The Three Amigos Round 2

The three Amigos are at it again! Governor David Patterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith want to bypass the one-house budget resolutions and the conference committee process to broker a State budget. More here.

ARE YOU KIDDING?

The budget process needs an overhaul. It has needed an overhaul for a long time. The past several years, the conference committee structure has (arguably) allowed a little public openness in the budget process.  Most of the major negotiations were still done behind closed doors between the three leaders. At least with the conference committee system in place, your representative (Democrat or Republican) had a small voice in the process.

Malcolm Smith and Shelly Silver announced that they want to bypass the system. Essentially that means that your representative, in the Assembly and the Senate has no voice in the budget process. Their argument is that because Albany is controlled by one party (Democrats), there is no need for the conference committees thus speeding up the process. This also means that NYC  constituents are the only ones who matter (and will benefit from this budget). Upstate residents do not matter! Any representation upstate residents have, will have no say since all three leaders are from NYC.

As for the GOO GOO’s they should be mad as hell. Smith who has publicly announced he wanted to implement a more transparent system has done just the opposite. He has left his own conference out of the loop on this one. If I was in the Majority in either house I would be screaming right now.

This move by Smith also contradicts the very platform of transparency on which the Senate Democrats won control of the Senate last November.

It’s a slap in the face to all elected officials, but it’s a bigger slap in the face to all New Yorkers, especially Upstate residents.

Deadbeat Dads

I do not always agree with the Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos and his conference but I am 100% behind them on this issue. Yesterday, the Senate Republicans unanimously opposed a bill pushed through by the Senate Democrats that would protect deadbeat fathers.

The bill S2091 (you can look it up here!) protects deadbeat fathers from paying costs associated with their own children while requiring the state  and local taxpayers to automatically pick-up the additional costs. In lay terms, the bill is asking New York taxpayers to subsidize deadbeat parents.

Last year the Senate Republicans tried to communicate (poorly I might add) to New Yorkers what the Senate would do under Democratic control.  The NY Sun actually wrote an article about it. Ugly as it might be, they were right. So far the Senate Democrats have done very little in terms of governing. It seems lately they would rather smear Former Republican Majority Leader Joe Bruno and slap the hands of Dean Skelos then actually do the people’s business.

Here is the first example of what can be a very long 2 years for New York’s taxpayers. In an economy as bad as the one we are experiencing right now, our elected officials should be looking at cutting costs and stimulate the economy to get us out of the recession.  They should not be passing legislation that piles more on the already overburdened taxpayer.

When will New Yorkers finally stand up and say enough is enough?

Taxpayers win…Patterson Looses

Finally, some good news for New York’s taxpayers.  You can read it for yourself here.Gov. David Patterson withdrew his recommended “new fees”in the state budget. I bet it has a lot to do with how poorly he is doing in the polls. What do you think?

Jimmy Tedisco and Dean Skelos should be gloating right now. They should be saying “Go ahead guys, have your little pow wow with out us! Good luck getting your tax and spend budget passed without us!”

Any way, thank you to all those concerned taxpayers who voiced their opinion. I have received hundreds of e-mails expressing the outrage of these fees. It’s about time somebody listened us. I only have one advice for you all;

This is only one battle of many to come. We need to continue the fight.