“Toy Story,” the movie, is all the rage. Albany Story, the farce, causes rage.
There are no heroes or happy endings in the capital, even as state leaders pinky-swear they’re going straight this time. No more foolin’ around. They’re going to do their jobs because, gosh darn it, that’s what the good people of New York want.
Whopper alert! Sweet nothings about the “people” are signs a summer snow job is on the way. When the hoodwinking, sleight-of-hand and phony outrage exceed the normal load of bull, watch your wallet.
The bad theater wouldn’t be complete without Gov. Paterson drawing yet another line in the sand, this one over borrowing. “Not on my watch,” he says, knowing full well there will be borrowing, though it may be called something else.
Assuming the feds don’t pony up another awesome bailout, the only alternative is a mix of tax hikes and spending cuts to fill the entire $9.2 billion gap. That definitely ain’t gonna happen, hence the snow job.
An example of pretend rectitude involves taxes on cigarettes sold on Indian reservations to non-Indians. In addition to a large hike in tobacco levies, the budget will include $150 million from plans to collect taxes from Indian retailers, even as the Seneca Nation and others insist the taxes are illegal under federal treaties and will never be collected.
But by plugging that figure into the budget, Paterson and lawmakers will have $150 million to spend. You can bet they will spend it, and when the tax money doesn’t materialize, a $150 million gap will remain.
Ten or 20 other gimmicks like that and, presto, lawmakers will lay claim to having made a historic agreement to close the record gap. They’ll congratulate themselves, and go home to campaign for two more years of fun and fraud.
It’s not just Democrats. Republicans are guilty of the same flim-flam, especially in the state Senate, where some of their 30 votes are likely to be needed to pass anything. There are no fiscal conservatives in Albany.
Both parties have worked overtime to hide the dismal condition of the Empire State since the national recession started in December 2007. Warren Buffett’s line that you learn who’s skinny-dipping when the tide goes out applies.
The outrage is that, 30 months later, New York officials have yet to confront the reality of lower revenues and fewer jobs. Budgets in 2008 and 2009 each grew by billions, fueled by tax hikes and federal money, as they put off a reckoning.
They’re still doing it. A new spending plan was due on April 1, but they have not passed one because doing so would force them to at least pretend they have filled the gap.
Paterson has moved the ball forward by adding cuts to the weekly bills that allow the government to stay open and has promised he’ll unload the full monty of fixes this week.
Maybe he will, but you can bet he’ll agree to a deal that kicks the can down the road. The only open question is whether voters will be fooled again into re-electing the same lawmakers in hopes they will behave differently.
If we do that, we’re the ones who are insane.
Be fair to immigrants – by rigging elections
Oops, she did it again. Hillary Rodham Clinton opened her mouth and out came a gaffe. It was a Washington gaffe, meaning she accidentally told the truth.
In Ecuador, the secretary of state blasted the Arizona immigration law and said in a TV interview that the Justice Department “will be bringing a lawsuit against the act.”
That was news to Arizona, and feisty Gov. Jan Brewer promptly let Clinton have it. “This is no way to treat the people of Arizona,” she said. “To learn of this lawsuit through an Ecuadorian interview with the secretary of state is just outrageous.”
Indeed it is, and it fits a pattern of pandering to foreign opinion. Recall that Democrats in Congress gave the president of Mexico a standing ovation when he denounced the Arizona law.
Even worse, Washington’s policy of refusing to enforce immigration laws is forcing state and local governments into contorted and expensive reactions.
A Nebraska town wants renters to prove they are in the country legally, and Port Chester, NY, was forced to swallow a goofy voting scheme that makes sense only if the aim is to erase the distinction between legal and illegal immigrants.
Under the plan, imposed by a federal judge in response to a 2006 Justice Department civil-rights suit, each voter in the board of trustees election got six votes. A voter could give all six votes to one candidate, or divide them among several.
The reason: No Latinos had ever been elected to any of the six at-large seats in the suburban town, even though they make up nearly half of the population of 28,000.
That’s because many of the Latinos are here illegally, so they can’t vote. No matter. The cockeyed voting system was put in place to satisfy a claim of discrimination based on their total numbers, as though immigration status has no consequence to election results.
The judge’s ruling didn’t just cover the complicated ballot, written in both Spanish and English. CBS News said the town held 12 educational forums on the election, six in each language, and that voting machines had 114 different levers next to candidate names.
It said T-shirts, tote bags and lawn signs about the election were required by the Justice Department and everything, including reminders sent home with students, had to be in both English and Spanish and approved by bureaucrats.
Taxpayers were robbed, with the town spending $300,000 on the process and maybe $1 million in legal fees — all for an election in which 3,000 people voted. The turnout was about 25 percent of registered voters, the same as in previous elections.
But cheer up: A Latino candidate won.
So it goes in America, circa 2010, where the principle of one-man, one-vote is tossed overboard to rig an election.
Your toll $$ at work (oink!)
Boss Hog is the poster pig for greedy unions. Not only did Daniel Hughes steal $300,000 in dues from his members, the Port Authority union president is still in line for a disability pension, even though he’s going to prison. So, next time you’re sitting in truck-choking traffic at the GW Bridge to fork over $8, savor your contribution to Boss Hog’s comfy retirement. Feels good, right?
Bull’s-eye, Ronnie!
Don’t mess with Utah. Ronnie Lee Gardner, convicted of murder and facing lethal injection, told a judge, “I would like the firing squad, please.” Wish granted. Case closed.