"It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage, than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institutions and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new ones." Machiavelli
Albany Budget - The Joke that keeps givingBy DIA, Section News
I'm getting tired of being right about everything because what I'm right about is how wrong everything is in Albany. Remember when I said this on November 5th back when we had a full month for the Common Council to address the disasterous budget Mayor Jennings had put forth?
There doesn't appear to be much concern for the overall financial health of the city. So here is what I predict. The common council has until the end of November to make any changes to the proposed budget. At the end of the month they will make some big fuss about not raising parking fines, and they might not raise them. Nothing will be done about the fact that despite raising taxes this year's budget includes a ton of borrowing to "balance" it.Read it and With only a few slight changes, the Common Council on Wednesday approved Mayor Jerry Jennings' 2008 budget despite fears it is fiscally unsound.Oh, wait. I was wrong. They did exactly what I said but the Mayor also wrote a last-minute letter. I was wrong because what could be more emblematic of the corrupt leadership and the financial mismanagement than a "last-minute letter". Take a year to write a budget rife with deficit spending, make it all better with a last minute letter. It's too bad that the mayor, who has now pledged to work with the council, got another free ride from the Times Union. Perhaps they could've mentioned he called a council person "crazy" for proposing ways to fill the huge budget gap. Maybe they'll do something last minute, too? There are more than 9 people on the common council who care about nothing more than those 9 people and whether or not the mayor pats them on the head in the hallways. Six voted against the budget but I'm sure one or two of them just got a free pass from the mayor to look good. I could be wrong about that but as noted above, I've been right about pretty much everything else in this process so I'm going with me on this one. In closing, I will highlight a comment that will be going into a soon to be written piece about how Albany is run by a bunch of mouthbreathers and how the insane is considered acceptable. Now a quote from the head of the budget committee. ( I'm sorry if you spew coffee or beer on your computer or yell, "what a fucking pathetic coward!" and scare your children when you read this.) "Don't look for the budget committee to solve your woes and do your work," said Sano, who voted for the plan. "I think we did due diligence."Indeed. Yes, you read that correctly. The head of the budget committee doesn't think he should have to make any changes to the budget. Thank you for participating in the budget process.
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