34 ordspråk av Blair Horner
Blair Horner
Obviously, we hope they fix it, but it's not surprising that in the rush to deal with the budget there are still outstanding issues.
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Paterson may make the difference in the primary if you're concerned about stimulating the New York City base.
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Special interests like to bet on winners. It's not ideological. It's just a business proposition.
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The door is cracked open, but it's only a crack.
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The fact that lawmakers are being lobbied during the day and hold fundraisers for those who lobby them at night is an obvious conflict of interest.
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The governor was basically arguing that anything could be denied that could be considered part of any terrorist activity. One of the possible casualties of Sept. 11 could have been access to public information ... as the horror of Sept. 11 has receded, I think people are taking a more sober look at the need for public access.
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The issues are hard and there are regional and ideological differences ... but the insulation from voter anger makes it easy for gridlock to occur. If lawmakers were more worried about voter anger, I think they'd be more interested in achieving compromise.
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There is just no reason for allowing unfettered giving by lobbyists to lawmakers.
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There's not a lot of deep thought on whether you support a gift ban of $75 per incident or one for $75 per year.
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They all see the clock ticking closer and closer to midnight. The Legislature, and especially the Senate, feels like they've placed themselves in political peril if they don't have a budget done on time.
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They are doing their jobs, so I guess that's an improvement. There is no disputing the fact that they are doing this in response to voter anger that really crystallized in 2004. They don't want to go into the 2006 election without having the budget done on time.
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They just shut the restaurant door. This gives New York one of the strongest gift bans in the country.
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This is the theatrical side of the budget process. The substance is still done behind closed doors.
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This sounds like a legacy budget for the governor. He's trying to set a tone that's not confrontational in hopes of getting it through the Legislature.
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This year was definitely more open than the bad old days, but the door was only open a crack. In the old days, I felt like I was outside of the Vatican waiting for the white smoke instead of waiting for the budget.
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