Cuomo Quixote's Windmills Go Bust In Lake Erie

Don Andrew Cuomo's Glorious Quest to be "El Presidente" requires windmills to be conquered. The peasants and their businesses will thank him for making them pay the added costs for Wind Power.  Business friendly, peasant friendly, green friendly, a shining knight and Champion for all.

Don Quixote in Madrid

     Cuomo's Power Authority's fresh water watermills went bust when the New York Power Authority pulled the plug on the offshore wind farm project, NYPA officials said it wasn’t “fiscally prudent” because even a 150-megawatt project – on the small side of the agency’s guidelines–would require subsidies of $60 million to $100 million a year. That was two to four times the subsidy a similarly sized land-based wind farm would require to be economically feasible.  “A larger project would just yield a larger subsidy,”  But the subsidy wouldn’t have just lasted for a year or two. NYPA would have paid them for 20 years. So on even a small-scale project, it would have cost $1.2 billion to $2 billion in subsidies over 20 years just to make the project work financially.
     So the brilliant Power Authority trustees are launching a new push for a big wind farm off the Long Island shore, where the demand for electricity is greater.  Will the Don Cuomo tilt more money at these salt water windmills?  Don Cuomo is so greenly correct.  Could Don Cuomo deny the glorious future of wind energy?   Pick up the green lance and charge past the failure of salt water windmills in Spain.  Don Cuomo's Glorious Quest includes being a champion for the Lady Green.   Windmills will be conquered and made to serve for all.   Damn the cost to reap the glory. 

Wanna buy some NY Power Authority Bonds, cheap?

See: New York State Rating Downgrade: Who'll Repay The Bonds As Taxpayers Flee?

New York Exodus As Tax Payers Flee At The Highest Rate In USA. 

  Small-business lobbyist Mike Durant noted, New York has "consistently ranked worst or in the top three worst in business climate. You can't suck every penny out of people and expect them to remain in New York."

Andrew Cuomo's Business Friendly New York Clashes With Pepper Sprayed Crying Girls

Is Prince Cuomo heeding Machiavelli with the pepper sprayed crying girls?
Better to be feared than loved ~ Machiavelli

Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici

to whom the final version of

the Prince was dedicated.

      Does Andrew Cuomo look like a modern day Lorenzo de' Medici?  Will Cuomo act like a modern day Lorenzo?  New York State's Comptroller DiNapoli has said New York State finances are on a razor edge.     Then, the USA days of Rage hit Wall Street.   Wall St. protests ended in mayhem. and  Wall Street protesters, many of whom are young girls, are cuffed, pepper-sprayed during 'inequality' march.  Will Cuomo ignore those pain-filled girls who are crying?

   An organizer's website, #OccupyWallStreet, says it's more than a Hashtag - It's Revolution in Formation.  Their Revolution is aimed at the people who pay the taxes  Prince Cuomo needs to run NY State government.     Will Prince Cuomo let these revolutionaries, drive the biggest New York State Taxpayers out, or diminish their earnings?   Without their NY State Income Tax payments, Prince Cuomo's State would be pushed off the Comptroller's described razor's edge.
   
       Meanwhile, the greedy billionaire Mayor Bloomberg has said he wants to keep his billions and will not fairly share them with the needy.   Is the Progressive Prince Cuomo's heart ready to increase taxes on the poor to satisfy billionaire Bloomberg's idea of fairness?  Will Prince Cuomo's heart or his head rule?

    This could be Prince Cuomo's defining moment.   He's loved by 77%.    But, Machiavelli in "The Prince" said, "it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved."

Prince Andrew (de' Medici?)

    So, Will Prince Cuomo let the girls cry, save the bankers and their revenues and continue his rule securely in  New York? 
Or are the crying girls calling attention to the hand writing on the walls of Cuomo's Wall Street?
"Mene, Mene, Tekel, u-Pharsin" which was translated for the final Babylonian King Belshazzar as, "God has numbered your remaining days in power; your number is up; you've been weighed and found deficient; and your State will be divided up financially and given to its creditors."

Andrew Cuomo needs lots of "Ron Pauls"

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall

Humpty Dumpty took a great fall

  Up to the mythical bar in the Sky strutted Andrew Cuomo, the big man in New York.  He tamed the State's budget crisis.  He appointed committees to fix everything.   He rebuilt the infrastructure damaged by Irene and prepared for his ascension to president.    But like all prodigal sons, the end was unexpected.  Will his friends who he bought drinks for at the bar love him when he asks them for money?
     Back on Earth, Comptroller DiNapoli at Cuomo's "Ministry of Finance and Hope" has shown his "prodigal prudence" by lowering his estimate of safe Pension fund returns from 8% to 7.5%.   Will DiNapoli be able to get Madoff freed from jail to help obtain this 7.5% safe return.    There are lies, damn lies and finance weasel's doublespeak.  The following words of DiNapoli were issued from the "Ministry of Finance and Hope:" 
   "DiNapoli: State’s finances on a ‘razor-thin’ margin"
1. “Revenue collections, as anticipated, have grown from last year,” 
2. “Still, the Blue Chip consensus economic forecasts for growth continue to be revised downward, raising concerns for the remainder of the fiscal year. We should be prepared for the possibility that revenue growth may falter, requiring downward adjustments to the Financial Plan.”
3. The General Fund ended August with a balance of $1.6 billion, $0.7 million lower than projected in the Financial Plan updated August 2.  Receipts, including transfers, grew $3.1 billion over last year primarily because of higher personal income tax (PIT) collections in April and $500 million in delayed refunds that lowered last year’s revenue. PIT collections ended the month $45.2 million lower than the latest projections. Spending, including transfers, increased $1.2 billion (5.5 percent) from the same period last year and was $77.4 million below projections, primarily because of local assistance and transfers to other funds.
   Or translating from Weasel, the budget isn't getting the expected revenues; we booked $500 million in delayed tax refunds as revenue when it is an unpaid expense (luckily no jail, like in private business); and we didn't transfer money we were supposed to to other accounts.

