With a $130 billion dollar state budget annually, $36 million is the rough equivalent of “on our last dime.”<\/p>\n
It’s the fly buzzing out of the empty wallet, the wooden nickel, the last thing between us and the poorhouse.<\/p>\n
It’s also what will be left at the end of December. In simple terms, the collective “we” are broke.<\/p>\n
The legislature has declined to act on Governor David Paterson’s austerity measures — with some lawmakers mocking him as “macho man.”<\/p>\n
But for the North Country, the consequences of doing nothing are pretty dire.<\/p>\n
This from the New York Times:<\/p>\n
\nIf New York does in fact run out of cash, it will have to delay paying some of its biggest bills.<\/p>\n
Chief among the bills the state will face in December are $1.6 billion in aid the state is supposed to pay school districts, $2.5 billion in property tax relief to individual homeowners, and $500 million in general aid meant to go to local governments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you put any of that off, at some point people are not getting the money they are expecting,\u201d said the state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli<\/a>, a Democrat. \u201cThat could affect local governments, school districts, nonprofits, hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
It will be painful watching all those folks try to divvy up $36 million. Are California-style I.O.U.s in our future?<\/p>\n