Feds fail New York

No wonder the consistently realistic Paterson administration keeps finding the budget deficit is even worse than anticipated: The federal government is reporting that New York state's economic decline was third worst in the country last year. It's very likely near the bottom this year, too.

While Paterson has tried to be responsible and balance the budget, mostly through spending restraint, the federal response has been perverse. In effect, Washington has bailed out the unionized employees of state and local government, and granted the state an outrageously small share of stimulus rail funds. While Gov. Paterson has been about the only state official not in the unions' pocket, the federal response has in effect negated much of his spending restraint. Meanwhile, private-sector jobs are flushed away, especially in already depressed central and western New York.

Comments

[Matthew]

"Private-sector jobs are flushed away, especially in already depressed central and western New York."

That statement assumes that private sector jobs in those regions (as well as Northern NY) hadn't been flushed away for quite sometime.

[Brian]

Mixed messages here, it seems. You praise Paterson for his spending restraint. But then you blast the feds for not giving us enough rail money, which would’ve encouraged us to spend more. I seriously doubt that any significant rail projects could be done without some input of state money, no matter how much federal cash came in.

[Bob Conner]

The point is it matters a lot what kind of stimulus aid the feds send. Getting a fair share of badly needed money for infrastructure (e.g. rail, but also highway projects like the Tappan Zee Bridge, and sewers and so on) is vital. But it is not helpful for the feds to send money enabling school districts to keep spending the way they have been (like drunken sailors), in effect negating Paterson's cuts.