Hayseeds No. 252

Monday, April 7, 2008

NY Budget Unsustainable? Apparently many experts think the budget is too big, and that they will have to trim spending—after the election—to make sure the state has enough cash to fill out the year next December in a lame-duck session.

Fears the still-unfinished state budget will unravel later this year as tax collections are pinched by the worsening economy are hanging over final deliberations in the Capitol like a storm cloud.

Gov. David A. Paterson and legislative leaders were loath last week to discuss the prospect of reopening the 2008-09 budget for spending cuts or tax increases, or both, to cover a winter deficit. But rank-and-file lawmakers privately acknowledged the possibility and experts said it was a certainty.

"There is money in this budget that won't be there in December," said Barbara Bartoletti of the League of Women Voters, who has observed budget-making for more than 25 years. "They are going to have to come back and cut things that they put in."

That is not be unexpected. But we have to wonder what will be cut in December and whether or not we could avoid such deep end of the year cuts by planning out our finances better now.

The good news is however, despite all the budget's weight, it's does spend on a lot of needy projects, and doesn't cut the heart out of a lot of good things. But still, it's unsustainable by any body's estimate.

Read Experts: NY State budget will need revise later in Newsday. P'Link

People Buying Lots of Illegal Smokes. A lot of people are going to Indian Reservations to buy cigarettes tax free and violate state tax laws. Not just a few people, but an awful of people.

Cigarettes are sold tax free on tribal lands in New York, and the savings are eye-popping. Once lawmakers approve the state's latest hike, crafted last week, smokers will be able to avoid $2.75 in taxes per pack by buying on the reservation. The discount jumps to $4.25 if you factor in the municipal tax added in New York City.

That huge price difference is one of the reasons why smoke shops on New York's Indian reservations sold nearly 304 million packs of cigarettes last year _ nearly a third of the state's recorded total.

The numbers are equally eye-popping when broken down by reservation. The Poospatuck reservation, with a population of about 270, accepted shipment of about 100 million packs of cigarettes last year—enough to supply every smoker in New York City with a pack a day for 3 months, according to the state's finance department.

It's a big savings if you smoke to go to an Indian Reservation. And you know that the chances of getting caught are almost none, so why not?

Read As states hike tobacco taxes, concern grows over black market in Newday. P'Link

Medicaid Reimbursements Vary Greatly Nationally. It turns out that even if your lucky enough to be a Medicare recipient and die in a high-quality hospital, the amount government is paying can very greatly.

New research shows huge, unexplained variations in the amount, intensity and cost of care provided to Medicare patients with chronic illnesses at the nation’s top academic medical centers, raising the possibility that the government could save large amounts of money.

In a report being issued on Monday, Dartmouth researchers say that total Medicare spending in the last two years of life ranges from an average of $93,842 for patients who receive most of their care at U.C.L.A. Medical Center to $53,432 at the Mayo Clinic’s main teaching hospital in Rochester, Minn.

That is amazing. Taxpayers should be paying a reasonable amount for care of our sick, but the rate should be consistent and reasonable, and not subject to playing by those who want to abuse the system. Everybody should get the fair amount for their benefit and no more or less.

Read Researchers Find Huge Variations in End-of-Life Treatment in the New York Times. P'Link

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Challenging A Cowed Congress. It seems in passing the so-called homeland security act to build a wall along the Mexican border, they gave the Secretary of Homeland Security unlimited power to override any laws that he found inconveniencing the progress of such a project.

Last week, Mr. Chertoff issued waivers suspending more than 30 laws he said could interfere with “the expeditious construction of barriers” in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. The list included laws protecting the environment, endangered species, migratory birds, the bald eagle, antiquities, farms, deserts, forests, Native American graves and religious freedom.

The secretary of homeland security was granted the power in 2005 to void any federal law that might interfere with fence building on the border. For good measure, Congress forbade the courts to second-guess the secretary’s determinations. So long as Mr. Chertoff is willing to say it is necessary to void a given law, his word is final.

