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"Remember in November" - Part 2
April 7, 2010

Two weeks ago, we held an event to launch our campaign to raise $100,000 for the Partnership’s PAC.The funds will be used to target state legislative incumbents running in 2010 who have been anti-business. I am very pleased to tell you that from this, the first event of our campaign, we reached nearly two-thirds of our goal.

Obviously, the Buffalo Niagara employer community is speaking up louder and clearer than ever before (and doing so with their wallets) that we’re going to “Remember in November.”

You can join this initiative in two ways:

First, contribute to our PAC.

Second, learn about how Unshackle Upstate is watching the votes of elected officials in Albany and join the UNSHACKLE ARMY to express your frustration about Albany’s out-of-touch ways.

If you need more reason to actively engage in this, consider the following:

• $1/2 billion in state employee raises kicked in on April 1 – despite the facts that (1) the state budget hasn’t passed; and (2) NY’s budget deficit is estimated to be $20 billion next year;
• Senate Democrats are selling appointments to a new “Labor Advisory Council” for $50K in campaign donations;
• Hundreds of construction projects – and the thousands of jobs that go with them – are being held up (and are in jeopardy) while budget negotiations flounder;
• Similarly, $2 billion in school funding is being held hostage;
• Rather than cut the size and cost of government, both the Lieutenant Governor and State Assembly submitted proposals for the state to borrow its way out of deficit.

And, that’s just in the past couple weeks!

Expanding taxes on utility (again!) and telephone services, including electric, gas, water and telephone is on the table in Albany, too. If enacted, this enables local governments to increase the utility tax by 200 percent…meaning every citizen’s essential services will cost more.

Lawrence Mone of the Manhattan Institute of Public Policy wrote in Monday’s NY Post:

When looking at NY compared to other states, consider the following:

• Are New York's schools 65 percent better than the national average?

$15,987 per pupil on K-12 education, more than any other state.

• Are our hospitals 73 percent better?

$7,927 per Medicaid enrollee, second highest in the nation, 73 percent above the national average.

• Are our prisons 63 percent better?

$36,835 per prison inmate, fifth among the 50 states.

• For that matter, is our Legislature 161 percent better than the average state's?

$989,892 per member of the Legislature on the budgets for the state Senate and Assembly.

I could go on and will do so in future emails to make sure everyone “Remembers in November.”

Andrew J. Rudnick