North Coast Online

Albany Republicrats Strike Again

It's bad enough that New York is all but a one-party state, but it sure doesn't help when what's left of the other party seems desperate to join the first.  I'm speaking of Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno who just can't let a Spitzer initiative go by without trying to top it.

Upon the Governor's announcement of a commission to study the effectiveness of the State University system, Bruno upped the ante.

“While this new commission talks about the future of higher education, let’s act right now to provide more assistance to families so they can afford college in the fall,” he said.

He wants to spend another $129 million to increase the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP).   Um, Joe, you're a Republican.  You're supposed to cut spending, not increase it.   

Spitzer 1, Bruno 0

Give the devil his due.  Governor Spitzer has scored his first big upstate economic development victory.

Beech-Nut Nutrition Corp., the country's second-largest maker of baby food by sales, will move its corporate headquarters from downtown St. Louis to eastern New York.

The company is building a $124 million, 650,000-square-foot processing and manufacturing plant in the town of Florida in New York's Mohawk Valley. The facility could open in fall 2009, the company said Tuesday.

Beech-Nut, which has about 35 employees in St. Louis, will transfer its executive offices to upstate New York by August, leaving a small regional office for sales and customer support in St. Louis.

Not to be outdone, Senator Bruno, ostensible leader of the state GOP, countered with his own economic proposal.

On the same day Governor Spitzer announced that the state had persuaded a major baby food company to move its headquarters to an upstate town, Senate Republicans crowed that they had even better economic news, unveiling a $2 billion tax cut and capital spending plan they said would create thousands of new jobs.

Now, I'm all for tax cuts, but it's pretty easy to propose them in a state run by a party for whom they're are as popular as, well, I was going to say killing babies, but that's not a particularly effective argument in this case.  And though the New York Sun article didn't mention it, NPR reported today that Bruno's plan also calls for a lot of state spending for infrastructure including his famous plan for intrastate high-speed rail.

As I've posted before, spending tax money on passenger rail as an economic development tool is a foolish, foolish notion.  But, Senator Bruno's economic views are, to say the least, catholic.

At the press conference announcing the Senate package, the Republican Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, was asked if there was anything he would cut from this year's $120.7 billion budget. In his response, Mr. Bruno, 78, suggested he was a student of both trickle-down economics and Keynesian economics, two conflicting schools of theory.

"Where would I cut spending? You know what really makes sense is to invest heavily in the economy and job creation. … What we are saying here, and we're saying it as forcefully as we can … you stimulate the economy, simple Economics 101, okay, broaden your revenue base," Mr. Bruno said. "How do you it? That's the trickle-down. That's the Keynesian theory of economics, stimulate — what do they call it? — prime the pump. Think about it, makes sense, you invest, and it pays off."

Geez, why didn't you just leave it at the tax cuts.  You'd have looked good and sounded principled.  This mess of pump-priming and trickle-down just reminds us how poorly the state's been run, lo, these many years.  Senator Bruno can't even answer the simple question about where he'd cut spending.  He wouldn't, he couldn't and, come to think of it, he hadn't even considered it.

If you're one of the last New Yorkers who wonders why the GOP is dead here, Mr. Bruno just told you.

That'll Attract A Lot Of New Business

That new State Comptroller that everyone  Democrats were so outraged over claims that the state's budget is $3 billion higher than we were told.  So, instead of increasing spending at three times the rate of inflation, Albany's really quadrupling it.

Governor Spitzer claims that they're just following well-established New York State budgetary procedures.

Paul Francis, Spitzer’s budget director, called it “highly misleading” for DiNapoli — who, like Spitzer, is a Democrat — to “imply that state spending was somehow higher than was initially reported when, in fact, the additional spending the comptroller identifies are off-budget items that historically have not been included in state spending.”

But one fiscal watchdog likened the process to a financial shell game, noting that the additional off-budget spending was well known in Albany budget circles and that DiNapoli had warned of it previously, but spending such as $2.7 billion in construction was not included.

E.J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a conservative think tank, said Spitzer vowed to be different from previous governors, who over the decades served up a hodgepodge of fiscal gimmicks to hide or shift certain kinds of spending off the budget ledgers.

“It indicates how little has fundamentally changed when it comes to fiscal transparency,” McMahon said.

New York desperately needs a law that links spending increases to the rate of inflation and the change in population.  If Mr. Spitzer were really serious about "reform" and if he really cared about economic development, he'd propose it.

