Angry New Yorker

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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Thursday, July 24, 2008
 
I drink your milkshake! I drink it up!

There Will be Blood was a lousy movie. Great acting and cinematography, but the plot (such as it was) dangled more lost opportunities than your average Christmas tree has decorations. But there were a few memorable lines, the title to this piece being one.

And now that New York city and state have collectively emptied our milkshakes there's panic in the air because the glasses are bone empty. The front page of today's NY Post carries several stories about NY's impending self-imposed fiscal crisis (see Mayor Bloomberg Warns of $2.3B Gap in City Budget, and Gov. Paterson: Worst Crisis Since '70's). I have no sympathy for Paterson or the Mayor, or any NY elected officials. I do feel for NY's taxpayers and families, who will be sorely pressed even more so than they already are.

But a bit of examination is order. The 2008-09 New York State budget, as enacted, runs $80.5 billion dollars. Over the past 20 years officials have jacked state spending up annually at two or three times the inflation rate, largely due to the headlocks by unions leading to stiff increases in education and health-care spending. New York City has suffered the same fate. While Mayor Bloomberg has often been hailed as a practical businessman, he's been complicit in the steady increases in the city's budget and foolishly calling NYC a luxury product (as in, if you have to ask what it costs you can't afford it) highlighted his "che sara sara" attitude.

We've read enough reports about New York's Potemkin village-like finances, year in and year out, to have seen this coming a mile away. In fact, it's one reason we finally decided to move out of New York City, as have millions of others over the past decade (to be replaced by the never ending flow of low-skilled "immigrants").

But "we told you so" is never a gracious thing to say. Instead, we'll give the NYC Comptroller's just issued Budget Report, the final word:
Furthermore, in most years of the Financial Plan period, risks identified by the
Comptroller’s Office outweigh potentially favorable developments. On net, the City is
likely to experience a gap of $68 million in FY 2009, additional resources of
$295 million in FY 2010, and increments of $538 million and $334 million to the gaps in FYs 2011 and 2012, respectively. As a result, the Comptroller’s projected FY 2010 gap narrows to $2.049 billion while the FY 2011 and FY 2012 gaps widen to $5.696 billion and $5.442 billion, respectively.
The accompanying Press Release notes, dryly:
At the forefront of Thompson's concerns is the increasing burden of debt service on City taxpayers. Debt service is expected to increase 7.6 percent per year from FY 2008 through FY 2012, growth fueled by General Obligation debt borrowing that will average $6 billion per year and push the City’s debt burden from 13.8 percent in FY 2009 to 15.1 percent in FY 2012. New York City’s gross debt outstanding exceeded $7,000 per capita in FY 2007.
Any questions?

posted by anonymous at 3:01 PM

Friday, July 18, 2008
 
Accidental Governor. Intentional Buffoon.

We had hopes for Governor Paterson. After all, with the shame of Governor Spitzer preceding him as a touchstone virtually any comparison could only be positive. Unfortunately, as is wont in New York, Governor Paterson has and continues to demonstrate that not only is he not up to the massive challenges facing New York, but he remains enthralled to the usual Albany suspects (i.e., lobbyists, unions, campaign contributors, perpetual grievance mongers, etc.).

As the inimitable Henry Stern has highlighted at NY Civic, Paterson has raised $3.3 million in contributions since March and in the process discarded Spitzer's self-imposed $10,000 limit on contributions (which standing alone is indicative of nothing nefarious). However, his office expenditures, at a time of severe budgetary constraint is a shameful mockery of spending restraint. As The New York Sun noted yesterday, in its editorial, Bloat in Albany:
62 of Governor Paterson's aides earn $100,000 a year or more. The result is a governor's office annual payroll of $15.6 million. Massachusetts manages with a governor's office payroll of $4.8 million, Florida with $6.8 million. Texas, which has a larger population than New York, manages to staff its governor's office by spending about half as much money as New York does. In California, only 46 of the governor's aides earn $100,000 a year or more.
The sheer bald-faced lack of shame and abundance of gall in New York politicians today is utterly astounding. Some of us are still of the opinion that public service should be accompanied by some level of humility and recognition that the "public" is to be served and are not merely potential revenue sources for one's fiefdom.

Even with all this, however, Governor Paterson raised the bar on his ballooning buffoonery with his idiotic (there's no other word for it) speech before the NAACP, a once proud organization that today has degenerated into utter illegitimacy and demagoguery. We couldn't find a copy of Paterson's NAACP speech on his official website at http://www.ny.gov/governor/index.html, as the link provided for speeches only lists speeches made between Mar. 17th and April 25th, 2008 (one would think that with the legions of staffers someone could update the site on a timely basis). However, as reported in the New York Sun, the Governor " lash[ed][] out at the press for describing him as an 'accidental governor,' implying in a speech that the term's frequent usage was motivated by racial bias."

Excuse me, Sir? You ARE an accidental Governor. No one voted you Governor, and your ascension to the Governor's mansion is due only to the self-destructive implosion of Governor Spitzer. And to state that use of this term is somehow motivated by racial bias is paranoid buffoonery of the highest order.

Indeed, as the New York Sun states, Paterson's charge that few others in the analogous situation were dubbed "accidental" is contradicted by the facts:

Richard Codey, who filled in as governor of New Jersey for James McGreevey after the latter resigned in a sex scandal, was described as an "accidental governor" by the Philadelphia Inquirer, the New York Observer (in a story headlined "the Return of an Accidental Governor), the Washington Post, the Star-Ledger (in several articles), the Associated Press, and the New York Times.

President Johnson was the subject of a 1967 book by Robert Sherrill called "The Accidental President." A 2001 book about President Bush and the 2000 election race by David Kaplan was titled, "The Accidental President: How 413 Lawyers, 9 Supreme Court Justices, and 5,963,110 Floridians (Give or Take a Few) Landed George W. Bush in the White House."

Playing the race card in such a manner is a disgrace. Worse, the Governor went on to then "suggest[] that the defeat of Senator Obama by Senator McCain in the presidential contest would be a victory for racism."

My God! if simply voting one's convictions against Obama is a "victory for racism" than precious little one does in everyday life is free from the taint of this noxious charge. If we decide to go to McDonald's, because we like their Angus burgers, instead of the Burger King next door, which happens to have a manager who is black, is this a "victory for racism" as a result?

Governor, you do yourself and New York no favor with this line of racial pandering and paranoia. And you damage your already tarnished image as Governor of the once great state of New York.


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posted by anonymous at 11:11 AM

Saturday, July 05, 2008
 
Happy (belated) Fourth of July!!

As always, each July 4th we re-read the Declaration of Independence and marvel at its majesty, wrought despite its ultimate creation by committee. Despite our many readings, we always wryly note the grievance of "[h]e has created a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance" in light of the massive growth of federal and state governments.

Happy July 4th, and not to be missed on this day is Roger Kimball's July4th essay Thoughts on July 4, America and multiculturalism.

posted by anonymous at 1:07 AM

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