Economic Divide in the Empire State

Governor Spitzer is prepared to deliver a first, a State of the Upstate address on Wednesday in Buffalo. In his State of the State address last week to the legislature, he proposed a $1 billion dollar infusion of capital into the upstate economy; we will no doubt hear more details on this during the budget address by the Governor on January 22^nd.

During Spitzer’s campaign for Governor, he referred to upstate New York as “Appalachia” therefore; the governor is delivering on a campaign promise to turn the upstate economy around. The entire economy of New York State suffers primarily from high taxes and other cost associated with doing business in New York State, so, does spending more money by the government revitalize an economy? What if an already over extended New York State government is borrowing money to fuel an economy, is that good business? Is Spitzer liquidating New York State of its assets, the lottery, government property, etc. for funding this year’s budget initiatives? Here is my suggestion to the Governor, how about just reigning in the annual increases in state spending, such as the 7% increase in this year’s budget, more than double the rate of inflation.

After the details of the proposal are released, proponents of this investment will applaud while critics, most likely downstate, will howl with the message why not us and so the battle will begin for a piece of the action. More good questions to ask are; is this a good program for New York State as a whole? Will this just further enhance the upstate / downstate debate and battle, especially the one we see occurring in the 48^th Senate district race?

The ball is in Spitzer’s court for a number of reasons; he failed miserably on his “day one” promise, and he has failed miserably on reforming government and he has failed miserably on bipartisanship. He has something to prove and we will be waiting for the details of this as well as the entire budget for New York.