Posted on 12/16/2008 5:23:56 PM PST by Sammy67
ALBANY - Gov. Paterson released a $121 billion slash-and-burn budget Tuesday morning that slams New Yorkers with 88 new fees and taxes - even on their iPods.
Calling the budget the "greatest economic and fiscal challenge of our lifetimes," Paterson acknowledged his spending plan cuts deep.
But he said the pain must be shared to deal with the fallout from the Wall Street collapse.
The budget will cost the city an estimated $650 million in aid.
But it's the $4 billion in new fees and taxes that are sure to aggravate everyday New Yorkers, who would be
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
AND HERE WE GO! Down the road towards the DemocRATS’ “new direction” Amerika!
Pimping a $121 billion slash-and-burn budget, when a $21 billion would do just fine...
Did I miss something in this "slash and burn" budget?
Can he “short” the taxpayers?
New York has 200,000 employees and he is only going to cut 500 jobs through attrition, He’s insane!
Don’t worry, Obama will bail out NYS and they can continue as before...Just glad I left. Liberal “paradise” in action.
The Economy shrinks but Government Bureaucrats never eat their own . . . they start coming after you and the way you live.
It won’t pass and the Truth about NY state and how they spend the money NOW . . . is hidden from view and replaced with “Pay to Live” for New Yorkers.
Govt. needs to shrink . . . its gonna be painfull pursuing these Tax increases.
Of course, I'm rather glad I'm not a participant in this particular experiment.
As part of his 2009-10 Executive Budget, Governor David A. Paterson today proposed the first increase to the basic welfare grant since 1990 to help assist those struggling in poverty during a time of unprecedented economic turmoil. Nearly 284,000 New York children receive Welfare benefits, which represents 57 percent of total recipients.
No mention of cost-of-living, pensions or any benefit reduction for government workers. It’s mind boggling that as people flee this state those of us remaining have to pick up the slack. I work two jobs and can barely hold my tongue when the person in front of me tells the butcher how thick to slice the steaks and breaks out the EBT card while I’m ordering pork and ground beef.
An 18% tax on a COKE??
What's this year's budget? I'll bet anything it's less than $121 billion.
These "cuts" probably aren't cuts at all.
STAR: The Executive Budget eliminates the STAR rebate program ($1.4 billion). The rebate is a check issued to homeowners and has no relation to an individual’s property tax bill.
We just got into this a few years ago and without coming to our house they reassessed us up $30,000
Never fear, Princess Caroline is on the way to make it all better for NYers. Meanwhile, she gets on the bigtime government dole like Uncle Teddy with a nice fat pension and all the benefits that come with being a Queen overseeing the taxpaying servants.
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'Saturday Night Live' mocks Governor Paterson's blindness, past drug useSaturday Night Live pushed the envelope last night with... Fred Armisen as Paterson during a segment on "Weekend Update." ...Armisen, as Paterson, says he has three criteria: economic experience, upstate influence and someone with a disability who is completely unprepared for the job - just like him. "I want to choose a senator not from the glitzy coke parties of Manhattan but rather from the shabbier coke circles of upstate new york," he said. "I'm tired of all these fancy, two-eyed smart alecs from the big city running the whole show. It's time we get someone from Utica, Syracuse or Schnectady - towns where people have something a little off about him. I mean, they don't have to be blind," he said. "I just need someone with like a gamey arm or maybe the giant gums with the tiny teeth. Let's get one of those in the Senate." The fake Paterson points out that he only became governor because of former Gov. Eliot Spitzer's prostition scandal. "Whoever is appointed senator must - like me - be caught totally off guard and be comically unprepared to take office," he said. "Come on, I'm a blind man who loves cocaine who was suddenly appointed governor of New York. My life is an actual plot from a Richard Pryor movie." |
Paterson In A Blind Rage Over 'SNL' Skit
Governor Paterson proposes 'Obesity Tax,' a tax on non-diet sodasGov. Paterson, as part of a $121 billion budget to be unveiled Tuesday, will propose an "obesity tax" of about 15% on nondiet drinks. This means a Diet Coke might sell for a $1 - even as the same size bottle of its calorie-rich alter ego would go for $1.15. Paterson's budget also calls for a 3% cut in education spending, a $620-a-year tuition hike at SUNY and a $600 increase at CUNY - and about $3.5 billion in health care cuts, a source said. The Democratic governor will not call for a broad-based income tax boost, but he will push to restore the sales tax on clothing and footwear... State employees again will be asked to forgo their 3% raises next year and defer five days' pay until they leave their jobs, the source said. In all, Paterson will propose about $9 billion in cuts, $4 billion in new taxes and fees, and $1.5 billion in nonrecurring revenue, a second source said. The so-called obesity tax would generate an estimated $404 million a year. Milk, juice, diet soda and bottled water would be exempt from the tax... Public health advocates welcomed news of the tax, saying it would help the fight against childhood obesity. "Raising the price of this liquid candy will put children and teens on a path to a healthier diet," said Elie Ward of the American Academy of Pediatrics of New York State.
