State Government Cuts: Be Careful What You Wish For
With opponents of Albany reform dancing on Spitzer’s political grave, and tossing in hand grenades while they’re at it, there’s a hope among conservatives that the progressive reform that Spitzer championed will be buried along with his career.
There was cheering on Wall Street when Spitzer went down, even as the financial institutions that he targeted for bad behavior threaten to push our economy over the edge due to continued bad behavior.
Meanwhile, our state budget is facing big reductions due to revenue losses. People in favor of small government are cheering, especially if they don’t connect the dots between services they take for granted and the need to actually pay for those services. Many also assume that hey, if I don’t need a service right now, I’ll never need the service.
Progressives believe, “There but for the grace of God go I.” Ok, progressive religious nuts like me believe that. The others believe “There but for fortune go I.” 
I’m not saying that the state government lawn couldn’t use a good de-thatching. I’ve heard horror stories of departments still packed with Pataki cronies who have no-show or low-show jobs. (Spitzer, why didn’t you just clean house while you were pissing everyone off ANYWAY?) But when budget cuts come, are the cronies gonna get the boot, or everything but them?
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[...] big government”, except when you’re able to game it to your benefit. As I wrote back in March: I’m not saying that the state government lawn couldn’t use a good de-thatching. [...]