In Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget proposal there are a whole host of estimated savings that don’t give enough specific programmatic details to show how they will be realized, according to Senate Republicans. For example, it is estimated $2.8 billion in savings will come about from the recommendations, out on March 1 by the Medicaid Redesign Team, that is looking at that program to help close the state’s estimated $10 billion budget gap.

While Medicaid is the largest chunk of unspecified savings, another one has many upstate New Yorkers more concerned #— the possible closing of one or more prisons. Cuomo contends that there are about 3,500 too many correctional beds in the state, citing that over the last 11 years the prison population has dropped from 71,600 to below 56,300. The thought being that closing some minimum and medium security facilities will save taxpayers money. The New York State Corrections Officers and Police Benevolence Association contends that those state prisons are at 122 percent of capacity, arguing for its 23,000 union members that closure is not an option.

To incentivize the idea of closures, Cuomo has proposed setting aside $100 million for communities that will see prisons closed by a a federal-military-base-like closure commission. An impacted community could get up to $10 million from Albany. The proposal by Cuomo is flawed, both economically and politically.

On the economic front, the $10 million falls far short of what a community gets from a facility (from corrections officers to cooking and backroom operations staff) in just wages.

Take for example Cayuga Correctional Facility in Moravia, which could be considered for closure under the proposal. The medium security facility, according to the website seethroughny.net, states that roughly 450 people earned a paychecks there in 2009 — a payroll of $27.46 million. While that 450 may mean employees who worked there all year or as little as a couple of days, it shows the payroll that is annually generated from such a facility and likely spent locally. With that in mind, up to $10 million in incentives is far short of what the loss of one of these facilities means to a local community over the long term.

The greater flaw in the proposal is that the closure commission will not even meet until 30 days after a budget is adopted. Thus legislators, especially those where prisons are located, won’t know if the budget they vote on will close a prison in their district #— a potentially politically suicidal vote. Worried about the loss of a prison in their district, the proposal almost guarantees no legislator with a minimum or medium security correctional facility will vote for a budget that includes this procedure, no matter how big the carrot.

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