State of the State roundup

The upstateblog carries a great round-up of the reaction throughout New York State to Pataki's State of the State address. Binghamton:

These are speeches intended to boost morale -- and to cast the executive in flattering light (and to cast critics as party-poopers). It doesn't matter which political party affiliation the speaker carries; they all ac-cen-tu-ate the positive. Which is fine. But citizens aren't obligated to swallow the bromides or detach themselves from reality. New Yorkers, for example, know there's a $6 billion budget deficit even if the governor ignores it. They recall his vow never to seek a third term even as he reportedly contemplates a fourth. They understand his dedication to New York didn't prevent him from spending much of last year flitting around the country raising money for President Bush's re-election campaign. They don't mind him pointing fingers at the state Legislature, however, because that shameful collection of invertebrates deserves the undiluted scorn of every New Yorker. It hasn't adopted a budget on time since way before Pataki ever became governor, and last year it refused a court order to reform the school aid formula. No -- things aren't very good in New York right now, especially in upstate New York, where the economy continues to stutter.

Albany:

"To quote a great New Yorker, Al Smith, 'The American people never carry an umbrella. They prepare to walk in the eternal sunshine.' " Al Smith was talking about America's perpetual optimism. Why in the world Pataki reached for that particular metaphor at this gloomy moment in New York history is beyond me.

New York City:

But to listen to George Pataki's 2005 State of the State Address, you'd never know the budget was a problem at all. In a speech draft fully two-thirds longer than the 1995 version, Pataki's message on Albany's overriding fiscal challenge was: silence. The looming deficit for the coming fiscal year simply went unmentioned. Instead, the governor devoted the better part of an hour to reciting what is a now-familiar compendium of his administration's greatest hits.

The ultra-conservative New York Sun:

What planet is Governor Pataki on? That's the question we were left with yesterday after watching his State of the State address. The governor is facing a multibillion-dollar budget gap, in a state that already has the highest state and local tax burden in the country. The editorialists at the Wall Street Journal are warning that the state, under Mr. Pataki's leadership, is slipping into "a French-style decline." Mr. Pataki responded yesterday with a speech in which he announced an executive order "requiring all state agencies and authorities to begin using nontoxic cleaning products that are free of harmful chemicals." And in which he vowed, "We will add 20 new bird conservation areas to the 28 we've created since 1995."

You know, Pataki is a uniter, not a divider. Pretty much everyone who is not a NYS employee in Albany agrees that Albany, and NYS, are really, really messed up and in horrific shape. We need Arnold Schwarzenegger. Instead, we have a faceless extra.