Tomorrow is the day that the special session in Albany begins, but from the way things are going thus far, it may not be a pleasant place between opening and closing gavels. Governor Paterson is lashing out at the current GOP majority for dragging their feet on spending cuts (though the Assembly is doing just as much). Meanwhile the big unions are attacking the Governor for his proposed cuts where it hurts the most.
From The Daily Politics:
I certainly hope they are. The Governor will be feeling considerable pressure from unions like 1199/SEIU and GYNHA as well as many others that believe health care for the disadvantaged should come before keeping the tax rate low for the wealthiest New Yorkers. Until he begins to change his position and look into tax increases for the few thousand that can afford it, he can kick and scream all he wants but there will have to be a compromise at the end of the day or nothing will be done this week in Albany.
A source close to 1199 said officials of the health care workers union met Friday to discuss Paterson's cuts and reports there was "a great amount of displeasure about whether the governor has forgotten where he's come from so quickly and has lost his moral compass."
The union is particularly unhappy about what it see as Paterson's "constant willingness to victimize low-wage healthcare workers" while steadfastedly ruling out raising taxes on wealthy New Yorkers - the one area where the governor finds himself in agreement with the Senate Republicans.
Might 1199 and the GNYHA, which have a history of running successful multimillion-dollar ad campaigns to block significant Medicaid cuts proposed by Paterson's predecessors, Republican Gov. George Pataki and Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer, be gearing up to do the same this time around?
David Paterson should be ashamed of himself for the way he is conducting himself with the budget. These are tough times I agree, but much tougher for the middle class and those that live in his former Senate district. It is sad to see he has forgotten the neighborhoods from where he was raised. The reformer New York used to know has wedded himself to the status quo, at least for the budget's sake.
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