Are you ready New Yorkers??

[Da1nOnlyDestiny]

No One Is Safe From NY's Wide Reaching Budget

Proposed $131.8B Tax-And-Spend Plan Has Critics Howling

Average Family Of 4 May Be Shelling Out $5,000 Additional

Reporting
Marcia Kramer

NEW YORK (CBS) ―

Click to enlarge

Gov. Paterson, Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, left, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, right, rolled out a record breaking, $131.8 billion budget plan on March 30.

AP

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Get ready to pay up.

The budget crisis in New York is so dire lawmakers are planning tax hikes on some of life's necessities, as well as some simple pleasures.

From bottled water, to beer, cigars and electricity, the cost could be going up for all of these and more.

Governor David Paterson said the new state budget is shared sacrifice, but its a tough sell.

If you live in New York City and suburbs there is only one thing you can do in reaction to the new state budget – gasp.

"This is not a happy budget," Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, said.

No kidding. Critics said there are so many taxes and fee hikes the average family of four in our area can expect to shell out an additional $5,000 -- for now.

"I would like to tell you that this budget brings to an end our fiscal crisis, but I can't do that. That would be intellectually dishonest," Paterson said.

The budget puts an added income tax on households earning over $300,000 to raise $4 billion.

"The rich are going to do their fair share in trying to close this budget deficit and now all those that were yelling for them to do it need to do the same," Paterson said.

And they will.

The details of the new budget include:

* Essentially flat state school aid. Aid to public schools would increase about $1.1 billion, according to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and eliminate the $700 million cut Paterson had proposed in December. But that results in almost no increase for schools that have gotten bumps of billions of dollars from lawmakers pressured by school districts back home. School aid will total more than $21 billion, one of the highest per capita levels in the nation. But school advocates expected $1.5 billion more this year, even after Paterson's cut was restored, under a promise by the state following a court decision it lost for not providing a sound basic education for years.

"There are going to be layoffs of teachers and other educators," said Billy Easton, executive director of the Alliance for Quality Education, a union-allied advocate for public schools. "There are going to be cutbacks of programs and kids in districts that are already underfunded, the problem is going to continue ... and that's a travesty of justice."

The last time school districts received far less state aid than expected local property taxes were subsequently increased by an average of 10 percent.

* About $3 billion of taxes and fees, from motor vehicle registration charges to public college tuition and other costs that would affect everyday life for most residents.

* No more tax rebate checks to residents, although the STAR exemption program and NYC STAR credit will continue to provide $3.3 billion in property tax relief.

* A bigger bottle bill. A nickel deposit would be required of bottled water, to go along with carbonated drinks. The state will get about $115 million of the unclaimed deposits, with bottlers keeping the rest under a last-minute deal worked out with lobbyists for the Coca-Cola Co.

* Taxing little cigars often called cigarillos at the same 46 percent rate applied to cigarettes, instead of the 37 percent rate now.

Meanwhile, Paterson had proposed more than $1 billion in cuts from health care in his mid-December budget to the Legislature. He sought to force more funding to be moved from traditional and expensive hospital care to more efficient community-based and preventive programs. The Legislature restored about 69 percent of funding to hospitals, 73 percent to pharmacies, 60 percent to home care programs and 43 percent to nursing homes.

The Legislature also restored:

* $340 million of critical funding to New York City, Silver said.

* Funding for teacher training centers and adult literacy and bilingual education programs.

* $125 million more to the State University of New York, for a total of $2.5 billion in funding; and $86 million more to the City University of New York, for a new total of $1.4 billion.

* $49 million in cuts to community colleges.

* Almost $50 million to the Tuition Assistance Program, which provides financial aid to college students.

The Legislature also created a $50 billion program to provide low-interest loans to residents attending college and rejected a proposal for a gas tax.

New Yorkers can't even begin to fathom what they've been hit with.

"You know it's a really difficult situation. There are no clear solutions. It just seems to tax too much," said Upper West Side resident Jamie Kalfus.

Critics, like Senate Minorty Leader Dean Skelos, R-Long Island, slammed the Legislature for secretly negotiating a $10 billion increase in spending at a time of fiscal crisis.

"These numbers are absolutely staggering, and the height of irresponsibility on the part of the Democrat leadership in this state," said Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos (R-L.I.). "The public should be outraged."

But Gov. Paterson vigorously defended the secret negotiations.

"Nobody wants to publicly, other than governors, who are charged to do it, put their issues on the table. That's part of what negotiations are about," Paterson said.

By the way, Paterson has a $20 million budget for his staff and half a million dollars budgeted for travel.

[Wyldbutterfly]

Oh TRUST me this whole budget and the budget process have had me pissed off for quite some time.

I am a life long NYS resident and never in my life have I ever been so disgusted and felt so betrayed!  CROOKS all of them are CROOKS!

I can't believe that the three men in the room have enough nerve to show their faces with the budget that the Legislature has agreed to. I can't believe any of them have enough nerve to show their faces. They should all be hanging their head in shame.

They refuse to give state workers a 3% raise in pay because as our appointed Governor has said NYS is broke. Yet they are giving those on welfare a 10% increase in benefits. They are giving senate employees raises. There is more than enough pork spending in this budget.  There is a spending increase in the budget of more than 8%, yet as our APPOINTED governor has stated NYS is broke!

Us New Yorkers have had to cut back and learn to do more with less. We have been screaming for cutbacks in government. We have all been screaming no to this budget. Yet they DO NOT CARE!

As for the 8,900 layoffs. That is nothing but smoke and mirrors. Since the "hiring freeze" in NYS this past year alone 8,000 people were hired. There are not cut backs. It's BS!

Here is a list of email addresses. use them and bombard their inboxes! God knows I have.

[e-mail]
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Of course these are a list of idiots from Western New York.

http://senate.state.ny.us/senatehomepage.nsf/Home?OpenForm

Above is a link to the Senate.

MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD!

[Wyldbutterfly]

IM ALL FOR THE TWO STATE SOLUTION!

EDUCATE-ORGANIZE-CHANGE!

It's time for ALL of us to head to Albany and protest!

There is also a tea party to protest the Federal Government on the 18'th of April In Buffalo,New York @ Club W! Starts at 1 pm.