GOVERNOR
George E. Pataki (Republican, elected 1994)
LEGISLATURE
Assembly — 99 Democrats, 51 Republicans
Senate — 36 Republicans, 25 Democrats
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT: C+
New York’s financial numbers look better than they have in quite awhile. The budget at the end of fiscal 2000 had an unreserved balance of $1.8 billion — compared with deficits in the mid- to late-1990s — and the state was divvying up a $1.5 billion current surplus with an eye to the future: about $1 billion for various reserve funds and the rest for relatively safe one-time expenditures. Meanwhile, the Debt Reform Act of 2000 has placed limits on future state-supported debt outstanding and debt-service costs.
Still, the state’s bad fiscal habits of past years are not that easy to erase. The long-term debt service is still huge. Budgets are routinely late in moving through the legislature — sometimes months late. Although bills go through fiscal committees, they can become law without any fiscal note explaining the cost of their implementation. The rainy day fund is inadequate, with annual contributions limited by law to no more than 0.2 percent of general fund spending. This means that even with hefty surpluses, the fund is less than 2 percent of the budget.
Tax cuts, enacted over the past five years but scheduled to be phased in gradually, could present problems for the future. The state’s public forecast for upcoming budgets projects a $1 billion gap for fiscal 2002. Officials point out optimistically that this is their “worst case” scenario.
CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: C+
New York’s Department of Transportation has been working on a $17 billion road and bridge program and another $17 billion program for mass transit, to be implemented over five years. But voters turned down a $3.8 billion bond issue that would have provided a good chunk of the money needed for the first year. Now the DOT has to hope that the legislature will help make up for some of the missing dollars.
Even so, the capital management picture has improved in the Empire State. The state is finally paying attention to maintenance funding, both in facilities and transportation. Bridge maintenance is a particular priority, which is sensible because New York bridges are among the worst in the nation; about 20 percent are structurally deficient and an additional 21 percent are functionally obsolete, based on Federal Highway Administration data.
Most of the state’s projects — both in facilities and transportation — are coming in on time and on schedule. And agencies do reasonably detailed project analysis. Still, the state doesn’t have a solid estimate for maintenance spending, because the money is appropriated to each agency through both capital and operating budgets.
HUMAN RESOURCES: C+
Despite solid leadership from the top levels of the Pataki administration, many rigid and unsound practices remain. Managers are limited in their ability to hire and promote, and the hiring lists they receive can be too old for successful use. Removing an employee with performance problems is an arduous and time-consuming task; the state terminated a minute 0.4 percent of employees in fiscal 1999.
But, says Nick Vagianelis, director of civil service operations and administration for the state, “we are at the cusp of major change.” Efforts to automate the process for testing and for transmitting lists of candidates to agencies will cut the speed of hiring substantially from the current 60-120 days. Work-force planning has been stepped up, with a task force addressing such problems as the need to offer higher pay for hard-to-fill jobs. With a precipitous drain of talent due to early retirements, New York has been beefing up its recruitment, too.
Technology to provide online training has been a plus. But there was a hitch in the training budget in fiscal year 1999. Labor agreements expired. Unions went months without contracts. And during this time, the training money that usually stems from collective-bargaining agreements dried up.
MANAGING FOR RESULTS: C-
There’s little statewide emphasis on MFR in New York. “We have had experiences in the past with some of the things with acronyms attached to them,” says one official. “And they haven’t panned out.”
Nonetheless, the state’s agencies appear to be utilizing performance measures more frequently and more effectively. “If you don’t see a structured statewide system, that doesn’t mean that our managers have missed out on the concepts,” says the same official. “They’re fully aware of the tools and benefits, and use them.” For example, the state’s welfare reform effort has focused a great deal of attention on outcome measures as a demonstration of effectiveness.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: B
New York used to have a wild array of entity-wide systems involved in processing financial information. Now it’s down to two. That may be one too many, but in New York, it represents enormous progress. Meanwhile, on the human resources side, the state has been working on a new entity-wide approach. Part of it is in place now; the rest will be completed this year.
Generally, the challenge of IT officials in New York has been to cut across artificial agency lines. One major accomplishment: consolidating data centers. Two years ago, there were over a score of these centers. Now the state has just three physical sites, and it will be down to one in a few years.
In a similar way, IT managers are rapidly integrating telecommunications and data communications throughout the state. New York’s brand-new Web site has been designed to facilitate a gubernatorial e-commerce initiative that will bring critical state agency transactions and services online.
There’s still much room for progress. The procurement cycle is too long. In addition, there’s insufficient central oversight over agency development of hardware and software.
AVERAGE GRADE: C+
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