Albany stuck on the wrong track
JAMES P. HAYES New York State Assembly
In a speech last week before the Citizen's Budget Commission, a nonpartisan group of fiscal analysts, New York's budget director made the stunning announcement that the state's deficit is now projected to rise to $4 billion next year - $500 million more than originally projected. The main cause of this widening deficit is slower-than-projected revenues coming to the state coffers.

When lower-than-projected income is added to a dramatic increase in state spending (a year-over-year increase of almost 9 percent this year alone), it is no surprise that the deficit is widening.

My proposals for using windfall profits in good economic times to pay down debt went unheeded during last year's budget debate and is one of the reasons why I voted against most of the current budget. Unfortunately, the majority of the legislature rammed through a budget that hiked spending by almost 9 percent this year alone.

With the announcement of a widening deficit, the STAR property tax cuts enacted over the past several years may be threatened in the future.

That's wrong. Taxpayers must remain vigilant and oppose additional spending programs that will only make the deficit situation worse.

If Albany's spending addiction weren't enough to set us on the wrong track, word came from Gov. Eliot Spitzer that he has given the state Department of Motor Vehicles the authority to issue driver's licenses to aliens without U.S. documentation, even those who may be in this country illegally.

This order threatens the security of our country by watering down the integrity of the driver's license as a trusted form of identification for citizens. It will almost certainly add to the slowdown at the U.S.-Canadian border and increase pressure on Western New Yorkers to obtain passports for identification purposes when cross-border traveling into Canada.

The governor's authority to unilaterally issue this order - without legislative approval - will be tested in the courts over the next several months.

The recent proposal by the New York Thruway Authority to increase tolls by up to 20 percent adds even more costs to overburdened taxpayers and businesses of Western New York.

Albany leaders must change direction, reign in spending, protect our citizens from foreign threats and help increase business and commerce, not chase jobs and families to other states.

The Western New York economy is fragile, and our leaders in government should be working to improve the business climate here, not diminishing it with higher taxes, higher fees and bureaucratic irresponsibility.

I will continue the fight against these "wrong track" proposals and would like to hear your opinions as well. Please feel free to contact me at my district office, 5555 Main St., Williamsville, NY 14221, via telephone at 634-1895 or via e-mail at hayesj@assembly.state.ny.us.