A City On The Edge of the Erie

For people living near and around Rochester, New York, much of what goes on in the city could be referred to as a soap opera. It seems every time you turn around, there’s another example of poor decision politics going on. Could it be those in leadership are always looking for the quick fix instead of the right fix? Officials in Rochester have a tendency to put all of their eggs in one basket. Then, they go for government funding, and in the end, many times, the project fails.

Could it be that’s happening again with PaeTec?

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Responsible New York?

Usually when he’s referred to in the news, he’s called Rochester Billionaire Tom Golisano. He’s also the founder of Paychex and his name appears on buildings all over the Rochester, New York area. Big bucks has a way of having people name buildings after you. Of course when the person pretty much says the only way you’ll get the money is if you put my name on it, many organizations bow to the almighty dollar. Usually buildings are named after influential people after they die. It’s called a legacy and a remembrance of someone. But, such is not the case with the many Golisano named buildings in the area. It appears the man is buying a legacy.

But this could simply be the tip of the iceberg…

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Rochester, New York Announces Incentive Bonuses

While performance-based pay is commonplace in the private sector, the Mayor of Rochester, New York has decided to implement the practice at the government level. As a result of his new plan, the already cash-strapped City of Rochester, is handing out thousands of dollars in bonus pay. This plan, especially coming at this point in time, has at least three major problems.

• The economy is in a bad way.
• Mayor Duffy is handing out taxpayer money to pay huge bonuses.
• Mayor Duffy spends more time crying for money in Albany than he does at home. How can he justify this reckless spending?

All of this also comes at a time when the President of the University of Rochester, Joel Seligman, announced this week he will not take a pay increase next year because the U of R is uncertain of what will happen to their funding stream in the midst of the current economy.

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Trimming An Already Bloated Budget

Governor David Paterson’s job approval rating may have dipped to 51% this week, but one thing is for sure - New Yorkers overwhelming support his message that the state should cut spending. The question is, just how to cut that spending. The Governor is projecting a $2 billion dollar shortfall for this fiscal year, and it looks even worse, rising into the double digit billions for next year. In a recent poll, 75% of voters think the state budget gap of $2 billion should be closed by cutting spending. 10% support increasing taxes while just 9% favor borrowing money.

Earlier this week I addressed the New York State budget crisis in two other posts;

1. A Republican Money Machine
2. A New York State Stalemate

In the New York State Stalemate post I quoted a recent press release from Assembly Republican Leader Jim Tedisco which said “Some serious and substantive proposals were offered to help address New York’s mounting budget deficit.” Later in the post I mentioned I planned to ask Republican Assemblyman Brian Kolb what those proposals were. I also pointed out that I had an interview with the Assemblyman and I took some Twitter questions from people. Assemblyman Kolb had some great budget cut suggestions, and he also addressed some other key issues as well.

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Economics 101 Class Is Now In Session

The National Debt Clock near Times Square, New York
Wednesday, October 8, 2008

In the midst of the financial tailspin we now find ourselves in, the National Debt Clock in New York City ran out of digits midweek to record the growing figure. As a temporary fix, the dollar sign was switched to a figure — the ‘1′ in the now over $10 trillion dollar national debt. The Durst Organization, which takes care of the sign, says it plans to update it next year by adding two digits.

That means the updated National Debt Clock will be capable of tracking debt up to a quadrillion dollars!

If that doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what will. I don’t even know what a trillion dollars is, let alone a quadrillion! The late Manhattan real estate developer Seymour Durst put the sign up in 1989. At that time his intent was to call attention to what was then a $2.7 trillion debt. Apparently those in positions of government leadership don’t care about the debt, nor did the sign catch their attention. If the sign caught their attention, we should now be debt free!

With this in mind, while I’ve said it before, I will say it again, I am NOT an economist, but I can certainly figure this out.

So listen up governmental leaders…
The Economics 101 Class Is Now In Session!

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I’ve blogged extensively about New York State’s ‘accidental’ Governor, David Paterson. It appears he likes to make rules for others, while ignoring them for himself. At times it appears he’s making decisions in a bubble, or at least behind closed doors in either the Governor’s mansion or the Governor’s office. First he quickly moves on a budget after inheriting the office because his predecessor liked high priced call girls. In an effort to gain favor with New York State voters, he made a knee jerk reaction and passed something he didn’t have all the details on. Now, when the budget doesn’t balance, he decides to make across the board cuts.

Then, showing his ignorance of the New York State Constitution, the ‘accidental’ Governor Paterson decides to issue an edict from his office mandating that all governmental agencies and counties must start paying benefits to same-sex couples. Not only does this break the Constitution of New York State, which says “marriage is between a man and a woman”, but it also breaks the bank for many counties who are already over-mandated. The so-called mandated programs cost counties millions of dollars each year.

