Free Republic

February was not a kind month to New York State politicians. Last week, only a few days after declaring his candidacy, New York Gov. David Paterson announced that he would not run for reelection. Why the sudden change? It came to light that one of Paterson's top aides was accused of assaulting his live-in girlfriend in New York City, and that members of the Governor's State Police security detail urged her to avoid pressing charges. The night before the woman was to appear in court to seek a restraining order against the aide, Gov. Paterson himself called to "chat." She...

The subject kept coming up all the time. “Everybody I talked to over the past year has been saying, ‘Ugh, it’s so awful,’ ” former Mayor Edward I. Koch said recently. At lunches and dinners, in meetings with clients, law partners, fellow alumni of public service, business associations and good government groups, the conversation invariably turned to the political chaos in Albany. “I finally said to myself, somebody’s got to do something,” Mr. Koch recalled. “And if no one else does anything, notwithstanding the fact I’m 85 years old, I’m going to throw myself into it.” So Mr. Koch is...

Long addicted to massive Wall Street revenues, Albany faces an agonizing withdrawal. The financial-market implosion and the coming transformation of the securities industry will expose the fundamental flaw in New York State’s woefully overextended public finance model. The state budget is today geared to run on an ever-expanding stream of high-octane revenues from a Wall Street that no longer exists—and the rest of New York’s economy isn’t nearly robust enough to make up the difference. With an occasional bear-market interruption, the state’s financial dependence on Wall Street has grown steadily for more than a quarter-century. As New York’s once-mighty manufacturing...