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Front page: The state of the State of the State
Good morning! I'm still buzzing with excitement after the State of the State yesterday afternoon.
Check out a video replay and transcript of the speech here. [TU/CapCon]
Local officials were generally pleased with what they heard, with some concerns. [Srtgn, Gztte]
State residents, who were invited to attended the event for the first time, also reacted positively. [Record]
The speech suggested a pro-business approach. [NYT]
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver supported a property tax cap and independent redistricting reform in his remarks made before Cuomo. [TU]
As reported yesterday, four Senate Democrats spilt to form a new independent conference. [WXXI]
My highlight of the speech: "Ships passing in the night." [DN/DP]
Also, in D.C. yesterday, Congressman Chris Gibson made it official. [Srtgn]
Check out a video replay and transcript of the speech here. [TU/CapCon]
Local officials were generally pleased with what they heard, with some concerns. [Srtgn, Gztte]
State residents, who were invited to attended the event for the first time, also reacted positively. [Record]
The speech suggested a pro-business approach. [NYT]
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver supported a property tax cap and independent redistricting reform in his remarks made before Cuomo. [TU]
As reported yesterday, four Senate Democrats spilt to form a new independent conference. [WXXI]
My highlight of the speech: "Ships passing in the night." [DN/DP]
Also, in D.C. yesterday, Congressman Chris Gibson made it official. [Srtgn]
posted by The Saratogian City Desk at
6:27 AM
3 Comments:
Interesting - and not very articulate - comment attributed to our mayor regarding the State of the State address. Funny, I don't recall seeing him there, maybe he sent Scala or Sutton, but I didn't see them either. Maybe they got lost - or in Scala's case couldn't get "threw" security.
What the governor is proposing at the State level is exactly what we should be doing here as well. And that is a fundemental and structural change in the way we do business, particularly how we have done budgets for the last three years.
Johnson and Ivins have "balanced" recent budgets by incorporating one-time (sale of parking lot) or even non-existent revenue ) paid parking).
Other revenues are artificially inflated (Rec. Facility fees) to cover expenses. If you did this with your household budget you would't be able to pay the mortgage.
We need a real financial plan here in the City, one based on real revenues and anticipated operational costs over the next 5 years. Ivins seems unwilling or unable to do this.
So what do we do next year to "balance" the budget? Double the Rec. fees? Try to sell another City parking lot? Abandon the maintenance of another Rec. field? Tax SPAC tickets? Or do we begin to manage our way into the future through consolidation, reduction of non-essential employees through attrition and the elimination of redundant functions.
This year's budget includes $200,000 in "new" jobs. No wonder we make no headway even when non-essential people retire. Ivins touts six early retirements this year, but never tells the taxpayers how many "new" jobs are in the budget.
A the Saratogian editorialized on Oct. 11, 2009: "On the revenue side on things. Ivins' eleventh-hour proposal for paid parking can be considered another example of an inefficient form of government or a lack of leadership - or both."
Amen
Patrick,
Please tell us that you misquoted Mayor Johnson. Did he really say"I liked a lot of what I heard, but I really have to sit back and be supportive, but see really where it is going to take us because we have heard this before."
Please tell us that Johnson isn't that inarticulate. God help us if he is.
Anon dos,
I just reviewed the video of that comment. I listened to it a few times when I wrote the story to decipher "supportive", which I thought at first might have been "support him." The context is the same regardless, and the video plays back the quote as printed.
Feel free to call me with questions like this, and thanks for reading!
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