"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have"
Thomas Jefferson

Sunday, November 2, 2008

New York State's Fiscal Mess - Reason #1

There is plenty of blame for New York State's fiscal woes, but the key to the financial disaster is the spending. The chart below depicts the spending free for all that has been occurring in New York State. If the budget kept pace with inflation it would now be $91.4 billion, instead of $120.8 billion, which is near double the rate of inflation. 


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Spending in certain areas, such as education, has risen at nearly three times the rate of inflation.

But this really isn't news. I have to ask you, PIV, why you are treating it as such. The donkeys can rightly ask you, why, if you were in control of the Senate, didn't you elephants do something about this out of control spending.

It's a fair question.

The spending that got us into this mess was, and is, a bi-partisan screw up and sell out.

Screwing kids was fun on both sides.

Anonymous said...

That's a great graph. 1994 is when Republican George Pataki and Republican Joe Bruno came to power. Pataki left in 2006, and Bruno continued in 2007 and again in 2008 introducing budget proposals higher than both the governor AND assembly. Thank you for showing readers what the GOP has done to our state.

Anonymous said...

Darrel Aubertine voted for every spending increase Shelly and Malcolm put in front of him -- including a twice-the-inflation rate hike this year!

Dave Renzi supports tax and spending caps.

Vote Renzi! Restore fiscal sanity!

Bob Johnson said...

PIV -

I agree with you. We have to make cuts. What I want to know from you is where are you going to make cuts. It's easy to whine about spending, but give us some real detail as to where you will make those cuts. That's where the courage lies.

How about the prison system. How about reforming the drug laws and then closing prisons. Oh, no – that would affect our North Country subsidy. It's OK to cut, so long as it's not in your own back yard.

How about Medicaid. I get $6.00 a day to see a medicaid patient in the hospital. Can't cut much more there, but go ahead.

How about education? Public works? The sewers? How about renovations of public buildings to house county legislatures?

Please tell us. You have to cut $12 billion dollars. Tell us where and how you are going to do it.

Enough whining. It's time to perform.

Anonymous said...

When you let it get so far out of control Bob, it is hard to get back on track. Remember, Shelly told us a month ago to "wait and see", as he was still unconvinced something had to be done. Probably still is.

Here in NY, every venue has advocates. If you tried to cut money for anything, you would be fought to a standstill. Therefore, I submit the only way to proceed is across the board freezes. I don't care if you die. I don't care if you love little kids. I don't care if you are homeless. I don't care if Martians won't get their teeth fixed on time. FREEZE ALL BUDGETS. ALSO, NO HIRING ON THE STATE LEVEL. Mean it, don't lie about it as they have done for a decade. If there is no money for raises, so be it. You don't like it Mr or Mrs teacher or cop or fireman or social worker or anybody, QUIT YOUR JOB. That would be a state, Dr Bob.

As far as you getting $6 a day for a medicaid patient. I don't believe you. I'm sure it costs the taxpayers a lot more than that to treat medicaid patients. But it's your story. Trouble is, all special interests have a story. As a taxpayer who is broke, I'm tired of hearing about it. We don't have any more money. GET IT?
The children are screwed. GET IT?
There are no more businesses to tax out of the state. GET IT?
The party is over. Whether you get it or not. That's why this state election is such a joke. I'm not sure Shelly can hurt us much any more.

Bob Johnson said...

Anon 5:01 --

You are absolutely right not to believe me. It's not $6.00 a day, it's $5.00. You can look it up. Page 50, code 99233, subsequent hospital care ($5.00), code 99223, initial hospital care ($6.50).

I agree with you. Everyone will have to make sacrifices. What will yours be?

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