Hat Tip

Although it is generic, PIV will take this acknowledgment by the New York Times of "sympathetic bloggers" personally and offer them a thank you for paying attention to what people are thinking around the state.

They write

They set up a rapid-response team in their communications office on the third floor of the Capitol to monitor debates on the floor, sent out e-mail blasts and reached out to sympathetic bloggers in cities like Watertown and Rochester.

Sympathetic - perhaps, but more correctly stated would be adamantly opposed to one party rule as very unhealthy for democracy and the results of that are crystal clear now after this budget.

Read the entire story; Here

Badge of Honor

Here is the Badge of Honor that Darrel Aubertine and the rest of the Senate Democrats can display proudly. 

Paterson / Silver Budget Will Make New York’s Taxes Worst in Country 

In our 2009 State Business Tax Climate Index, New York rated as having the second-worst tax climate for business in the country, with New Jersey taking top honors.  However, once this plan is enacted, New York will leapfrog New Jersey to claim the mantle of America's worst tax code for business.

And on the elimination of STAR Rebate and other hidden tax and fee increases.

As I've written before, that program is flawed and its elimination is probably a relatively good way to raise revenue; however, it is still extra money out of New Yorkers' pockets next year.  Finally, the plan imposes sundry tax and fee increases, including higher taxes on utilities, car rentals, beer, wine, and cigars; higher tuition at state universities; and increased fees for things like hunting and driver's licenses.

This tax increase would be less annoying if it were truly necessary to produce a balanced budget.  However, as the New York Times noted in a news analysis piece yesterday, the budget's 8.7% spending increase "could hardly be called austere."

If you are looking for a list of 3,558 pork projects included in this budget then click here, hardly anything that represents the severe times that we face.

It is laughable to watch Sens. Aubertine and Valesky, as well as their staff, attempt to defend this budget, they appear to be shouting in a phone booth when so many from their own party are decrying this budget as disastrous for upstate.

Simply put - they put party politics ahead of their constituents!

Is This A First?

The race for the 20th Congressional seat in New York is tied, and that does not mean give or take 20 votes either way.

TIED, EVEN, ZERO Votes separate the candidates.

Uh Oh!

It appears the Jefferson County Webboard is gone!

The word, according to an anonymous source, is the operation has been shutdown, the carpets rolled up and the gypsies have left town!

This is what you get when you type their address in the computer.

Page not found

The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

Drug Law Reform Debate

This video is from last night's debate on the "Drug Dealer Protection Act" (so-called by the NY Daily News). This should have been stand alone legislation, it had no business being included in the state budget bills.

Sen. Ruben Diaz seems to be ridiculing the issue with his demonstration, holding up two glassine envelopes of what he later said was sugar, but the debate turned serious when Sen. Marty Golden, a ex-NYC cop, reminds Senators that street sales of heroin directly threaten the safety of children.

Had the packets Diaz holds up actually contained two ounces of heroin, they would have had a street value of up to $2,000, and been sufficient to provide 16 or more individual doses of the drug, according to the federal DEA.

Democrats were ramming through a sweeping drug reform plan as part of the state budget, but local law enforcement, including Sheriffs and DAs from the North Country, warn that the plan goes too far, and could lead to higher crime, not to mention the loss of correction officer jobs in the region.

Darrel Aubertine, who opposed these rollbacks in crime prevention in his years in the Assembly, voted in favor of them in the razor thin majority of the Democratic State Senate. 

(Diaz, recall, is one of the original "Gang of Four" New York City Senators who led a brief revolt that threatened Democrats' takeover of the Senate. He represents a South Bronx district that is a haven for drug dealers.)

Right On Dave

Dave Males, General Manager of Newswatch TV 50, nails this editorial. He finishes by asking people to remember at election time which is 2 years from now who voted in favor of this disastrous budget.

Ditto on those remarks Dave!
(mouse over the video and then scroll through the video line at the top until you reach the General Manager pictured)

Smart Democrats (and Brave Ones Also) In The Assembly (UPDATED)

The following upstate Democrats voted NO on the New York State budget understanding that it is not a good budget for any of the state, much less upstate.

