So here is how it went down. Mayor de Blasio is trying very hard to make good on one of his many campaign promises. He promised to raise income taxes on those evil rich people who make $500,000 or more to expand his idea of universal pre-K education in the NYC schools. In true socialist fashion, that would only be the cost of a Starbuck latte to these evil rich people. They can afford it.
Well, our Governor Cuomo one-upped him by offering to allocate state funds to NYC to fund the program so that no new taxes needed to be levied. It went something like this:
The scene opens to two men sitting in their executive offices on opposite sides of the stage deep in a phone conversation...
Mayor de Blasio: "Wahh, wahh, wahh! I must raise taxes on the rich to fund universal pre-K! I promised! It is my voter-mandated mission! IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN!"
Gov. Cuomo: "Hey, that Pre-K thing sounds great, but I think that we can do it without raising taxes! Just let's us know your plan and if the state legislature agrees, we can fund it through the state. Oh, and just so you know, in order to raise income taxes, you have to get approval from the state legislature. 'kay? It says that right in the state Constitution, 'kay? [And under his breath very quietly] And frankly, I am not inclined to raise taxes for anyone in the state in an election year. Understand? But, hey, friend, come to Albany and we can talk."
Mayor de Blasio: "Okay, I will come to Albany. But wait, you're a Democrat and I'm a Democrat. We MUST raise taxes. It's what we do! There is no other way! And anyway, if we were to take the money from the state, then the state could one day take that money back and the where would the children be? Out on the street, that's where! These are 4 years old, for God sake! They can't get jobs because they don't know how to use glue and scissors! And who will teach them not to run with scissors if we don't. IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN!"
Gov Cuomo: "Yeah, the children. I get it. Just come to Albany."
Phones slam and the scene fades to a politically-correct "lack of light"...
So a joint Senate-Assembly meeting was held in Albany this week in which the chronically-late Mayor de Blasio and his entourage of 18 City Council members arrived to explain their grand plan and answer questions. [Yeah, our new Mayor is not a "morning" person, so he is habitually late to meetings...about that later.]
Well, this is when the trouble really started. De Blasio made his case and insisted that the only way to fund mandatory Pre-K classes in NYC is to raise taxes. After he finished, the questions started. One of our fine (and few) Republican state legislators asked "Why do you need to raise taxes when we are offering you money so you don't have to and..." And yes, the big reveal comes next. It seems our former Mayor Bloomberg left NYC in pretty good shape fiscally and left us with a $4.8 billion (yes, that's with a "B") surplus that could be used just for this very plan. Uh, say what? We have a $4.8billion surplus??
After sputtering about and defiantly insisting that he would raise taxes with or without legislative approval, de Blasio admitted that he had ear-marked the surplus funds to fulfill other campaign promises. When pressed he finally admitted it was to be used for the pending contract "negotiations" with the many city union employees who haven't had new contracts in three years. And by "negotiations" he meant rewarding his Union buddies with promised raises for getting out the vote...er...uh...the great job they are doing for the city. Oops, this didn't go over well.
Let's see who wins this one. My bet is on Gov. Cuomo.
And speaking of taxes - despite the commercials airing your various states about how tax and business friendly New York is, our state has been ranked #1 on the list of "10 Worst States" for taxes. We're #1! We're #1!
Oh, yeah, our new Mayor apparently has a tardiness problem. To the annoyance of just about everyone including the press corps, he chronically keeps people waiting sometimes up to an hour to meet with him. It's gotten to be a "thing".
Finally - Just in case you haven't heard, New York, or more accurately, New Jersey is hosting the Super Bowl this year. Don't ask why. The NFL in their infinite wisdom decided to break with the tradition of holding the Super Bowl in weather-friendly locations, to hold it in an open-air stadium in the Northeast in February...with a blizzard coming. It's going to be fun for all - the crowds, the parties, the 20-degree temperatures...ah, good times. If you want tickets, I hear they are plenty still available and the price is crashing by the day. I can't understand why though.
