Through the Megaphone: Brian Sampson Responds to NY Taxpayers
This week, I’ve been pretty busy once again traveling around NYS to get our message out. But I didn’t forget about my blog post. Actually, I wanted to write this one specifically for our active Facebook fans, who have been writing some great, insightful comments not just this week, but consistently over the past few months as we’ve been trying to ramp up the campaign.
Unshackle Upstate doesn’t work on behalf of ourselves as an organization, or our own thoughts and ideals, but rather is about listening to and echoing the thoughts and concerns of YOU, the taxpayer. So I wanted to personally respond to some of the comments I’ve been seeing from all of you on the Unshackle Upstate Facebook page. I’ve noticed that a lot of people are echoing others in their concerns, so I’ve picked out a few comments to respond to, based on topics that come up over and over again on our page, and some specific things that have happened this week. I’m responding to a few key issues today, and I’ll do this again from time to time.
“NYS Government has to reduce the workforce. There are way too many people on the payroll. In these troubled times we all have to do more with less.” – Gary M Baker; Facebook
Clearly, the leadership of this state is not listening. We continue to talk about ways to lower state spending and the burden it places on all of us. Yet this week we hear that the Governor is proposing that day care providers be forced to join the United Federation of Teachers. No disrespect to the workers, but come on. The only thing this will do is run up the cost of daycare for private pay and drive up the reimbursement rate within the social service programs. So on one hand we won’t be able to afford the increase and on the other our taxes will go up to cover Medicaid rates. That’s not leadership, that’s pandering. And any elected official that supports that component of the Governor’s proposed budget doesn’t deserve our support.
“Oh Yeah… Let’s start the new fiscal year with a fresh round of additional debt for our grandchildren. Absolutely no mention of seriously attacking the poor management practices that led to the massive shortfall.”- David Hammond; Facebook
If it isn’t taxes and health insurance that drives us over the edge, it is energy. So now we have a great chance to actually lower our rates for natural gas…oh, and create hundreds of jobs…yet once again that won’t happen. Why? Because the state can’t agree on regulations related to hydro fracture drilling (a proven technique used in PA). So the gas sits in the ground while we contemplate what to do. But even if we got that figured out, in the budget there is a new Severance Tax. That is a tax applied to “severing gas from the ground” making it more costly to extract the gas. So let’s be clear…we can’t agree on how to get the gas out of the ground and yet we are going to tax an industry before it even develops. Great planning there.
“How about eliminating state pensions for all elected officials…it might encourage more citizen legislators and turnover in state office holders. Financial term limits.” – Bruce Anderson; Facebook
How can we reduce pension issues and at the same time get our elected to work harder for us? Well, there might be a way to do that. Assemblyman Mike Fitzpatrick has introduced a bill to change an elected officials pension from being a defined benefit, or DB plan (one that is backed by you, the taxpayer) to a defined contribution plan, or DC (like the 401K the private sector uses). Not a bad idea. That way we at least eliminate the potential for a Conflict of Interest when dealing with the pension system and our ability to get it lowered. In fact, we pushed for a DC plan like they have at SUNY/CUNY to be in the recently passed Tier 5. Perhaps Unshackle Upstate will have to push this bill a bit harder.
There are 4 Comments to "Through the Megaphone: Brian Sampson Responds to NY Taxpayers"
The big issue is getting government on all levels to stop pretending that government is a cost-effective solution to whatever the problem of the moment is; and that it is in-fact, by nature, parasitic to our economy. Most thinking (and caring) Americans now fully realize that continued deficit spending is simply not sustainable In order to save our sovereignty, government and services need to be drastically reduced. There is an inherent goodness in our citizens, and private concerns can provide for the truly needy far more efficiently than can a large government bureaucracy. I’m not talking about reducing deficit spending; I’m talking about absolutely NO deficit spending.
Our elected representatives also need to reflect back on what built our national wealth in the first place: individuals and small, US owned, businesses. These entities are the only things that should be considered as being “Too Big to Fail.” Legislating for the success of major “contributors” at the expense of average taxpayers is unacceptable and reeks of corruption.
