[NYAPRS Enews] AP, GNS: Mixed Reactions to Paterson's First Months

[Matt Canuteson]

Analysis: The Accidental Governor Settles In

By MICHAEL GORMLEY  Associated Press   May 3, 2008

 

Gov. David Paterson says he's starting to settle into the biggest
political job in the state, after he spent most of his first 50 days in
political chaos. 

 

He and his family suffered through the white-hot glare of Gov. Eliot
Spitzer's fall when linked to a prostitution investigation and
Paterson's own rise to become New York's first black governor and one of
the nation's first blind state executives. He made his own admission of
past marital affairs, which he had expected to keep in the family until
he got the job he never expected. His pre-emptive disclosure drew
acclaim in public opinion polls. 

 

He's mended fences between the executive chamber and the Legislature
that Spitzer had blow down. He showed rare diplomacy these days when
torn between Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, whom he supports for
president, and her rival Sen. Barak Obama, who would be the first black
president. And Paterson talked tough during last month's budget
negotiations. 

 

Now comes the harder part, and the early reviews are strong. 

 

On Tuesday he said "no" to good-government groups with whom he'd long
been in sync back when he was senator in the minority of power. But he
said this week that the state can't support campaign finance reform that
would particularly help minority-party candidates because it would cost
too much at this time. 

 

On Wednesday, he stood up to the polls and Senate Republicans running
hard for re-election this year when he refused to support a popular idea
_ eliminating the 32-cent a gallon state gas tax. 

 

He said he simply doesn't trust the oil industry not to jack up the
price and New York can't afford to lose the hundreds of millions of
dollars in revenue in the face of more than $20 billion of projected
deficits over the next three years. 

 

"We have to bring fiscal reality back to this state," Paterson said. He
notes too much spending has led to too much taxing and that's led to
"early voting in New York. They are voting with their feet." 

 

"Sometimes," he said, "I wonder what we've been doing around here." 

 

Well, he's been here. In fact, as a leader of the minority party
Democrats in the Senate he faced few spending plans he didn't like. But
it didn't matter then. In Albany, if you aren't the majority in your
chamber you're at the kids' table, seen but not heard. 

 

But, as many are saying in Albany these days, the job can change a guy. 

 

So thanks to a mix of widely held respect for Paterson, some honest talk
by him in his first days in office, and a healthy dose of wishful
thinking after everyone was put through a political wringer, Paterson is
gaining supporters in the Legislature and beyond. 

 

"He has a keen understanding of the Legislature and the Legislature's
mindset, which his predecessor clearly did not," said E.J. McMahon of
the Empire Center for New York State Policy, part of the fiscally
conservative Manhattan Institute and one of Albany's most stinging
fiscal critics. 

 

McMahon likes the Harlem Democrat's tough and narrow course. Paterson
told agencies to cut spending 3.5 percent. He's harping about growing
future deficits. And he told the Legislature that next year's budget
must be cut by 5 percent to 10 percent. Odd talk in a town where the
word cut does not compute. 

 

"It's been clear since last summer that the economy was going down,"
McMahon said. "But nothing has been said about it until now." 

 

There have been and will be some missteps. Like on Friday when he told
WFAN-AM radio in an hour conversation with Boomer Esiason and Craig
Carton that there was "obviously" an element in the state police that
was "out of control" keeping tabs on politicians, only to tell news
reporters afterward he had only lawmakers' claims to back it up. 

 

Known for his humor and lack of pretense, Paterson is more prone to that
kind of slip when he's just chatting. But when he talks about the
budget, he's more focused, and deadly serious. 

 

It's still early, but Paterson is getting more people thinking the
accidental governor may be precisely what New York needs. 

 

www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--governorpaterson0503ma
y03,0,7154012.story 

 

 

Paterson Is Not The Zealous Reformer That Spitzer Tried To Be

Jay Gallagher  Gannett News Service   May 3, 2008

 

Gov. David Paterson is proving to be a far more cautious chief executive
than his more aggressive and free-wheeling predecessor, Eliot Spitzer.

 

This week, the new state chief executive passed up a couple of chances
to confront the Legislature on ethics and budget issues, and presented a
remarkably modest plan to try to reduce local property taxes, taking a
pass for the time being on far more controversial recommendations of a
panel Spitzer appointed to tackle the skyrocketing local levies.

 

First, Paterson, in his sixth week in office, was a notable no-show at
"Reform Day," when a couple of hundred of advocates of making the state
government more open and accountable came to the Capitol to urge limits
on campaign fund-raising and an end to gerrymandering legislative
districts, among other issues.

 

Paterson turned down a chance to address them (as did Assembly Speaker
Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno) and instead just
issued a statement saying his administration "is committed to working
with our partners inside and outside of government to achieve
significant reforms in ethics, campaign finance, redistricting and the
state budget process.

 

"These changes can give us the tools we need to enrich the lives of
everyday New Yorkers. If we are to truly serve the people of this state
we must maintain our push for a government that is responsive,
transparent and accountable."

 

But he pretty much undercut that sentiment later in the week when his
aides admitted he has no intention of following self-imposed
fund-raising guidelines Spitzer established, and will instead take
donations of as much as $55,000 that are allowed under the state's
notoriously porous campaign-finance laws.

 

Then he also was tepid in his response to the report of a commission
headed by former Lt. Gov. Stanley Lundine that called for some dramatic
changes in laws overseeing local governments.

 

The recommendations included having public employees pay a quarter of
the costs of their health-care insurance over five years, giving new
employees lesser pension benefits than those now on the job and allowing
school districts to bargain with teacher unions regionally rather than
individually.

 

All of those ideas have the benefit of potential significant savings to
taxpayers, as well as incurring the wrath of those who would have to
make the higher payments, get lower benefits or see their bargaining
power diminished.

 

Paterson didn't touch any of those ideas. He instead proposed a bill
that would make it easier for local governments to share services and
eliminate a few public officials. But none of the ideas he backs would
result in significant cost savings - or make many people angry.

 

Paterson seems most committed to trying to get state spending under
control - something he admits was not near the top of his agenda during
his 20 years as a state senator and was not much in evidence during the
recent budget debate.

 

In fact, he acceded to lawmakers' decisions to raise state spending by
almost 5 percent, even as economic storm clouds continued to thicken
over the Empire State.

 

But since then, he has talked frequently about the need to hold the
line, even appointing a commission to look at ways to trim next year's
budget, and recommended some across-the-board spending cuts.

 

"Across-the-board" cuts are the safest kind to recommend, since they
seem not to affect anyone too much. But the state university is already
wailing about them, and more gnashing of teeth will be heard on May 16
when state agencies are supposed to deliver their cutting plans.

 

If there is one thing that Spitzer was a master at, it was making people
angry, which turned out to be a big part of his political undoing. Much
of his reform agenda, obviously not on his mind when he visited a
prostitute in a Washington, D.C., hotel room last February, appears to
have left office with him.

 

Paterson has taken a more conciliatory approach with the Legislature,
which may prove more effective in the long run. He seems not to be the
kind of leader who will take Albany by the scruff of the neck and give
it a good shake, which was essentially Spitzer's approach.

 

But with enormous help from the former governor's personal flaws, forces
of the status quo were able to dismiss Spitzer's challenges. Paterson
looks like a much tamer opponent for them at this point.

 

http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080503/COLUMNIST19/805
030322/1076/OPINION01

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