Politics

An Old Quote Recalled

March 23, 2012 Politics

In today’s New York Times, we find State Senate Race Spotlights a Feeble Democratic Party by Michael Powell. Powell recalls Meade Esposito, former Chair of the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club in Southern Brooklyn which, in its good times, gave us two recent NYS Assembly Speakers. Powell’s own words are pretty good when he describes Esposito […]

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Orwell on Political Language

March 19, 2012 Politics

Something tells me that this will be a good week to start with a reminder from Orwell: Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. George Orwell, Why I Write, 1946

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Albany County Budget Stands … as a Document … Stay Tuned for Reality

December 15, 2011 Budget

As we noted earlier, Mike Breslin, the retiring Albany County Executive vetoed a number of legislative changes to his proposed budget. They would have had the unusual effect of increasing property taxes because he vetoed increased revenue estimates and new forms of “savings.” This past evening, by a very close vote (two-thirds of the members […]

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Albany County Budget Vetoes Would Increase (Not Decrease) Property Taxes

December 13, 2011 Budget

Albany County Executive Michael Breslin, with just a couple weeks to go before his 16 year tenure ends, has issued a series of unusual budget vetoes. These may be his most significant budget vetoes ever and they certainly are within the past half-dozen years, but there’s a twist. They would lead to increased property taxes […]

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Down is Up; Up is Down

November 29, 2011 Budget

A year ago, the Albany County Legislature’s Chairman of the Audit & Finance Committee, charged the Commissioner of Management & Budget (me) of artificially suppressing revenue estimates in order to create an argument supporting drastic cuts – that is the revenue numbers were too low. And so with that as backdrop, he and his co-conspirators […]

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Mitt Romney is a Cluster Bomb

November 28, 2011 Finance

Like cluster bombs, Mitt Romney is indifferent to indiscriminate “collateral damage.” I’ve been doing some research on private equity firms and the more I see, the more I suspect that they’re just another version of the rapacious financial practices of the last couple decades. They may be better disguised than “collateralized debt obligations” and other […]

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Patient Patronage

November 23, 2011 Budget

Not generally recognized in the county nursing home business is a second form of political patronage, namely “patient patronage.” Sure County Legislators and other politicians call when they want a job for a friend, family, or constituent. No surprise there. This practice was pretty much suppressed in Albany County government for the first dozen years […]

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