     Meanwhile back at the mythical bar, Cuomo and DiNapoli ordered two stiff drinks and discussed the news on Earth:
1. In Rhode Island, General Treasurer Gina Raimondo is calling the state's underfunded pension system a "death spiral"   and the State of RI went to court and lost when, "A Rhode Island judge has ruled in favor of state employee labor unions in the first round of a major legal challenge to state pension reform."

DiNapoli: "They used 8% and I'm using 7.5%. Hick"

Cuomo: "In NY, unions needn't go to court because pensions are protected in our NY Constitution.  What's a death spiral?"

2.  "The president urged Congress to pony up roughly $200 billion in taxpayer money to "provide more jobs for teachers [and] more jobs for construction workers" and more money to carry out other state and local activities. 
These vast contributions to the coffers of state and local governments, though pitched as a jobs bill, are in reality the latest in a series of bailouts for debt-ridden state and local governments. They are of special benefit to states in the blue regions of the country where the president's most fervent supporters reside."
DiNapoli: We need that money or we're broke. Give me another shot.
Cuomo: [animated] They'll never cut me off I'm Andrew, Son of Mario, future President, New World Order Leader.

3. "Stock futures are plummeting after the Federal Reserve indicated the U.S. economic slump could last for years.

The Fed took steps to stimulate the economy Wednesday that had largely been expected. But investors were troubled because the central bank's statement showed it expected a deep and persistent downturn."

Dinpoli: We needed a recovery; we needed growth; we needed their money.  [Orders a double}
Cuomo: {gulping down his drink] The world will change.  My daddy told me I'll rule.  Let them work harder.  The world and I need their money. 

4. "Call it the recession's lost generation.  In record-setting numbers, young adults struggling to find work are shunning long-distance moves to live with Mom and Dad, delaying marriage and buying fewer homes, ... They suffer from the highest unemployment since World War II and risk living in poverty more than others - nearly 1 in 5.   ...  recent college grads now getting by with waitressing, bartending and odd jobs, they will have to compete with new graduates for entry-level career positions when the job market eventually does improve."

DiNapoli: I want to cry at home.  The retirees are fleeing NY.  The young have no hope. Who's going to pay our bills?  

Cuomo; They're not a lost generation; they have me!

Bartender hands check to the Big Man

Cuomo; Don't give me the bill; give it to him.
DiNapoli: What do you mean, no IOU's and you'll only take a Ron Paul? link

Smoke And Mirrors As DiNapoli And Cuomo Hide Pension Costs While Schools Will Need Contribute 54% Of Salary To Pension Funds

 "The sky is falling and the taxpayers fleeing"  ~ Economic Grim Reaper on impending fiscal collapse.

   Could Andrew Cuomo be arithmetically challenged in regard the NY Pension underfunding and other impending disasters with his budget?   Yes.  Could Andrew be a silver spoon fed son of Mario whose head is swelled with dreams of his coming Presidency? Yes  Could Cuomo believe he lives under different rules of ethics because his father Mario anointed him, Governor and President?  Yes, because that explains how Cuomo took a $45,000 campaign check from a law firm while Cuomo's deputies were probing one of its attorneys for his role in the pay-to-play pension scandal.

       Meanwhile, Comptroller DiNapoli still touts his achievement that "in September 2010, the Fund [teacher's] lowered its assumed investment rate of return to 7.5 percent." No honest retirement fund can safely earn 7.5% in today's market, except if you are Bernie Madoff.   A private pension manger would be spending time in jail for such lying fraud.   But Dinapoli wasn't done with misleading and fraudulent claims of solvency for pension funds he managed.  He was touting the great returns his funds earned in a one year period such as "Domestic public equities returned 17.6 percent, while international public equities returned 14.3 percent. Real estate investments yielded a 26.7 percent return, while private equity investments generated an 18.9 percent return. The Fund’s emerging markets equities returned 16.1 percent, while Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities yielded 9.7 percent and core fixed-income investments returned 8 percent."   But DiNapoli forgot to mention that those returns were from huge earlier losses in 2009 recession.  "John Cardillo, a spokesman for the teachers' retirement fund, said the fund is still trying to make up for a steep decline two years ago." 

       Even worse for those teacher funds, the schools now are paying based on DiNapoli's phoney improved safe rate of return which he lowered from 8% to 7.5%.     The schools complain that "in 2010, the pension rate was 6.2 percent of payroll and forced schools to collect about $926 million. Now at 11 percent, schools will have to pay nearly $1.7 billion, according to preliminary estimates."   Wait till the schools and ultimately the taxpayers discover that an honest safe rate of return for pension funds would be slightly above the 10 year treasury bond rate or very generously 3%.   Doing the arithmetic: going from 8% -3% =5%  is ten times greater than going from 8%-7.5% = 0.5%.     So a 3% safe rate of return would require the schools pay ten times the present increase of  (11%-6.2% =) 4.8% to an increase of 48%, which must be added to the prior 6.2% for 54.2% of salary to be contributed to the pension funds.    And wait, Cuomo and DiNapoli forgot to tell schools they have to fund retiree health benefits.

     How will schools do it with Cuomo's budget cap law?  Will more taxpayers flee?   Wanna buy some NYS bonds?

Real Debt Cuts Ready To Go Today; $200 Billion This Year; $2 Trillion In Ten Years; Both Democrats And Republicans Can Support.

