CSEA RESPONDS TO GOV. CUOMO 2013-14 BUDGET PROPOSAL

Danny Donohue

Statement from CSEA President Danny Donohue:

RE: Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed 2013-14 state budget

Jan. 22, 2013-- "There are several troubling areas in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed 2013-14 state budget:

The governor is too quick to gloss over the negative impact of a flat budget on state operations, especially considering the cuts, closures, downsizing and upheaval in that area over the past several years. Without meaningful detail, it is nearly impossible to adequately evaluate the effect on specific agencies, programs and the people who deliver them. Dedicated CSEA members deliver those services every day, but they have been reduced to political bargaining chips in the governor's budget.

While stressing economic development priorities, the governor also seems to forget that the erosion of public sector jobs also hurts people and communities and takes money out of the economy.

Even more outrageous, the governor is proposing a bait and switch scheme on his own misguided Tier 6 that will allow public employers to underfund their pension obligations - basically, raiding the system to pay for savings that Tier 6 didn't actually provide and calling it mandate relief. This approach would put political expedience ahead of fiscal responsibility.

It is also hard to understand why the governor continues to throw good money after bad on local government consolidation given its track record of repeated rejection by the voters."