Written on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 11:48pm by Christopher Smith | 2 Comments

State Budget Woes and Public Unions

It’s that time of year.

Immediately following election season, we are deluged with a different series of radio, print and TV advertisements.  They come from state public employee unions describing a  New York State that intends to return criminals to the street and will kick your sick old Nana to the curb.  Based upon their description, the entire state will descend into an alternate reality version of 28 Days Later if cuts are made to the state budget.

Of course, they have solutions!  These are solutions that our state legislators haven’t considered and will allow for normalcy to continue without one iota of sacrifice from public employees!  Everyone wins!  Well, except for the rest of us who are, ummm, not public employees.

Their big ideas for closing our $10,000,000,000 budget shortfall?

- Raise taxes on the wealthy

- Reduce consultant costs by instituting a freeze on all new consultant contracts and hiring more state employees

- Enact the Bigger, Better Bottle Bill (aka the answer to everything)

- Eliminate or severely restrict overtime by hiring full-time employees to handle the overtime hours.

They have other recommendations, but they are primarily focused on either finding new tax revenue or putting in place cost controls that directly benefit the unions.  Nowhere in any of their proposals will you find suggestions for spending cuts.  You may be saying to yourself, “Geek, why does this surprise you?  Why would they advocate for something which would harm their membership?”

Well, I’m not surprised.  But, I do yearn for a day when the first thing we think about in this state isn’t how to bilk more fees from LLC’s or finding new and exciting ways to generate revenue, it’s to think about what extraneous programs and authorities we can cut.

Just thought I’d share my dream with you.

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2 Comments

  1. Pauldub says:
    November 12, 2008 at 7:05 am

    Don’t forget we can balance the budget if we just start collecting those cigarette taxes from those pesky Indians!

  2. Jane says:
    December 19, 2008 at 2:27 pm

    The unions ARE going to take a hit. The Dept. of Corrections (DOCS) plans to close all of its minimum security camps and had already begun “consolidating” other prisons earlier this year. The displaced corrections officers will be transferred to other parts of the state (away from their families and homes) or laid off. The prisons left are already operating above 100% capacity, but DOCS consistently lies about that. Does it seem fair to stick it to the corrections officers (and their union NYSCOPBA) when the prison superintendants each make $100,000+ salaries, get state vehicles and gas cards for them, get free state housing and spend most of their time driving said state vehicles around instead of working?? Now there is a place to start cutting. Make 1 superintendant responsible for an entire prison hub instead of 1 prison…for the SAME pay and perks or make them all give up the perks and take a pay cut. I’m sure these types of salaries/perks for very little work are rampant throughout the state’s different departments. CUT FROM THE TOP DOWN!!! And yes, the state does plan to release criminals bac onto the street early as part of the new budget. Read the Dept. of Corrections or public safety sections for yourself or go to NYSCOPBA.org for a different version of the state’s “truth” about NYS prison capacity.