by Glenn Blain and Kenneth Lovett
with Edgar Sandoval and Erica Pearson
Daily News Albany Bureau
Sunday, December 14th 2008
[and now, the buried lead:] The Paterson administration also announced steps yesterday to expand the state's social services net, including a 30% increase in welfare payments over three years starting January 2010, increased money for food banks and expanded access to the state's Family Health Plus program. Paterson also hopes to make it easier for people to enroll in Medicaid by eliminating face-to-face interviews and fingerprinting requirements.
This is a disater of unimaginable proportions. The democRATS now contol Albany...now the rest of the state can look like Buffalo.
Yes, it does.
But our failure to shrink government when we had the mandate to do so has serious ramifications, which I really haven't seen discussed here.
It's not clear to me now that the government CAN be shrunk, or even that its growth can be arrested, by electoral politics.
If a 49-state Reagan landslide in 1984, and a complete Republican avalanche in 1994 with a clear, written mandate can't shrink the Federal budget by one thin dime, then we may be looking at the problem through the wrong lens.
We're using old glasses. Maybe we need ghost ring sights instead.
Actually the total number of jobs being cut will be about 3100, through combined attrition and layoffs. The 500 figure will be actual layoffs. The NYS work force is an aged workforce, with about 30% of it within 10 years of retirement. I would expect NYS will trim this force down further, by attrition as many of these workers retire over the next several years. Public Employee layoffs in NY state are very unpopular among the unions. Seeing as Public employee unions are one of the Rat's biggest contributors, keeping the number of “layoffs” down was a bone thrown to the unions, to offset some concessions the state is asking the unions to give up; next years pay raise and a 5 day pay lag are a couple of them. Patterson will have a harder time with is own party getting the bulk of this budget passed, then with the RINOS(there are no real Repubs in NY goberment).
Hey Dave! Does that mean you're going to send back those two antique carpets just recently bought for the Governor's Mansion?
No cuts in retirement benefits either.
No wonder the population keep strinking. Pretty soon upstate New York will look like West Virginia.
>>”An 18% tax on a COKE??”<<
I heard him talking today and about ran off the road when I heard this. It is my understanding that the 18% is for NON-DIET soda only. Food regulation alert! What’s next?
I need to get the hell out of here. Wanna buy a nice house, guest cabin, slate-roofed garden sheds, flower & vegetable gardens, registered nursery, lots of wild ginseng all beautifully landscaped with 7 wooded (Sugar Maples) acres and a creek?
The idiotic liberals in NY vote for people who institutes these taxes knowing full well they will do it. They shouldn't be aggrevated at all! I don't want to here one word of B and M from these losers!
he knows better than you because he was appointed governor. Have some more aspartame!
they thought he’d just raise taxes on the rich, not them!
Suckers. but guess what? it’s not just NY. Obama will do this to the entire country.
Those are covered through various union negotiations, and I highly doubt that any of the unions will be able to negotiate any raises for their members. This isn't the first austerity budget forced on New Yorkers, and it won't be the last. I retired from NY State in December 2003. The contract for my bargaining unit had actually run out in April of that year, but a new contract wasn't settled until the summer of 2006. There were no salary increases at all during that time. And during my 23+ years of service with the State, there were several years when contract negotiations ended with zero salary increases for the 3 year period the contracts ran.
He’s going to make everyone get new licenses too, just for the hell of it.