The delegation of power to Mr. Chertoff is unprecedented.

I hope that the courts rein in both Congess and the President. No single man in a democracy should ever be given the power to overturn any law unilaterally in a democracy. The president has always been in the past subject to an override by congress, the courts have always been able to challenge laws except in a few limited cases—which even those one test the reading of the constitution.

Congress should have known better, and I would hope the Democratic Congress would start to pull some power back from the Presidency. We learned from Richard Nixon what an imperial presidency can be like, and it was not a good thing for sure.

Read Challenges Arise to Border Fence Project - New York Times. P'Link

To Cap Or Not To Cap. The Property Tax Cap Commission has been investigating it's pros and cons as it tries to make consensus the politically difficult question whether or not to cap property taxes.

On Monday, during an informational meeting on the Commission on Property Tax's progress, attendees heard some arguments against a tax cap, which has been touted as a way to reduce property taxes in the state, tops in the nation.

A tax cap would place a limit on how much property taxes could increase annually.

While the idea is popular with taxpayers and some politicians, school officials and teachers unions worry that it would create unrealistic limits on spending.

Realistically, we all know that at they are not going to do a property tax cap in New York, even if that would encourage some sort of fiscal discipline in our schools. The teacher's unions would have everybody's heads on a platter for that, and would support any candidate who opposed a tax cap.

But it's a good idea, pared with strict limitations on new mandates handed down to schools and ample state school aid. There is no reason that school budgets should increase several times the rate of inflation, except that they are expanding their services beyond a point of being affordable.

It's mostly a case of a nickel here and a nickel there going to good causes at our schools. But the road to hell is paved by little good acts, done unrestrained and without a broader picture. Everybody agrees the cute little disabled kid should get the more expensive paint set to do at school, but add little things like that over time, and it adds up.

A school tax cap would tell schools, no more. It would also force the teacher unions to stop pressing just for more money from the state, but also to lobby against new mandates on schools—no matter how small they are. Kids get a decent education now, and increasing the number of defibrillators in schools or the number of security cameras, will have at best a marginal impact on the quality of education.

Read Taking tax cap's measure in the Times Union. P'Link

State Ends Plan to Greatly Decrease Medicaid Reimbursements to Counties. Former Governor Spitzer's plan to decrease state aid for welfare and Medicaid to 48% is now dead. This is great news for everybody who was concerned that this would amount to nothing less then a major tax hike by the counties.

Gov. David Paterson on Friday said he is giving up on proposals in former Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s executive budget to shift some welfare and juvenile justice costs onto the counties.

The Spitzer plan, which had drawn opposition from county governments and state legislators, would have increased the county share for welfare benefits from 50 percent to 52 percent for adults and families on public assistance for more than five years (meaning they have exhausted federal welfare benefits). For families on public assistance for less than five years, Spitzer had proposed increasing the local share from 25 percent to 27 percent.

Those county shares will now stay at 50 percent and 25 percent, said Jeffrey Gordon, spokesman for Paterson’s Budget Division. Spitzer had hoped to save the state $40.5 million by making the changes.

I know at lot of people in local government and taxpayers alike who will be very happy about this proposal. Counties are forced to administer Medicaid and Welfare based on state rules, but are also required to pay a big portion of this.

Forcing counties to take over even more would be terrible idea, and it's great the state has found a way to avoid this horrific proposal by former Governor Spitzer.

Read Counties won’t face welfare hike. P'Link

Listen to General Petratus' Report. You can listen to it live on the WAMC Radio below on the streaming Mp3 file linked to this page.

It's really important to keep up with what's happening to war and see how the different presidential candidates asked the tough questions for General Petrarus.

Alternatively open directly up in your media player that plays MP3 files. P'Link

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

New York To Have A Budget Today. It's almost a certain thing now with the bills admended for passage in a session that is suppost to start around 12 Noon today.

This will allow members to leave by 3 or 4 PM so they can be home before too late tonight, and return to their regular schedule of district events, bright and early Thursday morning.

