Bad Math
Republican State Representative Kelley Potenza was recently quoted as saying “Fiscal responsibility should be a concern on all sides of the aisle.” Wouldn’t it be great if she and her fellow Republicans would follow that advice in dealing with the state budget.
She acknowledges that the state is in the red and revenues are down, but fails to admit that this is the result of the Republican legislators action in eliminating the estate tax, the interest and dividends tax and reducing the business profits tax. Of course revenues are down. What would you expect when you do away with the sources of revenue?
Here’s what happens in the real world: over time things get more expensive. Employees are entitled to regular increases in wages and benefits. As the population increases and gets older the need for services is greater, and the more it costs to meets these needs. As our infrastructure ages, it costs more to make repairs and expand basic programs.
In spite of the obvious, that with the passage of time things just cost more, the response from our Republican legislature is to guarantee that less money will be available to meet these very basic needs of our citizens.
This is “fiscal responsibility”? It is, clearly, just the opposite.