Nobody voted for Paterson to be Governor. He became Governor via the antics of Client #9.
How much would it cost me to tow the house to South Carolina.
I had to donate 3% of my gross wages for the 33+ years I put into the NY State Retirement System. My pension is based on my donations and the number of years I worked. I'm not getting anything for free. I pay for my own medical insurance plan too.
_A measure to make it easier for the poor and working poor to get government health coverage by eliminating some anti-fraud measures, including face-to-face interviews, finger printing, and an asset test.
_Lifting the limit on how much state tax can be charged for gasoline. The state’s tax was limited to 8 cents per gallon.
LOL, gotta laugh, screaming just scares the dog.
At least the cons will be kept busy.
That would include a tax on items that can be downloaded, like movies, music and games.
I really wish we could move.
These are the groups that didn't vote before, the groups the founders warned us not to enfranchise, the groups that are responsible for socialist control of the federal and a majority of state governments.
THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT THIS UNTIL THE REPUBLIC FALLS AND THEY ARE STRIPPED OF THE RIGHT TO VOTE
The Republic will not endure, people just don't realize it yet.
What is happening in NY will happen at the federal level as well.
When it falls, those who pick up the pieces (military) will not make the same mistake.
I know a guy who retired from LIRR when he was in his early fifties and now doesn’t work at all and enjoys a healthy pension. With benefits.
You don’t have to excerpt the NY Daily News.
You all be sure to thank AirForceMom’s son for serving his country. Merry Christmas to all.
panax
Having worked in state and Federal Government Contracts . . .the majority of the last 15 years. . . and seen the SEIU KEEP unemployable people, employed as state “workers” . . . with retirement benies beyond most American’s reach. . . .you got lots of room for savings.
Illinois had an early retirement buyout during Blago’s first year . . .14,000 state workers took early retirement . . . and nobody noticed . . .the state kept humming along . . .no problems.
The Fed Software Contract I was on was WAY overstaffed . . . and WAY to many Green card workers.
Cutting Govt. waste is like low hanging Fruit.
Very nice of you panax. God Bless and keep all our men and women out there keeping us safe.
Merry Merry Christmas!!
It’s finally snowing here...woohoo!
Yes, yes, we all think that, it's easy to say.
Why doesn't it ever happen?
Doling out taxpayer money to special interests accrues enormous power and influence. There are thousands of lobbyists for spending taxpayer money. Taxpayers have no lobbyists to speak of. There are plenty of pro-taxpayer organizations, but they are all essentially think tanks.
Real lobbyists are the ones who procure junkets and hookers for politicians, and taxpayers don't have those.
Doesn’t happen in Illinois because the SEIU gives Donations to Politicians to buy their loyalty.
When close to 50% of the workforce in the USA work for City-State-County-Federal govts.
That is close to a Controling interest in “no Cuts” in Govt. and No “Downsizing”.
The majoriy rules the minority.
Well, I agree that such an improvement in the quality of the voters would solve the problem.
But that does not explain why, when the existing voters do the right thing, that nothing changes. Let's pick abolishing the Department of Education as an example.
I choose that because the Department of Education is new, it's conspicuously useless and wasteful, and it does not educate a single child.
More importantly HUGE ELECTORAL MAJORITIES have voted TWICE - in 1984, and again in 1994, for candidates sworn to its abolition.
The nature of the GOP 1994 revolution was so amazing, and I think, because of our disappointments recently, we don't think about it in the right way.
The Democrats were swept from power in a popular avalanche. The Republicans had over 230 House members. 54 Democrats were tossed out. Most importantly, the incoming majority had SIGNED A PLEDGE to abolish the Department of Education.
So, my question is, why is it still in existence?
Yes, the Democrats are corrupt and beholden to teacher unions. Yes, too many people vote, and too many are enfranchised.
BUT THIS DOES NOT EXPLAIN THE SURVIVAL OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION.
This small slice of a much bigger pie suggests that the People cannot change the growth of government, EVEN BY WINNING ELECTIONS WITH A CLEAR MANDATE.
If electing conservatives to the majority and giving them clear instructions is insufficient, then the whole voting thing isn't going to work, ever, and we need to look elsewhere for positive change.
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