Here is the updated status of the budget:

The Times Union looks at the final budget proposal as a whole and many of the local projects that will benefit from the pork brought home by Canestrari and Bruno. P'Link

Legislative Ethics Commission is Non-Existant. Apparently the legislature has yet to appoint any members to make the commission a reality, nor have they gotten around to creating a website, as required by law, to post the commission's opinions.

Much like the past six months, they say they've been very focused on the budget, with no time to waste an unimportant things like legislative ethics. P'Link

You Too Can Run for Congress. While I lost track of how many Democrats are now running for the NY 21st district, John Artkesis is now adding his name to the list.

I will be interested to see how many people actually get the required number of signatures to have ballot access in September. Probably 3 or 4 people—but who knows. Most of those people are just having a good old time stroking their egos, and feeling good raising a few bucks here and there, and getting to drive over the 5 or so counties in the Congressional district.

It must be nice to take a summer off from work and travel the Mohawk Valley. Who can beat doing that? Plus, if a few of your friends give you a few bucks, then you can spend some of that money to fill your car up, pay to go to classy parties, and have some purty palm cards.

On September 9th, while there may be some smaller candidates on the ballot, it will to mostly a race between Tracy Brooks and Phil Steck. While I think Tracy Brooks will enjoy some of the support of traditional Democratic organizations in the city and womens groups, she does face an uphill battle, being viewed as the establishment candidate.

All the good Democrats who used to live in the City of Albany, now live in Colonie, and they are likely to vote for a local boy (Phil Steck), rather then Tracy Brooks whose connections to the suburbs of our county are not nearly as strong.

Of course, if Paul Tonko gets in the race, he will blow both of them our of the water. But that's becoming increasingly unlikely as his support is drying up as it gets thrown to the two other strong candidates of Steck and Brooks. P'Link

Plattsburgh To Gain A NOVA Bus Plant. Providing as many as 435 jobs, the plant would assemble transit buses similiar to many of the buses that CDTA now uses.

That's great economic development news for the North Country and will certainly help out a lot of people. P'Link

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Former Candidate to Seek McHugh Seat. For all of us who wanted to see 2 more years of McHugh, it seems like he won't be having any real opponent again this year.

It's a difficult district for a challenger to mount a serious challenge in—be it Democrat or Republican. The enrollment is not as heavily Republican as one might think, but the media markets are so expensive and diverse, that a challenge, unless your already very famous and well known is nearly impossible. P'Link

Hillary Clinton Was The Director of Walmart: So what? In one of the most amazingly dumb stories of the whole campaign year, some activists are trying to make a big deal that she was on the board of Walmart and served a stint as it's director.

I'm not sure why people hate Walmart so much like. I love that store, but I also have the ability to limit how much money I spend there, and only get things I really need. Tell me which other big box stores are superior to Walmart. Tell me where I can get all the same products I get at Walmart without supporting another mega-corporation. How is Price Chopper or Hannaford or CVS any better then Walmart?

Walmart is not infallible either. It's likely to be replaced by another big chain or otherwise collapse by it's own weight. It's certainly had enough public relations problems in the past. Regardless, I don't see how it's much worst then any of the other stores out there. Remind me where are the local businesses anymore? I think most of them disappeared not with Walmart, but with the event of K-Mart, Sears, JC Penny, and all of the other big businesses.

Read Hillary Clinton: The Wal-Mart Videos from the Center for Public Integrity. P'Link

Friday, April 11, 2008

Ubuntu 8.04. The April update to Ubuntu, the Linux Operating System I use on my laptop will be coming around May 1st. The beta is currently avaliable online.

I'm not upgrading right now, as I really don't want to break my libc while I'm playing with my laptop. But maybe later this weekend. I'm not as much of a linux nut as I once was, but I find it to be a functional operating system that is free, and works beautifully on my laptop.

So if your considering trying something new on your computer, think about trying Ubuntu Linux. It's really easy to install, and for the most part (ie. when things don't break), very easy to use. P'Link