The Albany Follies Show continues:
Cuomo struts out looking tough by forcing a 7.5% decrease on Courts' budget. Chief Judge Lippman appears and releases a video, where “The consequences will be felt heavily on the public as well as on every other part of our state that depends on and is affected by the courts,” Lippman said. The first scene's script had Lippmann wanting only a 3.7% decrease and Cuomo wanting a 10% decrease and 7.5% compromise resulted. (Applaud, please)
But, the final scene has the surprise ending when,
1. Lippman expects a Commission to give raises to the 1,300 Judges, with pay for Supreme Court Judges rising from $136,700 to more than $179,000 or 31% increase or $48 million dollars in judicial salaries to added to Lippman's budget.
. 2. The Judges are also suing for $780 million in back pay to be added to Lippman's budget.
So the revised real Court budget arithmetic is: $2.7 billion this year; minus -$170 million by Cuomo; plus +$48 million in judicial salary increases; plus +$780 billion in back pay; or court budget increases by +$658 million dollars or a 25% increase.
Final scene's tally: Lippman wins with +25%
Taxpayers out an additional $658 million dollars
Cuomo's exit speech says "don't blame me."
P.S. Why did Cuomo drop the ball on Lippman? Andrew Cuomo had promised to clean out corruption in Albany and that is impossible if the New York Courts are run by a Crook as Chief Judge. See Chief Judge Lippman must step aside pending FBI probe.
Will Cuomo drop corruption ball link
And all of this is will be overshadowed by the $46 Billion New York State budget deficit disaster looming from the 2011-2012 Federal budget, "One of the new health-care reforms proposed by the GOP budget is converting the federal share of Medicaid—the federal-state program that provides health insurance to low-income people—into block grants to state governments."
Latest: Debt on Track to Hit 800 Percent of GDP; 'CBO Can't Conceive of Anyway' Economy Can Continue
