Politics on the Hudson

No need for lieutenant governor’s office

Posted by: Gerald McKinstry - Posted in Uncategorized on Aug 07, 2008

With David Paterson’s elevation to governor, his old lieutenant’s post has been slashed from the state budget. The position won’t be replaced until the November 2010 election, Assemblyman George Latimer tells us.  That means there’s no need to fund that office and its $1.37 million expense, Latimer says. It won’t be funded next year, either. Staffers there are to be reassigned to other state vacancies, Latimer says.   

 

 

 

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7 Responses to “No need for lieutenant governor’s office”

1. JOHN August 7th, 2008 at 12:12 pm

   How come it has taken so long for this happen?

   What has the staff

   been doing since we have not had a Lieutenant Governnor?

2. From Westchester August 7th, 2008 at 12:57 pm

   Is anyone surprised that A) there is no reason to have a Lieutenant Governor and B) that Assemblyman Latimer should recognize this, because C) he lusted after the job?

3. ed1 August 7th, 2008 at 1:31 pm

   “And in order to be sure not to turn this saved money back to the financially imploding state, we are reassigning staffers to other paper-shuffling activities. Thank you for your money and attention, and good night.”

4. Mary August 7th, 2008 at 2:16 pm

   What has the staff been doing since Patterson has been the Governor?

5. Paul August 7th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

   They are all political hacks and it must change.

6. Tim Hays August 8th, 2008 at 10:56 am

   The office of Lieutenant Governor should indeed be abolished.

   Just ask Stan Lundine or Al DelBello.

   The last worthwhile Lt. Gov. was Malcolm Wilson.

   We save a million here, a million there, and pretty soon you’ve got a budget in-line with the people’s wants. In New York, we never want to get to the “Ev Dirksen” tipping point (“a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”)

7. WaltTrombone August 8th, 2008 at 12:01 pm

   You mean we’re not there already, Tim?

   Getting rid of the Lt. Gov position probably isn’t as easy as just stop funding it. There’s probably something in the State Constitution about a line of succession, in case the Governor can’t do that Governing thing. It seems that we have no requirement to actually replace a Lt. Gov who gets moved up, so it’s entirely appropriate to stop funding the office in the interim. I’d bet it would take an amendment to the Constitution to eliminate the post entirely, though. Perhaps it could be changed so that the State Comptroller, or AG would be next in line, and then you’d have an actual job to do while waiting for the next scandal to bring down the Governor.

   ;-)