Guest Columnist
Budget battlegrounds
By George Winner Jr.

We're just over one month away from April 1, 2008, which for close observers and practitioners of New York government means the start of the state's new fiscal year.

In short, April 1 marks the deadline for adopting a final 2008-09 New York State budget. It is, by far, the most anticipated date on the annual legislative calendar. Over the next several weeks both houses of the Legislature and the governor will begin holding public negotiating sessions and sorting out the components of a final budget. What's it going to look like? Your guess is as good as mine at the moment, but a few of the battlegrounds are becoming clearer by the day.

Last week I held a series of public forums locally to give area residents and local leaders the opportunity to obtain additional information and share their suggestions for this year's budget priorities.

I greatly appreciate the input from these meetings because, as I've said

many times, local input is the foundation on which we build the annual state budget.

Just as a quick sidebar, I've had a "Quick Poll" on my Web site,

www.senatorwinner.com, over the past few weeks asking the following question: "Generally speaking, are your opposed to increases in state taxes and fees to help close state budget deficits and accommodate new state spending?" I asked respondents if they were strongly opposed, opposed somewhat, or not opposed. Seventy-three percent have answered "strongly opposed." So I take this into account when we debate the merits of Governor Spitzer's proposals for nearly $2 billion in new state taxes and fees.

Furthermore it falls in line with one recurrent theme voiced at last week's local meetings -- that tax cuts are critical to a stronger economy.

There's undeniably a widespread recognition throughout the Southern Tier-Finger Lakes region that the economy is the engine that drives the quality of our communities. Which brings me back to an issue to which we've returned, repeatedly, over the past year: the upstate economy. It's worth stressing again, especially as we get down to nuts-andbolts negotiations over a new state budget, that a strategy to bolster the upstate economy is a key battleground. We need to keep a spotlight on it, since our action this year comes at a critical turn in the road.

First, we have to recognize that it simply has to be New York government's No. 1 priority to help create an upstate economic climate that produces more meaningful jobs. Governor Eliot Spitzer's 2008-09 state budget proposal finally spelled out how he intends to revitalize the upstate economy. The governor's strategy boils down to a proposed $1- billion Upstate Revitalization Fund to jump-start investments in infrastructure, city redevelopment, parks, housing and agriculture. It's a plan, in effect, that relies on infusions of state funding. The governor's plan has received support from business, government and labor leaders.

While I'm more than willing to welcome any plan to spread a billion dollars around upstate, there are a few concerns. One, How do we pay for it? Governor Spitzer's budget proposes to borrow most of the money to fund his Upstate Revitalization Fund. But more importantly, Is it enough? The governor's upstate action plan falls short on what many business and community leaders believe are the actions fundamental to a long-term reversal in the region's fortunes: cutting taxes, lowering costs and easing regulations. In fact the president of the Business Council of New York, an organization with its finger directly on the pulse of New York's economic climate, said that Governor Spitzer's plan doesn't do nearly enough to provide the tax and cost relief fundamental to any upstate resurgence.

In response, the Senate has reapproved what we believe is an even better plan. It's called Upstate Now. It's a comprehensive, 10-point strategy aimed at igniting job creation and economic growth. It acknowledges the need for capital investments similar to the governor's, but gives more weight to improving the state's business climate through lowering the cost of doing business in New York, cutting taxes, and further easing the regulatory burden.

There's no question that we're on the verge of upstate action in this year's budget. That's the good news. But there's a battle brewing over just how far we need to go. In that battle, I'm firmly on the side of ensuring that we take the right action, right now.

The writer represents the 53rd District in the New York Senate.