    This is a ready to go debt reduction that both Democrats and Republicans can support. This is a recap of an earlier fax to Congress entitled, Deal With Debt Limit With $200 Billion A Year In Real Cuts In Medicaid Which Don't Hurt Beneficiaries

Copy of letter faxed early this morning.

CuomoTARP.blogspot.com            July 27, 2011

To: Michele Bachmann, Ron Pau Allen West, Thaddeus McCotter, US Representatives; Rand Paul, David Vitter, Jim DeMint, Senators;

and Harry Reid, Majority Leader; Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader; John A. Boehner, Speaker; Eric Cantor, Majority Leader; Darrell Issa, Chair House Oversight and Government Reform; Lamar Smith, Chair House Judiciary; Patrick J. Leahy, Chair Sen. Judiciary; Charles E. Grassley, Sen. Judiciary; Paul Ryan, Chair House Budget; Harold Rogers, Chair House Appropriations; Kent Conrad, Chair Sen. Budget; Jeff Sessions, Sen. Budget; Daniel K. Inouye,Chair Sen. Appropriations; Thad Cochran,Sen. Appropriations; Tom Harkin, Chair Sen. Health; Michael B. Enzi, Sen. Health; Chris Van Hollen, House Budget; Spencer Bachus,House Financial Services; Barney Frank, House Financial Services; Max Baucus, Sen. Finance; Chuck Grassley, Sen. Finance

Re: Debt reduction.  Save $200 billion dollars a year right now and reduce the need to borrow this money, right now, and save $2 Trillion in ten years.  The USA gains;  California gains; New York crooks lose.

Honorable Harry Reid, John A. Boehner and others in Congress:
          Right now, $200 billion this year and $2 trillion in ten years.  Neither Republicans, nor Democrats need or want to fund Medicaid fraud. It's time to stop these grandstanding predictions of spending cuts in the future, instead cut $200 billion a year, beginning right now. All the data has been collected.  Cuomo and Eric Holder are knowledgeable of this.  And this would benefit California.

Here's one example how $1 billion disappeared in one part of NY Medicaid fraud as reported in Wall Street Journal that, "The state spends $700 million a year to house about 1,400 disabled people in the facilities. But it bills Medicaid more than three times that amount. By taking advantage of federal matching funds,the state pockets approximately $1 billion extra every year on just this one item—and uses it to subsidize other areas of the budget."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704013604576247300936116610.html?mod=WSJ_NY_LEFTTopStories


     Medicaid block grants at the median rate of the present Medicaid grants would save $200 billion a year, while letting Cuomo deal with the NY State crooked employees already known to him. NY State's corrupt stealing of Medicaid funds has gone on for years, since before 1994. As described in prior faxes: "In the case of NY, the Feds keep auditing NYS for fraud. The frauds keep getting bigger and bigger and more and more secretive. While NYS gets fined time and time again, the people running the fraud from the safety of their administrative offices and are under the protection of the NYS Attorney General who uses taxpayer money to defend these white collar government criminals who were ripping off the [Federal government]."

http://governmentrico.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/nys-22-billion-dollar-medicaid-fraud-nys-health-department-and-research-foundation-for-state-university-of-new-york-suny/

"The scandal reaches into the upper levels of management for the SUNY Research Foundation and the state Health Department, according to sources briefed on the case. At stake is more than $22 billion in annual matching federal funds for Medicaid. "

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Feds-probing-Medicaid-fraud-at-SUNY-firm-557890.php


Instead of waiting for Eric Holder, aka Gidot, to act, block grants at the present median rate would shift criminal prosecution responsibility to NY State, where Andrew Cuomo and the new AG, Scheiderman, can act as prosecutors, instead of defending the criminal conduct. A State like California would benefit from this change.  A quick action by Congress on a Medicaid funding change would save federal taxpayers $200 billion a year without affecting services to present beneficiaries and would eliminate massive fraudulent billing of Medicaid. In addition, it would save NY local taxpayers $32 billion dollars spent matching fraudulent NY State Medicaid claims.

http://cuomotarp.blogspot.com/2011/05/congress-asked-to-seek-special.html

This is a recap of an earlier post on cuomoTARP.blogspot.com entitled, Deal With Debt Limit With $200 Billion A Year In Real Cuts In Medicaid Which Don't Hurt Beneficiaries


Sincerely yours,

CuomoTarp.blogspot.com

Cuomo Needs Borrow An Unbudgeted Additional $807 Per Taxpaying Person And Each Of Their Dependents

 The People's piggy bank is empty, Andrew.

The Grim Debt Economic Reaper will cut down Cuomo's Budget Fantasy.

The daunting tower of national, state and local debt in the United States will reach a level this year unmatched just after World War II and already exceeds the size of the entire economy, according to government estimates.    And research shows all Cuomo's estimates of growth in the New York Economy are shown as fantasy by "Rogoff and Carmen M. Reinhart, a University of Maryland economics professor, have done research showing that once government debt surpasses 90 percent of GDP, average growth rates slide 4 percent."


    The debt as reported on this blog in  No Whining, No Federal Bailout; You Made Your Bed Of Debt, Lie In It, New York
 
NY+USA Debt per person:
1. Total USA public debt outstanding Dec. 20 $13,868,461,000,000
2. nation's population on April 1 was 308,745,538 
3. USA debt per person $44,805   The federal Government can't bailout New York; it's sinking itself. 
4. New York debt per person: State-funded debt was $3,105 per person and in 2009, NY was the second most indebted State behind California.
5. This New York debt doesn't include the Pension liabilities from the present phony estimated safe return on pension investments of  7.5%, when the New York fund earned 1.1% over five years and New York State’s $132.6 billion pension fund is the nation’s third-largest.
   If we correct the pension liabilities optimistically with a 3.1% return, we get another $9,664 additional debt per person.   Making $12,769 debt per person as a better debt estimate in New York.   But now look at the 4.52 million people on Medicaid in NY (who don't pay taxes) out of a NY population of 19,541,453  which raises the New York debt per taxpaying person and each of their dependents to $16,600.


