March 19, 2011 Saturday
To the Editor:
The deficits in New York were caused by Wall Street greed and giveaways to large corporations. The state gives away $5.4 billion annually in corporate welfare while local governments hand out another $2.8 billion with little to show for it.
IBM collected massive amounts of welfare while shipping jobs to Asia. Taxpayers partially financed Yankee Stadium even though the Yankees are the richest team in baseball. Since 2000, corporate welfare has increased 33 percent, while the corporate share of state taxes has shrunk dramatically. Wall Street had profits of over $114 billion but they pay far less in taxes than people who do productive work.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo raised most of his money from Wall Street and other corporations and had the enthusiastic backing of the special-interest business council. The first thing he did upon assuming office was to cut taxes for the wealthiest 3 percent at a cost of $5 billion.
New York used to be the Empire State but thanks to corporate-bought politicians our infrastructure is falling apart, education is grossly underfunded, crime is rampant and poverty, homelessness and inequality have risen dramatically.
As long as Albany is controlled by corporate lobbyists, New York will continue to decline. The state Senate is a cesspool of corruption (e.g., Joe Bruno, Vinnie Leibell). We could save a lot of money by abolishing this useless institution and having a unicameral legislature.
We also need to strip these part-time legislators of pensions and health insurance, abolish member items and impose strict term limits.
Manfred Holl
Poughkeepsie
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