I got into a conversation about NYS taxes with Dr. Nicholas Waddy of SUNY Alfred (check out his blog, Waddyisright.com; he offers perceptive and well supported views of currently important matters). In thinking about that subject afterwards I was reminded of my first view of the NY State Education Building in the imperial capitol, Albany. I sure felt "educated" after seeing that.
Its monolithic mass covers an entire city block; good gravy, I thought I was looking at the Lubyanka Prison in Moscow and, indeed, no doubt many souls have been lost in the Ed. Building too. I would not be surprised to see in it armored bays to accomodate the dump truck loads of state taxpayers' cash consumed by this grotesquely bloated agency daily. Well, the tender intellects of our children must be properly molded according to the principles which dominate the People's Republic of Cuomo and we cannot trust the localities in that, oh heavens no! And that takes Commissars (oops, I mean Commissioners) and 57th Deputy Assistant Facilitators for Esoteric Contretemps in numbers sufficient to to quash insolent dissent. And that takes well furnished rooms, mind you, lots and lots of them.
Sometimes those well meaning people get bored though and they are constrained to search their abundant imaginations for ways to spend taxpayer cash (which surely cannot be trusted to the taxpayers; I mean they will just waste it). When I worked in a public library we were sent one thousand bookmarks advertising the BBC Shakespeare series by the NY State Indoctrination ( dang, Education)Dept. Trouble was, the series had already been shown in its 25 something episode entirety. We put the bookmarks up and the public eagerly snapped up some thirty one of them. Its ok, though; the rest were recycled and no doubt form the paper vessel for the 89th Assistant Factotum of Whatever's weekly report to nowhere. And surely, this was an atypical incident, yes? (Not).
Albany is also graced by the "Albany Mall" of state office buildings, which cost billions when billions were billions, featuring an underground wonderland sheathed in marble and an edifice resembling nothing as much as a giant toilet bowl (I'm not kidding, you should see it). It was created by the prototypical RINO, Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, who cleared entire neighborhoods in the 60's to make way. Rocky always did have that acute sensitivity for prudent expenditure of the taxpayer's money, accustomed as he was to tight personal finances. Rocky thought he would be President someday, as the elect often dream and I think he meant to pursue an aggressive foreign policy, knowing he had a spare national capitol available should DC be nuked. I mean, what leftist in Russia or China would destroy a place as cordial as Albany, NY?
Gov. Cuomo is in the throes of panic. New Federal tax laws have placed his income redistributionist taxes in a most harsh, unwelcome and revealing light. Since we cannot deduct state taxes on our Federal returns anymore they are revealed for the Pharaoh-like demands they are. In vain he searches for a way to skin over the sore. A look at Albany, the physical plant I mean, tells a tale he cannot deny. See what you'd be getting ,America, if you voted for or failed to oppose a Presidential candidate Cuomo?Jack
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2 comments:
Fascinating post! I visited Albany a couple of years back, and I was duly impressed by the Capitol building and the Mall. You're right, of course, that it represents unnecessary expenditure, but I have a soft spot for grandeur, luckily. The incredible thing is that all those massive edifices you cited were built back in the 60s when NYS operated on a shoestring, compared to today. They got fancy new buildings for their tax dollars, though, and what do we get? Nothing so edifying or memorable...
Dr. Waddy: I like old architecture too. For what we paid for that Capitol building in what (1880?) we'd be able to purchase a second hand bus stop shelter now. When I was working for the state I was directed by my supervisor (a downstate liberal) to organize a banquet for WNY librarians (whatever the hell for I still don't know) and she said "and I don't want it in any chintzy restaurant either!". I wish I had had a recording of that for the taxpayers to hear. Once when I told her I had purchased many "bolsilibros" (dime novels in Spanish), which are very popular with inmates, because they keep 'em busy, she said "well, don't you buy anything expensive?!" She then sent me an acquisitions list compiled by a person who I know never worked in a prison library,which featured among other "can't miss" selections, several works by Joseph Conrad. He's hard to read in any language. I kind of ignored that list. What I saw was only a hint of the tip of the execrable waste in which state government blithely indulges.If only NY taxpayers knew how they are being used, if only. I've done some complaining to our legislators about it.
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