And Cuomo's budget has a real deficit of $22.1 Billion and not Cuomo's assumed $10 billion dollars with impossibly optimistic expected tax receipts and ignored other multi-billion dollar expenditures.

       Doing the arithmetic for Andrew Cuomo, we discover Cuomo needs to borrow just for the coming year an additional $12.1 billion to his already budgeted borrowing or $807 dollars  per taxpaying person and each of their dependents.

Who'll lend us this money which we can't pay back, Andrew? 

Jerry Brown Acts While Cuomo Fiddles With Committees And Is Slapped By Legislature.

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. ~Abraham Lincoln 
 
"California Governor Jerry Brown unveiled a budget on Monday that included "painful" cuts to state worker pay and social services and a plan to extend tax increases ... to close a $25.4 billion deficit."  and "Alarmed at discovering that the state pays for 96,000 cellphones, Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order ...Requiring 48,000 cellphones to be turned in ...will save the state about $20 million a year."
 
      While on Monday, it was bye , bye, to some Cuomo's promises, "As the first week of New York’s legislative session began, the good will of lawmakers rallying around Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top priorities gave way ...Opposing lines between the majorities of the Senate and Assembly were being drawn Monday over Cuomo’s proposal to cap the growth in property taxes at no more than 2 percent a year. Opposition also surfaced about whether to end, as scheduled, a temporary income tax hike on New Yorkers making more than $200,000 a year.... Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said Monday that his Democratic majority is discussing whether Cuomo’s proposed property tax cap limit of 2 percent or a lesser inflation rate is too low. Democrats also are discussing whether there should be more instances in which the cap could be suspended, such as an unexpected expense like a health care spike or big court judgment."  

    And it was bye, bye, to Cuomo's rent control and property tax cap as, "The Senate’s Republican majority strongly supports the property tax cap, ... But on Monday the Republicans refused to trade the cap for one of Silver’s top priorities. ... rent regulation in New York City on 1 million apartments, critical to the majority’s New York City base."  

       So, Cuomo will continue the Albany Follies Sideshow replacing Governor Paterson with himself and Andrew Cuomo will add his Fiddling to the performance. 
 
       Sadly, the Finger-Pointing Albany Follies' acts have grown stale.  There's no more money to spend.   The piper wants his fee. 

     Please Andrew, please don't cry; the People will understand; you tried; the committees couldn't find enough cuts; the legislature dropped the ball; it's not Andrew's fault: it's their fault. 

 

Do or not do.  There is no try. ~Yoda

Andrew Cuomo's Token Gesture Fails To Follow California Governor Brown's Example

Prelude to Cuomo's "State of the State Speech"

"Some lead by example, others fail with gestures."

"Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means." ~Albert Einstein

 As reported here: Andrew Cuomo Needs To Lead By Example And Cut His Office's Budget By 25% As California's Brown Has

    Andrew Cuomo has tried to follow California's Governor Brown's example with "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and his top staff will take 5 percent pay cuts as a way to "lead by example" as he asks for salary freezes for state workers and budget cuts to an array of interests." and "he will reduce the overall expenses for the executive chamber by 5 percent, saving about $775,000 by the end of the fiscal year March 31."

Do the arithmetic,  5% of executive expenses is $775,000 or 100% is $15,500,000 for 3 months to March 31;  or $62 million for the year for executive chamber expenses, or you should have cut $15.5 million from your budget.

 While Governor Brown is serious about leading by example, Governor Cuomo hopes his gestures will show he tried.

Do, or do not. There is no 'try.' ~ Jedi Master Yoda

P.S. Brown has proposed his own budget, not proposed committees to make cuts 

Andrew Cuomo Needs To Lead By Example And Cut His Office's Budget By 25% As California's Brown Has

"Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means." ~Albert Einstein

    Andrew Cuomo, lead by example!  Cut your office budget in your State of the State Speech coming up.
    1. Will Cuomo create an example and cut his staff budget by 25%, as this has been done by California's Governor Brown?

2. Will Cuomo follow California's Governor Brown and
a. to take aim at several tax breaks and subsidies that have been fiercely guarded by the business lobby;
b. paring back the state's welfare program;
c.reducing what doctors and healthcare providers are paid to care for the poor;
d. trimming funding for the State University of NY;
e.warn school officials: "Fasten your seat belt; it's going to be a rough ride;
and f. target state business tax formulas?
But, so far, what's Cuomo doing at the state level, he's "seeking a quick deal to cap the growth of local property taxes,"  while not addressing local costs imposed by the state as reported in Senate Majority Leader Skelos' concern that, "said schools and local governments need relief from costly state mandates on construction and in programs to make a tax cap work."
   Wake up call to Cuomo: capping the growth of local spending is not reducing your State spending nor reducing State mandates requiring certain local spending.   The state needs cuts in spending, not caps or cuts in increases on  future spending.
  Time to bury the big old lie: Cutting the growth of spending is not cutting spending.

   It's put up or shut up at the State level, Andrew!  If you can't cut your office's budget by 25% and go after medicaid frauds and excesses, welfare excesses, education,  business subsidies, and cut legislative salaries by 25%, why should anyone follow your non-example?
Continue reading the post just below:  Trust In Andrew Cuomo's Inaugural Speech Was Not Verified to follow up.

