New York State has too many overpaid government workers.  Also, New York State has too many government workers.  Those are the pair of conclusions to take away from a disheartening study by a conservative group called the Empire Center for New York State Policy. To summarize the Channel 2 story about...

Downtown Buffalo’s most common sight might be plywood.  Regrettably, the vertically-placed sheets aren’t particularly appealing to shoppers, tourists, or potential apartment renters.  The boarding-up-unused-places industry may be booming, but numerous other aspects of the city’s economy grow...

You’d think they’d be grateful.  But the beneficiaries of our involuntary kindness are too busy punishing us for it.  New York State is planning on propping itself with tax refunds in lieu of promptly returning the overpayments to their proper owners.  A governor who amusingly thinks he could...

New York State is attempting to simultaneously help the economy and environment.  Yeah: they’ll do nothing for either.  Enticed consumers spent the weekend racing about trying to grab government entitlements for those outfitting their kitchens and basements.  They’re taking part in a transparently...

The one thing that’s better than making money is being handed some.  That’s why anyone who doubts the Earned Income Tax Credit is the most wondrous gift our benevolent government has ever bestowed upon us should read The Buffalo News. In particular, their January 31 take on the subject, helpfully...

We need government-funded trains to facilitate travel across the country.  On top of that, their construction will spur financial recovery.  That’s because it’s 1936.  Regrettably, when it comes to fixing and administering the economy, we’re still coping with a Depression mentality; further,...

Can you prove what you’re selling is yours?  Wait: why should you have to if you didn’t do anything wrong?  You’re not on trial to establish the chain of ownership for any wristwatch or DVD player you put in hock.  But you may get legally hassled anyway depending on where you are.  To wit,...

If one wants to acquire wine to enjoy with your Doritos and cookie dough, one shouldn’t have to make a second trip.  The freedom to purchase fermented grape juice on the same receipt as one’s other groceries might not be explicitly guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.  But the prohibition against...

Barack Obama wants something.  Scott Brown doesn’t.  Brown wins.  Yes, last week’s special election provided the most awesome result of all time. But it could delightfully be topped.  The one thing more fun for conservatives than the phrase “Republican Senator Number 41″...

City Hall can’t run the economy properly.  City Hall can barely run City Hall.  Buffalo has not quite been dragged into financial utopia by its government; that’s especially seen in the folly of redistributing our money among companies of the bureaucracy’s choosing.  But at least one...

New Yorkers are miserable. But at least now we know why. Specifically, a state government that eats much of your paycheck is concurrently making you sad. The phenomenon of Empire State-based dejection has been analyzed before. Now, Allysia Finley of the Wall Street Journal has highlighted a Science...

Fiscal responsibility doesn’t mean spending other people’s money before they get the chance.  Regrettably, certain governors disagree.  For one, New York executive David Paterson took a break from railing about pitfalls created by the state’s massive debt to point out how much cash same state...

It’s nice to agree with your congressperson every so often.  Concurring with one’s representative makes one feel, well, represented.  That’s true even if accord happens for some as rarely as seemingly every area of the country except Buffalo gets walloped with Christmas-week snow.  Anything...

The best summary of the social disease factory called the Woodstock Festival was offered by The Who.  The unenthusiastic participants’ perfectly crude, decidedly and awesomely not safe for work reaction both during and after the squalid affair effectively summarizes the faux idyllic colossal mud bath. ...

The City of Buffalo would like you to dine out. Please. But kindly only do so at sanctioned eateries that the local government has blessed with cash. The Buffalo News recently highlighted the specific flaws of a loan program that removes “free” from markets: City Hall lending to business...

I’m going to start smoking just to make sure I can never work for Amherst. I don’t know if my broad skill set ranging from a mediocre typing speed to the principled unwillingness to steal co-workers’ lunches from the break room fridge would make me eligible for town employment. Nonetheless,...