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Pataki Breaks the Hold of Big Government

Insight on the News, July 19, 1999 by Eli Lehrer

The Republican governor of traditionally liberal New York has found ways to attract Democratic voters with conservative economic principles that address practical realities.

In 1995, George Pataki pulled off one of the greatest upsets in modern political history by unseating three-term incumbent liberal Democrat Mario Cuomo in a hotly contested race for governor of New York. In 1998, he easily won reelection over New York City Council speaker Peter Vallone. The first governor elected in the Empire State on both the Conservative Party ticket and the Republican line, Pataki legitimately can claim to be the most conservative governor of the modern era in a state where Republicans such as Nelson Rockefeller and Jacob davits sometimes campaigned to the left of their Democratic opposition.

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In his first term, Pataki slashed government spending and welfare rolls while presiding over a Wall Street-led recovery of the state's economy. Crime went down on his watch while New York, which had been losing businesses for more than a decade, began to gain new ones at a record rate. Pataki's fiscal conservatism, however, is tempered with moderate and sometimes liberal social policy. He has said that the GOP should remove the antiabortion plank from its party platform and reaffirmed an executive order forbidding discrimination against gays.

Pataki, who styles himself an admirer of Theodore Roosevelt, says that he favors small but activist government. Although he has cut government overall, he has increased funding for environmental protection and education, areas where he thinks a broad state role is appropriate and helpful.

Insight spoke with Pataki during one of the governor's swings through Washington, reportedly part o fa series of trips to the nation's capital and early primary states that has led many political pundits to believe he may seek the No. 2 spot on the 2000 Republican presidential ticket. At a time when pundits are saying the GOP will have to win California or New York to take the White House, Pataki has been receiving many a coy look from the front-runners. Last month he endorsed Texas Gov. George W. Bush, ending the mating dances by other candidates.

Insight: Both parties in the Empire State have had traditions of supporting big government. What has it been like as a putative conservative to inherit that tradition, and what have you been able to do to overcome it?

George Pataki: You really have to work to change not just the policy but also the mind-set of the bureaucracy. On one hand, we can appoint the fight people at the top, but that only goes so far. One of the things that we've set at, but which is very difficult, is to change the culture all the way into the lower ranks of government and not just the policy at the very top. After years and years of government that is too big, that's a difficult, uphill struggle.

The whole concept, to me, is very simple: Government exists to serve the people. In New York, it used to be the other way around. It was an inconvenience to the government if the people came in and wanted to do something for themselves. We exist as a government to respond to the people. The needs, the questions and the legitimate demands of the people need to be dealt with and answered.

Insight: Some of your policy innovations, such as your transportation-assistance and health-care programs, involve expanding government's role. What kind of philosophical tests do you think we should apply to programs that involve new spending?

GP: First, my goal is and will continue to be to reduce the size and the cost of the government. We have 20,000 fewer state employees than we did when I took office.

When people are proposing new government initiatives, I try to avoid programs that grow into the futm'e and are likely just to keep on expanding into new and more expensive entitlements. Infrastructure investments and programs that harness market forces tend to look best from this standpoint. Things like cleaning up industrial sites, purchasing open spaces and investing in sewage-treatment plants are legitimate capital investments. In those areas govemment investments make sense and we've been willing to spend more.

In other areas we've cut spending. We've reduced dramatically the costs of the social services, the welfare system. We're using market forces. Instead of having a new government entitlement program we find ways to enroll people with the private sector. Our children's Health Plus Program is a good example: We have a network of well over a dozen children's health-care providers signed up for that program. It's a matter of using market forces and reducing the size and scope of government.

Insight: Originally, conservation was a Republican issue but now, for the most part, it's a Democratic one. You call yourself an environmentalist and have won plaudits from some environmental groups. Two questions: Why should conservatives care about the environment and what can they do to make it a conservative issue?

Pataki Breaks the Hold of Big Government

Insight on the News, July 19, 1999 by Eli Lehrer

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