Governor Paterson

Hi All,

I know that I said last week that I would be talking about customer service this week, but sometimes more important issues come up that I can't resist talking about.

For those of you who do not know who David Paterson is; he is the present Governor of New York State. He didn't become the Governor via the normal route by winning an election. He was the Lieutenant Governor under Governor Spitzer who won the last election by a landslide. When Governor Spitzer resigned his position last year, after being caught as a "John" in a prostitution ring, David Paterson became Governor. I do not know a lot about Governor Paterson, but I "assume" he has some intelligence.

When the economic crisis hit this country, it also hit New York State especially hard; since Wall Street is located here. A good percentage (15-20%) of New York State's income comes from Wall Street and when Wall Street hurts, the entire State can go into cardiac arrest. When you combine Wall Street's woes with, not only the brokerage firms, but also the big banks, AIG, the housing meltdown and companies downsizing (leaving hundreds of thousands of people unemployed), it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that New York State has tremendous budget problems to the tune of being short 14 billion dollars and New York State needs life saving measures!

When the economy is good, politicians always seem to be able to increase the size of Government, which in turns means adding more people to the States payroll. But when times are tough, like they are now, Government seems less likely to reduce the payroll in a sizable amount. In New York State's case, in order to balance the budget, Governor Paterson has talked about: increasing taxes on almost everything, all agencies must cut spending by 10%, employees must forgo pay raises and also laying off and/or not filling vacant positions that number only in the hundreds. OK, so I don't know how many people it takes to run New York State, but I do know now that Governor Paterson lacks any common sense.

Why and how? Governor Paterson has decided that 17 of his aides should get a pay raise averaging 16.7%. Now averages can be very deceiving. Why? Well one of his "confidential assistants", Cassie Prugh, had her salary increased from $85,721 to $125,000. That is an unbelievable and astounding increase of 46%. Do any of you know anyone who is getting that kind of an increase in this day and age?............ I thought not. What the hell is wrong with this Governor? Oh yeah I know, he has no common sense and these pay raises prove it. The Governor now has a huge media storm brewing because of this and deservedly so.

As I said in my first blog, just by using common sense, anyone can make the correct decision that is also fair and just. Governor Paterson is obviously lacking common sense!

Talk to you next week.