Dennis Gabryszak, D-Cheektowaga
Robin Schimminger, D-Kenmore
Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo
Bill Parment, D-Jamestown
Joseph Morelle, D-Monroe County
David Koon, D-Monroe County
Joan Christenson, D-Syracuse

And Amy Paulin, D-Scarsdale who voted NO on all but 3 budget bills. 
“We need to scale back and we spent too much money,” Paulin said. “I’m worried about the economy of the future.”

The Buffalo News did a piece today on this topic - read more here

STAR Rebate - Buh Bye!

Among the many ways that you will pay for the Democrats desire to spend money that New Yorkers do not have, there is one way in which you will lose money also.

STAR rebate -- The budget eliminates STAR rebates that were worth hundreds of dollars to many homeowners. Seniors got 40% more than non-seniors. Effectively, our Senator has voted to raise your property taxes by taking away your property tax rebate

This link takes you to a website that allows you to see the actual value of your 2008 STAR rebate check. For instance, a senior citizen couple in Sandy Creek on a fixed income of less than $90,000 will lose more than $400 in their rebate!!

Online Tax Center

Be sure to drop a note and thank Senator Aubertine Aubertine@senate.state.ny.us

Fellow Democrat DiNapoli Critical Of State Budget

The one party Democrat control of New York cannot even escape criticism from their own party members. Democrat Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli criticizes the budget in a press release shown below.

The Senate Democrats and their operatives can attempt to defend this mess anyway they want, but they were just thrown under the bus by one of their own, which speaks volumes about the reality of this budget.

Also, here is the link to the Democrats' report on the budget. The information on the page numbered 2 is misleading. It's the chart that reporters race to in order to represent the spending growth in the budget. True to form, many reported spending growth at the 8.65% listed here.

But the actual growth in spending has to be measured from the actual spending levels of the prior year -- not from the Governor's pie-in-the-sky proposal.

The true spending growth for this budget is 10.2%, the difference between the $131.8 billion in this enacted plan compared to the $119.6 billion closeout from last fiscal year.

You will also find all the nifty fee and tax increases starting on Page #8

Parts of the DiNapoli's press release have been highlighted.

--------------------------------------------------

STATE COMPTROLLER THOMAS P. DiNAPOLI STATEMENT
                          ON 2009-10 STATE BUDGET


New York faced an extraordinary challenge to adopt a 2009-10 State Budget
in the context of a daunting recession. My preliminary review of the budget
indicates it does not adequately respond to today’s economic realities.

The budget is not a long-term solution to New York’s propensity to spend
more than the state can afford. While the budget proposes to close an
unprecedented gap, it does so by an over reliance on non-recurring federal
stimulus funds and new tax revenues projected to materialize at a time of
declining tax receipts.

This is essentially a buy-time budget, based on a hope that the economy
recovers quickly. It’s a very fragile basket to place all the taxpayers’
eggs in. Instead of using the Federal stimulus to restructure the financial
plan and match projected revenues to long term growth in spending, the
budget uses stimulus funds as a short-term fix.

The danger is that New York could end up right back where we started, with
huge budget gaps and an unsustainable level of spending. I will provide a
more detailed review of the enacted budget shortly.

                                    ###

Senator Aubertine In Action

Senator Aubertine happily claimed on the Senate floor yesterday that he received Senator Cathy Young's and the Senate GOP's agriculture priorities and that most of the programs in their request were restore. He cited his restoration of these programs as a reason why he was voting against the GOP amendment that would have restored the cuts and created a new $30 million dairy farmer emergency relief program.





The following text appears with the YouTube video.

After claiming that he's restored funding cuts for farmers in New York's new state budget, North Country State Sen. Darrel Aubertine is forced to admit that's not the case.

Aubertine was grilled by the top Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, Sen. Cathy Young of Olean.

Farms suffered a $30 million cut in the bloated, $132 billion budget, which used federal stimulus funds to restore hundreds of other programs, raised taxes by a record amount and increased taxpayer-funded spending a whopping 10%.

Aubertine voted against a Republican amendment to restore all the agriculture funding cuts and create an emergency aid program for struggling dairy farmers.