If implemented, the proposed measures would affect hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of working people across the state who would bear the brunt of the government’s “budget crisis.” The proposed cuts would shift more of the costs of health care, education, public transportation, and other government-funded services onto individuals and their families.

The state legislature is to vote on the governor’s proposals by April 1.

In his speech on the budget, Pataki emphasized that as much as $1.1 billion in Medicaid funding would be on the chopping block this fiscal year. Medicaid is a means-tested health insurance plan for working people with low incomes, the unemployed, elderly, and disabled. It was a byproduct of the civil rights movement of the 1960s that extended Social Security. Last year, nearly 4 million people were eligible for Medicaid throughout New York state.

In his remarks, Pataki claimed Medicaid is “crushing taxpayers,” and said the state government “must take action to address the rapidly escalating costs of Medicaid.” An article in the January 19 Daily News said that, under these proposals, Medicaid recipients “wouldn’t be covered for treatment by private dentists, podiatrists, clinical psychologists or private duty nurses.”

In addition, the 2005 state budget aims to reduce health-care coverage offered by Family Health Plus, a state-funded health insurance plan for those with incomes above the cap to qualify for Medicaid. The News also reported that 340,000 working families enrolled in Family Health Plus would no longer be eligible for mental health treatment and would have to pay a new $250 fee for each hospital visit.

Pataki also said the cuts would aim to “right-size the health care system,” by shutting down “underutilized” public hospitals and nursing homes, and shifting more of the expense of medical services and care for the elderly and disabled onto the backs of working families. “Nursing homes should be an option, but not the only option,” he said. “More and more seniors can and want to stay in their own homes,” he added.

Jennifer Cunningham, the political director of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1199, said that these budget proposals would lead to about $3 billion in health-care cuts across the state.

Welfare “reform” is high on the list of priorities for this year’s proposed cuts. “One million fewer New Yorkers are on welfare than there were a decade ago,” the governor said in his January 18 address.

In 1996, the Clinton administration ended “welfare as we know it,” eliminating Aid to Families with Dependent Children, a federal program that was established with the Social Security Act in the 1930s as a result of the labor upsurge at the time, during the Great Depression. Over the last decade, all welfare payments have been shifted onto the state budgets while millions have been cut off completely from these benefits.

Further tuition hikes in the state and city university system are also in the works. An article in the January 19 New York Times said the state budget “proposes to cut $137 million from operating costs at the senior colleges.” Annual tuition at the State University of New York (SUNY) system is slated to increase by $500 and at the City University of New York (CUNY) system by $250.

The Ithaca Journal reported in a January 5 article that Chancellor Robert King, the head of SUNY, had earlier proposed a tuition hike of $600 dollars and additional tuition rises each year. In 2003, state aid to the SUNY schools was cut by $184 million, or 15 percent, and SUNY tuition went up by 28 percent. The CUNY system had free tuition for New York City students up until the first post-World War II worldwide recession of 1974-75.

According to the New York Times, Pataki’s budget proposals include payments of only 23 percent of the $1.4 billion that was recommended by a court-appointed panel for funding New York City schools this year alone. A significant portion of the revenue would come from opening eight new lottery gaming facilities in the state, five in New York City. The governor is also in favor of replacing tenure for school principals with “performance-based” three- to five-year contracts and threatened that “underperforming schools” that do not improve would be shut down.

Like most capitalist politicians, Democrat and Republican alike, Pataki views privately-run charter schools as a solution to the overcrowded and underfunded public schools throughout New York City. Pataki has recommended bypassing the statewide limit of 100 charter schools and opening an unlimited number of such schools in coming years.

Albany also proposes paying $3 billion for Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) expenses out of increased bridge and tunnel tolls and subway fares. The MTA has already stated it plans to increase subway and bus fares from $70 to $76 dollars for monthly passes, and from $21 to $24 dollars for weekly passes. Express bus one-way fares will go from $4 to $5. Commuter rail fares will also increase by an average of 5 percent. An article in the October 27 Daily News cited MTA chair Peter Kalikow saying that transit fare hikes could be as frequent as every two years and that the base fare, currently $2 per ride, would go up every four years. MTA officials announced plans to cut service, close 160 token booths, and run fewer buses in December.

The proposed state budget includes imposing a higher excise tax on wine, extending a tax on clothing and shoes under $110 that was set to expire May 31, and raising fees for motor vehicle registration and use of state campgrounds. All these taxes overwhelmingly affect working people.

At the same time, the governor has proposed lowering taxes on those with incomes between $150,000 and $500,000, as well as those making over half a million. He claims that these tax breaks—which add up to $190 million—would “encourage economic growth.”  
 
 
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