Long to Governor: Can We Talk?

Ft. Hamilton Station, NY – Conservative Party State Chairman, Michael R. Long, acknowledged that he and Governor Eliot Spitzer would be considered “strange bedfellows” regarding this years proposed state budget.  However, with the additions made by the Republican controlled State Senate, Chairman Long told the Governor, in a letter sent yesterday, that he would have to re-evaluate his proposals. 

The text of the letter follows:

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.

 

 

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