Sunday, January 14, 2007
Cutting spending in Albany a daunting task for Spitzer
Jay Gallagher Gannett News Opinion
Do you get the impression Jay is not too happy with Bruno and he also wonders if Spitzer "gets it".........property taxes are a killer here on the Island...we get it Jay and with the proposed 6 Billion in property tax reduction...Eliot does as well.........andy
ALBANY — Say you wanted to spend, or invest, a sizable pile of cash. What would be one of your first questions?
It just might be this: Where am I going to get the money?
If a question like that does occur to you, you're apparently disqualified for being a state legislator, or at least majority leader of the state Senate.
This week, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and other GOP senators unveiled a plan to cut business taxes by $1.3 billion over three years to try to get the upstate economy moving.
OK, they were asked, where is this $1.3 billion that businesses won't have to pay any more if this idea is approved going to come from? Less aid to schools? Fewer dollars spent on health care?
"You just don't get it," Bruno lectured. "This is not a cost, this is an investment."
Label an outlay of dollars, or forgiveness of revenue, as an "investment," and you don't have to worry about how to pay it back, he seemed to be saying, because eventually the tax cuts will lead to more jobs and more tax receipts.
Bruno wasn't at a conference the next day when some more financially hard-headed people were talking about maybe the state's most pressing economic problem: high property taxes.
While Bruno and former Gov. George Pataki love to talk about the score of times they have lowered state taxes over the last 12 years, they seldom talk about one of the most important results: soaring property taxes.........to read the rest of this rant.....click here.........andy
Do you get the impression Jay is not too happy with Bruno and he also wonders if Spitzer "gets it".........property taxes are a killer here on the Island...we get it Jay and with the proposed 6 Billion in property tax reduction...Eliot does as well.........andy
ALBANY — Say you wanted to spend, or invest, a sizable pile of cash. What would be one of your first questions?
It just might be this: Where am I going to get the money?
If a question like that does occur to you, you're apparently disqualified for being a state legislator, or at least majority leader of the state Senate.
This week, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and other GOP senators unveiled a plan to cut business taxes by $1.3 billion over three years to try to get the upstate economy moving.
OK, they were asked, where is this $1.3 billion that businesses won't have to pay any more if this idea is approved going to come from? Less aid to schools? Fewer dollars spent on health care?
"You just don't get it," Bruno lectured. "This is not a cost, this is an investment."
Label an outlay of dollars, or forgiveness of revenue, as an "investment," and you don't have to worry about how to pay it back, he seemed to be saying, because eventually the tax cuts will lead to more jobs and more tax receipts.
Bruno wasn't at a conference the next day when some more financially hard-headed people were talking about maybe the state's most pressing economic problem: high property taxes.
While Bruno and former Gov. George Pataki love to talk about the score of times they have lowered state taxes over the last 12 years, they seldom talk about one of the most important results: soaring property taxes.........to read the rest of this rant.....click here.........andy