Cuomo, Medicaid, And New York Budget Headed Nowhere

   Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: "Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall." ~ Luke 11:17

      How will Cuomo deal with, "Nearly half of the people on Cuomo's transition team and economic advisory council either are registered lobbyists themselves or work for organizations that lobby New York's state government ?   Particularly, the lobbyists for Medicaid providers?  

    "The flood of [NY] taxpayers' money that Medicaid has poured into the hands of providers has spawned a militant, aggressive health-care lobby that threatens and targets individual legislators, and that spends millions on advertising apparently designed to convince the public that any Medicaid cuts would result in patients dying in the hallways of hospitals."
      This [$38.7 billion] program costs the taxpayers over $1,300 a year for every man, woman and child in the state. Directly (through their own taxes) and indirectly (through taxes paid by businesses from which they buy goods and services), the average family of four in New York is paying over $5,000 a year to support the [NY] Medicaid program.

    Looking at NY spending, we have this budget item list which omits only the spending budgeted for the sacred cow of education.  Where do we make the cuts?  All data here is  from "Comptroller 2010 Report on Financial Condition of NY State." prepared in March 2009.
From the $38.7 billion  for Medicaid
   or the $4.2 billion spent for public welfare
   or the $4.8 billion spent for public safety
   or the $5 billion spent for transportation
   or the $0.8 billion spent for Environment and Recreation
   or the $0.2 billion spent for business regulation
   or the $6.4 billion spent for General government
   Or a total $60.1 billion

  As of 3/31/2010, 16% or $9.8 billion of NY's debt was issued as budget relief.  This number was corrected by DiNapoli in an Albany Follies Sideshow by adding another billion dollars to this budget relief in Dec. 2010, thus $10.8 billion is claimed as required.  Now from which of the above categories in the State Budget is Cuomo going to take this $10.8 billion from?   But, the fiscal reality is that the Albany Clowns are using a grossly low number when next year's budget needs to cut $22.1 billion.  

Read from the Public Policy Institute of New York State: Medicaid: Wreaking Havoc in Health Care and discover:
1. Our costs for Medicaid are well over twice the national average.
2. The two larger states, California and Texas, have almost three times our population—but combined, they spend only a bit more than New York on Medicaid.
3. New York's costs are so far out of line that the state sticks local governments with a substantial share—and that, in turn, is a major reason our property taxes are so high.   (And Cuomo promises to cap property taxes?)
4. New York's Medicaid  is "the mother of all mandates," in which Albany by fiat orders local governments to pay almost $3.7 billion a year of the cost.  This mandate hits taxpayers directly in their property taxes (except in New York City, which collects much of the cost through its own personal income tax)

    Then, what about the $1.2 billion needed to be refunded to the Federal Government?

      What will Cuomo do when "Nearly half of the people on Cuomo's transition team and economic advisory council either are registered lobbyists themselves or work for organizations that lobby New York's state government?   The Grand Army of the State of New York Transition and Economic Advisers will have one part working against the other.

 Expect lots of sound and fury signifying nothing, while Albany children recite new words to an old ditty:

Oh, The grand Cuomo of New York,
He had ten thousand committee men;
He marched them up to the top of the Capital hill,
And he marched them down again.

And when they were up, they were up,
And when they were down, they were down,
And when they were only half-way up,
They were neither up nor down.

 

Then, bankruptcy and sticking it to the "rich" bondholders

link ~ bankruptcy law

link ~ budget impossibility 

link ~ Hand writing on the wall for NY bondholders
link ~ Why bondholders will be greatest losers (NY Finance Bazaar) 

A Ron Paul Or A Cuomo And Fixing Your New York Tax Withholding Rates

 "A fool and his money are soon parted."

        Will New York follow California and give I.O.U.'s for tax refunds?   Should this cause you to correct your New York Income Tax Withholding rates?


   Here's a California I.O.U. called a"registered warrant"

But the big California banks didn't want to honor these California warrants. and they were illiquid for using directly for purchases, but the Cuomos would be traditional script which could be used for purchases and bill payments, if someone will take them.
                      A proposed "Cuomo"

$3                               NEW YORK TREASURY I.O.U.                               $3

Tender for all non- public debts if someone will take it

New York Comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli   In Cuomo and in New York State we trust

Backed by the Full Faith And Credit of New York State

$3                                 Three Dollars                                  $3

Nicknamed "the Cuomo"  NY State can print plenty of these to give to you.   Why a $3 dollar value?

       An alternate currency is in use in Mid-Michigan, such as a Ron Paul half troy ounce of silver or a gold Ron Paul

       Of course, the NY script (I.O.U. or the Cuomo) would be backed by the full faith and credit of Andrew Cuomo and NY State, but it could only be used if it was willingly taken, because of
Article I Section 10 of the Constitution: Section 10. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility, 


         Which would you take a Ron Paul half troy ounce of silver  or some Cuomos or some California "warrants"?

        While pondering, sell your New York bonds, change your NY Income Tax withholding so you don't get a refund.

Hope And Change Offered Anew With Cuomo And His Same Old Cronies

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under. ~H. L. Mencken

    The Albany Follies CHANGE with a new folly as, Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo says he won't let taxes rise, that he'll get spending under control, once and for all.   "The ugly details: Since 2000, New York's population grew at a paltry 2.1 percent, versus 9.7 percent nationally. As a result, New York not only loses those two House seats, it'll also miss out on billions in federal cash," and with $12,769 debt per person in New York. and his credit card taken away.

News Flash: The HOPE and CHANGE of Green Jobs fizzle in New York even with large government subsidy as SpectraWatt plans shutdown.
 

