Albany's Insanity

This is exactly the type of corruption that will continue to keep New York in the pit of economic doom. It is good to be KING, King Silver… Isn’t there any Federal authority with a set of brass ones to go after corruption like this? Surely we can’t rely on our Attorney General to go after his BOSS, Shelly the King. Shelly is everyone’s boss isn’t he? He does what ever he wants, he orders his assembly members around, tells them how to vote, he demands respect from them or they lose their seats as committee chairman, committee members, will hold back any funding for their district or their re-election.

Everyone know it goes on and do nothing, nothing to stop it…. Are we happy yet New York?

IT’S GOOD TO BE SPEAKER – New York Post

One of New York’s more puzzling public-policy questions has just been answered: the mystery of just why the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. continues to exist.

It seems that the otherwise-useless agency has evolved into Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s political piggy bank – doling out millions in tax dollars to his favorite community groups.

That’s what some of the agency’s own board members told The Post’s Tom Topousis, who took a close look at LMDC grants to local organizations that have previously benefited from Silver’s largesse: They’ve more than tripled in just two years.

Indeed, the LMDC’s grant list has become a virtual mirror image of Silver’s longtime member-items roll.

This from an agency that serves no useful purpose. And which, 16 months after the fire that took the lives of two of New York’s Bravest, has made scant progress on demolishing the Deutsche Bank building – a deathtrap that should have been down long before that blaze.

Why does the LMDC still exist?

Mayor Bloomberg terms the agency “a redundant layer of bureaucracy.” And he’s right: the LMDC is one of just 19 separate public agencies overseeing the rebuilding lower Manhattan. Moreover, scrapping the LMDC and its 50-person staff would save $4.2 million in salaries alone.

Actually, it was supposed to close up shop at the end of 2006 – but incoming Gov. Eliot Spitzer rescued it from the scrap heap, installing his own incompetent deputy, Avi Schick, as chairman.

Two years later, Spitzer is long gone – but the LMDC refuses to die. And Schick is still in charge.

And now, it seems, we know why: It has a guardian angel – and the most powerful one it could find, to boot.

That would be Sheldon Silver.

This is a huge problem all over the state and country. Our big problem is we have to pay, yes we, the taxpayers, we have to pay for any and all losses to the pension system for our thousands of retired state, city, county and government workers.

The people of New York will once again leave in droves.

CITY PENSION NIGHTMARE – New York

The city’s five pension funds have lost close to 30 percent in the Wall Street crisis this year – threatening to hit taxpayers like an economic tsunami for years to come, experts are warning.

An estimated $30 billion in recent pension investment losses – a bloodbath tied to the market downturn – would have to be covered by the city’s operating budget starting in 2010.

“This is a scary situation. The losses are so big it could overwhelm the city,” said John Murphy, former executive director of the New York City Employee Retirement System, the largest pension fund.

NYCERS alone lost $3.5 billion in the three months ending Sept. 30, a report shows. It lost about twice as much in the disastrous months since then, Murphy said.

Similar losses by four other pension funds, for police, firefighters, teachers and other city employees, bring total assets down $30 billion from more than $100 billion a year ago, Murphy and other sources estimate.

By law, the city must make up the difference when the pension funds earn less than 8 percent a year. The city can spread the cost of plugging that gap over the following six years.

Is this another Paterson tax that will backfire? Just like cigarettes they say we are doing this to get people to quit by making it too expensive to buy but if everyone did, the state would be desperately looking for yet another Twinkie Tax. Or like some people like to call them “Sin Tax”.

When the hell will we see some real tax reform in this state? Ever?

New Yorks Soda Tax Scam

New York Governor David Paterson has proposed to levy an 18 percent tax on non-diet soft drinks under the guise of combating obesity. Government doesn’t get much more cynical than this.

After alleging that “almost one in four New Yorkers under age 18 are obese,” Paterson’s budget proposal for 2009-2010 asserts that, “Significant price increases should discourage individuals, especially children and teenagers, from consumption and help fight obesity which results in higher risk for diabetes and heart disease.” So the purpose of the tax, according to proposal, is to discourage people from drinking non-diet soft drinks.

The proposal then estimates that the tax will raise $404 million during 2009-2010 and — get this — $539 million during 2010-2011. Since tax revenues from non-diet soft drink sales are budgeted to increase rather than decrease — as one might expect from the alleged purpose of the tax — Paterson actually seems to be counting on the tax not working. Combating obesity is not grounds for the tax; it is, instead, camouflage for it — and not very good camouflage at that.

In his Dec. 18 New York Times paean to the tax, columnist Nicholas Kristof ominously intoned that, “The average American consumes about 35 gallons of non-diet soda each year and gets more added sugar from soda than from desserts.” Read more–>

Paterson is looking everywhere to close the budget gap except where he should be. Gambling? Do we really need more gambling? Have you ever had to stand in line at your local Wilson Farms store waiting for the one and only cashier to finish with a Lotto customer? Usually it is someone with a bunch of different numbers to play and each one for a different day and drawing. It’s very aggravating. But you know “a dollar and a dream” or “Hey, you never know”. those stupid ad words just to sell more lotto tickets.

Typical corrupt Albany thinking and legislation…. How else can we screw the taxpayers of New York.

Paterson looks to gambling to close budget gap

Gov. David Paterson is seeking a major expansion of gambling in New York, proposing to let the state enter more multi-state lotteries and increase the hours of operation for Quick Draw games and video-lottery parlors.

In his 2009-10 budget proposal, Paterson would let the state Lottery Division seek inclusion in other multi-state lotteries, possibly the 29-state Powerball game and even international lotteries, state officials said. New York participates in the 12-state Mega Millions lottery.

Paterson would also let the state Lottery more aggressively invest the $1.3 billion lottery fund used to pay jackpot winners. Currently, the state Lottery invests in conservative U.S. Treasury notes, which have historically garnered about 4 percent in interest a year.

But lottery officials, particularly when the economy improves, believe that they can get better returns by hiring a private investment firm to manage the money. Read more–>

This is what happens when you just haphazardly throw together legislation. How will you handle this Governor, what kind of crafty way will our legislators figure out how to do this? How to tax us without taxing the Indians and without forcing the Reservations into being a collection agency for the government?

Separating the taxes is going to be the challenge for this state as the Judge sees it and I do. Taxing them at the distributor before they head off to the Reservation will tax the Indians so they had better re think this plan.

Judge issues restraining order against Indian cigarette law

A State Supreme Court judge has issued a restraining order which prevents the new Indian cigarette law from being enforced until a hearing next month.

On December 14, Governor Paterson signed into law a bill which holds wholesalers responsible for making sure there’s a tax on cigarettes sold in Indian nation stores.

But an attorney representing a tobacco wholesaler and a tobacco seller asked for the temporary restraining order because the Department of Taxation and Finance had not set up all necessary rules.

Those rules include an exemption for Indians from having to pay taxes on cigarettes purchased on Indian nations’ territories.

The law was to go into effect 60 days after Paterson signed it. A State Supreme Court hearing is scheduled for January 27 in Buffalo to address the law and the issues in the temporary restraining order.

In November, two Cayuga Nation-owned Lake Side Trading convenience stores in Cayuga and Seneca counties were raided by county sheriff’s departments on November 25. Millions of untaxed cigarettes were seized.