| I've previously gone on record saying it is time to clean house in Albany. I've also expressed my disgust at what happened last summer, and my hope that the Legislature could figure out how to improve.
If there is one person, though, who has most earned my willingness to re-elect, it is the Governor, especially through his recent actions to take on the hard challenges of Albany, change how things are done, and slay sacred cows.
I'm not saying Governor Patterson is perfect. I think he isn't going far enough, I think there need to be changes to how we tax in this State, and I think that we need a Whole Lot More Effort to fix the Upstate economy.
But he's willing to try and that's more than I see from most of the Legislature.
Bottom line is: we need to do three Big Things in New York: we need to reduce spending, change (and perhaps raise some) taxes, and we need to make Upstate more economically competitive. They are all difficult to do.
If you're a Legislator, it's your job, though, to do them. If you don't, then you don't deserve re-election.
What I hear you-- pretty much, all of you-- hide behind is either literally or something equivalent to: "I support the Brennan center changes. I support fixing taxation. I support cutting spending. I'm for job growth in Albany. It's not me; I go there to fight for New York but it's the rest of them."
It rings hollow. Either you don't really believe those things OR you can't build a big enough coalition to get them done.
Either way, you're not getting your job done. Being a leader means figuring out how to encourage enough other people to follow the same idea set and do what's right.
Let's review the problems:
1. We spend too much in this State. You need to figure out how to cut spending without destroying what makes this state a Good Place.
To first order, we spend money on five things in New York: Education, Healthcare, Highways, Law Enforcement, and Everything Else.
As I understand it, "Everything Else" is a small fraction of the budget. It's annoying; it includes member items and other poorly spent money. But while it should be cut-- member items by virtue of being a slush fund of spending are, by definition, a poorly spent cash bag-- cutting this won't do enough to fix the problem.
I don't see that road spending can be decreased. We live in a high snow (i.e., "high salt") State. If you can (more automated toll collection? better procedures for maintaining the Thruway?), do so. But it has to be done safely.
I suspect that reducing what gets spent on law enforcement requires an even more dramatic reworking of the Rockefeller drug laws than has been done so far: we need to stop spending money on incarcerating small time drug users and figure out how to spend less money, more effectively, to rehabilitate them. By all means, do so.
That leaves education and healthcare.
Think long and hard about cuts to education. If there is an area that makes New York great, if there is something that sets us above other states, if there is a part of our State that makes us valuable to employers and residents, it is our educational system. I'm not saying not to cut it; I am saying you need to figure out a way to do it while maintaining a high quality school system, both in the public school system and SUNY.
As for healthcare, we've all read the statistics that show us spending the most and the most per capita. Yes, I know both sides want to defend our spending for their own reasons. It's time to find a compromise that doesn't destroy high-quality healthcare in this State while bringing our expenditures into line.
What to cut? How much? It isn't my job to answer those questions. It's yours. If you want to keep your job past November, figure it out.
2. We're all aware of studies showing New York's tax rates are among the highest in the nation.
Cutting spending helps that. But we need to think about how we are taxed in this state: too much in property taxes is a clear answer most middle-class home owners would provide.
Sales taxes are also high and regressive.
Income taxes seem high but not particularly progressive.
How to fix this is, again, your job. Figure it out if you want to be reelected.
3. I've previously said what I think needs to happen to fix upstate. In short, we need to focus on reducing the cost of doing business in upstate, better leverage our advantages, and make a more small-business-friendly climate. We also need to stop spending money to help Upstate unless we've figured out a smart way to make it part of an overall strategy.
If you've got better ideas, by all means, implement them.
Look, I've done more to spell out what I think the problems are than what the solutions are.
That's on purpose. Again, solving the problems is your job and you earn re-election by doing that.
But rather than providing specific solutions, let me instead make this recommendation: work together. Build a coalition of sanity. Be bipartisan. Compromise.
Put together a set of proposed structural changes for both the State (spending, taxing, organizing, authorities) and the Legislature (how it is run, three men in a room, member items); compile a list of specific spending cuts; and gather enough colleagues from both sides of the aisle to pass them.
I'd also like to see a constitutional convention.
If the coalition only holds together for two months, or one month, or two weeks, that's fine as long as you pass the necessary changes.
Take control of the Legislature, work with the Governor, fix the State.
If you do that, you've earned re-election. If not, then I'll stick with my "throw the bums out". |
