Interesting similarity in every aspect of the portrait; position of the arms, legs and depth of the background, except George Pataki is missing his cannon.
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18 comments:
Sorry, but more than that is missing in this comparison.
Looks like the Tony Soporano portrait?
Ah pataki, i seem to recall he simultaneously expanded public employee pension benefits and stopped state contributions to the pension fund. The state has never recovered from his reckless fiscal policies.
You're right 2:03, But this happened when the stock market was doing well, and prior to this the local govts. weren't paying into the fund sooooooooooo, the unions said why should we, what we'll be seeing is a double digit increase to the pension fund by local govts.
2:03 Actually, I believe the employer (county, state, city etc) still contributes to the fund. What happened was the comptroller at the time (Democrat Carl McCall I believe) came up with the idea that public employees with ten years of service or more would stop paying into the system. As far as expanding the pension benefits, I don't know what that means. I don't know how it was expanded, but it does sound nice if someone wants to slam Pataki. Facts be damned.
Prior to the tier equity bill, the municipal govts share was nothing,Expanding the pension is just that, certain things are articles of the plan, (voted on every 2 years) remember the Senate and Assembly are covered so any "cuts" to the pension plan will not happen. Just my 2 cents.
Thanks 6:11 that's about as clear as mud.
the legislature, pataki & mccall agreed to automatic cost of living adjustments and the elimination of employee contributions after 10 years of service. At the same time the state and local governments were making only nominal contributions to the pension fund.
The stock market crashed and government contributions to the pension fund skyrocketed and are projected to keep skyrocketing.
Of course the legislature, mccall, hevesi and dinapoli are also to blame. So i was a little unfair.
But i don't think bringing back pataki (which is the buzz in Republican circles) is the solution to our state's problems
At this point, Pataki is too polarizing a figure. Even if you like him, his time is over. However the retirement folks got their money is soon to be irrelevant. There will be huge increases in taxes on retirement checks coming very soon, and these taxes will follow you no matter how you hide your bucks and no matter where you live. You won't be able to hide much longer. States will pass new laws, they will be challenged, courts will rule against you because they have to, govment needs the money to pay for the things we want for free. It will be fun to watch. The pigs will scream.
There is no stopping this. Enjoy.
2:03 I understand your feelings about what you view as Pataki's "reckless fiscal policies". But I ask you, how has it been any different under anyone else. If anything, it has gotten worse. This year, spending went up 10%. Do you have any doubt Shelly and the boys won't do it again next year? And if the Elephants make a come back, do you think they have the balls to make changes? Ain't gonna happen.
For the most part, what we argue about here on PIV is the scraps. The cow is already dead. The country is wasted and unrecognizable from what it was even two decades ago. The answer, more government jobs and free stuff. Isn't that pretty much what we've been doing?
I don't know what you're talking about, 6:30. The real evil is
Fox News.
Staaaaay fooooocused.
There is one way to tame the legislature though no governor has tried it.
Demand that they improve the business climate passing legislation to reduce spending, taxes, mandates, and red tape. If they refuse (which they will) call them back into session and keeping calling them back into session until they give in. Call them back every day for 4 straight years if necessary.
This is probably the only way the state can be saved.
Actually i think paterson came into office as dedicted to reducing spending as pataki was when he was first elected. P
Paterson made a terrible mistake in believing that state lawmakers saw the gravity of the situation and would agree to cuts. He also underestimated the speed with which public employee unions and specil interests would turn on him with their doom and gloom ads.
Paterson ultimately agreed to a budget far larger than the one he proposed, perhaps under the mistaken belief that an on time budget would raise his approval ratings.
9:31 Sounds good, but those thugs would end up in court, and win. They would buy off the judges with salary increases. But I understand how you feel. The crooks are too well entrenched to beat.
9:44 That is one of the best posts I've seen in a long time. I believe your analysis is right on the money. I'm a member of one of those employee unions you speak of. We care about ourselves. The fact that we are not alone doesn't change that fact that we are guided by corruption and greed. Again, I agree with your views.
10:24, thanks. i actually think that labor movement has done a lot of good things. However, given the economic situation and the crushing tax burden nyers have i believe all elements of state government should sacrifice.
Probably the most logical thing would be to immediately stop land purchases for the adirondack park (this would inflame the green lobby, but they don't have as much money as the unions so maybe it could be done). The state already owns half the land in the park, when is enough enough? I would also like to see the abolition of the apa.
Allowing for responsible timbering in the adirondacks would increase revenues and reduce unemployment and social service expenses. And why not collect tobacco taxes off from Native American reservations?
We also need to rethink aspects of our medicaid program, special interests be damned.
So there is lot that can be done if only shelly silver would go along.
The fundamental problem is businesses are willing to pay more in order to be in nyc. But there aren't in upstate ny. Silver either doesn't understand this or doesn't care.
Silver is either the most corrupt politician of our lifetime, or the most evil. I'm sure his future is well taken care of. We don't really know, as he won't reveal most of his back room legal dealings. A disgraceful individual. But he's there for life.
But would silver's replacement be any better? It would be another nyc dem and it seems like nyc politics is sesspool of corruption (ACORN, WFP, Espada, Monserrate, etc.).
If you really want to know something bad about silver he was sued for keeping an accused rapist on his staff he went on to rape another woman. Who paid for the cost of settling the lawsuit? Well the taxpayers of course! It hardly got a mention in the local msm.
change sounds great until the status quo of the legislature is threatened. then the members dig in. should be no surprise, because no worker wants to agree to givebacks. Watertown leadership could set a good example for us taxpayers but heaven forbid Graham has to skip a nite at Pete's.
Fiscally, where Graham eats is not a problem. The problem is the layers of government and the way they have injected themselves in every aspect of our lives. But we seem to like it.
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