The numbers don’t lie — and that puts them in a select class in Albany these days.
Gov. David Paterson called the state’s lawmakers into a rare joint session Monday to slap some wrists and offer a stern talking-to about the impending fiscal collapse of the Empire State.
Paterson has rightly met with the disapproval of New Yorkers for his weak leadership to date, but he was right about one thing: If we don’t do something drastic to address billions in red ink, New York will go broke. At present, we are between $3 billion and $4 billion in debt for 2009. That number more than doubles for 2010 and 2011.
Paterson’s proposals, which would at least balance the budget for now, don’t go nearly far enough to address the systemic problems plaguing New York.
New York spends more than $2,300 per capita on Medicaid, far more than any other state in the nation and double the national average.
New York spends $14,884 per student on education. That is also tops in the nation and almost $5,000 more than the national average.
With spending numbers that high, every New Yorker should have a college degree and we should all live into our 90s.
These two sacred cows together make up a lion’s share of state spending. They have survived previous budget cuts by virtue of the immense influence those who benefit from all that spending wield in Albany. Public sector unions and the health care industry have a vested interest in preventing any cuts to those numbers.
They will say that Paterson and the Legislature will be undermining the education of our children. They will say that we’re slashing health care for the state’s poor and disabled.
But to say that every dollar of the $14,884 per student we spend has an actual benefit to students is a total farce. That money goes in large part to support the state’s teachers’ unions, who refuse to budge on matters like performance-based teacher evaluations and outsized health care and retirement benefits.
To say that the money spent on Medicaid results in better health care for the poor and disabled is just as comical. The taxpayer money spent by the Legislature goes to propping up a bloated health care system that dispenses benefits for enrollees we can no longer afford. There’s something seriously wrong with a system that dispenses better benefits to Medicaid patients than those who actually work to pay for their own insurance.
If there is to be any real reform to address this state’s seemingly perpetual fiscal problems, lawmakers and the governor must summon the political will to stare down these interests — and their fat campaign donations — and reform our schools, hospitals and the public workforce as a whole. Yes, it’s partly how much we’re spending, but an equally large problem is what we’re spending it on.
It’s never going to happen, of course. If we’re lucky we’ll get a budget deal that at least cuts spending in the short term. More likely, whatever deal we’ll see will involve minimal spending cuts, new taxes or fees and one-time revenue generators that do nothing to address the larger problems with our state government. It’s the same recipe that’s gotten us to where we are today and, sadly, we see no desire on the part of Albany leaders to stray very far from it.
And if that’s indeed the case, New York’s state of affairs will remain a sad one