     Have HOPE, some people learn from failure, Cuomo appointed his prior lackeys who helped him fail miserably. Steven Cohen, now Cuomo’s counselor and chief of staff, will be secretary to the governor.   Mylan Denerstein was named governor’s counsel, moving from executive deputy attorney general for social justice.  Former State Supreme Court Justice Leslie Leach, now executive deputy attorney general for the division of state counsel, will be appointments secretary.   Benjamin Lawsky, deputy counsel and special assistant to the attorney general, will be the governor’s chief of staff. He was general counsel to the Cuomo campaign. 

      Howard Glaser, director of state operations and senior policy adviser, was a senior manager at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Clinton administration, while Cuomo was HUD secretary, and presided over $59 billion dollars missing. 
Hold tight to your wallet with this new gang in town.

    Do you have HOPE in Andrew Cuomo to CHANGE a decades-old political mentality that seeks to soak the rich and handcuff business to please special-interest groups -- unions, lawyers, radical environmentalists?

     Is HOPE and CHANGE and Cuomo's collection of failed operatives a fool's delight?

  How many Cuomos ($3 note) will it take to CHANGE your mind and give you HOPE?

$3                NEW YORK TREASURY I.O.U.                   $3

Tender for all non- public debts if someone will take it

New York Comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli   In Cuomo and in New York State we trust

Backed by the Full Faith And Credit of New York State

$3                            Three Dollars                                $3

Nicknamed "the Cuomo"  NY State can print plenty of these to give to you.

No Whining, No Federal Bailout; You Made Your Bed Of Debt, Lie In It, New York

From Arithmetic for the Economically Challenged Idiots 


For the USA:
1. Total public debt outstanding Dec. 20 $13,868,461,000,000
2. nation's population on April 1 was 308,745,538 
3. USA debt per person $44,805
     And just today, "The U.S. government fell deeper into the red in fiscal 2010 with net liabilities swelling more than $2 trillion as commitments on government debt and federal benefits rose, a U.S. Treasury report showed on Tuesday."

    The federal Government can't bailout New York; it's sinking itself.  You're on your own, New York. 


    New York State reports State-funded debt was $60.5 billion or $3,105 per person and in 2009, NY was the second most indebted State behind California.

    BUT, this debt doesn't include the Pension liabilities from the present phony estimated safe return on pension investments of  7.5%, when the New York fund earned annualized returns of 3.1 percent for the 10 years ended in March 2009, and 1.1 percent over five years and New York state’s $132.6 billion pension fund is the nation’s third-largest. 

   So we need to correct the pension liabilities optimistically with a 3.1% return, or a pessimistically with a 1.1% return.  Doing the arithmetic optimistically, we have 7.5/3.1 x $132.6 billion = $321 billion,  which should be in pension fund, when only $132.6 billion is, or NY has net debt burden owed the pension fund of optimistically $321 billion - $132.6 billion = $188.3 billion or another $9,664 additional debt per person, which should be added to $3,105 per person above.   Making $12,769 debt per person as a better debt estimate in New York.   But now look at the 4.52 million people on Medicaid in NY (don't pay taxes) out of a NY population of 19,541,453  which raises the debt per taxpaying person and each of their dependents to $16,600 each.

The party's over; the hand writing is on the wall and on the paper; the accounting's been done; the prophet heard; the piper must be paid.

The words, Mene, Mene, Tekel, u-Pharsin, written by a God of Justice Disrupt the Albany Victory Celebration (King Cuomo, Paterson, Silver and Sampson in their blue uniforms with their new committees behind them)

CuomoTARP Gives A Christmas Present To New York Bondholders

In God's schekels we trust, all others' schekels we weigh.  From a sign in an ancient Babylon Bazaar

  Trust in Cuomo's charisma?  CuomoTARP updates Financial data relevant to NY Finances and the value of New York State and New York Municipal Bonds. 
1.New York Unemployment rises to 8.3%.
2  Less employment means less taxes

   Trust in Obama/Geithner/Federal Reserve Bank?  Are you fooled by phony low inflation numbers, or do you know gas prices have risen since Obama took office from $1.80 per gallon to $3.31 per gallon (no link needed go to your local gas station).  This cost goes through to all other costs by raising the prices of any goods transported to stores.  
3. Food prices to increase 5% in December.
4. Treasuries rise and therefore NY Bond rates rise. 

  Did you miss the Handwriting on the Wall for NY Bondholders at Thanksgiving?
Mene:  Count your bond values now
 Mene:  Count your bond values after the credit rate rises, inflation increases and bond desirability decreases
  Tekel: Same as shekel or watch your money
   U-Pharsin;  Your bond values will be cut in half
Did you miss the Words of the Prophet to bondholders:
  Sell now and not cry later 

DO You think the Chinese stupid? 

What should you do with rising interest rates and holding bond funds or bonds?
   or what happens if federal rates rise on municipal or State bonds?

      Here's CuomoTARP's Christmas Gift to New York bondholders:

       Sell now and re-buy(?) after the NY interest rate doubles or goes even  higher; otherwise, you lose at least 50% of your bond fund's value.  

New York Cannot Fund Its Government's Debt

“Three groups spend other people's money: children, thieves, politicians. All three need supervision.”~ Armey

New York's budget cannot be sustained in the New Year.   Numerical data for NY State below is taken from "Comptroller 2010 Report on Financial Condition of NY State.*" prepared in March 2009.  In the State Fiscal Year 2009-2010 spending reached $126.9 billion*, or $6,493* per person according to NY Comptroller.  But 4.5* million NY residents receive Medicaid(which is free and whose recipients pay no taxes) or 23% of the total 19,541,453 NY residents, thus raising the taxpaying share of NY expenditures per tax-payer resident and their dependents to $6,493 divided by 0.76 = $8,543 per tax paying resident and all dependents on that tax paying resident ) 

      As of 3/31/2010, 16% or $9.8 billion* of NY's debt was issued as budget relief.  This number was corrected by DiNapoli in an Albany Follies Sideshow by adding another billion dollars to this budget relief in Dec. 2010, thus $10.8 billion is claimed as required, but not funded in 2010, for budget relief.  These chickens will come home to roost and greet Andrew Cuomo at the beginning of the New Year.  

