JANUARY 21, 2012, 1:01 P.M. ET Analysis: Cuomo's 'new NY' train skips some stops Michael Gormley Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y. — For those who agree with Mohandas Gandhi and Nelson Mandela that a society should be measured by how it treats its poorest, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's much-praised "new New York" plan needs some work.
The Democrat is racking up political victories as a fiscal conservative and rave reviews by most New Yorkers for his $25 billion plan to lure employers, usher in the nation's biggest convention center, expand casino gambling, and improve schools while making government smaller. The New York Times called Tuesday's $132.5 billion budget "smart ideas that the state needs," while the headline for New York Post editorials wished: "Godspeed, Governor."
"This is a pro-economic growth strategy based on fiscal discipline, real reform and the exciting area of entrepreneurial government to lead us to a new New York," Cuomo belted out Tuesday.
Most New Yorkers mired in 8 percent unemployment and years of overspending and hollow pledges to scrape the rust off the Empire State cheered in a kind of 1990s flashback, not caring much about the fine print.
But deeper in the flat $132.5 billion budget that closed a $2 billion deficit, Cuomo also proposed to delay half of a modest increase in the basic welfare grant, now about $350 a month for a family of three. In June, the basic grant was scheduled to increase 10 percent. But the governor wants to split that over two years. The increase this year for a family living through a historic recession would be 50 cents a day.
Total savings to the state: $6 million.
"To say, 'We're going to take $6 million from the poorest of the poor,' sort of riles us up," said Mark Dunlea of Hunger Action Network of New York. Even the total increase, which would add $1 a day, "is totally inadequate. We're still talking about keeping people well below the federal poverty level. And we're talking about children."
Nowhere in the governor's rousing State of the State and budget addresses this month was a mention of raising the minimum wage, unchanged since 2004, before the recession hit the poor the hardest. New York, with its high costs, especially in cities that depend on the low-wage workers, trails 17 states, including Massachusetts, Connecticut, California and Wyoming.......................>>>>.................>>>>....................http://online.wsj.com/article/APac2e2bf16dd8418f84cffcd2669a4409.html
Logged
