The late Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm will have a building officially named in her honor this morning. The Associated Press reports that Gov. David Paterson will attend the naming ceremony at 10:30 A.M. at 55 Hanson Place in Fort Greene.

The New York State Assembly Chamber. (Photo courtesy Matt H. Wade/Flickr)

Brooklyn legislators continue to push back against Gov. David Paterson’s proposed budget, but they know cuts are coming.

The state budget was due last Thursday, but Paterson and the Legislature have yet to agree on a final version. The Assembly and the Senate have each passed different versions, and the two branches have been in protracted negotiations with each other and with Paterson ever since. The final contours of the budget will emerge from these closed-door discussions.

The governor, who has made reining in the state deficit a top priority, has called for drastic cuts totaling $5.5 billion in state spending. The education and health care sectors are heavily targeted. According to New York City’s Independent Budget Office, $1.3 billion of those cuts are intended for the city, a large part of which could affect its largest borough, Brooklyn. Meanwhile, the Legislature has proposed restoring $1.2 billion of the total state cuts, and continues to fight other proposed reductions. The Assembly has also approved $193 million in restorations for education expenses, but the Senate and the governor have so far rejected this proposal.

To some extent, this situation occurs every year: The governor proposes cuts, the Legislature restores some of them, and the three camps haggle over the final bill. But it has become increasingly clear to Brooklyn legislators that no matter the final budget, their constituents are likely to lose many vital services.

“It’s going to have a devastating impact on my community,” Assemblyman Alan Maisel said. “Everything is going to be affected by this, even in the best-case scenario.”

Maisel’s two priorities are state tuition grants, or TAP grants, for higher education and group homes for the elderly. The Assembly restored the TAP grants in its version, but Maisel admitted that those policies could be removed from a final version of the budget.

“We have to have a compromise,” he said. “It’s not going to be our way or the highway.”

However, compromise will not be easy because, like Maisel, every legislator will be fighting for his or her pet issues. For example, Sen. Velmanette Montgomery, chair of the Children and Families Committee, is pushing to restore money for student MetroCards, summer jobs for teenagers, and a revamping of the juvenile justice system. For Assemblyman William Boyland Jr., it is about ensuring that, at the very least, the Assembly’s levels of education spending remain in place. “We need to make sure that the numbers stay where they are, and that the money comes home,” Boyland said. “The bottom line is access to education.”

A spokesperson for Montgomery, Jim Vogel, criticized the governor’s management of the budget process, calling it “top-down management reduction.” “Most agency budgets were reduced a standard percentage of 5 to 15 percent,” he said, adding, “Some of the agencies had already absorbed multiple years of budget cuts, and further cuts would effectively end those agencies and services, which would in many cases be illegal.”

Criticism of the governor is common amongst the state’s legislators. Viola Plummer, who is chief of staff for Assemblywoman Inez Barron, said that Paterson’s cuts to CUNY and SUNY programs were “too severe,” though she could only laugh when asked if she thought all of the nearly $100 million in proposed cuts to the SUNY budget would actually be restored. Plummer’s point was echoed by Boyland, who admitted that “there isn’t much to give out” to many of his favored community organizations.

Similarly, Blair Horner, the legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, said, “We do know there will be cuts.” Horner argued that the different budgets being proposed by the Assembly, Senate, and the governor are not so dissimilar. Indeed, he estimated that around 90 percent of the final budget will “be the same across the board.”

Horner’s analysis indicates that politics may be more at work in the budget negotiations than legislators will admit. Looming over the talks is an embattled governor, battered by an ongoing criminal investigation and calls for his resignation. Many may find it politically hazardous to align themselves with the deeply unpopular Paterson. However, others deny that the governor has any bearing on their decision to support a final budget.

As Maisel put it, “Paterson has no political situation anymore,” adding, “It doesn’t exist.”

Angry residents gathered at Barclays Center outside  the Atlantic Yards Project to protest as Governor David Paterson and other officials broke ground on the new home of the New Jersey Nets.

Councilman Charles Barron of Brooklyn tells the Ink that, contrary to public reports, New York’s black leadership will not urge Governor Paterson to resign at a Harlem meeting this evening.

“We’re not going to let Paterson be tried by the media,” said Barron, who will attend an emergency meeting hosted by the Rev. Al Sharpton at Sylvia’s Restaurant later today. “If Clinton can govern 50 states while being impeached, then Patterson can govern.”

The councilman was adamant that racism has been at play in the media’s criticism of Governor Paterson over his handling of a domestic abuse scandal and allegations that he lied under oath about accepting World Series tickets last fall. “White men in power don’t want us [black men] in executive positions,” he said, citing recent criticisms in the media of President Obama, Rep. Charles B. Rangel – who just stepped down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee because of an ethics investigation – and, of course, Governor Paterson.

