Showing posts with label Governor Paterson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Governor Paterson. Show all posts
Monday, December 22, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Like everybody else, Long Island business owners in general and the Long Island building community in particular will pay close attention to the Governor’s budget message this morning. Here are some thoughts we have on the matter.
• New York State government should strive to "do more with less" as the thousands of NYS businesses dealing with this economic crisis have done already.
• Raising prices is not an option for us, so increasing the already onerous tax burden on NYS residents and business owners should not be an option for the state. We do support such creative measures as expanding the number of venues where wine can be sold and blocking the sale of untaxed cigarettes to non-Native Americans.
• A more efficient and effective NYS - i.e. taking less time to approve permits -- would mean more business activity, which in turn generates more tax revenues. One of my developers had to wait 10 weeks to get the permits he needed for a development and it almost cost him the deal. That's tens of thousands of dollars in tax revenues that were delayed and almost lost.
• The Governor has vowed to re-visit DEC regulations that are un-enforceable because of a lack of manpower and other programs that inhibit the development process. This would be helpful.
• The Governor should re-visit well-intentioned but flawed land preservation practices that take huge chunks of property off the property tax rolls. Rather than purchase whole blocks of land and rendering them sterile, for instance, it should allow a portion of that land to be developed with higher densities than currently allowed so that the developer can contribute the unused portion of that land back to the community at no charge to the taxpayer.
• New York State government should strive to "do more with less" as the thousands of NYS businesses dealing with this economic crisis have done already.
• Raising prices is not an option for us, so increasing the already onerous tax burden on NYS residents and business owners should not be an option for the state. We do support such creative measures as expanding the number of venues where wine can be sold and blocking the sale of untaxed cigarettes to non-Native Americans.
• A more efficient and effective NYS - i.e. taking less time to approve permits -- would mean more business activity, which in turn generates more tax revenues. One of my developers had to wait 10 weeks to get the permits he needed for a development and it almost cost him the deal. That's tens of thousands of dollars in tax revenues that were delayed and almost lost.
• The Governor has vowed to re-visit DEC regulations that are un-enforceable because of a lack of manpower and other programs that inhibit the development process. This would be helpful.
• The Governor should re-visit well-intentioned but flawed land preservation practices that take huge chunks of property off the property tax rolls. Rather than purchase whole blocks of land and rendering them sterile, for instance, it should allow a portion of that land to be developed with higher densities than currently allowed so that the developer can contribute the unused portion of that land back to the community at no charge to the taxpayer.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
What Else Don't We Know About?
Governor Paterson is making a clarion call to anyone who will listen that New York State is in desperate financial straits. Mayor Bloomberg is making a case that New York City needs to skirt the law calling for term limits that will force him out of office because the city needs his guidance through the financial difficulties that lay ahead. Elected officials at the county, town and village levels are singing the blues.
It would seem to make sense that they are. Everybody is hurting - why shouldn't government be feeling the pinch?
Then you read a story like the one Juan Gonzalez wrote in today's Daily News. Apparently the New York City Board of Education sees nothing wrong with spending $5 million in 2008 for private couriers - more than double the messenger tab before Schools Chancellor Joel Klein took over in 2002. Apparently the couriers are paid to pick up the tests from all schools and deliver them to the Department of Education's computer center in Queens. There is no explanation as to why using an overnight delivery service is not good enough.
There is also the $80 million contract NYC DOE awarded to CTB McGraw-Hill a few years ago to design all of the new assessment tests and score them. Or the $80 million contract to IBM for ARIS, the new computer database that will track all information about students, including all those test scores.
The point is this: Is anyone in government paying attention to spending that's going on? What other out-of-control spending is going on that we don't know about?
In business you watch every dime because what goes out the door comes out of the owner's pocket. Not so in government. The LIRR's disability scandal is another case in point. LIRR officials claim to be outraged that this is going on, but nobody would have done anything if the New York Times hadn't looked into the situation. And Newsday's probe of attorneys and elected officials helping themselves to state pensions that they should not be entitled to is also quite scary.
Don't even get me started about the state, the county and the Town of East Hampton lining the pockets of Dick Cavett to the tune of $18 million - buying property that no private developer would touch.
Who's looking out for the taxpayer? Who in government is going to recognize that we the taxpaying public can no longer afford to just keep feeding the cash trough? When will the we the taxpayer rise up as one and say ENOUGH!
I can only hope that this difficult economic climate we are enduring right now will result in greater scrutiny of government spending. It is incumbent upon us as taxpayers to demand the same lean and mean operations from government that we are required to maintain as business people.
It would seem to make sense that they are. Everybody is hurting - why shouldn't government be feeling the pinch?
Then you read a story like the one Juan Gonzalez wrote in today's Daily News. Apparently the New York City Board of Education sees nothing wrong with spending $5 million in 2008 for private couriers - more than double the messenger tab before Schools Chancellor Joel Klein took over in 2002. Apparently the couriers are paid to pick up the tests from all schools and deliver them to the Department of Education's computer center in Queens. There is no explanation as to why using an overnight delivery service is not good enough.
There is also the $80 million contract NYC DOE awarded to CTB McGraw-Hill a few years ago to design all of the new assessment tests and score them. Or the $80 million contract to IBM for ARIS, the new computer database that will track all information about students, including all those test scores.
The point is this: Is anyone in government paying attention to spending that's going on? What other out-of-control spending is going on that we don't know about?
In business you watch every dime because what goes out the door comes out of the owner's pocket. Not so in government. The LIRR's disability scandal is another case in point. LIRR officials claim to be outraged that this is going on, but nobody would have done anything if the New York Times hadn't looked into the situation. And Newsday's probe of attorneys and elected officials helping themselves to state pensions that they should not be entitled to is also quite scary.
Don't even get me started about the state, the county and the Town of East Hampton lining the pockets of Dick Cavett to the tune of $18 million - buying property that no private developer would touch.
Who's looking out for the taxpayer? Who in government is going to recognize that we the taxpaying public can no longer afford to just keep feeding the cash trough? When will the we the taxpayer rise up as one and say ENOUGH!
I can only hope that this difficult economic climate we are enduring right now will result in greater scrutiny of government spending. It is incumbent upon us as taxpayers to demand the same lean and mean operations from government that we are required to maintain as business people.
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