New York State of Mind

Yea! We’re saved!! Well not “we” exactly, but the New York acting community. It has been rumored that “Law and Order: SVU” is leaving its home in New Jersey and moving into the now empty studio of its cancelled parent “Law and Order”. As for the rest of us, well, things aren’t quite as good. It has been awhile since I reported on what’s happening in New York, so let’s catch up…

Sports - We are in the midst of football fever here in NYC. Not the American kind, but as long as the US World Cup soccer team is the game, every bar in the city will be open for business. Go USA! Also, if you are into the American kind of football, NY will host the 2014 Superbowl, so get your tickets now!

Local - The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA for short), the governing body for all public transportation matters in NYC began massive bus and subway cuts at the end of this week because of a budget shortfall in the billions. The MTA board promised over and over that if we let them raise fares “just this once”, this would never happen. Of course that was three fares hikes ago, but who’s counting. Now I admit that most of the cuts are justified because there were bus and subway routes that were redundant anyway, but why my bus?

I should be really upset, but actually I learned a couple valuable lessons during this process. You see, I signed all the petitions and wrote my Councilperson to voice my opposition to these cuts. But then I made an interesting observation. The fact is that cuts had to be made and something was going to have to give. As convenient as my cushy X90 bus was, it is not my only option, just the most convenient. Lesson #1: We all understand that sacrifices have to be made; we just don’t want to be the ones to make them. So, I stopped fighting it and all cuts went into effect on Friday. Frankly, they always were going to no matter how many letters I wrote or petitions I signed because they are necessary.

But now comes Lesson #2 (Obama take note): If government will get out of the way, private industry will pick up the slack. So as it turns out, because of one government-run option that I lost on Friday, on Monday, I will have two private options. Options that I would not have had if the cuts had not been made. A private bus company will pick up the bus route at the same price and the same schedule and a new private share-a-cab service only a few blocks away. See, free enterprise works. Take that, Marxist scum!

In other city news - Just when we thought NYC was beginning to show signs of life, the new banking bill has everyone nervous again. Soon to be ex-Senator Christopher Dodd admitted that no will know how exactly what the new law will do until it is implemented. Does this sound vaguely familiar? Well, we will see what happens on Monday when the markets open again, if this is the last rally or the dawn of a new era. Unfortunately what is good for Wall Street has always been very good for New York City and State coffers, but like I said, we all want someone else to make the sacrifice.

State - Governor Patterson has now finally laid down the law, and has given the state legislature until Monday at midnight to pass a budget or he’s going to shut the state down. For months now, our state has been on the brink of bankruptcy. We are over $9 billion in debt and still our politicians refuse to pass a state budget. A few weeks ago the Governor threatened furloughs, but the unions won that round, no budget was passed, and we only got a two week reprieve with an “emergency” budget. Now, we’ve come to the brink again and Patterson is having his showdown. No really, he is serious this time. His proposed budget includes a new tax on clothing, new tax on online hotel reservations, and tuition hikes for state colleges and universities. But just so you don’t think that Patterson is your typical tax and spend Democrat, there are a few cuts – cuts to education and cuts in tax exemptions for charitable giving. Hey, at least he gave up that stupid “soda tax”. I will let you know what happens. My prediction – nothing.

In other state news – In separate conventions in May, both parties decided officially who would run for Governor. So as predicted the Democrats chose Andrew Cuomo, current Attorney General and son of former Governor Mario Cuomo, and the Republicans will run Rick Lazio, businessman and former Congressman from Long Island. Rick Lazio is also known for running unsuccessfully against Hillary Clinton in her first bid for the Senate. Sadly, I think Lazio has about as much chance of beating Cuomo as he did with Clinton, but we will see. As I have said before, our primary is not until September, so a lot can happen this summer.

Federal - Chuck Schumer is hoping to fill the vacuum that will hopefully be left when Harry Reid is defeated in Nevada. Sadly, there is still no one brave enough to run against ol’ Chuck, but I still keep holding out hope that George Pataki, our former Governor, will pick up the gauntlet. He just might have a shot. In the mean time, Chuck is putting his name to every hare-brained legislation he can. His latest is the Disclose Act that just passed by the House.

On a finally note – All is not lost in the Northeast. New Governor Chris Christie is getting serious in New Jersey and had his first major victory last week. The Democrats in the New Jersey state Legislature decided that they didn’t like some of Christie’s harsh budget cuts, so they passed a “millionaire’s tax” bill in an attempt to raise funds to reinstate some of the cuts. Christie immediately vetoed the bill which prompted these same Democrats to try and override the veto which they failed to do and the new tax is now dead. Well, not really 'cause if you can't win, then just spin. So now the Dems are saying that they were knew exactly what they were doing and were just trying to set Christie up. These new taxes were to reinstate cuts to programs for “the elderly and children” and they just proved that Governor Christie hates old people and children. Sadly, their grand scheme did not work as planned and Christie is as popular as ever.

Next time - Mayor Bloomberg makes stand on immigration and did you hear that the Luv Guv Eliot Spitzer will have his own primetime show on CNN?