The one thing nobody is talking about is the self-destructive “fair” trade policies which the members of our US Congress, in both parties, have shackled us with so tightly. History has already proven that the only way out of our present situation will be through our manufacturing base. We must take back our right to set our own tariffs. Policies need to be established to strongly encourage the production and purchasing of US goods and services.
And finally, we need to ensure that accurate US history is being taught to our children, with a strong emphasis on how and why our nation was formed. Any mention of any form of socialism, without a full explanation of the 100,000,000 peacetime deaths that resulted within the lands that adopted it, is extremely unfair to our precious future generations.
Corrected Copy:
The big issue is getting government on all levels to stop pretending that government is a cost-effective solution to whatever the problem of the moment is; and that it is in-fact, by nature, parasitic to our economy. Most thinking (and caring) Americans now fully realize that continued deficit spending is simply not sustainable In order to save our sovereignty, government and services need to be drastically reduced. There is an inherent goodness in our citizens, and private concerns can provide for the truly needy far more efficiently than can a large government bureaucracy. I’m not talking about reducing deficit spending; I’m talking about absolutely NO deficit spending.
Our elected representatives also need to reflect back on what built our national wealth in the first place: individuals and small, US owned, businesses. These entities are the only things that should be considered as being “Too Big to Fail.” Legislating for the success of major “contributors” at the expense of average taxpayers is unacceptable and reeks of corruption.
The one thing nobody is talking about is the self-destructive “fair” trade policies which the members of our US Congress, in both parties, have shackled us with so tightly. History has already proven that the only way out of our present situation will be through our manufacturing base. We must take back our right to set our own tariffs. Policies need to be established to strongly encourage the production and purchasing of US goods and services.
And finally, we need to ensure that accurate US history is being taught to our children, with a strong emphasis on how and why our nation was formed. Any mention of any form of socialism, without a full explanation of the 100,000,000 peacetime deaths that resulted within the lands that adopted it, is extremely unfair to our precious future generations.
Thank you Mr. Sampson. Your engagement in reviewing Facebook online comments to separate our wheat from our chafe, provide analysis, and add information adds to understanding Unshackle Upstate.
Your comments, Mr. Hammond, are concisely on point as always.
As it is better to sail with the wind than against it, the continual evolution of the domestic economy must sail with the global economy. What’s past is past. Success depends on long term planning, anticipating, and adapting to economic changes that cannot be controlled. Regrettably such action is not a strength of election to election governance.
The future balance between domestic manufacturing production and intellectual production remains to be seen. The service sector will likely be challenged by foreign franchises arriving domestically mimicking the extensions of the ‘McDonalds’ franchises. Domestically we can only select certain markets in which to participate and strive for excellence Interestingly, older, larger companies struggle to grow by increasing exports: emerging companies may grow by exporting first and then increase domestic sales. Whatever it will be will be determined by global market forces and our selected sectors.
Certain actions serve only to suppress pain, to procrastinate, to delay adaptation, leaving one behind the power curve instead of ahead. If there is a helpful role for subsidies, tariffs, and such, it is to mitigate sudden adverse market changes to allow time to adapt, and, to temporarily protect embryonic businesses to allow limited time to grow to sustainability. The temporary nature makes it easy to shift government actions adaptively from situation to situation and avoid an ever increasing level of structural long term spending. It also serves notice that no domestic business shall depend on taxpayer aid for long. Using mid and long term government control actions hold the economy captive in the past and is destructive, in my opinion.
Dave and Robert – there are many days that I am thankful that I just have to deal with state issues for now. Merging in the federal issues would be an interesting and daunting task.
The simple reality is that too many people are looking at the government to “bail them out” and take care of them. We have said the state is like Imelda Marcos…she had a closet full of shoes that cost too much and we have a closet full of government programs that cost too much. We have to force our state officials to stop being so reactive and start getting proactive. It is the only way we will survive.
That is why we felt it was important to demonstrate that the budget can be fixed IF our elected officials have the courage to do it and IF the voters will take action against those that continue to harm OUR economy. So we gave them the plan, the first $12B in cuts and told them to get to work. Now, as the Unshackle Army, we need to keep them on point, grow the grassroots, and cast our form of judgment on November 2.
Please keep your invlovement high. I encourage others to do the same. This is OUR state…let’s take it back!