Today, I cast my vote in the negative for the Assembly Majority Conference’s budget resolution. This budget, like the one proposed by the governor, is simply a shell game that merely moves the limited funds we have around the budget pie. The pension stabilization plan in the Executive Budget, which was maintained in the Majority’s proposal, uses perceived future savings to fund the problems of today. This solution is unrealistic at best and economically negligent at worst. The governor’s proposal raids $1.75 billion from the State Insurance Fund (SIF), the largest provider of workers’ compensation in New York State, to close budget gaps. Again, this is nothing but a shell game.
The Assembly Majority wants $100 million of taxpayer money to start a vague “Assembly Jobs Plan” that creates little or any lasting employment opportunities. Future generations of residents and job creators cannot afford to bear the brunt of Albany’s irresponsible spending, much less more of the same fiscal irresponsibility that got New York into our current fiscal quagmire.
I received an embarrassed silence, and then obfuscation when I asked Chairman Farrell “Who is head of the Assembly Miscellaneous Contractual Services Fund?” He refused to acknowledge that Sheldon Silver controls the fund, which used $103,800 to pay a settlement to Vito Lopez’s sexual harassment victims. I am appalled that the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee cannot truthfully answer a question about who controls a $12 million taxpayer fund. I will vote against this budget and demand a forensic investigation of this budget to find out what other secret funds we’ll find and how many millions this is costing our taxpayers.
