Asymmetrical Information

Look, I haven't gotten into the details of the various budget proposals. As an upstater, what I do know boils down to this: Pataki's plan doesn't reduce spending; it just pushes it down to the county and local school district level, where we are facing 5-30% increases in property taxes to pay for unfunded mandates! And that's AFTER all the belt tightening cuts!

What we need is some serious reform. The bureaucracy in this state is horrendous, and the last time I looked, we had more state workers per capita than any other state. The structure of the judicial system is unwieldy. Medicaid pays for Cadillac treatment instead of providing a Ford escort. Hundreds of thousands came off the welfare roles but no welfare workers have been cut. All public entities (schools, counties, ets.) must pay union wages for new construction. Did you know that the State Ed department has ten full time employees who do nothing but check the local school districts' security measures for Regents Exams? But only two architects who have to approve all new school construction plans?

There are a lot of things wrong with the state government, but until I see an effort made to reduce the terrible inefficiencies, I would just as soon see the burden shouldered by the state and not the counties & school districts.

And yes, I'm aware that the burden ultimately falls upon the taxpayers, but the difference in who pays lies in where the money comes from. School districts rely on state aid plus property taxes. Counties rely on state aid plus property and sales taxes. The state relies on federal aid, sales taxes, lottery income, income taxes, and many many fees. The burden is spread around more when paid for at the state level. Now, if counties truly had discretion over their expenses instead of being bound by state law, then I would expect the counties to tax their citizens to pay for their own programs, but that is not the situation we have now.

There is plenty of $$ in the school aid budget, but it is not distributed in an equitable manner. As part of budget negotiations, the Assembly insists on ~38% of increase go to NYC while the Senate gets ~17% for LI. The school aid distribution has gotten more progressive over the past seven years, but it is still quite far from fair. Carl McCall got it wrong when he said upstate districts were getting too much. If you run the numbers, and look at need-resource, you'll see it is Suffolk, Nassau, Westchester, and Rockland that are receiving more than their fair share.
Also, NYC has not made the sort of local effort that it should.
(note: I'm a former Ways and Means analyst)

we spend the most in the nation on education and health care and what were school boards doing with the $4.6 billion record increase in aid and the STAR savings -- they were pocketing it.

We rely too much on the income tax that is cyclical - when incomes rise, revenue rises, spending by the state rises. When incomes go down - these clowns in Albany can't seem to cut spending - we have an $11.5 Billion hole and we still can't stop spending more money.

We need a law to cap spending at a percent of last years levels - in good times the money would be rebated to the taxpayers - in bad times the spending floor wouldn't be set so high. They just can’t stop spending in Albany any other way.

we spend the most in the nation on education and health care and what were school boards doing with the $4.6 billion record increase in aid and the STAR savings -- they were pocketing it.

We rely too much on the income tax that is cyclical - when incomes rise, revenue rises, spending by the state rises. When incomes go down - these clowns in Albany can't seem to cut spending - we have an $11.5 Billion hole and we still can't stop spending more money.

We need a law to cap spending at a percent of last years levels - in good times the money would be rebated to the taxpayers - in bad times the spending floor wouldn't be set so high. They just can’t stop spending in Albany any other way.

we spend the most in the nation on education and health care and what were school boards doing with the $4.6 billion record increase in aid and the STAR savings -- they were pocketing it.

We rely too much on the income tax that is cyclical - when incomes rise, revenue rises, spending by the state rises. When incomes go down - these clowns in Albany can't seem to cut spending - we have an $11.5 Billion hole and we still can't stop spending more money.

We need a law to cap spending at a percent of last years levels - in good times the money would be rebated to the taxpayers - in bad times the spending floor wouldn't be set so high. They just can’t stop spending in Albany any other way.

we spend the most in the nation on education and health care and what were school boards doing with the $4.6 billion record increase in aid and the STAR savings -- they were pocketing it.

We rely too much on the income tax that is cyclical - when incomes rise, revenue rises, spending by the state rises. When incomes go down - these clowns in Albany can't seem to cut spending - we have an $11.5 Billion hole and we still can't stop spending more money.

We need a law to cap spending at a percent of last years levels - in good times the money would be rebated to the taxpayers - in bad times the spending floor wouldn't be set so high. They just can’t stop spending in Albany any other way.

we spend the most in the nation on education and health care and what were school boards doing with the $4.6 billion record increase in aid and the STAR savings -- they were pocketing it.

We rely too much on the income tax that is cyclical - when incomes rise, revenue rises, spending by the state rises. When incomes go down - these clowns in Albany can't seem to cut spending - we have an $11.5 Billion hole and we still can't stop spending more money.

We need a law to cap spending at a percent of last years levels - in good times the money would be rebated to the taxpayers - in bad times the spending floor wouldn't be set so high. They just can’t stop spending in Albany any other way.

"We need a" ... duplicate post detector.

Thanks, Shawn. I didn't wuite get your post the first 4 times.

New York has the same structural problem that WIsconsin does - a disconnect between who raises government revenue and who spends it. Whenever you have state funds being sent to municipalities for the munis to spend, you have just put the munis on welfare, and you can expect them to be as irresposible as anyone else who feels entitled to free money.

This system, although it hoses the taxpayer, provides great cover for politicians. Big spending muni governments can just say "Hey, its state money! We don't have to raise your taxes for this." State governments can just look woeful and say "Sorry, but we can't control the spending at the muni level." The taxing and spending go on, no one is really accountable, and everyone (in gov't) is happy.

it was a mistake - I apologize - couldn't delete it.

Hey, relax. We in California will loan you the money.

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