30 comments:
I have this awful feeling that things are falling apart. It just seems that the people in charge, of everything, the government, industry, cities, the military and the NFL have all developed a case of the galloping dumb-ass. Next thing ya know, the GOP will vote for amnesty.
I'm not sure how good New Yorkers' attention spans are, but if I were in a position to think I'd be campaigning in 2017, I'd put this in my notebook:
Sinister-deep voice over -- "Just weeks into office, De Blasio admitted that he planned to give a $4.8 billion surplus to his union buddies instead of using it to fund preschools." Impose pictures of crying children and fat construction workers leaning on shovels.
Tryanmax - I think there is going to be PLENTY of opportunities for campaign ads to come out of de Blasio's Administration. I mean, we are just in his 30th day in office.
Oh, did I tell you that crime has doubled in NYC since January 1? Yeah, and interestingly the criminals are going easy on the gun stuff and have taken to sharp pointy objects like knives and stuff. I expect that soon we will have to get permits to buy/sell/own "sharp pointy objects". That may be a problem for say the thousands of restaurants in town. It's hard to julienne a carrot with a spork...
Critch - Keep the faith. I am sure that it felt like that in the run-up to the Civil War, but we survived. And I think people are smarter than that now. The real test will be in November 2014 and we must convince the Far Right to stop shouting "traitor" every time someone doesn't do a strictly orthodox conservative thing and Amnesty may be one of those issues. Remember Reagan did that too and we love Reagan, right? We must see the big picture. And frankly, most people have just stopped listening to Obama and the rest.
I'm not anti-immigration, it's just that all the GOP doesn't seem to have a clue how to make it work for them.
Bev, The far right is in total retreat. I'm going to write about that next week. And the real test will be 2016, that's when the public at large votes rather than the smaller "get out the vote" numbers at midterms. So the Republicans have 2 more years to right the ship.
Bev, On your article, I admit I had to laugh at this. de Blasio sounds like a real dipsh*t and I can't wait to see a feud between him and Cuomo. de Blasio may end up sinking Cuomo.
Critch, It's not amnesty. And the reason the GOP can't make it work is because the fringe is shouting hateful things at Hispanics. It's kind of hard to win people over when the other people in your car are spewing hate at them.
On the bright side, Henry Waxman is quitting the Washington scene.
I know what you mean Andrew. I remind folks all the time that the Hispanices are hard working family oriented people. A lot of the grousing I hear is from union folks, who are mostly Democrats. It seems to me that everything the GOP does ends up hurting them. If they go along with the Dems, then the Dems and the far Right use it against them. If they go against the Dems the Dems, with the support of the media tear them up. They seem clumsy.
My attitudes are certainly not far right wing, except maybe on the 2nd Amemndment, which I don't trust either party on.
Andrew - Cuomo is actually quite a moderate Democrat. There is a reason he was once married to a Kennedy. And de Blasio IS real dipsh*t who has made sure that every other real dipsh*t gets a seat of power in NYC to air their long standing grievances "against the man".
I think NY'ers are having "voters' remorse" because not many people who voted actually thought de Blasio was a real Marxist. Well, HE may not be, but everyone who has been appointed or anointed has been a real, card-carrying and openly proud self-identifying Marxist and not in a good way either.
They are determined to take as much as they can away from the makers and give it to the takers. This first salvo of that with pre-K tax is just the beginning. And no one will be able to reason with them. They will get what they want or they will just take it. You know, like Obama with his Executive orders.
Critch - I am guessing Waxman didn't want to run again because Obamacare. He was one of the main architects and he knows he's going to be pounded into the ground. And better to "retire" on his own terms rather than being thrown out on his ear.
Ol' Charlie Rangel may be making the same decision here shortly. He has too many Democrats willing to challenge him.
Critch, I know exactly what you mean. And that's the result of a party that doesn't have it's own platform. If the GOP actually stood for a complete platform, then they would have something to win people over with. Instead, they've trapped themselves in this narrow corridor between trying to please the activists (who are nuts and make them unelectable) or change their image in the media (who hate them and try to make them unelectable).
They need to break with this formula and start offering a broad-based platform. They also need to disclaim the people who hurt them, rather than trying to appease them, and they need to use a genuine media strategy that gets them around the MSM gatekeepers.
