Editorials from around New York

Recent editorials of statewide and national interest from New York’s newspapers:

Agencies Need To Collaborate For The Criminal Justice System

The Post-Journal

July 18

Regardless of how one feels about New York state’s efforts at bail reform, the changes are coming.

It’s good to see, then, that Community Justice Coordinating Council members are thinking about more than just bail reform’s impact on the Chautauqua County Jail. With as much as 80 percent of the county’s court appearances eligible for presumptive release under the state’s bail reform changes, the jail won’t run into the overcrowding issues it had seen in the past.

Jail overcrowding was one of the biggest reasons the council began meeting again several years ago. Rather than let the council fade away, members have chosen instead to focus on being proactive and figure out how best to serve the community once the new bail reforms take effect.

Council members agree there should be a focus on re-entry programs for inmates going back into society, decreasing recidivism rates and better managing those who are involved in the legal system. All of those are important problems that need to be resolved.

We would also suggest there should be discussion of protecting public safety as people who used to be in jail are now released into society as their case makes its way through the court system. While those charged with serious crimes can still be subject to bail, there are often many who either make bail or who are released on their own recognizance who reoffend while waiting for their court date - particularly in drug cases. The last thing anyone wants is someone to be released two or three times and then finally commit a crime serious enough to warrant bail.

We have a feeling that is one of the things Sheriff James Quattrone was referring to when he mentioned the council should focus on the entire criminal justice system as it moves forward and not just the jail population. Protecting public safety in such circumstances requires collaboration among all of the agencies that play a part in the criminal justice system - which makes the Community Justice Coordinating Council a perfect place to have these discussions.

Online: https://bit.ly/2XZlHHr

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Gov. Cuomo’s budget trickery worries us

The Post-Star

July 19

The sunshine may be bright right now, but we are wondering if New York state has its raincoat ready.

The current economic expansion is the longest in history, the number of private sector jobs in New York is at an all-time high, the unemployment rate is near an all-time low and the state has been on the receiving end of some $12 billion in civil penalties from financial institutions.

It’s probably not going to get any better than this.

The Empire Center, the fiscally conservative think tank that keeps its fingers on the pulse of New York’s spending, filed a couple of disturbing economic reports about the state of New York’s budget over the past two weeks that should worry us.

One was titled, “How Cuomo is cooking New York’s books” while another was titled “NY’s dimming budget outlook.”

Remember, this is from a governor who has pledged to hold New York spending to 2 percent, just like other municipal governments and our local schools. Considering past history and the reputation of Democrats, many might find it surprising that Gov. Cuomo continues to provide a moderate degree of fiscal restraint regarding state spending, especially in trying to hold the spending to 2 percent - at least on paper.

But increasingly, that does not seem to be the case.

The governor has recently had to resort to a variety of budget trickery to achieve his goal.

For instance, the governor quietly postponed $1.7 billion in Medicaid payments in March - the last month of the fiscal year - to April. By holding back the $1.7 billion payment and rolling it into this year’s budget, Gov. Cuomo was able to hold the line on the 2 percent spending pledge for last year, when it actually was over 4 percent.

This little bit of smoke and mirrors is just kicking the can further down the road.

It also leaves the new budget out of whack for the coming year. After adjusting for the latest finagling by the Cuomo administration, a state comptroller’s report estimates that state spending will increase 5.7 percent in the coming year, not 2 percent.

According to The Empire Center, Gov. Cuomo could address the problem by reducing Medicaid provider fees, or implementing Medicaid “savings actions and offsets” that were cited in his most recent plan update, but that could reduce revenues for local hospitals around the state.

The governor could also just delay payments a few days next spring, just as he did this year.

Ultimately, it means hitting the 2 percent spending number will be even be more challenging in coming years, unless there are real spending reductions, and there seems little will to do that.

This comes at a time when it appears unlikely the economy will get much better.

The comptroller’s reports says state spending is projected to increase at an average of 4.1 percent a year from 2021 to 2023, while revenues are projected to increase at 3 percent. You don’t have to be an expert to know that is a problem.

Budget shortfalls of $3.9 billion in 2021, growing to $4.7 billion for 2023 are predicted, and that is only if the state personal income tax continues to grow at a 5.2 percent rate, which could be problematic because of the political winds, and an economic downturn could be devastating.

The Empire Center worries that at the first hint of a financial downtown, the Democrats in the Legislature will turn immediately toward raising taxes on New York’s highest earners.

That could lead to reductions in personal income tax revenues and further flight from the state. That would also be bad, but it is certainly not a sure thing.

The Empire Center also says the governor plans to borrow more, and the state debt is expected to increase 26 percent to $14 billion over the next five years.

We found that startling.

Budgets like New York’s are complicated and bigger than many countries, and it is great to have organizations like The Empire Center scrutinize the accounting for us. If The Empire Center is right, stormy weather is coming, and the trickle-down reductions regarding local aid could also be coming.

We’d love to believe these good times will continued unabated for the near future, but that is not realistic.

It would be better to know what the rainy-day plan is from the governor or see him take some steps now to explain how the state will make its Medicaid payments this year while still holding spending to 2 percent.

Online: https://bit.ly/2LLAnn9

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Space travel opens our optimism

The Adirondack Daily Enterprise

July 24

For some Americans, the 1960s was a time when it was easy to worry about both our individual futures and that of our nation.

A bloody war in Vietnam dominated headlines. The young president who inspired us to ask what we could do for our country had been assassinated. We watched in horror as white police officers beat black protesters. We were learning that smoking could kill us and that our pollutants were harming the planet.

And there was the threat of a nuclear annihilation, always in the backs of our minds.

Then came the night of July 20, 1969. At 10:56 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, a human being stepped onto the surface of the moon.

