State Senate Republicans have issued a news release explaining how they’d like to spend upwards of $3 billion* in penalties that will be paid into the state budget’s general fund by the French bank BNP Paribas for violating trading sanctions with Cuba, Iran and Sudan.

Unfortunately, what the release hypes as a “bold plan” isn’t very bold at all. Nor is it very detailed. It’s really little more than an election-year wish list, checking most of the usual Senate GOP boxes.

The good news: amid repeated denunciations of Senate Democrats, the Republican statement calls for devoting “most” of the money to infrastructure, including “rebuilding local roads and bridges.” But “most” isn’t further defined–for all we know, it could mean a dollar more than one-half—and, in addition to highways, the release also refers to the far less essential goal of “enhancing local college campuses,” as well as “clean water projects and sewer upgrades.”

 “Investing in New York’s Infrastructure” is actually item number two on the agenda.  The first component in the Senate release is “Accelerate Tax Relief for New York,” including immediate elimination of 18-A energy gross receipts assessment, a “continued phase-out” of the payroll tax in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) region, and “additional property tax relief to replace the STAR rebate checks … among others.”

A faster repeal of 18-A is at least defensible on the grounds that the tax-like fee is set to disappear in two years anyway. However, the other two items cited in the Senate release are far more objectionable uses for a one-shot infusion of cash like this. Any further reduction in the downstate regional payroll tax, which raises $1.3 billion a year for the MTA, would open a state or MTA budget hole that will need to be filled on a recurring basis in the future.  More STAR-like rebate checks in homeowners’ mailboxes would be the epitome of political gimmickry. 

As with infrastructure, the wording of the paragraph devoted to “tax relief” is deliberately vague, although it suggests the Senate might be inclined to speed up the temporary property tax rebate checks the state will already be sending out over the next three years.  This would amount to a waste of money with no lasting positive impact on the economy, since the rebates are not linked to recurring reductions in spending and do not create a permanent improvement in New York’s attractiveness as a place to live, work or do business. Rebuilding roads and bridges would produce much more lasting value while relieving the state’s debt burden.

The third component on the Senate list is (drum roll!) an increase in school aid.  

Senate Republicans say they would “fulfill the promise to eliminate” the $1 billion Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) and “support the scheduled school aid increases we approved this year in the state budget.” In other words, ramp up school aid higher, sooner – which, absent structural reform, will encourage further expansion of the K-12 spending base.

Assuming the school aid component eats up at least $1 billion of the windfall, the amount left for infrastructure would depend on how much Senate Republicans would devote to “accelerating tax relief”– about which, as noted, the release is deliberately vague. On the whole, it’s about what you’d expect from a release consisting mainly of canned quotes from all 26 Republican senators seeking re-election this year.

The Senate’s commitment to infrastructure would be more reassuring if it was attached to a figure and contained more specifics; as worded, it could be interpreted as a plan to spread $1.6 to $2 billion as thinly as possible across every category of capital spending favored by Republican lawmakers. Or maybe not; the release is boldly unclear on the point.

All this could be dismissed as election-year posturing if it didn’t also shape up as the Senate Republicans’ opening bargaining position on this issue in next year’s budget process – assuming they win enough to seats to even have a seat at the table.

The most troubling upshot of the Senate Republican statement is that it will add fuel to predictable calls for steering a big chunk of this windfall to school aid, already the biggest tax-guzzler in state and local budgets. That would be the worst possible result of the BNP penalty feeding frenzy.

A simpler approach—devoting all the money to the state’s five-year MTA and highway capital plans, which are due for renewal—was outlined on this blog last week. The Republican candidate for governor, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, similarly has weighed in with his preference: spend all the BNP Paribas cash on infrastructure. Astorino’s wrinkle is to earmark $500 million to “removing the state’s canal system from the financial responsibility of the state Thruway Authority,” presumably by paying off canal-related debt (which doesn’t explain what will ultimately happen to the canal and its recurring operating expenses).

When will Gov. Andrew Cuomo express his intentions?

* Based on the consent order released last week, it appears that at least $1.05 billion will flow to the state on top of $2.23 billion already earmarked for the state Department of Financial Services, bringing the total tonearly $3.3 billion.