That is a title that has often been given to New York, and it’s more than just off-the-cuff hyperbole. Albany has long been synonymous with inefficient government, and things are not getting better.
In fact, things may just be at their nadir. Our embattled Gov. David Paterson -who, for what it’s worth is at least trying- called for a special legislative session to deal with a budget gap of more than $3.2 billion this fiscal year.
Well, we are in the middle of that special session, and literally nothing is getting done. The problem is that none of our state legislators, Democrat or Republican, want to cut any spending anywhere. Special interest groups are so entrenched in Albany, they give so much money for these legislators to get re-elected, that said legislators are so afraid to cut any spending anywhere for feat that it might anger some group that has paid good money to consistently help get re elected.
Paterson for his part has proposed $1.3 billion in cuts, mostly to health care and education. But since those are two of the most powerful lobbying groups in the state, that’s not going to happen. This truly is a serious crisis and anyone who lives in this city or state should be paying attention. Some fine editorials have been written on this topic in the past few days, i would direct you to them for further information. You can read some good stuff here, here and here.
November 22, 2009 8:32 pm Dave @undefined Website