“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” said Neil Armstrong.

Suddenly, the sky was no limit. If we could land a man on the moon, was there anything we could not do? Was there any limit to humankind’s collective adventure of exploration?

As it turned out, there was a limit. During the past 50 years, we Americans have sent unmanned spacecraft into the outer reaches of our solar system, but no human being has gone past our immediate neighbor.

In fact, it has been decades since a human walked on the lunar surface. Only 12 men have done it. The last, Gene Cernan, was in 1972.

Perhaps the moon is a case of “been there, done that,” though reportedly there are plans to send another mission there - with one of the goals being to have a woman take a walk there.

Mars now seems our next goal. NASA is working on a plan for the 2030s.

From a time of seemingly unbounded optimism and enthusiasm about space exploration, we as a nation have changed. The space shuttle Challenger tragedy made us question sending humans into space. Needs here on earth prompted us to put limits on NASA funding, to the point that now, if we want to send an American into space, we have to ask the Russians for a seat atop one of their rockets.

July 20, 1969, seems like a long time ago in both years and our national attitude toward space exploration.

Where to, then, and with what? Do we resume sending human beings reaching out to touch the face of God, as one poet put it? Do we even spend the money to send unmanned probes into the blackness?

Ours has been referred to variously as the “digital age” and the “information age,” in reference to our ability to gather and disseminate knowledge. Often, we seem uncertain of the dollars-and-cents value of our ability to do that - but there seems general agreement that the more we know, the better off we will be.

What is space exploration, if not gathering new information? And what additional knowledge from space will we miss if we rely entirely on machines that lack human characteristics such as simple curiosity, willingness to take risks and, frankly, a propensity sometimes to abandon logic in favor of hunches?

Fifty years ago this week, we Americans were joined by hundreds of millions of others all over planet Earth in being happy that we had reached for the stars.

It can happen again.

Online: https://bit.ly/2GndGRN

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Boris for Brexit

The Wall Street Journal

July 23

Boris Johnson becomes the U.K.’s Prime Minister Wednesday afternoon, and much of the British press is already setting him up for failure. The obstacles are real, but the Tory rank-and-file chose him for his charisma and pro-Brexit optimism, and the future of the Conservative Party hangs on his success.

Mr. Johnson, the former journalist and London mayor, was an original Brexit supporter. He defeated current Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt for Conservative Party leadership in large part by promising pro-Brexit Tories that he’s ready to leave the European Union with or without a new deal by the new deadline of Oct. 31.

“I know that there will be people around the place who will question the wisdom of your decision,” Mr. Johnson said Tuesday. “We are going to energize the country, we are going to get Brexit done on Oct. 31 and we’re going to take advantage of all the opportunities it will bring in a new spirit of can-do.”

That’s a welcome change from the dispiriting Theresa May, and Mr. Johnson will need that “can-do” to overcome a Parliament that favors Remain. A significant number of Tory MPs oppose a no-deal exit, and several plan to resign from the Cabinet. Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond won’t be missed, but he and others could still block Mr. Johnson’s Brexit path.

Enthusiasm aside, Mr. Johnson has never offered a clear plan to leave the EU with or without a deal. He will therefore be making it up as he goes, which is his style, starting with asking the EU for more concessions. If he gets trapped like Mrs. May in a vise between the EU and Parliament, our guess is that Mr. Johnson will end up calling a new election to seek a renewed Brexit mandate.

Mr. Johnson at least has much better instincts on the domestic economy than Mrs. May has. To the extent he can stimulate stronger economic growth he can better position the U.K. to weather whatever Brexit fallout comes. A modest tax reform for individuals and a proposal to reduce the stamp duty on property transactions both point in the right direction. He needs to act quickly, and to expand liberalization beyond the tax code.

Calling an election would be risky_not least because the opposition Labour Party is led by Jeremy Corbyn, a 100-proof socialist who is anti-American and has winked at anti-Semitism. The centrist Liberal Democrats this week elected a new leader, and that anti-Brexit party could also scramble the electoral possibilities.

The best outcome would be for Mr. Johnson and the Tories to unite around a Brexit deal with the EU or, barring that, leave on Oct. 31. That would reunite the Tories with the insurgent Brexit Party and provide another two and a half years to adjust after Brexit before a new election had to be called. Mr. Johnson’s mandate is Brexit, and if he can’t deliver, he and the Tories may soon be exiting themselves.

Online: https://on.wsj.com/32JJXMt

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The Senate steps up: Now it only takes President Trump’s signature to fund the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund permanently

New York Daily News

July 23

The people of Kentucky and Utah should be proud that they have senators representing them in Washington who upheld the honor of their states. Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney voted with senators from every other state to make to make permanent the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund for first responders and others sickened by the toxic dust breathed in at the World Trade Center. The names of the two dissenters shall go unmentioned here.

The 98% of senators who voted yes is in line with the 97% of House members who voted yes to support those who are suffering from cancer or other WTC-induced illnesses, as well as the families of those who have already died from their exposure.

The twin towers were made of three things: a steel skeleton, glass skin and concrete floors, 220 of them, each an acre in area. When destroyed by terrorists, the steel melted, the glass shattered or liquefied and the concrete turned to fine gray dust that did terrible damage to lungs and other human organs.

World Trade Center cough began months later. Deaths followed. Firefighters and cops, once hearty men, grew wizened and frail, succumbing seemingly each day. It was their last sacrifice for their city.

The final step is a presidential signature. New Yorker Donald Trump will sign, as he knows well the price the heroes have paid.

As the tally became apparent yesterday, cheers broke out on the floor and presiding officer Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said “expression of approval is not permitted in the gallery.” Sorry, this time it was absolutely in order.

Online: https://bit.ly/30VAq3c