State Assemblyman Marc Molinaro has told Governor David Paterson that he opposes a proposal to eliminate the Hudson River Valley Greenway Communities Council and Hudson River Valley Greenway Heritage Conservancy.
Under the governor’s budget proposal – in which he wants to eradicate the $15.4 billion state deficit – he called for the transfer of the two agencies’ liabilities, assets, and responsibilities to the Department of State.
“For more than a decade, as Village of Tivoli mayor and Dutchess County legislator, I saw firsthand the tremendous benefits these relationships have had on the residents of the entire Hudson Valley,” Molinaro said in a letter to the governor.
“The Greenway’s success in spurring inter-municipal cooperation and regional planning is a model for cost savings and consolidation at the local level,” Molinaro said.
“The bottom line,” said the Republican assemblyman, is that, “I do not believe that a savings of less than $100,000 (assuming the loss of federal revenues for the management of the National Heritage Area and re-assignment of Greenway staff) is sufficient reason for elimination of these highly functional and successful organizations shifting the responsibility to the Department of State.”
Get ready for the real effects of this doomsday budget. This Bush-whacking of our national economy will be a trickle down effect like we've never seen before. The local property owners are about to get hit with increases that are mind boggling. And if you pay income taxes and use luxury items and services, this burden is even heavier on you. The Bush legacy is about to be inflicted on us all. I hope Mr. Molinaro has the sense to run the other way from his party's criminally immoral conduct. That party is leaderless now. It would be nice if someone took the reins and led.
ReplyDelete"Greenway Community Council", give me a break. All these groups do is create new ways to stop growth. We need a Hudson River Economic Development Council. That I would fund. How about encouraging growth & develpment along the river? Take a ten mile section & make it a park, the rest could be developed.
ReplyDelete7:50 -
ReplyDeleteYour comments belie your complete lack of understanding of what is going on in our economy.
The current economic problems stem from two sources. The first was the mortgage meltdown, which is not limited to subprime mortgages (although that was where the first signs were apparent). The second was the recent massive and rapid increase in oil prices.
Dealing with the banking issues, the subprime portion of the metldown occurred as a result of the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. This Federal Law "encouraged" (i.e. forced) banks to issue loans in "underserved" communities. The communities in question are poorer neighborhoods whose residents present a higher credit risk. Moreover, real estate purchased in such neighborhoods is more difficult to liquidate should foreclosure become necessary.
The Community Reinvestment Act was multiply amended under Pres. Clinton and Clinton Administration regulations (not laws, but rules issued by the Executive Branch) opened the subprime floodgates.
This problem was compounded by those who refinanced their houses in order to "consolidate" their debts, paying off credit cards and other loans. That, in and of itself, was a very good idea as credit cards are more of a burden than a benefit to cardholders. However, when those same homeowners ran up their credit cards all over again, they now had a far greater level of debt and far more of it was secured by their homes, homes whose values began to drop as a result of the original subprime phase of the problem.
The drop in home prices was further exacerbated by the fact that prices had risen at a breakneck (and unjustified) pace for several years creating a housing bubble (for which Bush was no more responsible than Clinton was for the dot-com bubble; investors create bubbles, not governments).
Now, we are entering the phase where foreclosures are being executed on non-subprime mortgage debtors. Homes seized in foreclosures either among subprime debtors or conventional debtors remained owned by banks as there are no buyers for them. Banks cannot sell properties when the asking price at auction is close to (or, in some cases, exceeds) market value. Even when prices are favorable, many investors are unwilling to buy as long as prices are still decreasing.
In the end, some banks are left with hundreds of properties which they cannot sell, in which their money is tied up, after which they are paying property taxes and insurance.
Much of this could have been avoided had the brain trust of Carter and Clinton not insisted on forcing banks to lend into unwise situations. This is attributable to neither President Bush nor to "deregulation," the eternal phantom haunting Liberals' nightmares.
The second problem, the oil price spike, was caused largely by speculation in the oil futures markets. Originally set up as a way for those who need to buy commodities on a regular basis, the futures markets have become a betting parlor for speculators.
These same so-called "investors" habitually drive up the price of whatever they happen to be betting on at the moment (in other words, that which is fashionable) whenever they hear a piece of news which is even slightly related to the commodity in question. If the cousin of a Hamas janitor in Gaza gets the flu, oil prices go up.
This drove oil prices up to a level which was economically unjustifiable and unsustainable in the long run. No major oil analyst considered crude prices of close to $150 to be anywhere near a justified level.
This was not an issue of supply and demand, hence completely unrelated to the war in Iraq, the tensions with Iran, the national oil reserves or any of the other silly factors to which Liberals attributed oil price increases. If they were, oil prices could not have dropped as quickly as they did.
The oil price spike was a bubble much like the housing bubble and the dot-com bubble. Its collapse was inevitable.
Liberals love to blame anything they can on conservative politicians without regard for the truth. This year, you succeeded in electing an inexperienced, unqualified person to the White House on the strength of your superstitions.
What will you do in 2010 and 2012 when you have no one to blame for the woes of the nation (and there will always be problems, that is a certainty) but Obama and the Democrat majority in Congress?
ignominious Imre's incorrigeable imperatives improperly imply the impossibility of mostly marketable macroeconomics, hence infallible neo -falsities. Conservative mucky-muck, Imre!
ReplyDeleteImre could you repeat that??????????
ReplyDeleteImre,
ReplyDeleteEducate us on a local economic issue; school tax. Your district had a 24% raise in teachers salaries plus steps. Explain steps, do they add dollars? If a teacher is getting a 6% annual raise plus steps, what is the actual annual increase? Can a teacher, that teaches the same subject, year to year get steps? Someone recently said that local teachers will be making $100,000.00 a year; does that figure include benefits? These teachers are sounding more & more like the UAW Auto workers at $74.00 an hour plus benefits. What would the average teacher make per hour based on 181 days at 6 hours per day? Could it be $92.00 an hour plus benefits?
Host, consider making this topic a feature. Thanks.
7:51 -
ReplyDeleteInanely imbecilic imprecations in asinine alliteration fail to fathom facts and figures.
In other words, if you think I'm wrong, prove it. Everything I wrote is a historical and/or economic fact.
Childish antics only serve to prove that Liberalism (not Progressivism, because the Left has always stood in the way of progress rather than fostering it) is a fundamentally silly and immature philosophy. Its adherents are simply incapable of standing up to facts, logic and rational scrutiny.
Oh, and you might want to consider showing some guts and giving your name instead of hiding behind blogging anonymity like a schoolchild who ducks behind a tree after throwing a snowball.
Imre's a moron in several languages. How about one that makes any sense? What a joke! Yeah, poor people and minorities made off with our national treasures. Only a real dickhead like Imre would try to perpetrate such garbage. I wouldn't buy anything from scum like him and hopefully nobody else does either. If they do, they deserve to lose everything.
ReplyDeleteDoes 7:50 have a job?
ReplyDeleteAnybody notice the similarities between Beke and a former poster here Yankee Jim? I hope the authorities take notice before a personal crisis sets him off and he goes out in a blaze of violence like Yankee Jim did. Just so everyone is clear, I'm making a point of highlighting this unfortunate's path to a violent end now, just like I did in the months before Yankee Jim went nuts. If there's anyone who actually gives a shit about this person, now is the time to act.
ReplyDelete4:38- Sorry, I'm tied up until Dec. '09. Maybe then if you have something interesting I might consider it.
ReplyDelete4:35 PM... Now go to your room for a time out!
ReplyDelete