Fundamental Reform Still Needed In Albany

I guess Gov. David Paterson woke up on the fiscally responsible side of the bed this month (“Paterson orders state agencies to cut spending by 11 percent,” Oct. 6 News). One month he’s signing a budget that hikes taxes by more than $8 billion, and the next he’s ordering an 11 percent across-the-board spending cut. It seems like a roll of the dice every time he opens his mouth.
 
Earlier this month he rightly questioned the wisdom of last session’s tax increases on high-income earners, stating, “We’ve done that. We’ve probably lost jobs and driven people out of the state.”

If the governor really wants to fix the state’s fiscal problems, he needs to stay on this fiscally responsible path and stand firm against the Legislature’s efforts to trade its unquenchable spending habits for detrimental tax increases.
 
Cutting spending across the board now will help avert an even-worse budget deficit. But without fundamental reform of how the state budgets and collects its taxes, steep deficits and tax hikes will continue to rear their ugly heads.

John Nothdurft
Budget and Tax Legislative Specialist Heartland Institute

This letter to the editor was originally published in The Buffalo News.