Morning Read 2: Albany wants to accelerate state downsizing
A special legislative session gets underway today in Albany. A top priority for the Democratic Paterson administration is eliminating a state law that requires the administration to give one-year’s notice before closing state facilities.
The Cuomo administration supports the change, but many Republican lawmakers don’t. This from the Adirondack Daily Enterprise’s Nathan Brown.
“The one-year notification allows time for those directly impacted, the employees and their families to anticipate and plan for the change,” Dan Mac Entee, spokesman for state Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, said on Wednesday.
“It provides local communities that will lose a lot of economic activity time to plan. There’s a ripple effect impacting schools, local businesses, volunteer organizations that shouldn’t be overlooked or disregarded.”
North Country economic development leaders worry that Cuomo could target more state prisons, and perhaps even slash budgets at Sunmount in Tupper Lake.
Tags: politics
The one-year notification provision makes sense. The fact that that youth facility still has employees, but no inmates says more about the State’s inability to plan sensibly than the need to eliminate reasonable notification.
Here is another example of the State’s management talent. Last year a number of Corrections employees sought to apply for early retirement, but were told they were ineligible to the critical nature of their jobs. Last month the same people received notification that their “critical”jobs were going to be terminated, and that they were still ineligible for early retirement. I understand the same sort of thing is happening in other departments. In one department, $150,000/yr supervisors are being kept on, but with no one supervise.
Does anyone wonder why no one trusts our State government to do anything fairly and reasonably?
Let the slashing begin at the $100,000 payroll level and up.
How about we start at $80,000 and up?
I am no fan of NYS government and do think we are bloated, but notification does make sense. However you have to actually follow through the next year and close.
One year notification is way too much. I can see having say 90 day notification, but things like 90 day notification make it difficult to reduce spending.
Don’t worry. This was not discussed by the legislature since I think no one showed up for work!
obviously, no one in albany monitors blogs and posts such as this. This is an excellent way to get the pulse of the peeps. that is, if albany cares about our pulse.
cement,
We’re from the part of the state. Since when does Albany care about the North Country?
wrong part of the state.