Friday, March 30, 2007

Far West Chealsea, NYC


Saturday, March 24, 2007

Meredith, NY


Sunday, March 18, 2007

Anti-Budget Commercials Part of New York State's Most Expenisve Lobbying Effort in Our History at a WHOPPING 4.5 Million!

From Newsday:

"No amount of money spent will dissuade me from doing what's right for this state," Spitzer said Friday.


Spitzer called the health care lobbyists' ads "misleading, false and fatuous" to create fear and "hysteria." Spitzer plans to air new ads, paid for through his campaign funds.

Grandeau said Spitzer hasn't filed a report because his ads aren't regulated by the lobbying commission since they aren't a "call to action" for lawmakers.

Spitzer seeks to change the system he said taxpayers can no longer afford to focus more on at-home care and less expensive community health centers that would emphasize preventive care. He said too much health care is currently handled in hospital emergency rooms, where it is most expensive, and his reforms will improve care while insuring millions more children.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

SOS!

Help Eliot Slay Goliath! Contact your Senator and tell them that they must do what is right and NOT EASY, and pass Eliot's budget! New York State's future hangs in the balance!

Find your senator here!

Times Square, NYC


Wednesday, March 14, 2007

What France's Brain Drain Can Teach New York State.

French industry warns of brain drain that If Ségolène Royal is elected president in May it will trigger an exodus of people from France’s financial and biotechnology sectors to London and other foreign cities, according to some of the country’s top business leaders. The warning – fuelled by fears that the Socialist candidate would raise taxes for the highest earners and biggest companies – came as it emerged that the number of people fleeing the country’s onerous wealth tax doubled between 2003 and 2005.

Each day France loses two people who pay its wealth tax, representing a loss of €2.2bn ($2.9bn, £1.5bn) of taxable assets for the government in 2005, according to a senate finance committee report.

“If Ségolène Royal wins, we will go back to the situation we had with Mitterrand between 1981 and 1983. But it would be three-times worse,” said the chairman of one CAC 40 company, referring to François Mitterrand, the last leftwing president of France.

“There are many French people who are ready to leave the country. Mitterrand was quite pragmatic, able to shift his position after a couple of years when he saw it was not working. But Ms Royal is ideologically fixed on her position,” the chairman said.

Philippe Pouletty, honorary chairman of France Biotech, the biotechnology association, said: “If the Socialists were elected and implemented their pre-election policies, a lot of people would say enough is enough and move abroad, just coming back to France for holidays.”

Jean-Luc Placet, chief executive of the IDRH recruitment consultancy and member of the Medef business federation, said: “Many in the financial sector ... would leave for London if she was elected.”

Ms Royal hardly mentioned tax in her manifesto speech. But her proposal to regulate bank fees has infuriated the banking federation.

Thierry Desmarest, chairman of Total, attacked a political debate in France which, he said, swung “between dogmatism and populism”. Reporting the biggest profit of any French company, Mr Desmarest said it was unacceptable that Total should be penalised for its success.

Ms Royal’s manifesto proposed “an exceptional tax on the super-profits of oil companies” to fund public transport. Mr Desmarest said: “We only make 5-6 per cent of our profits in France. We pay our taxes where we make our profits and there is no reason to pay tax a second time.”

Elie Cohen, head of research at the CNRS state agency, played down the risk of an exodus. “If Ségolène Royal does what she is saying then it will be like in 1981. But just like Mitterrand, she will have to reverse everything after 18 months, once the country is in crisis.”

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Rangel Tells State’s Delegation the Eliot Spitzer Has An Anger Problem!

Can you believe this? This is what Rangel said about Eliot? Here is a times article about it!
“Anger and emotion will not help this delegation in trying to help our constituents,” said Mr. Rangel, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and, like Mr. Spitzer, a Democrat. “We refuse to get involved in a food fight when what we need is health care.”

Who wouldn't be angry when the state of New York is so terrible that people are leaving it in droves? I just got back from Oneonta where the employees of stores had no teeth because they have no access to affordable health care OR good jobs. There are many reasons for this but many of them lie with what Spitzer calls the "culture of the status quo." Labor and hospital groups have been clashing with the Governor over his proposed budget and frankly, they all disgust me. Granted actual health care workers are hard working people, but all the farmers I know, and all the self employed artists I know, have little to no insurance because it is too expensive. My parents, who are getting older, retained their own insurance as farmers and it was expensive they shouldered it themselves, dispute ever dwindling checks for lamb meat. After years of coverage they were unceremoniously dropped. IT is great that the health care unions, and hospital groups want to help themselves but we as citizen's of New York State have to help ALL OF US! My parents work very very hard and it is not right that there are no affordable health care options for them. It is with Spitzer's budget and bravery and doing what is right, and not easy that there is a chance for New York State. The audacity of Rangel to say that Eliot has anger problems because he tells the unions that they are wrong, to their faces disgusts me. It really does. I know that I am usually positive on here, but this is the final straw, being polite is not what New York State needs we need what is right.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Tredwell, NY



Friday, March 09, 2007

Dehli, NY


Thursday, March 08, 2007

Bruno Threatens to Undo Some of Spitzer’s Proposed Cuts

This is from the New York Times, today.

