As a self-proclaimed centrist Democrat and frenetic critic of progressive nihilism, I’m pretty used to being dumped on
Category: News and Opinion
The Gateway (Deficit of Accountability Edition)
|I link here, a good example of false moral equivalency “they’re all the same”
Welcome Back Dodgers
|Major League Baseball has taken over the daily operations of the Los Angeles Dodgers because of economic difficulties created by the team owners’ marital dispute.
It is time for MLB to take another step and sell the team to the new Nets owner so the team can be moved back to Brooklyn where residents have been waiting over half a century with open arms for the team’s return.
New York supports two major league and two minor league teams and can easily support a third big league team as it once did up until the late 1950s.
High Speed Rail Redux
|The New York Times reports on the utter stupidity of Republican governors who have turned down federal funding for high speed rail travel.
The report talks about the northeast corridor, Florida and California but overlooks an equally important line in New York State that will revitalize an economically distressed region stretching from Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany with access to New York City.
This line would pump billions into the region creating jobs and a real estate boom. The line would deliver commerce in the form of business travelers and tourists.
Everybody on the Payroll, Then On the Pension
|Sometimes it seems like a fool’s errand to keep repeating myself, but rebenchmarked annual average Current Employment Survey data has been released for 2010, and is available back to 1990 based on the current industry classifications. And Census of Population data has been released for 2010. What it shows is that while the City of New York has chosen, or been forced, to be somewhat fiscally responsible (with the exception of state deals favoring the public employees who commute in from the suburbs), the rest of the state seems to be run by 10,000 Mayor John Lindsays. Meanwhile, the substantially government-funded Health Care and Social Assistance sector (mostly the former, mostly for seniors), expands relentlessly, while State of New York agencies are downsized relentlessly.
From 1990 to 2010, New York City’s population increased by 11.6%, but its private sector employment excluding the substantially government-funded Health Care and Social Assistance sector edged down 0.5% (12,600 jobs). But its Local Government employment fell by 4.3% (20,500), with a gain of 7.7% (10,700) in Elementary and Secondary Schools (from a low base relative to population) more than offset by a decrease in other categories. The population of the rest of the state increased by just 5.0%, and its private sector employment excluding Health Care and Social Assistance fell by 4.2% (138,900 jobs). But its Local Government employment increased by (22.2%). That’s 121,400 future pension recipients, whose Florida retirement and health insurance will have to be paid for by someone. Employment grew both for the schools and other categories. No wonder New York State cut the city’s municipal aid to zero. There are lots of people elsewhere whom the world owes a living, but the world isn’t going to be paying.
The White Queen
|Chess is a war game that does in contradistinction offer insights into world unity.
You see chess can be traced to India. From there it spread to Persia then to the Arab world and finally Europe. So it was an Eastern game that became beloved by both the East and West.
It is an ageless game that shows how the world can all enjoy the same pastime. Better to play at war than to actually engage in it with all its misery.
Like sports chess is an alternative to war having the challenges of battle without the bloodshed. And again all can safely enjoy chess the world over.
The Ideal Citizen
|Whenever I travel overseas I try to be an ideal citizen, a good American. More often than not I fail at this not because I am xenophobic but because I’m a pushy New Yorker no matter how hard I try to suppress that nature.
On my first trip to the UK everything went great and I even defended a tour guide against an ugly American. But then at the airport chaos broke out at the boarding gate and I made a comment and everyone looked at me.
The Gateway (Bitter Herbs and Bitter Diatribes Edition)
|Goodwin: "Hevesi was…Elected to the Legislature in 1970, he was an unremarkable soldier in the party army."
While I have no rachmonis for Hevesi, the gravity of this story is ill served by such ignorant bloviation.
Don’t automatically assume Donald Trump is not running. Does “Birther” have traction
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A Way Out for the MTA: How Can the Capital Plan Be Funded?
|Over and over again, you hear pandering state politicians call for a “forensic audit” of the MTA, perhaps hoping that given the general level of corruption among the supposed truth telling professions in recent decades, if they paid for the audit the audit would absolve them. But for any other purpose, I can save them the money the audit would cost. The MTA is going broke for the same reason that the state’s Transportation Trust Fund, which is supposed to pay for road and bridge repairs, is going broke. The maintenance and normal replacement of the infrastructure is an ongoing expense, not a one time “capital” expense. Stop it, and your infrastructure deteriorates and eventually collapses. But rather than pay what that maintenance and normal replacement costs each year, or work to get the cost down while still getting the work done, the state decided to spend not just today’s money on today’s work, but tomorrow’s money on today’s work as well. Leaving no money for tomorrow, which is now today.
The short answer to the question “how can the MTA capital plan be funded” is that it should be funded with the dedicated tax revenues already authorized for the MTA. The MTA projects its debt service costs will rise toward $3 billion per year in the next few years – more than enough to pay for its ongoing capital needs if the debts were paid for otherwise. Particularly given my prior statement that subway and commuter rail riders should pay to purchase new rail cars on an ongoing basis as part of their fares, and federal aid is likely to remain available to purchase buses because buses are present everywhere in the U.S. So the real question isn’t how the capital program should be funded. The real question is how should all the illegitimate debt from the past be paid for, and should it be paid for at all? Because without that debt service and other costs from the past, the MTA would have all the money it ought to need.