Kenneth Adams, president and CEO of the Empire State Development Corporation, speaks about Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s agenda on Thursday at the Ken-Ton Municipal Building. Photo by Scott SchildPurchase color photos atwww.BeeNews.com Gov. Cuomo is looking to improve five areas as part of his vision of building a stronger state said Kenneth Adams, president and CEO of the Empire State Development Corporation, during a review of the state budget held Thursday in the Ken-Ton Municipal Building.

First, Adams said, is the budget itself.

He explained how the governor reduced last year’s $10 billion budget deficit by eliminating the 13 percent annual increases in education and Medicaid — the state’s two biggest expenditures. Budget reductions were also necessary to reduce the state’s current $2 billion deficit.

Adams said tax reform was necessary to stimulate the economy so there was a cut in taxes for the middle class.

Without this action, Adams said, the deficit would have been $3.5 billion.

Under the proposed 2012-13 fiscal plan, funding has been reinstated for Medicaid and education.

The governor is recommending a 4 percent hike in both of those areasalongwitha2percentincrease for the State University of New York and the City University of New York, while also adhering toa2percentstatetaxcap.

“It would be inconsistent to apply a local tax cap and not a state cap on spending,” said Adams. “The governor is committed to keeping state spending the same.”

He added that the governor will not seek one-time revenue raisers, such as selling state assets or increasing taxes and fees to reduce the deficit.

Adams said state operations spending will not be increased by 4.5 percent as scheduled, a savings of $1.3 billion.

“The message is that the state will live within its means,” said Adams.

He then discussed four areas — economic development, state government, mandate relief and education — where the governor plans to bring reform.

Increasing partnerships with private businesses tops the list of the governor’s priorities, but the state needs to have the infrastructure to draw in investor dollars said Adams.

“We need to provide adequate infrastructure, take care of the basics before we seek investments,” said Adams adding that once the repairs are made to roads and bridges, sewer lines and parks, the governor will pursue projects such as building a new state-of-the-art convention center in New York City, creating an energy highway that leads to cheaper hydropower and legalizing table gambling across the state.

Reducing the number of state agencies came next on the list.

Adams said “a lot of state government is done out of habit,” noting that there are 13 state agencies that offer job training (a total of 91 programs) and that the Department of Labor administers 40 of those programs.

He said the governor has put the Spending and Government Efficiency Commission in charge of weeding out duplicated and outdated services. This commission has been given a deadline of March 31 to develop a plan to merge and/or eliminate agencies.

In terms of mandate relief, Adams says the governor wants to reduce the burden of Medicaid cost on local counties.

Over the next three years, he said, the state will pick up the cost of the increase to local governments.

He added that counties also struggle with rising pension costs, so as a way to alleviate that a new tier will be created that will force government employees to pay more toward their benefits.

Lastly, Adams said, the governor will focus on education by viewing the issue from the students’ perception.

“We outspent everyone across the country, but we are 38 out of 50 in the graduation rates,” said Adams.

To ensure that teachers are doing their best to educate students, the governor wants to impose a teacher evaluation.

This, Adams said, has been met with some opposition from teachers and their unions and that there was a lawsuit filed against the state to prevent such an evaluation from coming to fruition.

Adams said the two sides have until Feb. 17 to settle. If an agreement isn’t reached, then the governor will use his 30-day amendment power to force school districts to implement the evaluation in one year.

He explained that if a school district doesn’t participate in the evaluation process then it won’t have access to state funding.

Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda Superintendent Mark Mondanaro commented during this part of the discussion that his district is willing to participate in the teacher evaluation.

He also emphasized that his district always puts the students first.

“We advocate for our children. Even after we lost a quarter of a million in state funding, we kept programs going to benefit the students,” said the superintendent.

Adams then concluded his presentation by stating that the governor will have his budget prepared for the March 31 deadline.

email: ddonohue@beenews.com