By DANNY HAKIM

ALBANY, March 7 — The State Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, delivered one of his sharpest and most specific attacks yet on Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s budget plan on Wednesday, pinpointing at least $300 million in proposed health care cuts that the Senate would probably try to restore.
“There’s enough money in this state to do it all,” Mr. Bruno said, referring to health care, education, tax relief and other programs that the Republican-controlled Senate wants to increase spending on. But Thomas P. DiNapoli, a Democrat who was recently appointed state comptroller by the Legislature despite Mr. Spitzer’s opposition, suggested that Mr. Bruno’s projections were too optimistic.
“Spending is still increasing at an unsustainable rate, almost two times faster than revenues,” Mr. DiNapoli said in a statement accompanying an analysis of Mr. Spitzer’s spending plan.
Mr. DiNapoli said that the governor’s plan would lead to a budget gap of $13 billion over three years. And Mr. Spitzer’s $120.6 billion budget will grow as the Legislature weighs in with more spending. The Senate and Assembly are likely to introduce their own budget plans by Friday.
Legislative leaders reiterated on Wednesday that they would restore an appreciable amount of the $1.3 billion the governor is cutting from hospitals and other health care providers. And the Senate, controlled by upstate and suburban Republicans, will seek increases in education aid even above those planned by the governor, asserting that Mr. Spitzer’s plan favors New York City. But the Legislature may have limited ability to impose its changes, since the governor appears to have enough votes to sustain his vetoes.
Mr. Bruno outlined two specific items worth $300 million in all that the Senate would probably alter in the governor’s budget. In a speech on Wednesday morning to the Healthcare Association of New York State, a hospital group, Mr. Bruno questioned why the governor planned to keep in place a tax on hospitals, worth about $137 million a year, that is scheduled to expire and criticized the governor’s plan to eliminate an annual inflation adjustment in Medicaid payments to health care providers.
“Anybody here know anything that’s going down?” he asked, adding, “I know some things that are going down: some parts of this budget.”
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, was more muted in his remarks to the group. Assembly Democrats want to reverse some of the governor’s cuts but are reluctant to worsen an already strained relationship with Mr. Spitzer.
“There are a lot of principles the governor has expounded that we can buy into,” Mr. Silver said after the speech. “There are some places that we may want to soften some of the cuts.”
Mr. Silver also said that he mostly supported the governor’s plan to close more than $400 million in corporate tax loopholes, a proposal that has drawn criticism from the Bloomberg administration. The mayor’s budget director said on Tuesday that the move would encourage large financial companies to leave the city.
“I find that hard to believe,” Mr. Silver said, adding of the tax moves, “We can support most of them on a statewide basis.”
While several hundred health care workers rallied in Albany on Wednesday, the governor promoted his health plan at the Children’s Aid Society’s Dunlevy Milbank Center in Harlem. He toured the center, including its health clinic, asserting that it could deliver primary and preventive care to children at a lower cost than most hospitals.
“We can afford to deliver health care in this setting, because you catch diseases, you prevent diseases from becoming chronic diseases, and you save loads of money,” he said.
With Mr. Spitzer was Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund, who praised his plan to make health coverage available to the state’s 400,000 uninsured children.
“It’s the cost-effective thing to do, it’s the right thing to do for every child, and it’s the smart thing to do,” she said. But far more politically influential groups are opposing his health care proposals, namely the Greater New York Hospital Association and 1199 S.E.I.U. United Healthcare Workers East, the powerful union. The groups have launched a media campaign criticizing the governor’s plan. And their top officials will probably have time to lobby Mr. Bruno and Mr. Silver in Washington on Thursday when they are all to meet with the state’s Congressional delegation to oppose spending cuts proposed by the Bush administration.
“Nobody said creating a budget in the state of New York was going to be easy and fun, or all sugar and milk,” Mr. Spitzer said. “It’s going to be hard fought because there’s much at stake.”
Ray Rivera contributed reporting.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Meat Packing District, NYC



Message from Elliot


The positive change that we sought during the campaign is beginning to percolate in Albany. Just yesterday, we announced fundamental reforms to our state's workers' compensation system. This comprehensive and balanced agreement will raise benefits for injured employees while significantly reducing the costs to businesses over time--and will clear one of the biggest obstacles to economic growth upstate. Developed in cooperation with both business and labor leaders, this is a landmark achievement that demonstrates what is possible when narrow self-interest is put aside and the best interests of New Yorkers as a whole are put first.

And over the past weeks, we have seen ethics and budget reform embraced after seemingly insurmountable opposition. These successes are important to remember in the coming weeks as the budget process continues.

I have been traveling across New York State to bring my proposed budget directly to the people and explain how they stand to benefit from its reforms. As you know, passing this budget is critical, because it finally breaks a long cycle of insider deals and special favors in the State Capitol. This budget is designed to address the priorities and needs of real New Yorkers, rather than line the pockets of entrenched special interests.

Not surprisingly, those very same special interests are determined to stop the budget in its tracks--and they are spending $15 million of insider money to do so. Through a lavishly funded advertising campaign, they, too, have gone directly to the people.

If they succeed, New Yorkers will remain stuck with a broken and inefficient system that puts the well-being of institutions before the well-being of individual citizens. This system epitomizes the wasteful spending and lack of accountability that have been hallmarks of Albany culture for far too long. It is a system that we can no longer afford, and this budget is our best opportunity to fix it once and for all.


Today, we went on air with a television ad to ensure that the public hears the truth. By being supportive now, you will help keep this message on the air.

This is your chance to take a stand--to insist that Albany clean up its act and do what is right. It is an investment in a sound future for our state. As we demonstrated yesterday, when we make the needs of New Yorkers our top priority, we can achieve great things.

Sincerely,