Mike Long, the long-time Conservative Party chairman, said that while he does not agree with most of Spitzer's budget, the spending proposal by the GOP-controlled Senate "forces me to re-evaluate your proposals."
"We support your efforts to cut health-care. And we support your efforts to increase the number of Charter Schools in New York State," Long says.
(Those who follow this in detail may notice that Long says "cut health care," rather than "reform health care" which is an important rhetorical distinction to leading Democrats).
Dan Janison
Hit "Continue" for the text of the letter:
William Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest "Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. and in 2007, I find myself in the exact same position.
The New York State Conservative Party finds itself coming full circle...we are back where we began in 1962. For years, we have been aligned with the Republican Party in New York, but J. Daniel Mahoney and Kieran O'Doherty, founded the Conservative Party because the Republican Party had lost its way.
Governor Spitzer, I do not agree with most of your budget. You have increased spending at levels that according to the Comptroller are unsustainable. I believe there is fat in your budget and given the opportunity, I would cut spending. If your future budgets continue at the same rate of spending, New York could go bankrupt.
As difficult as your budget is, what the Republican controlled Senate is proposing, forces me to re-evaluate your proposals.
We support your efforts to cut health-care. And we support your efforts to increase the number of Charter Schools in New York State.
Both these areas of spending comprise the largest portions of New York's budget. We must get them under control and end the massive amounts poured into health-care and education each year with very little positive results.
Hopefully we can work together, this year.
Hopefully this will be the last budget that proposes spending at twice the rate of inflation.
We may find that "strange bedfellows" will help bring New York back to being the economic engine of the United States.
Comments (2)
just cut the budget 10% across the board. Thats all. No spending increases, no shifting the money around. We need true cuts NOW, otherwise NYS will always be the top tax collector in the US.
Mike Long is a savy politician. How else can he maintain his jobs on the State payroll and that of John Andrew Kay who is on for many more. They have mastered the art of hypocracy and are destrying the Conservative Party. Mike Long is kissing ass.