We’re Talkin’ Proud!
Alan Hevesi dropped a massive load of upbeat news on the City of Buffalo in his report on the fiscal stability of cities throughout New York.
Some juicy tidbits:
- Buffalo led the pack of 61 cities from 2000 to 2004 in what Hevesi called financial “stress levels”
- Buffalo saw 60 percent of expenses go to salaries and benefits of workers
How do upstate cities respond to such news? By demanding increased state aid, of course! I’m sure that will work, so far, it has really made a difference. Seriously, keep voting for guys like Brown, Tokasz, Volker, Coppola, and their ilk and this is what you get out of your local politicians. The problem is machine politics and the continual kowtowing to union pressures at the expense of free enterprise.
The first response of these politicians is to examine ways to generate more revenue, not to seek creative cost cutting measures. For some reason, local and state politicans have been incapable of establishing a corollary between the ever rising tax burden and the continual population decline…it’s a problem that feeds itself. The population decline results in the majority of the voting public being dependent on government salaries or benefits, not exactly the type of voters who will look for reform.
The full report can be found here.