Thursday, March 15, 2007
NO MORE MR. NICE GUY
New York Post Editorial
The Post wants Eliot to kick some Bruno Butt...and keep kicking it until a reasonable budget is passed on time......come on..the guy is 78 yrs old.....maybe one good shot in the pants will do it??? andy
March 15, 2007 -- Eliot Spitzer gave state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno a reality check yes terday, telling Bruno he had to "get serious" about drafting a state budget - and, by the way, forcefully reminding the lawmaker of his proper place in Albany's pecking order.
Bruno had mocked the gov on a radio show hosted by The Post's Fredric U. Dicker: "Gov. Spitzer walks on water. Gov. Spitzer is infallible," Bruno whined. "Gov. Spitzer is the reincarnation of everything that is good and holy - and Bruno is evil."
Well, not evil, maybe.
Reckless regarding state finances, yes.
Putty in the hands of public-employee unions, sure.
But probably not exactly evil.
And it certainly was refreshing to see Spitzer remind Bruno of his place.
The putdown occurred in Spitzer's second-floor Capitol office, and became so heated that one of Spitzer's secretaries actually fled the room.
"There was a lot of screaming and curses," an official said.
Well, no one ever said that "changing everything" would be easy.
And Spitzer's frustration with Bruno is understandable.
The lawmaker has proposed a $120-billion budget for the coming fiscal year - the same total as Spitzer's - but which adds a staggering $3 billion in outlays to the governor's plan.
How does he do it?
Simple: He just pretends that the extra spending isn't there.
Memo to Bruno's budgeteers: Spending plans comprise two basic lines - that which comes in (known as revenues) and that which goes out (called expenses).
Traditionally, those lines are identical. And, happily, Spitzer appears to be a budgetary traditionalist.
Which is why he had earlier hinted that Ken Lay could've learned something from the august Senate leader.
"To say it's Enron accounting is to be unfair to Enron," Spitzer said. "These guys just simply took entire pieces of expenditure and said, 'Oh, you know what? It's big, we won't count it.' There's no way that their numbers would stand even minimal scrutiny."
So why would Bruno want to hide more than $3 billion in new spending?
Because if he didn't, his budget would be seen as more profligate than any plan anyone has yet proposed - or, practically speaking, imagined.
Making Bruno and his Senate Republicans the most liberal - that is to say, reckless - spenders in state history.
Spitzer already is proposing to burn through $120.6 billion next year.
That's a whopping 9 percent increase over last year. Thomas DiNapoli, the new state comptroller, calls that growth "unsustainable" - "almost two times faster than revenues" and "21/2 times the rate of inflation."
Bruno clearly believes the GOP's days as the majority party in the Senate are numbered.
So he's beat a hasty path to the left by restoring much of Spitzer's $1.3 billion slowdown in spending for the "health care" cartel, adding to the gov's healthy boosts in school spending and even throwing billions more to taxpayers in the form of rebate checks.
Yet, using Bruno's budgeting tricks, it's all free money.
His bottom line magically remains the same as Spitzer's.
It's time to end government by Ouija board.
If Spitzer is going to put a stop to it, he has to get tough - just like yesterday,
And, as we suspect (and hope), he will again and again - as many times as it takes to get the message across.
Kick butt, governor.
They have it coming.
The Post wants Eliot to kick some Bruno Butt...and keep kicking it until a reasonable budget is passed on time......come on..the guy is 78 yrs old.....maybe one good shot in the pants will do it??? andy
March 15, 2007 -- Eliot Spitzer gave state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno a reality check yes terday, telling Bruno he had to "get serious" about drafting a state budget - and, by the way, forcefully reminding the lawmaker of his proper place in Albany's pecking order.
Bruno had mocked the gov on a radio show hosted by The Post's Fredric U. Dicker: "Gov. Spitzer walks on water. Gov. Spitzer is infallible," Bruno whined. "Gov. Spitzer is the reincarnation of everything that is good and holy - and Bruno is evil."
Well, not evil, maybe.
Reckless regarding state finances, yes.
Putty in the hands of public-employee unions, sure.
But probably not exactly evil.
And it certainly was refreshing to see Spitzer remind Bruno of his place.
The putdown occurred in Spitzer's second-floor Capitol office, and became so heated that one of Spitzer's secretaries actually fled the room.
"There was a lot of screaming and curses," an official said.
Well, no one ever said that "changing everything" would be easy.
And Spitzer's frustration with Bruno is understandable.
The lawmaker has proposed a $120-billion budget for the coming fiscal year - the same total as Spitzer's - but which adds a staggering $3 billion in outlays to the governor's plan.
How does he do it?
Simple: He just pretends that the extra spending isn't there.
Memo to Bruno's budgeteers: Spending plans comprise two basic lines - that which comes in (known as revenues) and that which goes out (called expenses).
Traditionally, those lines are identical. And, happily, Spitzer appears to be a budgetary traditionalist.
Which is why he had earlier hinted that Ken Lay could've learned something from the august Senate leader.
"To say it's Enron accounting is to be unfair to Enron," Spitzer said. "These guys just simply took entire pieces of expenditure and said, 'Oh, you know what? It's big, we won't count it.' There's no way that their numbers would stand even minimal scrutiny."
So why would Bruno want to hide more than $3 billion in new spending?
Because if he didn't, his budget would be seen as more profligate than any plan anyone has yet proposed - or, practically speaking, imagined.
Making Bruno and his Senate Republicans the most liberal - that is to say, reckless - spenders in state history.
Spitzer already is proposing to burn through $120.6 billion next year.
That's a whopping 9 percent increase over last year. Thomas DiNapoli, the new state comptroller, calls that growth "unsustainable" - "almost two times faster than revenues" and "21/2 times the rate of inflation."
Bruno clearly believes the GOP's days as the majority party in the Senate are numbered.
So he's beat a hasty path to the left by restoring much of Spitzer's $1.3 billion slowdown in spending for the "health care" cartel, adding to the gov's healthy boosts in school spending and even throwing billions more to taxpayers in the form of rebate checks.
Yet, using Bruno's budgeting tricks, it's all free money.
His bottom line magically remains the same as Spitzer's.
It's time to end government by Ouija board.
If Spitzer is going to put a stop to it, he has to get tough - just like yesterday,
And, as we suspect (and hope), he will again and again - as many times as it takes to get the message across.
Kick butt, governor.
They have it coming.
