, Paterson pointed out that in the past two decades, the state has come to rely on Wall Street and the New York City financial industry that complements and supports it for its windfall income tax receipts. He sagely said that sound fiscal planning cannot rely on that to carry future revenue, noting the reforms that loom from the federal government and reports that the largest investment houses are planning to pay bonuses in the form of stock – a decision that will not result in any taxes for the state for many years.

Paterson, whose approval numbers have been far, far more dismal than his performance has warranted, is right now the only political leader in New York who is remotely willing to make structural changes in how the state operates. The Democratic party leadership, both statewide and in the Senate and Assembly, has a very, very short time to understand what they risk by continuing their head-in-the-sand routine. The Democrats in the Senate, who have a hard won, slender majority, are begging to make that majority last a mere two years. While their majority in the Assembly is too large to be threatened, a lot of incumbents could fall in the next election.

New York state is in dire straits, and only David Paterson appears to be willing to deal with it in any meaningful way. He is, as one of my colleagues noted, the only practicing adult in state politics. He understands that something has to give. His political colleagues in the Legislature, however, are unwilling or unable to break the ties to special interests to which they are so obviously beholden. And the only victims are the millions of taxpayers in New York.