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Home > NEWS > Email from the President > You've paid them $5.2K for doing nothing You've Paid them $5.2K for doing nothing
June 30, 2009 Since August 2008, New York has lost more than 176,000 private sector jobs. In the face of an unprecedented statewide fiscal crisis (as our new downstate friends of Unshackle Upstate said to us, "we're now feeling your pain"), let's take a look at what our leaders in the NYS Senate have recently done to help right the ship when it comes to spending and taxes in Albany, and especially to stimulate the economy on behalf of their out-of-work constituents.
Hmmm... For three weeks, Democrats and Republicans haven't reached a power sharing deal to get any work done, and it doesn't appear their inability to compromise has centered around principles, policy issues or fiscal philosophies. It appears to have had a lot more to do with who's in power - and the perks that follow. So, for three weeks, no work has been done on our behalf, but NYS Senators are still getting their paychecks, and their per diems. And those struggling New York families with a parent out-of-work? They're helping us foot the bill.
The average NYS Senator in New York makes a base salary of $79,500. Add to that an average stipend for a ranking committee position or leadership position, and annual pay jumps to more than $90,000 (this does not including that per diem of $160 they get each day they're in Albany).
Reminder: the average private sector salary in Buffalo Niagara is $35,977.
For three unproductive weeks, taxpayers have paid each NYS Senator about $5,200.
That's eight or nine months of groceries for a family of four.
Or a year's tuition for three children at Notre Dame Academy, the Catholic elementary school in South Buffalo.
Or about a year of car payments on a Dodge Grand Caravan. Bottom line: for unemployed New Yorkers, it's the difference between a family sinking or swimming.
Yet, those families would appear to be the last thing on our leaders' minds.
All the blame doesn't rest with the NYS Senate. The Governor and Assembly worked with our Senators to pass a state budget that increased spending by 8.7% and handed New Yorkers $8 billion in new fees and taxes - when we can least afford it.
Let's hope that by midnight - when the Power for Jobs program expires - something will have been done in the Senate to extend rebated or discount electricity to 570 employers in the state who keep about 330,000 people in jobs. Ideally we wouldn't need such a program, but the average industrial power cost per hour in New York is 40 percent higher than the rest of the country. And of course it's too much to ask the state again (as we've done for each of the past several years) to take a comprehensive look at energy programs......
That means our legislators likely will meet again during a special session this summer to deal with the reality that tax receipts, as predicted, will be down 35 percent - meaning the state could be in the hole $3 billion more than budgeted. Will our so-called leaders close this with more fees and taxes? More short-sighted, one-shot "solutions?" Or will they deal with their spending addiction, fix laws that are crippling your ability to run a business, and create strategic economic development programs to help New York compete with other states for private sector investment?
Get your disgust "on the record." Send a message to the Governor and your Legislators - tell them you're watching, with Election Day 2010 in mind.
On that patriotic note, I wish you all a Happy Fourth of July.
Andrew J. Rudnick |
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