A good beginning and this follows perfectly with the last two articles.

Reviving New York - The New York Sun
Reviving New York

For three terms or the last 12 years, Governor Pataki’s administrations have produced little more than statewide economic stagnation. Some critics might even say these years produced retrogression.

If spending is one criterion of administrative drift, it is notable that the state budget went from $62 billion in 1995 when Mr. Pataki took office to today’s $110 billion.

It is instructive that the governor ran as a fiscal conservative vowing to control spending. So much for campaign promises.

It is also revealing that the Cato Institute’s report card of governors gave Mr. Pataki an A grade for “controlling expenses” in his first year in office, even though the so-called reduction involved financial legerdemain, to wit, transferring many social costs to off-budget expenditures. His final term grade is a generous D. As the recent Cato report noted, “He ended up as a big spender seemingly hell-bent on overturning anything good he had done in his first term.”

Now New York has a new governor and an old mess. Governor Spitzer not only has to try to clean up the errors of the past, he also has to pave a road for himself. Here then are 10 ideas that might set him on a useful course of action.

First, the governor ought to eliminate Member Items, which are appropriations earmarked for Assembly and Senate members. Although this is “only” a several hundred million dollar budget item, it reflects a legislature with provincial, rather than statewide interests. These expenditures are tantamount to a campaign fund, since providing lacrosse equipment or funding a cheese museum, which actually were items, simply gives incumbents exposure and photo opportunities. If the governor is serious about cutting expenses, this is an easy way to begin.