Now, the latest blunder by the ‘accidental’ Governor comes in the form of approving the hiring of a friend of his to a government agency. In the midst a budget crunch, and in the midst of calling for a “hiring freeze,” Governor Paterson apparently figures his “hiring freeze” words apply to everyone else, but not him.

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Preparing for the morning news run today two headlines jumped off the page at me;

• Teen Gets Maximum for 2007 Shooting
• 15 Year Old Shot and Killed

The headlines are about teens in Rochester, New York. I find it somewhat ironic that the same day two stories involve violent crimes involving teens in the City of Rochester, the latest FBI Crime Statistics report for 2006-07 says the following about New York State;

• Crime in Monroe County, which is where Rochester is located, declined by 9.3%. That’s more than two times greater than the statewide drop of 3.7%
• New York has become the fourth safest state in the nation and the safest large state in the country
• New York has had a reduction in overall crime for 17 consecutive years.

The numbers may say crime is in decline, but with what I cover day in and day out, I’d like to find out exactly how the FBI are arriving at those numbers. Especially in Rochester where it seems violent crime is up. Not only does violent crime seem to be up, but it also seems like teens killing teens crime is up.

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Only in America!

Once again the government has stepped in to bail out the rich. Last week they bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after investors refused to step up to the plate and help the companies. I addressed that in a post entitled The Government Owns Your House. Now, in the latest financial news, the government has stepped in to bail out an insurance company. That’s right folks! Once again the government is spending your money to bail out the rich simply because the rich refuse to lose any of their ill-gotten gain dollars. So, not only does the government own your house, but now the government also owns 80 percent of the company that insures that house! Of course as a spin out of the insurance company, the government also has a stake in your car, your motor home, and whatever else you might have insured through AIG.

When will this madness stop?

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It is no secret that we find ourselves in the midst of tough economic times in the United States. Unemployment rates are up and down like a toilet seat in a co-ed bathroom. Many people, especially unions, are up in arms because of outsourcing. More and more we see jobs being shipped overseas. Companies shut down, and move across a border, or overseas, where labor is cheaper. State after state after state offer various incentive packages and tax breaks to companies who decide to stay put, or expand. Millions of dollars are available for some companies as long as they’re willing to expand and employ local people.

Stack on top of this the fact that car manufacturers in the United States are cutting back and laying workers off as car sales plummet. The reason for falling car sales…high gas prices. It’s hard to believe we get excited when gas prices dip below $4 a gallon. One of the main Presidential election platforms touts the fact that we in the United States must get off our dependency on foreign oil. The nation is held captive by both big oil, and foreign oil when it comes to high gas prices. It’s also amazing to think that the U.S., while we’re running billions of dollars in the red, continues to hand out money to foreign countries like it’s nothing more than Monopoly money. And, on top of that, we export a large amount of our own oil to other countries!

But, when it comes to stupidity, I think New York State holds the corner on the market for that label. Gas prices are already sky high in New York State, well above the national average, because of high taxes. Yes, politicians in New York State recognize this as an issue, but many in Albany refuse to budge and do anything about it. Some New York State politicians are doing their best to stop the outsourcing of jobs, but is it enough. It’s no secret that young people leave the State simply because of lack of jobs, and high taxes.

Now, just when you thought outsourcing in New York State could get no worse, New York State regulators have decided to outsource electricity to Spain! That’s right folks, if everything goes through, instead of paying the utility bill in U.S. dollars, New Yorkers may soon find themselves using Pesos.

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The New York State accidental Governor, along with an activist judge, are at it again breaking the Constitution and giving no regard to what the popular vote actually wants.

First off, activist liberal left judges have been trying to change the Constitution, which by the way they have no right to do, for years. Unfortunately many have come to expect the so-called keepers of the law to break the law when it comes to the Constitution. After all, they’ve been doing it for years and no one has questioned them. But when a Governor, who’s supposed to uphold the Constitution, falls into the same category of the activist judges, then something really needs to be done.

Secondly, maybe we shouldn’t expect any kind of respect from the Governor of New York. After all, the accidental Governor Paterson landed in the position of Governor after his boss, former Governor Eliot Spitzer, got caught in the midst of a prostitution ring scandal. After Spitzer resigned, the disgraced Governor position fell to his second in command Paterson. Shortly after he took the oath of office, we suddenly started hearing confessions from the accidental Governor that he had an affair and liked cocaine at one time. I guess the apple didn’t fall very far from that corrupt Democrat tree. It appears the duo of Spitzer and Paterson both had some worms in their apples which just made them bad.

Now we’re seeing the lunacy of both an activist judge and the accidental Governor teaming up on the issue of same-sex marriages in New York State.

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