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

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Man~ana

Never do today what can be put off 'til tomorrow!

This seems to be the answer the downstate Democrats use to appease their 5 upstate Democratic colleagues.

There's considerable confusion about whether Sen. Aubertine actually got a commitment for funding to rebuild crumbling Upstate highways in exchange for his support of the NYC subway bailout.

Aubertine says he did. The Buffalo News says maybe not.

More and more, it appears that the issue of Upstate highway rebuilding is just one more that downstate Democrats are promising to deal with another day.

Other save-it-for-later issues include Democrats' pledge to restore STAR rebates that they eliminated in the state budget. Read Restore STAR.

Earlier this week, they announced creation of a 29-member commission to study ways to fix their Empire Zone reforms that cut thousands of businesses out of the program, and resulted in small businesses extending no-interest loans to Albany until officials there can work out which companies qualify for job-saving tax credits and incentives and which don't. Read Companies furious over tax changes.

And after railing for years about unfair treatment at the hands of the GOP, now Majority-Democrats have yet to adopt the legislative reforms proposed last month by Senate Rules Reformer Dave Valesky and his $100,000-a-year staff advisor on reform, Andrew Strengel. Instead, they will continue to study the plan and possibly make changes next year. Read A fraud on the public.

Studying problems to death and presenting plans that go nowhere is de rigeur for the Senate Democrats. Consider this:

Back in 2007, when their quest for the majority and the reins of power was still only a dream, Senate Democrats rolled out a $1 billion plan to rebuild the Upstate economy, dutifully reported by blogger Philip Anderson, who is now a Senate Democrat staffer. Read TAP Right-NY. 

We're still waiting for that investment, and chances are we'll be waiting a long time for Democrats to fulfill their other promises too.

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