Monday, February 22, 2016

Pols think money grows on trees

From Crains:

It was fitting that the governor came to the council speaker's defense, because Cuomo has become a big advocate of the “propose now, worry later” style of governing. Consider his much-ballyhooed promise in July to overhaul the despised LaGuardia Airport. At the time, his administration said the Central Terminal would be replaced, as would Delta's newly refurbished Terminals C and D, and a new link to the subway would be completed—all for something like $4 billion.

Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported the cost of the Central Terminal alone had soared past $4 billion.

Mayor Bill de Blasio was the voice of reason this month in casting doubts on the Rikers plan, but he too has been guilty of this approach—if on a smaller scale. The $25 million cost of a new barn for carriage horses in Central Park was apparently pulled from thin air. His $2.5 billion streetcar scheme for the Queens-Brooklyn waterfront has more than a few question marks, too.

Why care about this? Because projects like these put pressure on governors and mayors to deliver something. Because they don't like to raise taxes and because both the city and state have such high debt loads, they will be tempted to make fiscally irresponsible moves to push the costs into future years.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Money does n0ot grow on trees. It is created from thin air by the Federal Reserve. They do not even need to print it up anywhere, just adjust numbers in a computer.

Anonymous said...

In the future welfare recipient's will take Bennifit cuts to finance
Liberal Utopia Why? No jobs and No taxpayers

Anonymous said...

The late, great, NYC.

Soon to resemble downtown Detroit.

Burned out buildings, empty store fronts, rampant crime and murder. Keep raising the taxes. See how long it takes to empty the city of all of the workers.

Anonymous said...

DiBlASSio took his job to improve his national profile in hopes of running for president some day, especially now that Cuomo has stated that he might run if Hillary O Bernie don't make it in November this theory will prove to be true.

Anonymous said...

Many people expect an economic collapse to be shocking, instant, and dramatic but, really, it’s far more gradual than that. It looks like empty shelves, long lines, desperate government officials trying to cover their asses, and hungry people.

Venezuela Is Out of Food: Here’s What an Economic Collapse Really Looks Like

The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money to spend

Anonymous said...

Cuomo could never get elected President. His "SAFE Act" makes him politically poisonous to a large part of the country.