Unfortunately, they don't see to have the courage or the brains to do this. So they keep doing the same things over and over and their failures just keep getting worse.
On immigration, the math is simple -- and math isn't an opinion or something that might not be, it is a fact. The math tells us that without increasing their Hispanic and female support, the Republicans are finished. They can still squeak out some low turn out elections, but that's about it. And it's going to get worse as younger white males (Millennials) abandon the party as well.
The immigration issue is a gaping wound that need to be healed. But the problem is that the fringe would rather die than solve that issue. So rather than come up with something fair to conservatives, they throw a tantrum. And the end result is that they will keep the Democrats in power for a generation.
Bev, You have my sympathy. That said, I am curious to see how far into the ground he can drive NYC. And will the people actually try to stop him?
Oh, and the very worst part of de Blasio? He's a diehard Red Sox fan!
A Red Sox fan? How did he get elected?
But, I thought de Blasio was supposed to bring progress! Because he had a bisexual wife, or something....
On the Super Bowl, big whoop. If the people attending are real football fans, they can tough out the 30-something temperatures, as their forefathers braved the Ice Bowl and all that. It probably wouldn't even be an issue if not for whoever the entertainer is this year, no doubt complaining about how cold it's going to be, and so on.
A Red Sox fan? W...T...F!!! How is he even allowed in NYC?
I'm with T-Rav on the weather. Real fans love weather games. It's the VIPs and media types who only see the Superbowl but no other games that want warm weather so they can golf and party and do all the other things "Super Bowl week is about." A-holes.
Kit - This is what is really weird - both Bloomberg and de Blasio were both born and raised in the Boston area. Bloomberg was more low-key about his Red Sox fandom and frankly I don't think he was much of a sports fan. But it will be really interesting come baseball season to see how the Yankee fans react to de Blasio's Red Sox cap. He may need an extra deep security detail...I'm not kidding either.
I can see the campaign ad: "Let's kick out the Red!"
Red Sox, Red Shirt, Red Menace...
Diblasiodoesn't seem to bright. I don't think he wins this one. Gotham is probably the only nothern city w/o a dome that will ever get a superbowl, though. It just makes no sense.
Off Topic Update: Obama's STFU got the worst ratings of any STFU since 2000. Imagine that.
TennJ - Yes, it makes no sense at all that they built a brand new stadium that two teams share and it does not have a retractable roof like every other brand new stadium. Not only that, but we have three brand new stadium - Jets/Giants, Yankee, and Mets stadium - none have a retractable roof. Of course that means that really can't used for anything but their sport during the winter. Well, Yankee stadium has been hosting hockey games this week, but that's it. Really stupid.
Andrew, I read about that. Apparently we tuned out Clinton at the end too. Oh, they will try and wish it away by saying that more people are watching online, but the fact is, no one wants to listen to Obama anymore. He says nothing worth listening to and at that, he is predictably predictable. Even Democrats are running away from his "I will do it with Congress or without". That's really something no one wants to get on board with.
Bev, I haven't heard a single positive comment about his speech, not from the left, the right or the center.
And his "I'm going to do it without Congress" is just smoke and mirrors. He has very limited powers in that regard and everything he does can be undone by the next guy.
One of my favorite fake promises, by the way, was to require government contractors to pay his new minimum wage. Yeah, right. I guess he's never heard of David Bacon which requires them to pay higher than that already. Idiot.
In any event, people do tune out late in an administration, but not generally the speech where he's supposed to lay out his agenda for the finish. I think he just failed to keep it exciting. He should have brought puppets or done skits.
The other big news is Amanda Knox was found guilty of murder again in Italy after she was found guilty, then innocent. I guess she won't be leaving the US anytime soon.
Bev, I wouldn't either. Of course, this is Italy we're talking about so she's probably facing 10 minutes with Burlusconi as a sentence.
What if they sentence Berlusconi to an hour with Knox?
Critch - WouldnT that fall into the category of "cruel and unusual punishment" even for a convicted (or not) murderer?
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