OTHER VIEW: State needs to look toward meaningful reform

Editorials

March 11, 2010

Anonymous The Lockport Union-Sun %26 Journal Thu Mar 11, 2010, 12:15 AM EST

As New Yorkers grapple with the latest scandals enveloping their governor, the state faces some harsh fiscal realities — and the budget-approval deadline is rapidly approaching.

State leaders have to buckle down amid the turmoil and are supposed to iron out an agreement by April 1, using Gov. David Paterson’s $134 billion spending plan as a springboard. Today, the Journal concludes a question-and-answer series with state lawmakers about how New York should proceed to untangle the budget mess, in addition to finally passing meaningful ethics and other reforms.

The lawmakers were undoubtedly vague in spots. In some cases, they went after the usual suspects, including reining in Medicaid costs and reforming school property tax laws, promises the state has made for years now with little to nothing to show for those pledges.

But the lawmakers also provided a host of specifics that aren’t talked about as much, but should, indeed, be crafted into laws and policies that would bring sound changes to a state in dire need of them. Those recommendations range from enacting a spending cap not just on education but on the entire state budget, to requiring a two-thirds supermajority of state legislators before another tax or fee increase can be authorized. They include increasing SUNY tuition for out-of-state students to raise money and to bring it closer to the national average, to greatly consolidating the state’s criminal justice system. They involve renegotiating labor contracts and instituting work furloughs to cut costs, to demanding that public servants convicted of serious crimes forfeit their pensions.

The state is in dire need of strong leadership, yet it finds itself, once again, preoccupied by a governor embroiled in personal scandal and facing accusations of ethics violations.

Already confronting assertions he helped a top aide cover up an alleged attack on the aide’s girlfriend, the governor now has to answer a charge by a state commission that he violated ethics laws by getting free tickets to last year’s World Series. Yet, just weeks ago, Paterson saw fit to veto legislation aimed at improving the state’s pitiful ethics and campaign-finance laws. The governor defended the veto by saying the proposed changes didn’t go far enough. But it’s clear this state needs to see progress on many fronts, even if they are more incremental than one might hope.

Instead, immersed in political scandals, the state is losing precious time to make a series of corrections to restore some faith in public service and to bring some fiscal sanity back to Albany. The rank-and-file members of the Legislature have to continue to push for the changes they say are necessary. Collecting a paycheck from Albany and doing “constituency service” isn’t going to cut it. Paterson’s budget proposal includes cuts to health care and education and many other areas that will have impacts on the public, including major reductions in the state’s splendid parks system.

While this budget must include shared sacrifice, before any cuts are made, no good idea should sit idle or be ignored. And no lawmaker should consider his work done until he has exhausted every avenue possible to see that is the case.

— The Poughkeepsie Journal

Text Only

Editorials

OUR VIEW: Time for Mongielo to face the music
Town of Lockport auto repair shop owner David Mongielo has gone over the line in his violation of a town sign ordinance.

January 2, 2012
OUR VIEW: At dawn of New Year, a call for civility
Each new year brings with it an inherent hopefulness in our own lives and the larger world around us, this one in particular — if only because it isn’t 2011.

January 2, 2012
Have a safe New Year's Eve
This isn’t the Prohibition era, and we’re not into moralizing about alcohol consumption.
We have no beef about adults having a few drinks on New Year’s Eve, as long as no one else gets hurt in the process. Your choice — hangover, no hangover. Check yes or no.
But, with one very important proviso: Don’t drink and drive.
And we’re very much against hosts of a New Year’s Eve party sending their guests out to their cars when their guests have overindulged. Especially when there are safe options to avoid behavior that risks your life and that of others you may encounter on the road.

December 31, 2011
The bus stops here
The NFTA’s proposed cuts to local bus routes have the potential to really hurt the little guy, the rider who relies on the bus to get to work, to shop, to get to the doctor’s.
It just shouldn’t happen.

December 28, 2011
OUR VIEW: Lockport taxpayers lose again
We find it highly inappropriate that the City of Lockport — via its development corporation — is again punishing taxpayers for renovations to 57 Canal St.

April 26, 2011
CHEERS & JEERS
We applaud Lockport Town Court and Judge Leonard G. Tilney Jr. for recusing themselves from the driving-while-intoxicated case against local attorney Daniel E. Seaman due to conflict of interest.

April 26, 2011
OUR VIEW: Recharge N.Y. is a plus for us
We’re encouraged that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s visit to Niagara County this week brings a new and improved version of the Power For Jobs program to our area.

April 21, 2011
CHEERS & JEERS: The US&J’s view on the best and worst of the week
April 21, 2011
OUR VIEW: Cleanup is up the creek
New York state had an Eighteenmile Creek cleanup within its grasp — and now it’s trying to change horses in mid-stream. And that could leave the cleanup effort up the creek without a paddle.

April 21, 2011
CHEERS & JEERS: The US&J’s view on the best and worst of the week
April 21, 2011
More Editorials Headlines

Editorials

Search Results

OTHER VIEW: State needs to look toward meaningful reform

Site Map

Contact Us