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Semi-Daily Rants from New York City's Angry Man
"As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly."
- Dr. Samuel Johnson, Boswell, Life of Johnson, Sept. 1783
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Wednesday, February 18, 2004
From today's New York Post [ed. note - we couldn't have said it better. New York is serious trouble. The sooner we admit it, the sooner something can get done. Otherwise, the last one out, please turn off the lights.] AS N.Y. BURNS . . . By FREDRIC U. DICKER February 17, 2004 -- ALBANY LIKE Nero fiddling while Rome burned, Gov. Pataki and the leaders of the Legislature are fiddling - and fibbing - while New York's local governments crumble -literally and figuratively - under the weight of out-of-control state Medicaid, tax, environmental and other burdensome policies. With just six weeks to go to the start of the state's fiscal year, Pataki (when he is in Albany) and the legislative leaders appear less concerned with fixing those polices than they are about achieving a public relations victory, a so-called "on-time" budget. But even if Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer) and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) succeed in passing the first such budget in 20 years - as now appears possible - their "success" will amount to little more than election-year bragging rights and a colossal PR hoax. That's because the kind of business-as-usual budget the state leaders are now considering will bring many of New York's most important and historic cities and counties to the brink of collapse. Consider: Schenectady, once the great beacon of high-technology and center of General Electric creativity, is so close to collapse that state Comptroller Alan Hevesi has actually set a date - sometime in May - for its bankruptcy. Syracuse, once a central New York economic powerhouse, is facing its biggest budget gap in history and a potential and devastating 45 percent property-tax hike. Its school-system is already making massive layoffs. Rochester, another early high-tech center with its highly educated workforce, is facing massive Kodak layoffs and is in a crisis spiral involving crime and a record population loss. Buffalo, once the great center of commerce and industry on Lake Erie, once the upstate symbol of New York's greatest and a beacon to the entire Midwest of the Empire State's economic prowess, lies bankrupt and broken. For rest of article please visit the NY Post website at www.nypost.com
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