Traffic cameras for red-light renegades, $11 million more in state aid, $55 million for the demolition of Midtown, money for improvements to local parks, $25 million for a translational science center at the University of Rochester. There's a lot of Rochester in Governor Eliot Spitzer's 2008-09 Executive Budget proposal, released last week.
The Fiscal Policy Institute, a progressive research and educational group, praises Spitzer's commitment to children's health care and his effort to close corporate tax loopholes, but a senior economist with the Institute says there are a few areas of concern.
"We would rather see more of the budget balancing done on the revenue side than the expenditure side," says Trudi Renwick.
Faced with a faltering national economy and a $4.4 billion deficit, Spitzer has proposed $1 billion in health-care cuts and a less-than-promised increase in school aid, among other spending reductions.
The Institute, Renwick says, does not agree with Spitzer's no-new-taxes pledge. The group favors a temporary surcharge on the state's highest-income taxpayers instead.
Spitzer has formed a commission to study a property-tax cap. The only cap that makes sense, Renwick says, would be based on individual income. The Institute favors a cap on how much of that income can be spent on property taxes. If your property taxes exceeded a set percentage, the state would pay the rest, she says.
You can't cap growth in school spending when there are schools that aren't performing up to par, Renwick says, and need more money.
"If we cap everybody, then that's just going to make the discrepancies between the high performing schools and the low performing schools worse," she says.
The Institute is disappointed that Spitzer is slowing down the increase in Foundation Aid - a formula for directing more money to the neediest school districts.
"I think making good on commitments to kids has to be one of our highest priorities," Renwick says. "Last year's school-aid increases were a good first step in that direction."
What is fundamentally putting pressure on property taxes is years of the state not living up to its responsibilities and "pushing those obligations onto counties and school districts," Renwick says.
The STAR program provides a little tax relief across the board, Renwick says, but doesn't do enough to help those who really need it. It also leaves out renters, she says, "when it's clearly established that renters pay property taxes through their rent."
Renwick says Spitzer has his health-care priorities right, even with the proposed cuts.
"We're worried the providers can't take another cut," she says. "That said, we appreciate that he really tried to keep his pledge of expanding health insurance, expanding the Child Health Plus program."