..

[Charade]

Aah but that's the problem Zip. Can John P Public discern any more what is essential? forget government spending, look to the private sector...and the credit collapse we are now facing. Check out this link on PBS. It's all about the retirement crisis and how most baby boomers are ill prepared for old age and how they will rely on the government. I'm not talking a few irresponsible people, we're talking millions of folks who in the next few years will need what you call "interfering".
I totally agree we can no longer discern what's essential and what is not but I'm afraid the genie is no longer in the bottle and I not sure we will be able to handle living on whats only "essential"

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/retirement/view/

Just open the phonebook to the blue section and rip half of it out.

 

[eliza61]

Just open the phonebook to the blue section and rip half of it out.

Unfortunately Charade, we're talking about a generation of people who think a 4,000 sq ft home is a starter house.

My blue section actually has the phone numbers to the Philadelphia Eagles and the Phillies along with the seating arrangement of the stadiums (I guess the sixers and the flyers are non essential). Kinda gives you an idea of our priorities here.

 

[adkkev]

It's just Patterson's budget proposals ... we have a LONG way to go before any of this comes to fruition! There will be so much legislative bickering over the next 4 months or so ... it will be surprising if much of anything is accomplished.

Patterson did lay it right in the laps of the legislators ... he told them point blank that if they had a better plan, he was ready to hear it. NY has known about this budget crunch for months and no one but the governor has had the ***** to stand up and present a plan.

As bad as it is in NY, it's much worse in California ... their budget deficit for this year is over $14 billion already!

 

[wall*e2008]

Why can't politicians just cut their spending, instead of punishing their constituents? I really feel sorry for NY citizens; even ipod downloads are going to be taxed!

He did cut spending.

Some of the taxes seem odd. Many fast food places let you fill your own cups. If they see you put in non-diet sodas are they going to run over and charge you tax?

 

[coastermom]

I have to say I live in Staten Island and do LOTS of my shopping and dining in NJ. Lots of NY cars in the NJ malls.

Now one elected offical here wants up to leave NY and become like RI . Now that is a HUGE disaster if I have ever seen one coming .

BTW one firehouse here will be closed everynight from 10pm -6am I believe . It is a Mess .


About that non -diet soda thing will that include my non -diet starbucks being taxed too ?? Or just soda ? I wonder ...

 

[mkingdomlvr]

All those new taxes are shocking. Sadly, I have a feeling the rest of America will soon be in the same boat. My hunch is that we are preparing to enter an era of taxation like nothing we have ever seen before. We should all be ready for government at all levels to tax our pants off.

Oh yeah, that's what the country voted for. We're going to get taxed until there's nothing left to tax.

DH says people want to be like those blobs in Wall-E, floating around on their lounges with government meeting their every need, never having to work a day in their lives.

The problem is-someone has to work to pay for their entitlement lifestyle, what happens when there aren't enough workers???

 

[Mickeyluver37]

The soda tax thing is just silly. Why soda and not (non-baked) potato chips, candy bars, etc?

I just heard this morning that all state workers will be getting a 2 or more day furlough. That's O'Malley's plan to save $34 million. It will be interesting to see how other states handle budget deficits. Too bad we can't all be like the federal government and just spend spend like there's no tomorrow and not have a care in the world about when/if we pay it back.

 

[eliza61]

Oh yeah, that's what the country voted for. We're going to get taxed until there's nothing left to tax.

DH says people want to be like those blobs in Wall-E, floating around on their lounges with government meeting their every need, never having to work a day in their lives.

The problem is-someone has to work to pay for their entitlement lifestyle, what happens when there aren't enough workers???

We are seeing that now. Every one felt they were "entitled' to mult million dollar houses they couldn't afford. If we are going to blame the governement we have to take a good look in the mirror. Government didn't "FORCE" people to live way out of their means we are doing that ourselves. Now reports are coming out that Americans are not saving enough money toward their retirement. Government is not "FORCING" people to go to WDW instead of saving for their retirement but I betcha when they find out they can't live off of what they have in the bank, they will be at governments door asking for assistance.
If we don't want to get tax then maybe we should change our "I deserve a big car, cheap gas, big house, credit cards out my wazoo and a trip to disney world" mentality

