New York Budget Cuts: Schools, Hospitals, Nursing Homes, & the Environment. Where's Obama?

[Karmadillo]

Similar cuts are being proposed in states across the nation. If we have billions and billions for the Forever War and Financial Industry bailouts, surely we have the money to prevent cuts in these essential services.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wxxi/news.newsmain/article/1/0/1566593/WXXI.Local.Stories/Paterson.Proposes.$3b.in.Budget.Cuts..Including.Mid.Year.School.Aid.Reductions

Paterson Proposes $3b in Budget Cuts, Including Mid Year School Aid Reductions

ALBANY, NEW YORK (WXXI) - Governor Paterson is proposing the first mid year school aid cuts in nearly two decades, in a package of $3 billion dollars in budget cuts that he says are "very painful" but necessary to avoid default.

The governor's plan includes $480 million dollars in mid year school aid cuts, the first since time since the early 1990's that a governor has proposed cutting education funding half way through the school year. Paterson is also seeking $287 million dollars in reductions to aid to hospitals, nursing homes and home health care, cuts that he says he is loathe to propose.

"I wonder if you could ever imagine how it feels for me, who's been an advocate for resources in all these areas, to actually participate in these cuts," said Paterson. "It is pain that is indescribable. But it is the only way to keep this state from going into default."

Paterson says the state owes billions to schools, property tax payers who benefit under the STAR program, and payments to the MTA, all of which are due in a couple of months.

"We're right up against the wall," said Paterson.

Paterson also advocates raids on environmental and clean energy funds as well as some state authorities, including Battery Park City and the Dormitory Authority. He says New York should hold another tax amnesty program, and he counts on revenues from the yet to be built gambling facilities at the Aqueduct Race Track. There are no new taxes in the plan.

more...

[AllentownJake]

1. The nation is going broke

and you are correct to question our priorities. Simply put, there is no money to pay for those things anymore.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. These are local issues and where is the local leadership on this

Public, social, and religious leaders are silent. There is no public will to support more taxes

[AllentownJake]

6. Raising Taxes isn't necessarily the solution

The entire nation is broke, you have an unemployment rate of 10% in New York and corporate income with the exception of a few players is flat or operating at a loss.

Who do you plan on raising taxes from?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

19. Have another revenue source?

[AllentownJake]

20. There is no other revenue source

We are broke. That is my point. The country is bankrupt. Assets were inflated to levels that they were never worth and people borrowed money based on the inflated assets. Translation, bankrupt.

[Hannah Bell]

22. Bloomberg could pay off NY's shortfall with his pocket change. Start there.

I'm sure there are a few other billionaires in the area who could afford to kick in too.

[AllentownJake]

23. Problem is

They are only billionaires on paper. If they started selling their assets, asset prices would decline because someone has to buy the asset.

We are living on a giant paper house of cards and it has been collapsing. Printing a bunch of money plugged the damn, but the damn is still leaking and the structure is still very weak.

[Hannah Bell]

25. NYC revenue gap (april) = $438 M. goldman sachs bonus pool in oct = 16 BILLION.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20090401/FREE/904019965

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091015-713919.html

forgive me if i don't tear my hair & garment when the media tells me to.

[AllentownJake]

27. Again

A majority of those bonuses aren't being taxed in NY. You would have to retroactively change tax law which is unconstitutional.

[Hannah Bell]

29. goldman HQ = NY.

for all others, there's the FEDERAL INCOME TAX.

& no one said anything about "retroactive". It's enough to tax next year's earnings, or every stock trade, or something similar.


Goldman Sachs offered $1.6B tax break by N.Y.C.
Daily News (NY, NY) | August 16, 2005
Byline: Paul D. Colford

Aug. 16--Goldman Sachs can be expected to build its $2 billion headquarters opposite Ground Zero -- if it follows the money.

The financial giant was promised $1.65 billion yesterday in low-cost, tax-exempt Liberty Bonds to fund construction on the now vacant parcel at West and Vesey streets.

The New York Liberty Development Corp. approved the bonds, which are part of a larger incentive package designed to keep Goldman Sachs in lower Manhattan.

City and state officials also have pledged to give Goldman Sachs $150 ...

[Walk away]

2. But the rich in NYC are dancing on the graves of the lesser folks right now.

All of those bonuses and big paydays for the Wall Street crowd are keeping the top 10% of the city happy. What is left of the middle class and the elderly residents will have to "die quickly" after they pay their taxes to help out the poor banks.

[AllentownJake]

24. The things is

Those rich folks never paid taxes in NYC. They all were living in the suburbs of NY, NJ, and CT.

