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 ...
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.
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