#1 EXAMPLE. The city of Philadelphia is in a budget crunch. The Mummers are in an outrage because they are not getting their PARADE!! funded by the city. Excuse me, people are out of work and they are closing firestations and they are screaming bloody murder over a PARADE. But of course they don't want to pay for it. That's our mentality. So now Philly has to raise taxes to fund a million dollar excuse for grown men to get drunk. That's not the government, that is our GREEDY gimme, gimme, gimme attitude


http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/pennsylvania/36286294.html

 

[wall*e2008]

We are seeing that now. Every one felt they were "entitled' to mult million dollar houses they couldn't afford. If we are going to blame the governement we have to take a good look in the mirror. Government didn't "FORCE" people to live way out of their means we are doing that ourselves. Now reports are coming out that Americans are not saving enough money toward their retirement. Government is not "FORCING" people to go to WDW instead of saving for their retirement but I betcha when they find out they can't live off of what they have in the bank, they will be at governments door asking for assistance.
If we don't want to get tax then maybe we should change our "I deserve a big car, cheap gas, big house, credit cards out my wazoo and a trip to disney world" mentality

#1 EXAMPLE. The city of Philadelphia is in a budget crunch. The Mummers are in an outrage because they are not getting their PARADE!! funded by the city. Excuse me, people are out of work and they are closing firestations and they are screaming bloody murder over a PARADE. But of course they don't want to pay for it. That's our mentality. So now Philly has to raise taxes to fund a million dollar excuse for grown men to get drunk. That's not the government, that is our GREEDY gimme, gimme, gimme attitude


http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/pennsylvania/36286294.html

I so hate the Mummers parade. I would like nothing more than for it to be canceled.

You are correct we want, want, want and want others to pay, pay, pay!!!

A parade is not a need for a city, especially the Mummer's parade. If you want it you pay for it. A few less feathers in those costumes should cover the cost of the parade.

 

[MainStMandy]

The soda tax thing is just silly. Why soda and not (non-baked) potato chips, candy bars, etc?

I just heard this morning that all state workers will be getting a 2 or more day furlough. That's O'Malley's plan to save $34 million. It will be interesting to see how other states handle budget deficits. Too bad we can't all be like the federal government and just spend spend like there's no tomorrow and not have a care in the world about when/if we pay it back.

Dbf works for the state and says there has been talk of the state taking one day away and putting it away for his retirement later Right...like he will remember it's there someday. Things are only getting worse.

 

[Disneychix]

The obesity tax is disgusting! How can that even be possible? On our local news they interviewed a restaurant owner and he was asking if juice would be taxed too because some juices have tons of sugar.
Plus, if you order a drink mixed with soda will they charge you extra tax on it? There's no way to ever make this happen.

Patterson has lost his mind. I live right near 2 Indian reservations also and am waiting for the tires to start burning in the highways and the toll booths to be put up to get onto the res.

This is a mess. I didn't see any mention of cutting jobs within any political offices. No way. Why would they do that? Just tax me on my car, boat, soda and clothes!

 

[Pigeon]

I'm a New Yorker. Honestly, I wish they'd just increase the state income tax and deal with the problem, and stop with these bizarre and regressive taxes and fees.

Somebody proposed auctioning off the huge collection of Rockefeller era modern art that was inflicted on the state capital in the 60s. I think that's an excellent idea.

Honestly, I wouldn't blame the Indian nations at all if they blocked the highways. I'd be doing the same if I were one of them.

 

[Charade]

I'm a New Yorker. Honestly, I wish they'd just increase the state income tax and deal with the problem, and stop with these bizarre and regressive taxes and fees.

Somebody proposed auctioning off the huge collection of Rockefeller era modern art that was inflicted on the state capital in the 60s. I think that's an excellent idea.

Honestly, I wouldn't blame the Indian nations at all if they blocked the highways. I'd be doing the same if I were one of them.

Just on the rich, of course...

 

[adkkev]

Dbf works for the state and says there has been talk of the state taking one day away and putting it away for his retirement later Right...like he will remember it's there someday. Things are only getting worse.

It's called lag payroll and it's been done before. Payday will move each period until it's actually five days later than it originally was.

Nothing will happen until the legislature gets around to discussing the budget proposals.

 

[luvmy3]

The obesity tax is disgusting! How can that even be possible? On our local news they interviewed a restaurant owner and he was asking if juice would be taxed too because some juices have tons of sugar.
Plus, if you order a drink mixed with soda will they charge you extra tax on it? There's no way to ever make this happen.