[JDPriestly]

4. The TARP money -- all that bail-out money mostly went to New York.

If you New Yorkers feel you are hurting after the infusion of all that taxpayer cash, you need to consider how it is for the rest of the country -- and revise your tax code asap so that you can capture some of the bonus money back in taxes. Those bonus recipients or most of them live in your state. You have no one to blame but yourselves if you don't get that money for the treasury.

[Raineyb]

7. It went to Wall Street it didn't go to New York

Wall Street != New York

[AllentownJake]

8. Most of the companies are incorporated in other states

and have offices in New York. Most of the executives have primary residences in New Jersey or CT.

[Raineyb]

10. Thank you.

People have no idea how much money leaves the state due to commuters around here. We used to have a commuter tax to help pay for the day to day stuff that the commuters also use while they're here and Albany (who hates NYC) saw fit to get rid of it. Now we have lots of well paid executives who come into NYC to make their money then run off to their tony enclaves in CT or NJ without paying a penny in NY while using our services.

Don't get me started on the amount of tax money we pay vs what we get back from the Federal government.

[AllentownJake]

12. New York has been being robbed for years

By their neighbors and the federal government. The only place New York City was collecting taxes from Wall street was the rank and file young people and lower level executives these firms employed who enjoyed living in the city. Those people have been taking pay cuts or have been getting pink slips.

All you have to do is take a walk around Manhattan and see the empty office buildings and store fronts.

Anyone who was making the big bucks has an apartment in the city and a giant house in New Jersey, outside of New York City in New York state or Connecticut where they pay less taxes.

The rich have been playing games by pitting municipalities and states against each other for years.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

18. Incorporated elsewhere has no tax impact on NYC

[AllentownJake]

21. Actually it does

They pay their corporate income taxes in their state of domicile. Why do you there are so many states domiciled in Delaware and South Dakota?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

26. Businesses pay taxes where they have a physical nexus

Delaware has historically been used due to the structure of its corporate law.

[AllentownJake]

28. I guarentee you

that most of these firms are paying their corporate taxes elsewhere.

Even if they weren't, here is the bigger kicker. A firm can report a 3.6 billion dollar profit to its investors while reporting a loss to the government because of the way the tax law is written.

[Hannah Bell]

30. so rewrite the law. duh.

[AllentownJake]

31. Retroactive

You can't write the law retroactively. It's a constitutional thing and one of the reasons we broke away from England.

[Hannah Bell]

33. you're the only one talking "retroactive".

[AllentownJake]

35. They aren't going to have the profits next year

that they had this year. Unless they are handed another 700 billion to play with.

[Hannah Bell]

36. yes, nostradamus. i guess there's nothing to be done but eat dirt.

rich people = inviolate, only peons may be taxed.

[AllentownJake]

39. This was a legalized robbery

I'm on your side. However, with the existing laws and tax code (which they helped write) there isn't much that can be done.

The record bonuses are a cash out. If they were expecting a good business environment next year, they'd be holding more of that money to invest.

[Hannah Bell]

42. so more legalized robbery = a-ok for them, then.

[JDPriestly]

45. The people of Wall Street spend a lot of their money in New York State.

California pays way more than its share of taxes and got next to no bail-out money. That's robbery.

[lunatica]

5. California is sliding into poverty too

Who would have thought NY and CA would be poor?

[msongs]

9. ummm where are the people of New York agreeing to fund these things? nt

[HamdenRice]

11. The Stimulus bill provided $21 billion in budget relief to NY State

Looks like another round of stimulus will be needed. Perhaps the administration can dedicate the billions in profits the Treasury has earned and will continue to earn on TARP dividends, as well as the principal that is being paid back, to further state budget relief.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/nyregion/13nybudget.html

Stimulus Funds Offer Relief to City and State

By DAVID M. HALBFINGER
Published: February 12, 2009

New York State and New York City officials expressed a measured sense of relief on Thursday as they began totaling the vast sums of money for Medicaid, education, transportation and housing that could soon begin flowing here as part of the federal stimulus package.

While the anticipated aid, more than $21 billion, would close much of the city’s $4 billion budget gap and significantly narrow the state’s $14 billion deficit, Gov. David A. Paterson warned that the state deficit was widening by the day. And fiscal watchdogs cautioned against treating the money as a bailout, saying that the underlying financial problems facing local and state governments would become less manageable if they were not addressed quickly.

[AllentownJake]

13. Falling Tax Revnues on the Federal Level

and a significant portion of these firms aren't paying their dividends or TARP payments. Firms like Goldman and JP Morgan have paid it back, however holding mortgage based securities were never a key to their bottom line to begin with. They needed TARP to help them get through a quarter to cover trading losses by decreased activity.

