Thank you, Governor:
Governor David Paterson said next year’s record budget gap may be $3 billion greater than the $16.2 billion he announced earlier this week and hinted a tax increase on higher incomes is possible.
The newly estimated gap for the year beginning April 1 was 25 percent more than projections six weeks ago, he said.
“We are right now on the verge of cuts and service reductions that I would have to describe as life threatening,” Paterson said. “With situations like that, everything is on the table,” he said in response to a question about increasing the state’s income tax for high earners.
Paterson and legislative leaders said earlier this week that the deficit continues growing because of falling tax collections in a shrinking economy with rising unemployment. If next year’s deficit exceeds the $16.2 billion estimate, the spending plan would be amended, as lawmakers did twice in the current year.
What is so insane about all this is that our tax and spend liberals are noting the decreased revenues from the wealthy and their response to to try to tax them some more…there seems to be zero realization that if you tax them some more their wealth will further erode and you’ll thus get even less revenue at the higher tax rate. And, naturally, the Democrats are raising the specter of death and destruction if they don’t raise taxes. Spending can be cut – but to do so means that large numbers of liberals will have to get real jobs. Just a quick browse through the NY State government reveals these areas of questionable activity, ripe for cuts:
Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority; Central Pine Barrens Joint Planning and Policy Commission; The Office of Community Renewal; Governor’s Office of Employee Relations; Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority; Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Clearinghouse; Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness; Nassau County Interim Finance Authority; Olympic Regional Development Authority; Governor’s Office of Regulatory Reform; South Shore Estuary Reserve Council…if anyone can provide a reason why any of these agencies are life and death matters for New York, I’d like to hear it. And this was just a skip-through on the State directory. Imagine what we’d find if we went through it with a fine tooth comb.
But, we know the Democrats won’t – because the vital thing about this spending is that it puts people on the public payroll and thus provides a class of people with a vested interest in the maintenance and expansion of government power. These people know who is keeping them employed, so the votes and the donations flow mostly one way: to the Democrats. But there is a limit – and raising taxes during a massive recession just might do the trick to allow a conservative or two to win in New York.
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