Tuesday, January 02, 2007

The State of the State

Danny Hakim NY Times Empire Zone

No big surprises here...all of Eliot's Campaign Promises....starting to come to life.......andy

Governor Eliot Spitzer’s staff just released excerpts from his State of the State speech, which takes place at 1 p.m. tomorrow.
The governor seems to be focusing on the economy in this speech, at least in the less than three pages of excerpts, saying “now is the time to rein in spending and exhibit fiscal restraint.”
He says that “property tax cuts and increased support for education must be considered in tandem,” adding that his first budget will include “the first installment”
of his three-year, $6 billion property tax cut plan.He has previously said that in year one, his plan is for a property tax reduction of $1.5 billion, aimed specifically at the middle class. One other specific he mentions is workers compensation, which is clearly high on his agenda. He calls it “a system that does not work for anyone, not the employers who pay some of the highest premiums in the country and not the workers who receive some of the lowest benefits.”
Some more excerpts of the excerpts:
Our first objective is to reform out government–not merely for the sake of reform, but because if our state is to prosper again, we need a government that is a catalyst for change instead of an impediment. Our second objective is to revitalize our economy and lead New York into a new era of opportunity and prosperity….
…We must reverse the decline of our upstate economy; sustain the economic expansion downstate and develop new ways for those communiti4es which have been left to share in the prosperity. To meet these challenges, we must first adapt to what I call the Innovation Economy. This is the knowledge-based economy of new businesses and new ideas that is the driving force of job creation in the world today. Second, we must reduce New York’s cost structure - the ‘perfect storm of unaffordability’ for both businesses and people. And third, we must invest in the infrastructure needed to catalyze and sustain economic growth…
…The agenda I just outlined is ambitious, but it will go unrealized if we do no summon the courage to make hard choices in the state’s budget. That’s because, despite a cash surplus expected in the current fiscal year, we are operating in a deficit environment, inherited from a culture that failed to make hard choices

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