The Hayseeds blog, No. 199 for the week starting March 18, 2007.
March 3, 2007
Hayseeds No. 198
March 18, 2007
Hayseeds No. 199
March 25, 2007
Hayseeds No. 199
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Here are some stories you should take a look at when you get a chance:
The unions are very unhappy about it and they certainly are not afraid to show it.
It looks like Spitzer today will be proposing his Healthest State of the Nation package that will do many things to put New York on the right track, including a comprehensive program that monitors the weight of students.
It sounds like a good program, but as some of the commentators on that article are pointing out—we must do much to reform the system. One thing includes healthier foods for schools, including buying locally grown food whenever possible. It's great to monitor, but's far more helpful to actually do something about the problem.
It looks like an activist down in Mamaroreck may be the first one to recieve legal fees for a government refusing to release a document she was entitled to have access to.
We've rounded up the strays, and here's the Hayseeds for tonight:
The three men who really matter have come together and aggred on a revenue figure about three weeks ago. Both houses got together in their respective party conferences, and told their leaders what they want in the budget. They then passed informal resolutions in both chambers stating their respective conference's beliefs on what the budget should look like.
And starting this evening, and going into tomorrow through next week, conference committees will get together and announce their staff's progress in coming up with negotiation, and make public aware of what hasn't been agreed on. The amount of work that went on before this conferences ever took place is remarkable,
Here is what the media is saying about the whole process:
Here are some progress notes from the TU:
Some things the media often misses are the big role that staff plays, and how much members of the Assembly really do influence the decisions made up by Speaker when it comes to budget negogations.
The reality is the budget is too big and too complicated for busy politicians to deal with the ins and outs. Ways and Means staff (Senate Finance in the Senate), that work for the Speaker (Majority Leader in the Senate) on behalf of all the members, do all the hard work in the budget. It takes experts to divy up $121 billion dollars.
The speaker may be all powerful, but his power ends the moment that people start to rebel against him. He is totally at their whims, and without him regularly rewarding all of the members of this conference with bacon of some sort, he would be out of a job.
So things aren't as corrupt or evil as some people make them out to be. If any thing, the whole system is grounded in political reality, even if it lacks the window dressing that Congress and other legislatures may have.
It looks like Joe Bruno used his campaign funds to reimburse GOP Senate campaign funds expenses, relating to his defense against corruption charges last year. Good for him.
We over here at Cowboy have to wonder about the unveiling of Bruno's latest hostilities towards the governor and his cronies in the State Senate. It will be very interesting to watch how the power base changes when the Democrats take the Senate.
It looks like while many people in the legislature have issues with the governor, freshman Assemblyman Greg Ball likes the governor as he points out in an Poughkeepsie Op-Ed yesterday.
Good for him. It's great to see at least somebody has courage in Albany and is willing to step up to the legislative leaders, and ask them to embrace the word of Spitzer. Many of us worked very hard to get Spitzer elected, and it's troubling to see his proposals often met with such hostility in the legislature.
While I cannot speak for the other assemblymen present, I can speak for myself, and I will. The budget that has been presented by the governor is certainly much larger than I personally would have liked, but I did not attend the forum to take cheap shots at the governor's proposal.
I not only support the governor's reform agenda, I applaud his tireless efforts to challenge the Legislature and salute his refreshing and persistent leadership style that has resulted in the culmination of ethics reform, budget reform, workers' compensation reform and it looks like finally, tough civil-confinement legislation.
Indeed, all of these proposals have been championed by the Republican conference in the Assembly for several years, and now, with the help of this Democratic governor, will hopefully and finally be passed into law.
Greg Ball is somebody to watch. In many ways, he fits perfectly into the mold of an idealistic George Pataki of many moon ago, and might someday rise to be the next Republican governor of New York. Still, for now, it's great to see at least somebody passionately defending reform in Albany
At least one person in NYC is taking to the streets with a camera, to photograph illegally parked government vehicles, parked simply for the convenience of their owners.
Not only does Greg Ball have some serious courage and willingness to take on the Assembly and walk with Spitzer, so do the Senate Democrats who are bucking their Republican colleagues, the Assembly, and the health care unions in supporting Spitzer's proposed health care system reforms.
Now, I understand the Assembly needs to have courage and sometimes stand up to the governor when he does dumb things like meddle with the appointment process for Comptroller. But when the governor has good ideas, people on both sides of the isle, in both houses should be embracing them, not just groups out of power plus the governor.
It is time for reform in Albany, and I know we can do better. We have some really bright people out there working, who really should be working for change and not protecting the status quo.
It looks like Pataki has decided it's not worth the effort to run for president, with him telling volunteers to consider finding out campaigns to help out as his is not going anywheres.
So I guess our dream of President Pataki ain't going anywheres. It was a nice dream while it lasted.
Howard Weitzman, once one of Spitzer's picks for Comptroller might now just end up as state tax commissioner. It's good that governor found him a job somewhere—and this man is very talented too boot.