“The idea that this is a post-racial society is a bunch of crap,” Barron concluded.

The black political establishment of Harlem is weighing whether to continue supporting embattled Governor David Paterson, a Brooklyn district leader told the Ink earlier today.

At a meeting tonight at Sylvia’s Restaurant in Harlem, the state’s most important black leaders, including Al Sharpton and Carl McCall, will likely urge the governor to submit a letter of resignation, said the Democratic leader, who in insisted on anonymity. (The AP confirmed this evening’s meeting earlier this afternoon) The urgent gathering comes in the wake of the latest accusation against Patterson. The State Commission on Public Integrity has claimed that Paterson lied under oath when questioned about free World Series tickets he accepted last fall, The New York Times reported today.

Harlem Democrats were dealt another blow yesterday when its congressional representative, Charles B. Rangel, stepped down from the powerful position of chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee because of an ongoing ethics investigation. “The African-American power structure is changing rapidly,” the Brooklyn district leader noted.

UPDATE: Paterson’s spokesman, Peter Kauffman has resigned.

“As recent developments have come to light, I cannot in good conscience continue in my current position,” Mr. Kaufman said in a statement.

This follows the resignation of Deputy Secretary for Public Safety Denise O’Donnell and the retirement of police superintendent Harry Corbitt.

By Christopher Alessi

Charles Barron is standing by David Paterson. (AP Photo/Adam Rountree)

Rep. Steve Israel, a Democratic congressman from Long Island, has urged Gov. Paterson not to run for reelection after a report in the New York Times of a domestic abuse complaint against a top aide and questions about whether the governor was out of line for contacting the aide’s girlfriend before the case was dropped, the AP reported.

Most Brooklyn politicians would not comment on the situation. But, in an interview with the Ink, Brooklyn Councilman Charles Barron readily defended the governor and lashed out at the Times, accusing the paper of practicing “vile, unsubstantiated journalism.” He claimed the Times compiled the report because they are supporting Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for governor and want to create a scandal for Paterson so that he drops out of the race. “Cuomo is a coward who is sitting back and letting Paterson take all the hits,” Barron said.

Stations in Brooklyn are DeKalb Ave (B, M, Q, R); Nostrand Ave (A, C); 7th Ave (F, G); 36 St (D, M, N, R); 59 St (N, R); Church Ave (F, G); Kings Highway (B, Q); Flatbush Ave-Brooklyn College (2, 5)

Our reporters are on the ground getting people’s reaction. Send us your thoughts about the changes at thebrooklynink@gmail.com. Or give us a shout on Twitter @thebrooklynink.

By Leah Finnegan

Had the New York Senate passed a landmark bill to allow same-sex marriage Tuesday, Brooklyn couple Mark Nayden and Richard Kennedy might have finally made plans to legalize their union. Instead, the bill was shelved and the partners, together for 19 years, will have to wait – not that they were surprised by this outcome.

“It’s going to take time. I don’t think disappointed is the right word. I’m realistic,” Nayden said at the popular Park Slope bar Excelsior, which he owns with Kennedy.

“Legal rights should be a given,” Kennedy added. “I just wish it was over.”

Still, Nayden retains hope that more time will positively affect the bill’s chance of passing. “I’d rather them do it properly, so if it takes a little longer that’s okay,” he said. “I don’t want a situation like we had in Maine.” Earlier this month, a similar referendum in Maine was heralded with gusto by lawmakers and gay rights groups, only to fail by a significant margin when it came to a popular vote.

Ralliers in Albany earlier this year. Photo courtesy of Chocolatepoint/Flickr Creative Commons.

Gov. David A. Paterson put the bill on the agenda during special sessions Monday and Tuesday but a vote was delayed due to extended deliberation over budget cuts. Sources said there was not enough support in the Senate to bring the bill to the floor. Paterson has pledged that it will be voted on before the end of the year, and as soon as next week.

Todd Erickson, a 32-year-old environmental sculptor, said gay men could use more time to define their relationships and strengthen the force behind the bill. “Many gay men are still not quite clear with what it means to have a life partner,” he said. “When more gay people are wanting to get married, the political movement will grow.”

Erickson does not see the value in a political sanction for same-sex marriage. “The politics are not going to make it more real,” he said. “They’re not going to make it happen for us in a way that it needs to happen for us.”

The momentum behind the bill in Albany remains cautiously strong. Alan Van Capelle, Director of Empire State Pride Agenda, the leading advocacy group for the bill, stood behind Paterson during a press conference yesterday as the governor promised to make the bill a top priority next week. Van Capelle said that he was confident that Paterson and Democratic senators will honor the commitment they made to passing the bill this year.

But Kensington resident David Ayres, 35, is not so optimistic about an imminent resolution. “I think like a bunch of sheep, everyone sits,” he said. “It’s a very typical American cycle.”