Republicans Control Albany: Good, Bad, or Indifferent?

Can only be good!

let the revolution begin...who would have thought it would be republicans!!

I do think it marks the end of Governor Paterson, for better or for better.

Was it good during the 40 years that they controlled Albany? There's your answer.

Albany is not controlled by Republicans, only the Senate.
Governor Patterson remains our Governor.
Fortunately some of the liberal changes that might have been put into place with a Democrat Governor, Congress and Senate and Attorney won't happen now.

This will go back to the way things used to be, better.
We had a Governor who was either Democrat or Republican, for like 3 terms each.
And a Democrat Congress for a really long time
And a Republican Senate for a really long time

Things were pretty good that way for a really long time.

Paterson is toast in 2010. For a preview of what the 2010 NY Governor's election will look like, one only has to study the 2 states with governor elections this November: Virginia and New Jersey. Both states have Democratic governors. And in both states, the Republican candidate is leading in the polls.

State Senate Monserrate beat up his girlfriend last December. Slashed her face with a broken glass requiring 20 stitches. I would think he'd keep a lower profile pending resolution of the charges. Maybe this latest is incentive for the Democrats to pressure the DA to put this man in jail. Democrats should have forced him to give up that seat long ago. You know what happens when you lay down with dogs...

Rangel said Cuomo "better not run against Patterson in a primary"

If Paterson is the Democrat in the general election, say hello to Governor Giuliani.

who appointed Rangel King of NY? maybe Rangel should devote more time to paying his taxes than telling people what do. Thank goodness Rangel is not the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Comittee, which writes the tax code. Could you imagine if he was? Oh wait...

klonipin, are you a Dittohead? "Democrat Governor."

Learn to speak English: "Democrat" is a noun, not an adjective. It cannot be used attributively.

Unless it's now a "Republic Senate."

Vote Alpine for guv'nor! LMAO!

Proof that there IS a God ...

Now that's change I can believe in....

Corzine...your next

yes, Alpine for governor. The first thing I would do is legalize pot and crack. But don't think you can go out and get high because I would tax the shit out of it, making it unaffordable. I would also increase the tax on tobacco to $75 per pack. And I might even legal prostituion, but then again, I would also tax the shit out of it. BUDGET DEFICIT SOLVED.

Works for me, Alpine.

By legalizing smack and hos, you're also taking care of the gang turf wars as well!

and my favorite idea is to apply the state sales tax to rent, meaning that renters would have to pay sales tax on top of their rent. That should get more people to buy and fix the housing market.

hey matt...looks like you've finally found a buddy....you're perfect for each other.

lol@cc

alpine you can't even vote in ny you live in a big pile of bricks in nj. but i like your idea about legalizing drugs and taxing them. should tax the churches too.

"my favorite idea is to apply the state sales tax to rent"

Then you'd have to apply it to mortgage payments, as well, as it's the same thing.

If you don't, the prices of housing would fall just as much as rents, as rents would have to fall to accommodate the 9% or whatever sales tax is on them.

Nothing would change in the long-term.

republicans take care of republican supporters. democrats do likewise....
just depends who you want to see prosper. does not really matter otherwise...\
same goes in triplicate if we're talking national

Actually, Alpine, I don't believe life's basic necessities -- including food, shelter, and clothing -- should be taxed at all. Ever.

what about utilities and cars and car insurance? hey--what was your marginal tax rate when you were working all those jobs?

oh and matt---while you're busy cutting sales taxes, how are you going to make up the revenue?

Given the almost total arm lock Shelly Silver has, even though I hate the way the Republicans have brought just about all of NY State Gov't to a grinding halt (check out the historical dates of passing of the State budget) for 40 years, I think that if the Democrats had all 3 locked up, it would embolden them to do some horrendous stuff (not sure what, but unchecked power almost always leads to disasters).

"Actually, Alpine, I don't believe life's basic necessities -- including food, shelter, and clothing -- should be taxed at all. Ever."

I'm not so sure about that. I don't see why $5,000 Armani dresses should not be taxed. While I do not favor taxing food bought at a supermarket, I do favor taxing meals served at restaurants. And currertly housing is not taxed, unless you count the Mansion Tax and the Capital Gains Tax.

"oh and matt---while you're busy cutting sales taxes, how are you going to make up the revenue?"

CUT. EVERYTHING.

Foreign aid. All U.S. military commitments overseas. Welfare.

We could eliminate the federal income tax ENTIRELY (no, not replace it with a national sales tax, but rather ELIMINATE), cutting government revenue by only about 40 percent. Sounds drastic? Not really. "In order to imagine what it would be like to live in a country with a federal budget 40 percent lower than the (current) federal budget," writes Ron Paul in his latest book "The Revolution: A Manifesto", "it would be necessary to go all the way back to ... 1997."

you and alpo should go off into the sunset....lets get rid of the police, the fire department and the highway department also....oh, you idiot...what will all those unemployed government workers do? work 14 jobs like you pretended you, you pretentious moron?

CC, you STUPID moron -- police, fire, and highway department workers aren't funded through federal income tax.

And as far as unemployed government workers -- what of them? It's not the taxpayers' responsibility to artificially provide employment for people.

wow...all caps...did you learn that from your journalism career? by the way, i thought you were on a roll---i didn't realize we were just going to cut the federal budget...i thought we were going state & local as well.

by the way, as we go back to 1997, will that apply to real estate values or are they exempt in the world according to matt the moron? after all, as someone just said, they're not making any more land are they? so, lets see, we're going to roll the federal budget back to '97, leave real estate where it is...to hell with the millions of fired government workers (to whom we no doubt owe huge pensions---but why not reneg on those?)...anything else, matt the great?

perhaps other salaries back to '97 except for matt the moron's? or...does matt the moron not have a salary?

although, matt, if you will notice our fearless leader's new job creation or retention policy announced today with a hideous name, specifically pays for retention of policemen and educators, so perhaps the boundaries are being blurred?