       Moody's predicted federal treasury bonds will be downgraded if only $200 billion was added to federal debt, but Harry Reid added $1 trillion to the debt in pending Senate Bill today.   Guess, if Treasury securities are downgraded and rates raised, will States borrowing rates rise?   Usually, when federal interest rates rise, state rates rise at least proportionally or in the case of NY,CA,IL and MI even more.

       Now back to NY where, "NY was 2nd most indebted state behind California and had twice as much debt as the 3rd most indebted state.*"  
NY's State's funded debt is $60.5 billion*, or as of 3/212010 of $3,105* per NY person.

  item #1 Debt Service Expenditure in NY in 2010 was $5.6*billion in interest payments (due immediately, see link).

     Now what happens if debt service rises from 3.337%  by an additional 4% added due to federal policy and Chinese reaction   and Moody's devaluation of NY and federal debt as described above.

     Or that increases of  #1 above from $5.6* billion will be to more than a double $11.2 billion.
Now, where from will the governor and legislature take that additional $5.6 billion dollars?

Ignoring the spending budgeted for the sacred cows of education and medicaid from where do you take the $5.6 billion dollars from the remaining categories below:
From the $4.2* billion spent for public welfare
   or the $4.8* billion spent for public safety
   or the $5*billion spent for transportation
   or the $0.8* billion spent for Environment and Recreation
   or the $0.2* billion spent for business regulation
   or the $6.4* billion spent for General government

or $5.6* billion from their above total of $21.4*billion  or 26% from each of the above requiring dismissing (26%?) state work force in each of the above categories.

And if you think that 26% reduction is bad,  look at all the other additional cuts required when other factors are included

The handwriting is on the wall


New York must and will pay the piper

*all data from Comptroller 2010 Report on Financial Condition of NY State.

An Albany Demi-God Follows The Washington Demi-God To The Republican Side

       "Saint Andrew Conquers New York"
    While one demi-god, promising much, tripped and fell from his dais in Washington, another new demi-god, Saint Andrew, prepares to ascend to Governor in New York.  Sadly, Saint Andrew learned there were no palms to be spread in his path in Albany in January, but his committees were ready.  Like the Washington demi-god's children's chorus' "YES WE CAN", Albany children were reciting new words to an old ditty:

Oh, The grand Cuomo of New York,
He had ten thousand committee men;
He marched them up to the top of the Capital hill,
And he marched them down again.

And when they were up, they were up,
And when they were down, they were down,
And when they were only half-way up,
They were neither up nor down.

And so, the Cuomo committee men ended up where they began.

   Andrew announced his new staff, who, hopefully (oops, wrong word), have learned from their past failures. 
     Steven Cohen will be secretary to the governor.  Mr. Cohen was the top aide in running AG Cuomo's CAP program which was a total failure, as well as the sham prosecutions of the NY Comptroller, Hevesi.
     Howard Glaser, who served with the younger Cuomo at the federal Department of Housing and Urban Affairs, was named director of state operations.    Mr. Glaser helped making sure $59 billion dollars disappeared at HUD without an investigation as was called for by the Inspector General.

Now we read, "Cuomo is one of us Republicans."    Next, Cuomo will ask the Vatican for his statue.

And, the Vatican Museum will change "Janus"to the victor's name "Saint Andrew conquers NY"


Lots of hype and media fawning, lots of committees, a staff headed by lackey failures, a demi-god who moves to the center. 
When we ever learn; when will we ever learn.

        Alas, another demi-god destined to trip and fall, right after the Chinese firecracker is ignited and the debt bomb explodes in the New Year.

The New York Follies' Albany Band Wagon Races On the Road Downhill

In Albany, money grows on trees?
       The New York child was mistakenly left off this poster.  "Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, California, Illinois, Los Angeles and Chicago are simply the poster children for what happens when elected officials engage in reckless and irresponsible management of their economies, their banking system or their respective government's public finances."

       Welcome to the La-la land of NY where, "Paterson announced a hard line hiring freeze in July, only to find out in October that 31,684 new employees had been added to the state payroll."
and where NY "state’s deficit has doubled to $15 billion since August," or taking into account interest rate changes $15.8 Billion (2011-2012 deficit)
       Then, Gov. Paterson doled out $17 million in pork-barrel spending after asking a special session of NY Legislature to close a $315 million dollar deficit which Comptroller DiNapoli claimed was really almost a billion dollars in a Albany Follies Sideshow.

       The blog apologizes for not identifying Gov. Paterson (also in a blue uniform to the right between two women)  at the Albany Thanksgiving Swamp Fest picture below, where the hand writing on the wall was seen.

The words, Mene, Mene, Tekel, u-Pharsin, written by a God of Justice Disrupt the Albany Thanksgiving Celebration (King Cuomo, Silver and Sampson in their blue uniforms with their new committees behind them)

Now a follow up of the handwriting on the wall from Arithmetic for the Economically Challenged Idiots,

California's budget deficit is  $25 Billion dollars
California's population is 36,961,664  or $6,763 per resident

NY's budget deficit is $15 billion dollars (see links above).
NY's population is 19,541,453 or $7,765 per resident

      What's ahead for New York is visible in California where, "California has been sending out IOUs instead of tax refunds, bills aren't being paid, workers have been furloughed two days a month without pay, and now Arnold is preparing to send out 20,000 pink slips—10 percent of the governor-controlled state headcount."

