Submitted by George N Spitz, Oct 16, 2007 04:33

New York's heavy taxation cannot be fairly blamed on allegedly high labor costs. There are other areas that need substantial reduction including excessive government units, mushrooming pension costs, no-bid contracting and excessive patronage. In New York City, there is no need for a Public Advocate and Five Borough Presidents. Their work duplicates that of City Council Members. Similarly, throughout the State, Mayors, Supervisors and County Executives overlap. Pension Costs have increased tenfold over the past five years due to misguided speculative policies by unqualified New York City and State Comptrollers possessing no actuarial, accounting or financial analyst background. Consequently, they make unwise and often corrupt investments. They should be required to invest all surplus pension funds in government debt, which would not only benefit the pension funds but also lower the cost of government. Much of a contracting out done by New York City and State Government is either useless or could be done at much lower cost by the civil service. Patronage has grown immensely in recent years. A City Council Member 30 years ago was provided with $5,000 a year. That has increased to over $180,000 a year much in unskilled hires with no financial or technical skills that would benefit the government, particularly the City Council person they allegedly serve. What is needed is a 10 year reduction plan of government unit, pension, contracting and patronage costs in order to put New York City, State, and Local Governments on a sound financial basis, thus, stabilizing and even lowering taxes while providing more efficient delivery of services.

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