I think it may be the time to start rethinking this entire stimulus idea. Seems to me like it is propping up an unsustainable system by printing money.

Not nationalizing and making a lot of these firms smaller after clearing their balance sheets is going to be a decision that in hindsight is going to be highly criticized.

[HamdenRice]

14. I agree with one thing you said very much ...

Which was also mentioned upthread -- and that is that budget relief for the states is propping up something that is unsustainable. Not that the states don't need the relief, but at some point, the feds are bailing out states not because they don't have the money, but because they have preposterously dysfunctional political systems.

Two of the states in the biggest trouble -- California and New York -- also have paralyzed state governments. I'm not sure whether everyone has heard about the "coup" the repugs carried out here in NY -- just shameful. The Democrats won a majority in both houses and had the governorship, when in something out of Guatemalan political history, they somehow convinced (read: bribed) two sleezy NYC state senators to switch votes in what was thought of as a symbolic doomed vote on the majority leadership, and a Democratic controlled legislature elected a repug majority leader, paralyzing the state for months. The repugs are also playing pure obstruction in California.

Both states could solve their budget crises with progressive taxes -- eg on those bonuses -- but neither state governments are functioning. At some point the administration has to ask itself whether it is its job to pay these states to continue to be paralyzed and unable to do the obvious.

[AllentownJake]

15. It is easy to critcise New York and California

Until you come to the realization that our national government is paralyzed as well. The marriage of corporate interest with the democratic party begun in the 1980s with the DLC has resulted in the hijacking of the party by a small group of "moderates" who's papal blessing is required in every single bill. These individuals, while spun as "moderates" are not really moderates at all. They have no discernible political ideology other than what is good for their campaign coffers and lobbyist or corporate employed spouses in the next election cycle.

If you need evidence of this, just take a look at the Healthcare reform bill. I also am betting when analysis is all said in done that a decent percentage of the stimulus will have been siphoned off by corporate interest in legalized fraud.

Like I said, it is easy to point a nasty finger at NY and California. It is a systemic problem and unless it is reformed within the next years, you are looking at the Kobayashi Maru of American Politics and Government.

[HamdenRice]

16. You may not be aware of what's going on in NY

It makes the federal government's efforts at health care reform look like a well oiled machine. When I say NY was paralyzed, I mean literally paralyzed. No committee meetings, no sessions, nothing.

[AllentownJake]

17. Even if they were having meetings

I have little to no faith in our leaders to solve these problems. They are too far removed, and they are too bribed.

[girl gone mad]

44. Another round of stimulus = political suicide at this point.

n/t

[anonymous171]

32. Maybe they should tax their millionaires and billionaires more.

:shrug: Just saying.

[Hannah Bell]

34. apparently impossible, all their money is fake, per some.

whereas we, the peons, have all the *real* money, & can be taxed.

[anonymous171]

37. So the people who contribute to society need to be taxed more,

while those who simply leech off of the labor of others should be exempt? What is wrong with those people!?

[AllentownJake]

40. I don't agree with it

However, with the existing laws and tax code that is the reality.

[AllentownJake]

38. Explanation

and I'm on your side here. I'll take Bloomburg as an example.

On paper he has a billion dollars. It doesn't mean that he has a billion dollars on cash you can grab from.

He has investments and a business. Now some of these investments pay dividends or interest, and some he sells and they have appreciated. Those can all be taxed. He also has a line of credit he can use based on his assets.

However, the way that the income tax system works is the peons (you and I) get a paycheck every two weeks of that it is a pretty simple calculation on what to take.

Now the laws Bloomburg is under are a lot more complex, and he pays a group of accountants and lawyers a decent salary to have him pay the least amount of tax possible each year. Since his realized investment gains are offset by his investment losses, a delicate game is played with his assets where he sells losers with winners to ensure he pays the least amount of taxes possible.

Add to that, since he has assets as collateral, he can borrow money at a low interest rate to finance anything he wishes to finance.

[Hannah Bell]

43. i repeat: in april nyc's shortfall was < $450 M. Bloomie's INCOME was $500 M. INCOME. Checks cut &

cashed. He could pay off 90% of the shortfall from his checkbook & still have median family income to live on.

Nothing to do with selling off his assets, I'm talking about his frigging INCOME. & he's not the only one.


"Bloomberg, whose income is said to be about $500 million a year, is capable of self-financing a campaign, and he has very good job ratings as mayor of New York.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/barone/2007/06/21/who-does-mayor-mike-hurt.html

[LWolf]

41. To answer your question:

Busy spending money on war in the middle east.