State Budget - Left View vs. Right View

There is an excellent article in the New York Times today, it is critical of the budget and the article gives a perspective from both the left and the right on New York's budget.

It states given the rate of inflation compounded the budget should be at $67 billion versus $121 billion.

Here are some clips, but to read the full article; Budgeting in Albany in Hard Times

"Some people have trouble understanding why, when times are hard, Albany’s notion of tightening its belt is to expand its ample waist."

"So how did lawmakers economize? They added 2,000 bodies to the state payroll. Naturally, they also made sure to set aside $700 million to be showered later on the politically blessed in their districts."

From the left, Fiscal Policy Institute, a liberal research group; Trudi Renwick

“To maintain the same level of services, the state government has needed to spend more than the increase in the C.P.I.,” For her, a better measurement is Albany’s spending as a percentage of total personal income in the state. By that standard, the budget is “not really growing out of control,” she said. In fact, “by that measure, it’s below where it was in 1990.”

From the right, Manhattan Institute, Empire Center Executive Director, a conservative research group; E. J. McMahon

Far from being irrelevant, he said, the price index is “the closest measure we have for the overall cost of living” and for “what a dollar means to the taxpayer.”

Mr. McMahon said, where is it written that “the overall cost of government should be growing as fast or even faster than the economy that’s supporting it”? To assert that “government must always be some fixed share of total wealth,” he said, “takes a lot of pressure off government to run more efficiently.”

Where do you view the budget from, the left or right?