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.

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?

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.

Once again, the failing Democratic Governor David Patterson, held another closed door “three men in the room” meeting. Talking about dysfunction!  Patterson has shown us that him and his administration can not govern themselves out of a paper bag.

Then you have newly elected Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith. Senator Malcolm Smith has not accomplished one thing since gaining control of the State Senate.  That’s because he’s not ready for “PRIME TIME”! Senator Smith can not get his own conference in control. The latest example being the MTA $2 bridge toll plan. Five members of his conference will not back him.

Finally, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is the queen of procrastination. The more dissent the better off he is. Silver is known for stalling and back door deals. It only makes him more powerful. What a great government we have.

I’m proud to call myself a New Yorker…. aren’t you?

Internal polls are showing a very weak “Jimmy T” In fact His numbers are soooo bad, former Governor George Pataki and RNC Chair Steele have asked Jimmy to step down from his Assembly post to dedicate more timne to his candidacy. Rightly so, Jimmy’s conference is in no hurry to replace him. They do not want to strain any relationships with the leader.

Jimmy’s first mistake was to underestimate his opponent. Mistake number 2 was to go so negative so quick. There was no need to do so. Jimmy should run on his record and smashing his opponent. Let the NRCC smash your opponent. Don’t have it come from you. Stupid mistake!

Time will tell.

The Senate Democratic Majority released a new interactive website to allow the public to submit ideas about how to spend the state’s money. - What a great idea!!!  What a good way to open up the process to the people and allow them to speak. That does not mean they will listen, but it makes people feel they are part of the process at the same time the Democrats collect data on people so they can more effectivly communicate to them. Brilliant!!!

Now is the time for everybody to speak up or shut up. Go to the site and tell the Democrats what you think. If your from upstate and feel you are getting screwed because everything is going downstate, then tell them. If you are from NYC, tell them they are doing a great job. In either case … Tell Them!!!

On the other hand, the Senate Republican Majority when in power would have never implemented a Internet plan like that. The Senate Republicans shaded away from the Internet. Just look at last year’s campaigns. They had a very small insignificant Internet component. Maybe … just maybe… that’s one of the reasons they lost power. No progressive thinking?

The Senate Republican’s did release a new campaign website http://www.nysenategop.org. It’s basic but functional. It does provide some useful information. They need to really bump up their internet presence if they want to survive in NY.

Actually, that goes for all Republicans in the state. Each County committee from the grassroots level up needs to create a presence on the web and harness the power it has. They need to create a network of websites, blogs and interactive issue based sites. They need to collect data, email addresses and harness the power of social networks and groups. They need to understand how the Internet works and understand it’s power.  Just then will the public understand what it is to be a NY Republican. The  NY Democrats are years ahead of the Republicans.

NY Republicans have alot of work to do. Hopefully in the wake of last year’s elections, NY Republicans across the state will rely on their technology people who truely understand the Internet to help guide the rebuilding process. That’s the only way the party will be able to truly rebuild.

Both candidates are already up with ads.

Democratic candidate Scott Murphy released a one-minute television ad talking about how his wife is from a dairy farm in Washington County and how their 57 family members get together weekly for Sunday dinner in Hudson Falls.

Republican candidate Jimmy T. released five minute Web video, in which he turns President Obama’s “Yes We Can” campaign message into “Yes we can. But with Asssembyman Jim Tedisco as a congressman, now we will.”

Mr. Murphy wins this round. His ad is much better than Jimmy’s. It is apparent that Jimmy thinks this election will be is a “cake walk”. I have not seen the polls and maybe it is.  Even if it is… I would not underestimate Mr. Murphy or for that matter the voters. They have already proved that they are ”middle ground” Republicans who will vote the other way.

You be the Judge.

The other night I was watching President Obama’s  national press conference on his stimulus package. Before I say anything else, let me say that I’m not an Obama fan, I did not vote for the man and I disagree with him on almost every issue. Now that I got that off my chest,  Obama made some good points and some of his plan makes sense.

One of the ways he wants to stimulate the economy is by investing in infrastructure. Construction and repairing dams, bridges and retrofitting federal buildings to be more energy efficient. These projects create jobs and keeps the economy going while strengthen our infrastructure. -Makes sense!

On the other side of the world Albany’s Democrats want to continue to raise taxes. Governor Patterson has proposed $6 Billion in new fees and taxes. The Senate Democrats under Smith’s lead wants to expand an income tax hike to make millions of New Yorkers to pay more. Now the Democrats are talking about raising the State’s sales tax.

-WHEN IS IT GOING TO END!!!

They just don’t get it!

Stop taxing us and start providing relief. Start investing in NY’s infrastructure. Create jobs, cut spending, and…

 -oh yea… be responsible for once!

I received this e-mail from a close friend out in Syracuse today. It reads:

In one day, David Valesky raised your health insurance premiums by 33%. He stole money for college from working families and he took money that would have saved jobs in our community.

David Valesky made it more difficult for middle class families to make ends meet.

He cast the deciding vote for a budget plan that was bad for middle class families.

By following the orders of his New York City boss, David Valesky supported a plan which was crafted in secret and raised millions of dollars in job killing new taxes, and eliminated funding intended for educational opportunities for our children.

Valesky voted to send nearly $500 million in money that could have been used to create new jobs in Central New York to feed the Albany bureaucracy. This money should have been used to fund job saving, low cost power programs like those already helping Welch Allyn in Onondaga County, Pelco Electric in Cazenovia and The Beeches in Rome. Without the funds, it will be more difficult to attract new jobs to the region.

When it was important to stand up and defend our community, our senator sat in his chair and didn’t say a word other then “yes”.

It’s about time we here something from the Senate Republicans. Hopefully there will be more to come. This is one of the first real political messages I have seen the Senate Republicans do since they have had their balls cut off. Obviously they are in re-organizing mode so things are probably slow. One can only hope that however they decide to organize, they do not model their operation after the Assembly Republicans. As time has shown, the way they do things … they loose seats!

It’s time to think out of the box. That is if the Senate Republicans ever want to win back the chamber.

In other news Michael Steele (the new RNC Chair) was in Albany last Wednesday. He met with Jimmy T. bout the 20th . It was too bad the Albany County GOP or the State GOP could not set up a quick meet and greet for a fundraiser. That would have been really cool.

Who will run for Jimmy’s seat if he wins. My money is on either County Legislator Bob Farley (Sen. Hugh Farley’s son) or Jim Burmaster. If it was up to me, Jim would win hands down. He’s a better candidate for the Republican Party. It’s time to stop the business as usual – sorry Bobby!

According to Liz Benjamin, some push polling is going on in the 20th.

I wonder what fun-filled news will happen this week. We will soon find out.