January 5, 2006
NYStateWatch: PATAKI LITE
PLUS! Front-burner state AIDS issues for '06
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SWAN SONG: Pataki delivers final big address |
New York Governor George Pataki gave his 12th —and last— "State of the State" speech Wednesday before a joint session of the Legislature at the capitol in Albany. The speech contained no mention of HIV/AIDS, and little detail on how the governor might use some of this year's $2 billion state surplus to end AIDS.
While Pataki has been spending a lot of time in Iowa and New Hampshire acting like a presidential candidate (and his staff installed a few thousand dollars worth of backlighting in the stairs of the capitol to glamorize his 30-second walk to the Assembly chamber for B-roll footage and campaign ads), his speech didn't have much red meat for conservative GOP primary voters.
In fact, the talk was almost downright vegetarian, focusing on education, high-tech research, alternative fuels and energy independence—oh, yes, and plenty of tax cuts.
In his first few years as governor, Pataki was a fairly doctrinaire conservative—his message points were crime, welfare and taxes, and he repeated them over and over and over again.
Wednesday's speech included a bunch of tax-cut proposals, including direct-to-taxpayer school tax rebates and tax-free ethanol, that well could catch the eyes of GOP primary voters (and farmers) in Iowa and South Carolina.
But much of the speech was dedicated to education, jobs and high-tech research proposals that could have come from Democratic centrists like Mark Warner or Evan Bayh.
AIDS activists might—depending on the details—cheer Pataki's biotech research challenge grant that would aim $600 million in public and private dollars at new research goals, like a cure for AIDS.
We think New Yorkers can and will find a cure for AIDS. And if outgoing Governor Pataki can help make that happen, well be happy to give him some credit and some support. But Pataki also could and should do more to fight HIV/AIDS here in New York—we'll be pushing him to take action on our front-burner state AIDS issues in the coming weeks. To join this effort, email Mark Hayes at hayes@housingworks.org.
WORTH FIGHTING FOR
Top-priority New York State issues for 2006
New York still has more AIDS cases and more HIV infections than anywhere else in the nation—up to a quarter-million New Yorkers are living with HIV, and up to 100,000 rely on Medicaid and other public programs for lifesaving health care and treatments.
Housing Works urges Governor Pataki and state legislators to protect New York's AIDS infrastructure and move forward with new initiatives to improve community health and reduce new HIV infections—based on the four core demands of the Campaign to End AIDS:
HIV HEALTH CARE & TREATMENT FOR ALL
- NO NEW MEDICAID COPAYS — NO NEW MEDICAID BENEFIT CUTS
- MAKE STATE PRISONS MEET HEALTH CARE STANDARDS
- INCREASE MEDICAID RATES FOR AIDS ADULT DAY HEALTH CARE PROGRAMS
SCIENCE-PROVEN HIV PREVENTION
- INCREASE STATE FUNDING FOR SYRINGE EXCHANGE PROGRAMS
- EXPAND AIDS HOUSING PROGRAMS — HOUSING IS PREVENTION
END STIGMA/FULL HUMAN & CIVIL RIGHTS
- PASS THE GENDER EXPRESSION NON-DISCRIMINATION ACT (GENDA)
- IMPROVE PRISON HIV HEALTH CARE