Patterson has lost his mind. I live right near 2 Indian reservations also and am waiting for the tires to start burning in the highways and the toll booths to be put up to get onto the res.

This is a mess. I didn't see any mention of cutting jobs within any political offices. No way. Why would they do that? Just tax me on my car, boat, soda and clothes!

The obesity tax is not surprising. It where our country is heading incase you haven't noticed. Eventually, anything the gov't deems unhealthy (for you) will be he heavily taxed or just banned, trans fat anyone. They figure since we are so stupid that we can't make the decision ourselves to maintain a healthy lifestyle, they will just make it so that we can't afford not to. The truth is its just easy money for them under the guise that they are doing it for us and our well-being. They are doing it because they want more of OUR money to pay for THEIR overspending, period.

I do have to say that they are trimming the fat so to speak in other areas. My friend just recently lost his well paying NYS job and his benefits. He hasn't been in an office for a good 8 years and maybe gets one job per month to work on, sometimes none, and he was still getting that paycheck every 2 weeks from the state. He did absolutely nothing for them in years, he even admits that. I certainly wasn't happy for the financial situation my friends were put in after he was let go, but I sure was happy that my taxes weren't paying him to sit at home and work on his other real job (freelance). I'm guessing there are alot of employees like him that should be let go. I hope Patterson plans on doing just that.

 

[DawnCt1]

Here is a brief list. There are 88 in all.
Movie tickets, taxi rides, soda, beer, wine, cigars and massages would be taxed under Paterson's proposal. It also extends sales taxes to cable and satellite TV services and removes the tax exemption for clothes costing less than $110.

"The governor is nickel-and-diming working class families," said Ron Deutsch, executive director of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, an advocacy group.

 

[mkingdomlvr]

The obesity tax is not surprising. It where our country is heading incase you haven't noticed. Eventually, anything the gov't deems unhealthy (for you) will be he heavily taxed or just banned, trans fat anyone. They figure since we are so stupid that we can't make the decision ourselves to maintain a healthy lifestyle, they will just make it so that we can't afford not to. The truth is its just easy money for them under the guise that they are doing it for us and our well-being. They are doing it because they want more of OUR money to pay for THEIR overspending, period.

DH and I have been predicting this for a long time and it really makes us angry. We're both in good shape, work out and (mostly) eat healthy. But darn it all, we still like our fun foods too! Why should we pay "sin" taxes on them when we're being balanced and responsible??

 

[Carly_Roach]

Welcome to the party. I've forgotten how many years it was that Michigan State workers had to work 40 hours but only get paid for 38. I think they only recently came off that schedule. There were even a few years in there where they were forced to take a few days furlough without pay.

Our roads are getting worse every year and I'm especially noticing the lack of plows and salt on the roads when it's snowed this year (counties and cities cutting back on OT and use of salt to save money).

Unemployment and underemployment means less income tax received from those who are working. The first few years it doesn't show up so much because they take money from other funds to cover necessary services. But as that money gets used up, we start to notice more and more necessary services going away.

Tax things like soda pop and beer all you like; the bottom line is if people don't have the money to buy it, the taxes won't get paid anyway.

 

[luvmy3]

Here is a brief list. There are 88 in all.
Movie tickets, taxi rides, soda, beer, wine, cigars and massages would be taxed under Paterson's proposal. It also extends sales taxes to cable and satellite TV services and removes the tax exemption for clothes costing less than $110.

"The governor is nickel-and-diming working class families," said Ron Deutsch, executive director of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, an advocacy group.

I never understood why NY lifted the sales tax on clothing. I figured that would be re-instated at some point.

 

[Charade]

Welcome to the party. I've forgotten how many years it was that Michigan State workers had to work 40 hours but only get paid for 38. I think they only recently came off that schedule. There were even a few years in there where they were forced to take a few days furlough without pay.

Our roads are getting worse every year and I'm especially noticing the lack of plows and salt on the roads when it's snowed this year (counties and cities cutting back on OT and use of salt to save money).

Unemployment and underemployment means less income tax received from those who are working. The first few years it doesn't show up so much because they take money from other funds to cover necessary services. But as that money gets used up, we start to notice more and more necessary services going away.

Tax things like soda pop and beer all you like; the bottom line is if people don't have the money to buy it, the taxes won't get paid anyway.

Strangely, politicians haven't figured this out yet.