Category: News and Opinion

Right here on Room Eight- over a month ago (9/28/06) – I proffered that John Faso was absolutely correct in calling for Alan Hevesi’s resignation as State Comptroller (see my column “Faso/Spitzer”). I also felt that up to that point in time Eliot Spitzer had downplayed the seriousness of Hevesi’s actions. I proffered that Hevesi had lost his credibility and had abused the public trust. I stated flatly that I couldn’t vote for him. I even went further to state that he was unfit to hold this office. I also said that Spitzer should be moving “to establish and uphold higher standards of ethics, decency and behavior” (observe that I never used the word ‘morality’ here) for public officials. That was over a month ago.

Saturday’s Robert Novak column included this whopper –

“Recipients of mail from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) were surprised this past week to receive a fund-raising appeal signed by former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright.”

“Secretaries of state, by tradition, stay away from partisan politics while in office. Former holders of the position generally follow the same practice. Nobody can remember fund-raising solicitations from Colin Powell, Warren Christopher or Henry Kissinger.”

It came in today's mail. It is for $57.82.

Gee, perhaps despite just about the highest state and local tax burden in the United States (including a virtually unique local income tax), schools I for the most part couldn't send my kids to, libraries open a few hours four days per week, and an infrastructure future threatened by soaring debts, perhaps the State of New York isn't so bad after all. WRONG! And the "bastard child of STAR" proposals by the candidates for Governor to expand the system don't thrill me either.

Early last week, busy campaign workers from the Working Families Party (WFP) began dropping flyers in coastal Brownstone Brooklyn encouraging people to vote for Eliot Spitzer. How puzzling!

The victory of the candidate these hours of house to house physical labor were ostensibly being expended upon was such a foregone conclusion that he was already being treated as the Governor-Elect in all but name even by the opposition party (and sometimes even they slipped and called him Governor). Moreover, since there were no local races in serious contention, this clearly wasn’t a ruse to draw out votes to help other candidates. Perhaps this was an effort to draw votes to the Party’s statewide AG candidate, currently leading by only 20 points, or the party’s candidate for Comptroller. But, even if firmly committed to Hevesi, surely the real passions of the Party’s volunteers lie elsewhere (although the Comptroller has made innovative strides in ensuring that New York State provides para-transit services to the differently-abled; clearly he is committed to the cause of "Economic Just-us"). And, if one were doing this for GOTV purposes, surely one would be trying to juice the vote in low turnout areas rather than among the sort of affluent white voters who never miss a general election (and, if Hevesi were the cause, might be likely to join the Times in jumping ship).

The day after I posted a proposed solution to over-development issues in the portions of Upstate New York closest to New York City, both the New York Times and the Poughkeepsie Journal had articles on the subject. They are worth a read if you are interested in what people are concerned about elsewhere in the state.

From the Journal:

"Increasingly I see it. You look up on a hill or a mountain and all of a sudden there are houses there that weren't there before. It feels like New Jersey. It's worrisome," said Carolyn Torella, a lifelong Dutchess County resident who lives in LaGrange. "I appreciate the landscape and the beauty of the area. It's a shame to see it go so quickly. My hope is there can be some middle ground between open space and development."

My previous posts on Upstate concerned the portion of the region that is too far away to receive any economic benefit from proximity to Manhattan, the area roughly north and west of State Route 10 and, in the mid to northern Adirondacks, Route 30.  South and west of there, in the eastern Adirondacks, the Catskills, and the Hudson Valley, the economic conditions are different, and so is the issue.  The issue is over-development, and the loss of the natural and rural attributes that draw people to the area to begin with.  When I was a child, my parents took me to northern Westchester County to pick apples.  We brought our children to Northern Dutchess County to do the same.  Projecting current trends forward, our grandchildren will have to head for Washington County to find the first pick-your-own orchard.

I exited college during the severe recession of the early 1980s, making graduate school seem attractive, and then exited graduate school during the housing bubble of the late 1980s.  Having had a housing markets class in graduate school, realizing the bubble (like this one) would burst, but unsure how long it would take, my wife and I had a plan.  We would live as cheaply as possible, save our money, and then move to a metro area in reasonably-priced Upstate New York, where we had attended college and actually liked the cool summers, lovely falls, and snowy winters (we won’t talk about March, April, and May).  For a variety of reasons – our increasing ties to the city and the end of the bubble here included – it never happened.  But one factor was we found that none of the Upstate metro areas had a large and diverse enough labor market to allow us to have careers.  Perhaps we could get a job, but it might be the job, and it would be very difficult to get another one without moving.  In other words we didn’t move to Upstate New York, in part, because none of the Upstate Metro areas, by itself, is a significant place anymore.  That is a problem Upstate will have to overcome.

Vanderhoef proposes sales tax hike for 2007

By SARAH NETTER THE JOURNAL NEWS

You can read all about it, here.

On September 26, 2006, I became the first prominent partisan NY Democratic blogger to declare he could not vote for Alan Hevesi’s re-election. This was two days before Rock Hackshaw, who given his September 18 endorsement of Jeanine Pirro, is obviously somewhat less driven than I am by rigid standards of ideology (and given that he still supports Pirro, is also seemingly somewhat less driven by rigid standards of morality, at least on subjects other than same-sex marriage)[OK Wonk, you owe me dinner].

How does this sound for an economic development slogan:  “Upstate New York, we’re just like everyplace else, except we’re older, we’re colder, we have lots of toxic contamination left over from the industrial era, we have high taxes not for services but to pay for the debts and pensions of the past, and we are highly unionized and expect higher pay and more restrictive work rules than other parts of the country.”  Well, that’s the truth isn’t it?  It isn’t the whole truth, not by a long shot.  But if Upstate New York continues position itself in the economy based on being “just like everyplace else,” it is the only truth that matters.