      Please send your comments to Andrew Cuomo on a proposed New York script that can be used for NY tax refunds and other purposes.

$3           NEW YORK TREASURY I.O.U.              $3

Tender for all non- public debts if someone will take it

New York Comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli   In Cuomo and in New York State we trust

Backed by the Full Faith And Credit of New York State

$3               Three Dollars                $3

Nicknamed "the Cuomo"  NY State can print plenty of these to give to you.

Andrew Cuomo's TARP Used To Protect Bank At SEC And Exorcising The False Hope Demon

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me repeatedly and you'll know I live in New York and I have a "need" to believe.

We offer a free exorcism of your false New York hope demon and any "need to believe in New York's Government or its bonds."

       In a recent report, the SEC Inspector General’s description suggests that [Andrew Cuomo's] tactics hamstrung an efficient and timely prosecution of Bank of America, or that Cuomo throw his Cuomo TARP to cover-up and protect at the SEC.

      What's new about this?   Nothing.  It's Andrew Cuomo's M.O..   Check these links on this blog.

1. Laugh and then cry as Cuomo's M.O., Silver, Sampson say one thing while they are working together towards fiscal disaster

2. See the pattern with Cuomo's M.O. where a criminal is not really punished nor makes adequate restitution.

3. See Cuomo M.O. again as he bungles a prosecution (an inadvertent error?) and executives escape

4. Watch while Cuomo allows $59 Billion to disappear while no one is prosecuted and no money returned

       Honestly, were you fooled by Andrew Cuomo in the above beginning quoted SEC Investigation when he "said he routinely obtained “multiples” of what the SEC obtained in its settlements?"   Do you believe Andrew Cuomo really gets more financial restitution and jail time?
      Now, Read: With Sheeple Fooled; Wolf One, Andrew Cuomo, Spares Under-Wolf Six, Hank Morris




Pick out Andrew among the sheep pattern?

Good, now try to see the pattern in links above, it's called Cuomo's M.O.

What's the Cuomo M.O. pattern?  Is it: missing money not recovered; criminals with no jail time; lots of sound and fury about cleaning out corruption and the result is _________?

Now, reality testing. Can Comptroller, DiNapoli, earn 7.5% safe return on NY Pension investments?  Would you buy a bridge from Bernie Madoff?

Did you see the always repeating pattern (the Cuomo M.O.)?

Now use Einstein's definition of Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Will you sell your NY Bonds? (Y)(N)

If yes, your False Hope Demon was driven out, you're cured.  If no, repeat this exorcism.

The Albany Follies' Sideshow Continues Their Long Run With The New "Cuomo," $3 Script

Responsibility:  A detachable burden easily shifted to the shoulders of God, Fate, Fortune, Luck or one's neighbor.   ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary


Highlights of the Albany Swamp's Finger Pointing Sideshow on Monday and Tuesday this week.  "Full of sound and fury and signifying nothing [done]"

1. Governor Paterson, playing  CYU or don't blame me next year when I'm gone, called the legislature into session on Monday to deal with a deficit in this year's budget which he estimates is $315 million.

2. Senator Sampson, playing CYU punts the budget cuts till January when the Republicans take over the NY Senate.

3. Comptroller, DiNapoli, claiming Paterson is underestimating the deficit for this year by a factor of three, or merely a billion dollars, while he forgets to include all the other factors such as his 7.5% Safe Return on pension investments.

4. Sheldon Silver dropping the ball in the Assembly hoping that after January, the Republican Senate can be blamed.

5.  Enter, Cuomo with his final soliloquy after meeting Assembly Democrats [saying],“For them to come back and do nothing is very distressing,” 

Show over; applaud please. Pretty please

6. With Public Finger Pointing sideshow ended, Cuomo and the other play actors from the sideshow's cast go back to Cuomo's committees, where, "Nearly half of the people on Cuomo's transition team and economic advisory council either are registered lobbyists themselves or work for organizations that lobby New York's state government and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Democratic Leader John Sampson, Republican Senate Leader Dean Skelos are all on Cuomo's committees.

Great show, Andrew, Silver and Sampson, too bad that:
  "Meetings are a symptom of bad organization. The fewer meetings the better" - Peter F. Drucker"

 

      Now with the sideshow ended, let's look to California for New York's next step in the new year.   "California is following the long tradition of bankrupt states turning to IOUs when the capital market looks less than inviting."

     Here's a sample of the proposed new $3 NY Script I.O.U. to be nicknamed "the Cuomo"  NY State can print plenty of these to give to you.

$3   NEW YORK TREASURY I.O.U.   $3

Tender for all non- public debts if someone will take it

New York Comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli   In Cuomo and in New York State we trust

Backed by the Full Faith And Credit of New York State

$3                Three Dollars                  $3

   Why was $3 picked as the value?   So that the "Cuomo" will trade above par with the dollar instead of below par like the historic trading value of City of Chicago I.O.U's at up to a 40% discount.

    The third world government of New York will offer an official exchange rate of one Cuomo = 3 U.S. Dollars.    Then, we can look to Illinois where, "Legislators left the capital this month without deciding how to pay 26 percent of the state budget.   And every major rating agency has downgraded the state."    See blog index above for details of NY budget debacle.

"When will the sheeple learn, when will they ever learn?"

Welcome to the Brave New New York World: 

 There's a great new local community business opportunity: a Exchange where Cuomos and dollars can be exchanged.

  If we can't borrow the money, Comptroller DiNapoli can use pension funds to buy NY debt.

  Thank God, we have Andrew's charisma to see us through.