We're less than a month into Andrew Cuomo's governorship, and there's already a major controversy brewing.
Cuomo's recently announced budget cuts that would eliminate 10,000 jobs, include roughly 1,000 jobs in Western New York. These would include jobs in such fields as education and the prison system.
Naturally, not everyone has been pleased with this proposal. Many have argued that job cuts are the opposite of what our state needs, and that laying off workers will only weaken our already-struggling economy.
Unfortunately, Cuomo hasn't been left with much of a choice. New York's economy is in shambles right now, with only California having worse struggles. Like it or not, layoffs are an unavoidable symptom of such a weak state economy.
With that said, The Spectrum disagrees with Cuomo in regards to where these layoffs should be made.
For one, cuts to the prison system would be a terrible idea. Considering that many prisons are already overcrowded, eliminating the number of prisons would simply be taking an already large problem and making it worse.
In addition, cuts to public schools would have very damaging effects on the education system. Considering the rough condition the Buffalo Public School district is already in, taking away its funding is the last thing it needs.
We believe that instead of focusing on necessary services like public schools and prisons, Cuomo should be looking to cut from some of the more unnecessary things state money is spent on.
Specifically, Cuomo should cut from the many wasteful patronage jobs that are currently eating our budget.
Cutting from less-necessary spending would be beneficial because while it may not entirely prevent cuts from needing to be made in education and law enforcement areas, it would certainly reduce the number of necessary cuts in these crucial areas.
In addition, we believe that raising taxes in certain areas would be productive in this situation. We realize that tax increases are never popular, but in this case, they could help greatly.
For example, before its repeal in the mid-'90s, there was a stock exchange tax, where people would pay 1/20th of a percent on each stock they purchased.
This may seem like a small number, but it would add it up quite a bit,.
We understand that layoffs are an unfortunate consequence of the economy's condition, and in some cases they are unavoidable. Still, we wish the Cuomo administration would seek out other solutions, and attempt to make budget cuts in purely extraneous areas.
