I feel like a broken record commenting on the budget. Good analysis by E.J. McMahon..

What’s in it for me? And other questions about the state budget

ALBANY, N.Y. — For New Yorkers, the state budget expected to take effect Sunday morning will mean more charter schools, a bigger tax rebate, and no end to the complaints about big-spending, secretive Albany.

For all that and more, the 2007-08 state budget, worth about $121 billion, is expected to be adopted on-time for the third straight year after 20 years of failure, as all sides appeared to make that political goal paramount over some high priority projects and their own budget reform measure adopted just weeks ago.

“This rivals some of the biggest increases from the Pataki and Cuomo eras,” said analyst E.J. McMahon of the fiscally conservative Empire Center for New York State Policy. “It doesn’t really address the fundamental problems of taxing and spending.”

“There’s a very high price to be paid for an on-time budget,” he said. “You have to be willing to lock the place down. That’s the only recourse for a governor.”

Still, he notes if Spitzer succeeded in including some of his spending controls, as he said he did, that could yield dividends for years to come. “We just don’t know because of the secretive nature.”

For New Yorkers, the budget holds:

_ Tax rebates. Checks will be sent out later this year to property taxpayers amounting to a doubling of the $300 to $1,000 checks cut last year. The state’s STAR property tax subsidy would also increase under the $1.3 billion tax relief plan.

_ School aid. Nearly $2 billion will be added to the $17 billion spent in 2006-07.

_ Charter schools. The state will authorize up to 100 more charter schools _ doubling the current limit _ with as many as 50 in New York City.

_ Business tax loophole closer. The budget will close a loophole sought by Spitzer used by a few major corporations. The tax hit will be balanced by other business tax cuts. In theory that will make New York a more attractive address for business.

_ $100 million to boost high-tech research and development, including stem cell research.

But dropped in the frenzy of the budget in the last few days were: Spitzer’s expanded bottle bill to require nickel deposits on non-carbonated drinks; pay raises for judges and legislators; and Spitzer’s $1,000 tax deduction for families with kids in private schools.

So, who won?

It’s an annual question that polls seem to indicate means little outside the Capitol. But this was the biggest test yet of Spitzer, who was elected with a record share of the vote on a platform of changing Albany “on Day One.”

Most editorials, long boosters of Spitzer, were shades of the New York Post view: “The governor who swept into office on a pledge to `change everything’ about Albany _ most especially its backroom-brokered, special interest driven budgeting _ has managed to change … virtually nothing.”

The New York Daily News disagreed, saying Spitzer’s budget deal “marks a historic shift in state priorities” by cutting Medicaid spending and driving more aid to high-needs schools. The Elmira Star-Gazette blamed budget failures on the Legislature for “busting the governor’s bottom line by nearly $1 billion.”

But to borrow the odd phrase Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno uses to explain the Assembly and governor’s different budget forecasts, deciding winners and losers “depends on how you count.”

Here’s a scorecard for Day 90:

_ The “Spitzer lost” argument. Compared to his Jan. 31 executive budget proposal, he now has to restore almost 48 percent of his cuts in Medicaid funding to hospitals and almost 68 percent of cuts to nursing homes with whom he waged a multimillion dollar broadcast ad fight. He also agreed to spend $440 million more on school aid over his own $1.4 billion aid increase because Senate Republicans wanted more for wealthier, but highly taxed schools in their Long Island power base. The private school tax deduction and expanded bottle bill were also dropped. Overall, his $121.6 billion budget proposal _ already twice the inflation _ grew by about $1 billion despite his promises to control spending.

_ The “Spitzer won” argument. Compared to just about any year in the last 30, Spitzer’s compromises still toppled some of Albany’s seemingly intractable status quo. He cut Medicaid spending by $1 billion _ he had hoped for $2 billion _ despite spirited lobbying by a hospital and union alliance so strong that a few years ago it directly negotiated billions of dollars in aid behind closed doors with Gov. George Pataki, Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. By contrast, most years spending on that $45 billion program just climbs. Spitzer also secured his plan to reduce future growth, from 8 percent a year to less than 1 percent.