SUSAN ARBETTER ON ccSCOOP

What April Showers Bring

The reporters were referring to the "like-rote" choreography of budget making in Albany. Rhythm is a perfect word to describe it. So is chorus. Each year, like a medieval madrigal, stakeholders play their prescribed parts, singing and dancing the same policy positions they have sung and danced for years. Corporations, small business, unions, school boards—they all have a part in the ebb and flow of budget theater in Albany.

Ironically—in more of a Kabuki rather than madrigal style—the Legislature (star of this play) is not typically seen onstage; rather, it is simply assumed. The leaders of the two bodies and the Governor do a pas de deux behind closed doors, or "away from the sunlight" as good government groups call it.

For reporters covering this territory, it's easy to overlook the breakthroughs that occur, while concentrating as we do on that single tune everyone knows and hates.

But the jaded journalists' sulk is also tiresome.

So, while the budget is late, just like it usually is, and most of my brethren in the pressroom are focused on Andrew Cuomo's tax returns, the Senate Republicans' "Just Say No" initiatives, and the Democrats' increasing unwillingness to do anything that could involve public scrutiny, I wanted to take up a few column inches to highlight three positive things that New York State government is producing. Please note that I am not weighing the merits of these policies. I am simply sharing their existence with you.

SUNY
After touring the state for about a year, holding town hall meetings and listening to campus presidents, faculty, and students, new SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher has unveiled a road map for the university that would require a tremendous infusion of cash but would result in a high economic development payoff.

A few of the more intriguing ideas include:

•  fostering greater community engagement between town and gown

•  finding and funding the best innovation at SUNY's research labs

•  creating a national healthcare database to track, synthesize, and develop systems for healthcare delivery and treatment

•  teaching prospective teachers less theory and more useful practical skills for the real world classroom.

The AP's Michael Gormley, appearing on the Capitol Pressroom, reminded me that none of these initiatives is new. But maybe because they have been wrapped into a single 28-page presentation and delivered by a new Chancellor during a time of change in Albany, they appear bigger and bolder somehow.

What remains to be seen is how the legislature will approach Zimpher's road map. Without their approval—which would relinquish some of their power over tuition hikes charged at individual SUNY campuses—the road map will (at least temporarily) go the way of the dinosaur—and Eliot Spitzer's idea to monetize the state lottery, which he unveiled in 2008, and would have created an endowment . . . for SUNY.

POWER FOR JOBS
SCA Tissue is a global manufacturer employing about 300 people in Glens Falls, NY. It produces the kind of napkins and toilet paper made from recycled paper that all of us have used when we stop on I-90 for a roast beef sandwich at Arby's and a Java Chip Frappacino at Starbucks. SCA came to New York back when the New York Power Authority had the ability to purchase electricity in bulk—years at a time—at a big discount. This policy initiative has a weird name, something like "High Load," which has no bearing on any of our lives. So, why don't we do what most people do, and refer to all four economic-development-in-exchange-for-cheaper-power initiatives as "Power for Jobs."

SCA is a huge electricity user, so the savings the company saw under their "Power for Jobs" program was able to compensate for the higher-than-normal-taxes New York is famous for.

But SCA hasn't really seen much of a break in their electricity costs since 2005. One reason is due to legislative bickering over how best to modify the plan. So, rather than modify it, they have granted the program one-year extensions for each of the last several years.

That's not good enough for SCA Tissue, which had been seeing much larger savings prior to these piecemeal extensions, when NYPA could buy years and years worth of power for them at a discount, and they could plan their business strategy accordingly.

This year, the program sunsets on May 15—about three and a half weeks from now.

You're probably wondering where the good news is. I should have stressed possible good news.

According to the Business Council of New York State, there are currently four competing plans on the table. They have been floated by Governor Paterson, Senators Darrel Aubertine and George Maziarz, and Assemblyman Kevin Cahill. The Business Council says each of the four plans is solid; each plan accomplishes 90 percent of what they would like the final Power for Jobs initiative to do. And more than that, the Business Council says a resolution is within reach before May 15.

OPEN MEETINGS LAW
Finally, on Thursday, Governor Paterson signed ten bills into law, "including three that will reform and strengthen the Open Meetings Law."

From the release:

The Open Meetings Law reforms that were signed were passed in the State Legislature during this year's Sunshine Week. The bills include A.5873/S.4284, which will ensure that public meetings are held in facilities that are able to accommodate members of the public; A.10093/S.3195, which will require State and local governments to establish rules to accommodate photographs, audio or video recording of open meetings; and A.10196/S.7054, which will add to the remedies a court can impose when it finds a violation of the Open Meetings Law. The latter bill is a revision of legislation vetoed by Governor Paterson last year, because it would have created monetary penalties for localities that violate the law, and thereby imposed costs on taxpayers. The most recent bill would require training for those who do not comply.

If only the legislature would follow its own rules, we might be dancing to a different rhythm in Albany.

Susan_Arbetter@wcny.org

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