Busted budget metaphors

May 19, 2010 - 11:39 AM

From today's Buffalo News Opinion section:

- Goodbye, parks - Buffalo News Editorial
   In Africa, they used to say, when elephants fight it is the grass that suffers.
   In New York State, we now find, when the behemoths of state government and state public sector unions are locked in a stalemate, it is the grass in the state’s parks that will not be tended.
   And it is the people who thought they had a right to visit those parks, and the communities whose economic livelihoods that are tied to them, that bear the brunt.
   The move by Gov. David A. Paterson to close 55 parks and state historic sites [list] to save $12 million in maintenance and seasonal payroll costs is less a money-saver — a trifle compared to the $9.2 billion state deficit — than another awkward salvo in the negotiating war with the state’s unions. And it seems unlikely to be enough to obviate the need for the only real way to balance the budget, now and in the long run, which is to take the painful step of laying off workers.
   And:
- Let’s all help state make ‘tough choices’ - Donn Esmonde/The Buffalo News
   I don’t know about you, but I would rather splash in the sporadically polluted waters of Woodlawn Beach than pay for unneeded politicians. Cut the Legislature.
   Related:
- 'Beam me up,' groans gov over spaced-out pols - The New York Post
   Need more proof Albany’s so-called lawmakers are really space cadets? Gov. Paterson, fed up as do-nothing legislators bickered through a budget summit yesterday, groaned, “Oh, Scotty, beam me up,” a play on the classic “Star Trek” line uttered by Capt. Kirk to his engineer, Scotty.
   The governor’s lament came seven weeks into a stalemate -- the deadline for passing the spending plan was April 1 -- over how to keep the $9.2 billion budget gap from expanding further into the final frontier.
   [Careful, Dave, the last politician to favor that phrase came to a bad end.]
- The drones drone on - The New York Daily News
   What should have been a sober attempt to finally talk about solving the fiscal crisis gripping the state devolved into a pointless session of partisan taunts and playground-level bickering.
- In Albany, More Clamor Than Clarity - City Room/The New York Times
   He urged. He cajoled. He warned. He even put his head in his hands.
   But Gov. David A. Paterson was unable to wring any firm promises about a budget agreement from the legislative leaders he gathered together during a contentious and frank meeting at the Capitol on Tuesday morning.
- State must end delays on budget - Poughkeepsie Journal
   What a mess. New York's so-called budget process is never for the faint of heart, and this year is one of the worst.