Legislature Reaches Deal On About $500M In Spending Cuts
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- August
- 19
Aid to local municipalities and schools will be spared as state lawmakers near final agreement today on cutting about $500 million from the current state budget to deal with looming revenue gaps.
Lawmakers just broke from conference at the Capitol after closed-door sessions on how to address Gov. David Paterson’s request that the state Legislature cut $600 million from the 2008-09 budget.
Aides said they will likely settle on about $500 million in cuts, including a 6 percent reduction in state spending in many programs. The goal is to pass the spending reductions in session later today.
Cuts, aides said, will include $50 million in member-item money for legislators’ pet projects in their districts, $114 million in health-care cuts through changes in Medicaid reimbursement rates, about $50 million in cuts to the City University of New York and delaying funding for a $2 billion statewide emergency communications system being tested in Erie and Chautauqua counties.
Paterson and Assembly Democrats also want additional aid to help people with home-heating bills this winter, but a deal on that seemed unlikely today.
The Democratic-led Assembly will pass bills later today to raise income taxes on people who make more than $1 million a year. The money would pay for property-tax cuts for people whose local tax payments exceed a certain percentage of their income.
But the proposal is not going to be considered in the GOP-controlled Senate, which supports capping the growth in school taxes to 4 percent a year.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 2:32 pm by Joseph Spector.
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Once again, New York must come to grips with reality. I’m not going to continue to pay confiscatory taxes in order to fund the paychecks of irresponsible union members. Government employees can’t strike; they do so every time it suits them with impunity.
A tipping point has been reached and we’re going to vote with our feet.
The rest of us are tired with whining conservatives who defend every abuse by the CEOs of the world, and think its OK to blame everything on union workers.
Look at the rip-offs in the Empire Zone program or in IDA deals…corporate welfare on a BIG scale. How about the sweetheart deals for Halliburton, or the terrific golden parachutes when Roger Kelley leaves NYPA. Or how about the shuttle door between business and appointive executive depts; the regulators in the Insurance and Banking Depts get sweet jobs in the private sector to follow.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus…but it’s not largess for the poor and the working class. It’s the big, wealthy fat cats who get fatter with friends in government.