A Budget Nightmare In Albany
Tags: State Legislature, State Senate
Some would argue that when Republicans were in control in the state senate, things weren’t all that great… True or not, I can’t imagine anyone arguing that Democrats have done any better.
New York’s top bean counter warned Sunday of a “budget free fall that none of us can afford” caused by a dire drop in tax revenue and the ongoing Senate circus.
State Controller Thomas DiNapoli didn’t even shy away from the C-word – California, which is so broke it issued vendors IOUs last week – in describing New York’s worsening financial picture.
“It’s not fair to say we’re quite at the same point as California, but we certainly have a budget that appears not to be holding together,” DiNapoli told the Daily News yesterday.
He said his office is still crunching the final June revenue numbers, but confirmed New York brought in far less money than expected for the third month in a row.
It now seems certain the Legislature and Gov. Paterson will need to agree to yet another round of midyear budget cuts – perhaps as soon as August.
Granted, the stalemate that is going on as a result of the Republican coup is not helping. I think Republicans should let the Democrats keep their majority status, and let’s see if they can prove themselves te be leaders in the midst of a crisis. Granted, I have no faith that Senate Democrats have even the faintest idea of how tofix any of the state’s problems, but I do have faith that whatever mistakes they make the voters will fix at tho ballot box in the coming elections.
Republicans should let Democrats have the majority they won in November. It is up to us to decide whether they should keep it.
Matt Margolis is co-author (with Mark Noonan) of Caucus of Corruption: The Truth About The New Democratic Majority. He also blogs at Blogs For Victory. Follow Matt on Twitter.