The Politics of Pain Begin

Now that we’ve all had enough time to congratulate ourselves on electing the first African-American president, it’s time to focus on people and issues that will most directly affect us. I’m talking about our state and local economies. As tempting as it is to speculate about Obama’s Cabinet appointments, none of those people are going to pay your tax bill or prevent cuts in education funding and Medicaid.
The breathtaking collapse of the financial markets and its inevitable ripple affect through the economy is forcing Gov. David Paterson to make some tough decisions. (I find it interesting no one had a problem with the evildoers on Wall Street when they were paying billions in taxes and subsidizing the sacred cows of Medicaid and education).
The State Legislature has just convened a special session to consider Gov. Paterson’s call for $2 billion in mid-year budget cuts. The cuts would include canceling a 3% pay raise for state workers slated for April 1st and withholding a week’s pay until they retire. In addition Paterson wants cut school aid by $585 million, reduce health-care spending by $572 million and freeze funding for local governments. He’s even thinking about raising tuition at the State University of New York by $600 to $4,950.
In short this liberal democrat is doing the same thing the rest of us are. He’s acknowledging the tough times ahead and taking action to minimize their effects. Gov. Paterson is behaving like the grown-up in a room full of petulant special interest brats. Already the Civil Service Employees Association is on record saying cuts would “cripple the delivery of necessary services to New Yorkers and harm working families and retirees of this state.”
God forbid any of these civil service hacks share the burden during bad times because they’ve certainly got their meaty little paws out during the good times. And what’s with the “working families” routine? How about a little love for the tens of thousands of financial workers out on the street because a few CEO’s got greedy or do you have to belong to a union to qualify as a “working families? They’d be happy to forgo a 3% raise if they had a job!
Not surprisingly, the teacher’s union crowd is screaming like a stuck pig. For them the answer is always more money and less accountability. Gov. Paterson’s s display of political courage comes as a shock to the teachers union given the amounts of money they give to democrats of all stripes. They count on democrats to keep the hounds of educational and fiscal reform at bay via their campaign contributions. The thing that gives Paterson so much credibility in this fight is the fact he was for many years an ally of both the teachers and the civil service groups as a State Senator representing Harlem.
But Gov. Paterson clearly understands he now represents more than the narrow self interest of traditional democratic constituencies and is responsible for the fiscal well being of all New Yorkers. For that he deserves tremendous credit. He knows he will be savaged by people he normally agrees with and he’s prepared to answer with his brain not his heart. That’s the kind of leadership New York needs. Gov. Paterson may be legally blind but he has no shortage of vision.