Jump to full article: New York Daily News, 2009-11-17
Author: Bill Hammond
Intro: State lawmakers are spouting so much hot air about the state's budget crisis these days, it's a wonder the Capitol hasn't lifted off the ground like the old man's house in the movie "Up." . . .
They've got nothing.
Ditto for Sen. Carl Kruger of Brooklyn, who made a big show yesterday of demanding that Paterson immediately start enforcing cigarette tax laws on Indian reservations.
It's true that Albany has tolerated rampant tax evasion that hurts law-abiding merchants and costs state and local government big bucks.
But for Kruger to claim that enforcement could reap $1.6 billion a year is reckless. "If people smoked that much there would be a big black cloud over the state blocking out the sun," one budget official quipped.
Throwing around numbers like that suggests that Kruger is exploiting the issue as an excuse not to grapple with the politically dicey work of finding cuts.
Jump to full article » |