Mr. Republican

National Review, April 7, 1997 by Matthew Carolan, Raymond J. Keating

THE good news is just pouring out of Albany these days, in sound bites and press releases that tout the accomplishments of Gov. George Pataki: "The income tax has been reduced! Property-tax relief is coming! There are 200,000 fewer welfare recipients, and 146,000 new jobs! Crime is down! Spending has slowed!"

It's a new New York, drifting away from the grandiose statism of Mario Cuomo, and toward something more subdued. As Tom Carroll of CHANGE-NY observes, a new atmosphere has put the Democrats "on the defensive for the first time in 15 years."

All this even has some of Pataki's supporters looking past his re-election bid in 1998 to bigger and better things. "The governor has generated a lot of excitement in the national party," says New York Republican Chairman William Powers, "and I certainly think he has the ability and charisma to run for President and win."

Even conservative journalists are touting the governor. Syndicated columnist Joseph Perkins predicted shortly after the 1996 Republican Convention that Pataki would be "one of the front-runners for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000." William Tucker forecast in The Weekly Standard last fall that Pataki would find Washington "a piece of cake." And just recently James Pinkerton theorized in Newsday that Pataki could set to rights a "Republican Party that has lost two presidential elections in a row because it was seen as unduly influenced by Sunbelt-based Buchananites and Christian Coalitioneers."

Despite the enthusiasm he generates, George Pataki is viewed more in terms of what he is not -- a Cuomo liberal, a "Buchananite" --than of what he is. What in fact is he?

When George Pataki first entered the spotlight three years ago, he was an undistinguished state senator, hand-picked by Sen. Alfonse D'Amato as the pro-choice Catholic who could steal the apostate vote from Cuomo. There was little indication that he would have much to say to conservatives.

Once elected, however, the governor pushed for an income-tax cut and a long-awaited death penalty, and put the brakes on runaway spending. Perhaps -- as predicted by one insider, who claimed that Pataki's hero is Barry Goldwater -- the governor would distance himself from the unsavory D'Amato after all?

That hope was dashed last fall. While conservatives in other states were pushing tax-limitation initiatives, term limits, and even an end to racial quotas, Gov. Pataki, Sen. D'Amato, and several environmental activists put together, and stumped vigorously for, a $1.75-billion environmental-bond act.

The act was sold to the voters as necessary to clean up certain polluted parts of the state -- despite the fact that such clean-ups, if truly necessary, could have been accomplished using normal budget allocations, as even some liberal Democrats observed. The measure also left two-thirds of the funds unassigned to any specific project, to be spent later at the politico's discretion. Translation: the bond act was a big, greasy piece of pork at a time when New York already labors under a per-capita debt that is more than double the national average -- $3,582 to $1,579 in 1994 -- and has a debt rating which is one of the nation's worst.

Conservatives should not have been so surprised. For nearly a year before the election, they had been urging Pataki to fight for control of the Assembly, and to bring more principled Republicans into the GOP-run state Senate. Yet Pataki hardly ever mentioned the need for legislative assistance. Consequently, the GOP actually lost one seat -- ensuring that the governor's most "drastic" proposals will be diluted by the Assembly for the remainder of his term.

The governor seems disturbingly comfortable with the state's massive system of off-budget debt, spending, and patronage. Despite a constitutional requirement that all long-term debt be approved by the voters, back-door borrowing flourishes in New York, through numerous public authorities run by the party in power. And it doesn't seem to matter which party that is. Nelson Rockefeller was the father of this system, and Mario Cuomo brought it to new heights by having the state sell itself its own roads and prisons to patch up huge budget deficits.

Rather than taking on this system (made up of dubious-sounding agencies like the United Nations Development Corporation, and the New York Energy Research and Development Authority, which spend in excess of $12 billion annually), Pataki has followed tradition and filled it with cronies. In fact, some of the state's highest-profile conservatives -- like George Marlin (Port Authority) and former Assembly Minority Leader Clarence Rappleyea (New York Power Authority) -- can thank Pataki for their $175,000 salaries.

PATAKI'S reputation as a fiscal conservative, then, comes from on-budget spending, which he has increased more slowly than inflation. Supporters like to point out that even Michigan Gov. John Engler has not done that. Pataki's first budget hiked spending just 2.3 per cent, though his second budget lost ground, with spending increases of 3.9 per cent. That budget originally called for just a $500-million increase in expenditures, but an election-year porkfest by both Republicans and Democrats in the state legislature, for everything from bike paths to ballparks, added $2 billion.