Paterson's State Of The State For 2009

I don't know if you had an hour and change to kill during the middle of the day to see the Governor's State of the State speech, but I did. Gov. Paterson addressed a lot of different items, many of them we know from his earlier roll out of the plan for the 2009 budget. Much of what he said we already know, shared sacrifice, tough times, sugar tax, etc.

What I liked hearing was his mentioning of preventive care funding and getting away from how we currently waste dollars in our state's health care system. Attacking that issue at the root cause is the smart thing to do for the future. So is expanding health care from parents to children from ages 19-29. Also, putting money into education is another great way to invest in the future. New York is in tough times now, and the only way to dig ourselves out is to do it smartly and to prepare for brighter days ahead. They won't come unless you lay out the road to them.

Unfortunately, the Governor is taking away from education by raising tuition for students that are having trouble affording college as it is already. Also, as the People's State of the State addresses, the crisis we are in now is due to the greed of the wealthy in and around Wall Street. Everyone is suffering due to their incompetence and failure. As Mark Dunlea of the Hunger Action Network mentions, the speech in Albany is always (and was) more positive than the realities out there. If the Governor wants to get real about our problems and ways of solving them, we need to have fair taxation for all, not just those that like sugary soft drinks.

Paterson is good at talking with us, now let him know how you feel about what he's offering and what we need to add to the budget to make it work for all of us.