 

Nouveau York -- Rather Nice Ring, Non?

Mark Steyn comments on the French elections and -- you know the drill by now -- wherever you read "France", substitute "New York".

A fellow in Marseilles was charged with fraud because he lived with the dead body of his mother for five years in order to continue receiving her pension of 700 euros a month.

She was 94 when she croaked, so she'd presumably been enjoying the old government check for a good three decades or so, but her son figured he might as well keep the money rolling in until her second century and, with her corpse tucked away under a pile of rubbish in the living room, the female telephone voice he put on for the benefit of the social services office was apparently convincing enough. As the Reuters headline put it: "Frenchman Lived With Dead Mother To Keep Pension."

Think of France as that flat in Marseilles, and its economy as the dead mother, and the country's many state benefits as monsieur's deceased mom's benefits. To the outside observer, the French give the impression they can live with the stench of death as long as the government benefits keep coming.

We'll find out if M. Sarkozy can change that.  We already know that M. Spitzer won't even try.

New York's Puritanical Legislature

Why's the New York State Assembly doing a Mormon imitation?  I mean, I'm all for governmental reform, but this is just stupid.

Assemblyman Michael Cole was summoned before a panel of his peers Wednesday to explain why he spent the night in the Albany apartment of a 21- year-old female intern — a violation of a new Capitol taboo.

Cole, an Alden Republican elected just over a year ago, acknowledges he made a “terrible error in judgment” after walking the intern home from an Albany sports bar April 16. But he said nothing inappropriate occurred, and he spent the night on the woman’s floor after he felt he was too drunk to drive.

As a result, the Assembly Ethics Committee is now weighing whether to impose sanctions on him for violating the policy.

“As wrong as it sounds now, at the time I didn’t think it was such a bad decision to sleep there, being that I was incapable of driving,” Cole said. “But it was. I should have taken a cab home.

“At no point in time did anything inappropriate occur, nor has anything been alleged,” he added.

Cole says he now realizes he may have violated a strict rule prohibiting socialization between members and staff with interns.

Which government-nanny came up with this brilliant idea?  Oh well, it doesn't matter and I suppose Mr. Cole voted for it anyway (mustn't appear to be against reform, you know), which would explain his abject apologies for having violated a senseless rule for a sensible reason.  With all the real corruption in Albany and with our money being spent faster than Joe Bruno's high-speed train could travel from Albany to Colonie, I'd have hoped that the Assembly might have focused on something more momentous than socializing with adult staffers.    

Why All The Hoopla?

Jim Hays, R-Amherst, repeats what I've mentioned several times but which is almost completely ignored in the media -- Spitzer's glorious new budget raises business taxes substantially.

Despite last year’s campaign rhetoric, the new spending plan hikes taxes this year by $499 million and $607 million when fully effective. Even with this dramatic increase in taxes, spending will soar $3.3 billion more than projected revenues, creating a structural deficit that will grow even larger if Wall Street’s boom doesn’t continue and interest rates go up.

Everyone seems so impressed by the puny 10%-15% decrease in Workmen's Comp rates and by Spitzer's addition of an extra bureaucracy to "create jobs" for upstate that they'd rather just ignore the real signal sent to business:  $1/2 billion in tax increases.

Although Governor Spitzer is claiming that his executive budget complies with his campaign promise not to raise taxes, New York banks, livestock farmers, investors, retailers, and well drillers will all be paying more money to the state under his new spending plan.

Mr. Spitzer is proposing a clampdown on an assortment of complicated tax loopholes that would allow the state to collect at least $449 million a year in additional tax revenue. He is also calling for higher fees that would cost New Yorkers millions of dollars.

But one man's tax-code loophole closures are another's tax increase and these increases are all aimed at extracting more money from business.  But it hasn't sunk in yet evidently. In fact, the praise for the Governor is so widespread that I even heard "The Financial Guys," usually a rare local voice of sanity, extolling his virtues on their radio show last week.   What gives?

Maybe it's just the fact that Spitzer's acknowledging that we're here by the creation of an upstate economic development office right here in Buffalo.  We do tend to swoon whenever state and federal politicians pay us some attention.  Hillary got elected in no small part because of her pledge to create 200,000 new jobs for upstate.  It was a preposterous promise based on an even more preposterous premise, but it sufficed even to convince the Buffalo News to endorse her.