And currertly housing is not taxed, unless you count the Mansion Tax and the Capital Gains Tax.

alpie, with that statement i think you just need to fade, not into the sunset, but into a cesspool. real estate taxes, you moron? although maybe you just pay for yearly registration fees for your VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER.

sorry but...matt is officially the moron...

alpo is some lower species yet to be determined

and destiny has brought them together...perhaps they can produce little alpo matts.

All one needs to do is examine the condition of our brethren to the east. The exotic land of waste, excessive taxation and wasteful spending. The enchanting Nassau County. Here the Republican party has taken one of the greatest tax bases in the country and reduced Nassau to a no service shit hole. A party so currupt that local legislators alway try to improve the conditions of county penial facilitie because that's ussally their next stop. If the political machine is any indication of the state party we are in for some serious trouble. The tax base for this state for fiscal 2009/2010 is in the hopper

I ask you...Where does it end?
As for Patterson, it's lights out (no pun intended)
I miss the whore monger, spoiled RE brat. What Elliot lacked in likablity he made for in dedication.
Maybe he shouldn't have stood in front of the steam roller.
Steam Roller, HA, what a joke.
Who knows, maybe be a silver spoon up the ass makes you a better person.

did he pay extra for the spoon deal?

no need to be a dick AR. Since the subject was about sales tax, I was talking about RE taxes that relate to the sale of RE. And let's not forget that 70% of Manhattan residents don't actually pay RE taxes (co-ops). And a lot of the remaidner don't pay RE taxes either as they are abated (new condos).

"CC, you STUPID moron -- police, fire, and highway department workers aren't funded through federal income tax."

With the stimulus bill, they are now...

This is fantastic! No more auto pass on the liberal always-right anti-history point of view and agenda. Time for some sanity to be restored, get New York State back on track. Even if Republicans aren't in the majority at least we have a say.

"With the stimulus bill, they are now..."

Yet another assault on the Constitution.

oh my good lord. alpie just said that i might be a dick. he's responding to a personal comment, although wrong gender, unless he is clever, which i don't think he is. and you most definitely were talking about more than RE taxes. go back to your van, DOWN BY THE RIVER.

Chris Farley RIP

ootin, i think farley would have enjoyed, just for the pure f'ng joy of it, applying the rant here. i never got the sense that he was into results, per se.

"And let's not forget that 70% of Manhattan residents don't actually pay RE taxes (co-ops)." huh?

This is a silly discussion. The Democrats effectively got nothing done since taking over. Patterson is lost. Malcolm Smith was a concession and is regarded as a blithering idiot by virtually all of Albany. Silver was the most powerful guy in capitol...for about 10 minutes until the retarded Dems blew themselves apart.

So now it is Republicans in the Senate and basically nothing will be passed all over again.

Know what I'm sick of? People who should know better blocking gay marriage, sitting on the fence over it, hand-wringing and switching parties over it. Whether I can marry my same sex partner won't affect any of their lives in the slightest and is will impact virtually every aspect of my life. There is something more than outrageous about minorities blocking gay rights--it's evil. It's narcissistic. It's everything civil rights is NOT about to block gay marriage. I'm sick of politicians on both sides coming up with reasons why NY is now behind IOWA and MAINE and NEW HAMPSHIRE. Progessive NY? Liberal NY? Please. NY hasn't been progressive for decades or functional in any other way that others could admire. It's pathetic. At this point I couldn't care less who runs which house in Albany. They all suck. Just in different ways.

Why does it matter to you Alpine? You live in Jersey. You can't vote here.

"Why does it matter to you Alpine? You live in Jersey."

Well, I finally answered my question. SE posters are stupid AND retarded.

NYCMatt wrote: "CC, you STUPID moron -- police, fire, and highway department workers aren't funded through federal income tax."

Actually, Matt, police have received federal funding for many years. Most recently, Byrne funding, for example, had provided NYC with the ability to expand the NYPD under Guiliani and been an important part of Bloomberg's budget for the NYPD up until two years ago when the Bush Admin allowed Byrne funds to go dry. Those funds also helped pay for prosecutors and other critical local law enforcement activities throughout the country. Byrne funds have recently been made available again in a slightly different and reduced form.

Byrne funds aren't the only federal program, but are an example of federal funding for local law enforcement. I'm not sure what you mean Matt when you barked that federal dollars don't pay for local police. It seems kind of uninformed.

While at it, federal highway funds also make up an important part of state and local budgets. While the dollars may be devoted to specific infrastructure projects, they free up state dollars to pay workers, etc. Without the federal funds, state dollars have to be devoted to those infrastructure projects leaving less for workers salaries and the like. I'm less familiar with fire departments funding, but I'm sure federal dollars are mixed in there too. Why would you write something so angry and wrong?

perhaps because he is a pretentious know nothing know it all?

"....But let's take a look at the two Dems who have now given their organizational votes to the GOP -- these guys are characters, to the say the least, with one of them having been recently indicted for domestic violence and the other now on at least his third party switch during his career...."

I don't think this is long for this world.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/06/the-new-york-state-senate-switch-back-room-politics-at-its-best.php#more

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2013/05/ny-assembly-gop-women-to-call-for-sheldon-silver-to-quit-as-speaker