The Governor's State of the State address didn't get down to the nitty gritty, and thus far I'm disappointed. We'll see what the budget brings. It is worth noting, however, that little more than half of NYC public school students graduate from high school in four years, nearly 20 percent of city residents live in poverty, and an unusually large share of NYC adults are not in the labor force. None of this was identified as a problem for the state. The diminished circumstances of Upstate New York, meanwhile, was identified as a problem in need of assistance. In the hard choices department, what was identified was the need to cut Medicaid spending, much of which takes place in NYC. Even if in the next decade the city becomes richer and the rest of the state poorer (it could very well happen that way), city residents should not forget the attitude of the rest of the state when we were poor. We weren’t “one state” then. We should be “one state” now, but the rest of the state should not be allowed to forget 40 years of hostility. Where would the NYC schools be today if the education bond act had passed in the mid-1990s, when the rest of the state voted it down because it would have benefited the city? That bond issue was in exchange for STAR, which diverts school funding away from the city to this day.
The one nod to the sky high level of local government spending in the rest of the state was a proposed commission on local government efficiency, which will consider the need for consolidation. Local government can always be made more efficient, and consolidation is probably a good idea, but the reality is that aside from a few glaring exceptions, local government outside New York City does not spend much more than the national average, nor is it overstaffed, nor are its employees overpaid. The key exception is the public schools, which had high spending (for better quality) in the 1980s and enormous spending (for what I don’t know) today. Spending in the rest of the state, adjusted for everything, is sky high even relative to New Jersey, where they are trying to reign it in. Other exceptions are state-mandated Medicaid, state-mandated pensions and, in the Downstate Suburbs, state-determined police salaries.
I didn’t hear pensions mentioned in the State of the State. I would like to have heard Spitzer say that, given that most young New Yorkers will get no pensions and will be lucky to get diminished Social Security at age 75, unionized public employees should not expect to see their retirement age slashed to age 55, or 50, followed by 45, with increased benefits and eliminated contributions.
As for the political reforms, I favor appointed judges (what do I know about judges as a voter?), public financing of campaigns, and non-gerrymandered districts (which will put the GOP out of business in New York in 2012 unless it provides something for NYC other than bile). But the Governor didn’t address ballot access, particularly for independent candidates. No amount of non-gerrymandering will produce a competitive general election for state legislature where I live. A Democrat needs 500 signatures to get on the ballot for Assembly, an independent candidate 1,500, and money for lawyer to fight attempts to disqualify legitimate signatures over trivialities. That’s too much, and the lack of contested elections in one-party districts is the proof. Saying no to your opponents and yes to your supporters is easy, as the Governor says. Eliminating gerrymandering helps Democrats in New York State, where they are the majority. Making it easier to run as an independent against a Democrat in the general election, when (unlike inn the primary) everyone shows up, could help citizens.