But it remains that apart from the aforementioned small decrease in Workmen's Compensation rates, there's nothing in this budget nor in this Governor's agenda which will improve the area's business climate.  In fact, it's only made it worse.

What Fresh Hell Is This?

Governor Spitzer spent $1/2 million of his own money and an additional $2 1/2 million from his gubernatorial campaign account to advocate for his budget initiatives. 

“When the issue of the health care reform was on the agenda, it was important to me that I continue my message in a way I thought would be heard by the public, and I did what I believe was appropriate,” Spitzer said in an interview Thursday when asked whether the use of his own money made it a personal fight with the two health groups.

Now, there are few groups I detest more than New York's public health care unions, but we've definitely turned a corner in politics when millionaire politicians not only use their wealth to get elected but continue to exploit it, once in office, to buy advertising for their favored policies.   This turns the increasingly old-fashioned concept of "checks and balances" on its figurative ear.

The ultimate danger in the practice, of course, is that non-millionaires will never be effective as state politicians if richer office-holders can out-advertise them when a bill comes up for a vote.   Mr. Spitzer made his reputation fighting  what he considered Wall Street's immoral business practices.  They weren't strictly illegal, but he found them misleading and ultimately damaging to consumers.

Governor Spitzer's ads probably aren't illegal, either.  But his willingness to spend personal wealth and the money contributed by those who wished to see him elected on lobbying for a particular law (in this case the budget) demonstrates a completely-new type of skullduggery.  It's one that shouldn't demand more laws and regulations, just the admission by Spitzer that he was wrong and won't do it again.

Once elected, the Governor should be expected to use his powers of persuasion to make his case -- not his fortune.

Careful What You Wish For

I've written before about the mistaken belief that raising teachers' salaries would necessarily attract higher-calibre candidates.  If it's true, it certainly hasn't been demonstrated in student achievement levels.  Well, here's yet another example of the "best and the brightest" fallacy -- this time it's about New York's allegedly underpaid judges ($136,700/year.)

Many have posited that the current lack of minority representation on the New York bench is related to our failure to provide adequate compensation.

It is certainly true that the pool of potential applicants for judgeships in New York — irrespective of race — is diminished as a direct result of the failure to provide adequate compensation.

Attracting the best and brightest to the bench at bargain-basement salaries is, at best, difficult. Nevertheless, our judges represent an outstanding crosssection of the legal profession.

It is time to recognize that, although justice should be blind, it should not require a vow of poverty

"Vow of poverty?"  C'mon.  I realize that lawyers can make gazillions in private practice but $136,700 can still keep body and soul together even in Manhattan.  Whatever happened to the concept of public service?  The left is enamored of the nobility of serving the public; it's one of their core tenets. Yet they're the ones constantly crying for raises for those same selfless servants of the people.

Just as we need teachers who teach out of a love for the job, we deserve judges who seek the position because they believe they can accomplish something important.   Raising judges' pay will not result in better judges anymore than raising teachers' pay brought us better teachers.  If anything, it will only serve to attract marginally-proficient  lawyers who can't earn the big salaries in private practice.

If we really have to make things equal with the private sector to compete for good candidates, then let's replace their state pensions with a 401K, yank the free health care and throw in some co-pays -- and then give 'em a raise that equals the rate of inflation since the last one.  Come to think of it, let's do that with all state employees.  What could be fairer? 

      

Unshackle Upstate -- Please

The BuffaloPundit endorses Unshackle Upstate.

I only wish that Alan's support were shared (publicly) by other local Democrats.  Buffalo cannot grow until New York gets rid of the taxes and regulations that stop us from making enough money to support ourselves.  Business isn't a Republican concept, it's how humans earn their food and shelter.

When the conditions are right, there's even enough left over sometimes to support the poor and the arts.  That's what we want, isn't it? 

An Upstate Caucus

The formation of an upstate caucus in the State Legislature is probably an idea worth trying.  While still a minority, Westchester County and Long Island might be counted on for additional support when the wacky leftists of New York City have proposed something more egregious than usual.

Of course we've got a fair number of wacky leftists from the bigger cities upstate, too.  And they love all that expensive social spending just as much as their downstate colleagues.  If upstate were independent, they'd be a tiny majority but alas, that isn't the case today. Nonetheless, an upstate caucus might do something to focus the region's efforts proactively instead of always playing defense to the "Big Apple."