If you plan to ask the state for funding for your program, you have a good chance if it falls into one of four general categories. If it doesn't, you can ask, but your chances are not bright.
The four general categories are: Education.
Public safety.
Health care.
Infrastructure.
According to the North Country representatives in the State Senate and Assembly, these are going to be the priority areas as the state budget is crafted. Sen. Betty Little (R-Queensbury), Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward (R-Willsboro) and Assemblywoman Janet Duprey (R-Peru) each spoke Friday at the annual Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber of Commerce legislative breakfast. The chamber holds this event so attendees can catch up with what's going on in state government and get an idea what to expect out of Albany in the coming year. About 180 business leaders attended the breakfast this year.
All three legislators agreed that 2010 is going to be a year to remember, and for all of the wrong reasons. Getting a budget passed by April 1, the start of the state's fiscal year, has proved elusive in the past. From 1984 through 2004, New York had late budgets every year. It will take more miracles than state government has indicated it has access to in order to get one passed on time this year.
We don't even know right at this moment who the governor will be. Even if we had a stable situation in the executive branch, we have enough turmoil in the legislature to undo any stray optimism.
This legislature hasn't shown any capacity or inclination to get anything significant done, and getting a budget passed seems significant enough to intimidate the most hopeful among us.
Throw in the acknowledged deficit of billions of dollars, now and into the future, and negotiations are sure to be the most difficult yet.
School districts and other organizations for whom state aid is crucial are going to be putting their own budgets together without benefit of much of an idea of the amount they will get.
So our advice to anyone representing an agency that relies on state aid is to expect the worst. The legislators will be fortunate to be able to agree on the four categories mentioned above. They will almost certainly be adrift on less-fundamental items.
Sayward and Duprey were asked after Friday's breakfast if advocates for other organizations, outside the big four, ought to give up and not even ask for money.
No, they both said. All requests will get their attention.
What they didn't say — but what we will — is that anything outside those four categories will most likely be considered secondary to the items under that umbrella. Getting money in this budget environment will take supreme persuasiveness or a lot of luck.
This will not be the year to get state help for anything that isn't considered essential.
Opinion
March 8, 2010
EDITORIAL: State budget a matter of strict priorities
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Cheers and Jeers: Feb. 13, 2012
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