Scrivener.net

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

It's not a "secret" when it's on Page One, Governor.

The darkest, most shocking secrets of government continue to be revealed...

GOV PLOTS SECRET TAX HIKE ON RICH

Gov. Paterson and legislative Democrats have secretly agreed on an $8 billion, two-year tax hike on individuals making more than $500,000 a year that will "sunset" around the time he plans to run for election in 2010, legislative sources told The Post.

Also under intense discussion ... is a proposal to raise the state's 4 percent sales tax to 4.5 percent the total of which would jump to close to 10 percent in parts of the state with the addition of local sales taxes...

While Paterson has repeatedly claimed he was against a "millionaires' tax" on the wealthy and hasn't backed a sales-tax hike, the sources said he was privately backing both...

"Paterson has told everyone he really wants the taxes, but he wants it to appear to the public that he's against them," a senior legislative official said.

"Then, next year, when he's running, he'll say we can afford to phase them out so he can claim that he's a tax cutter."...
He might pose then as though he wants to cut the taxes, but with the budget gap projected to be bigger then than today, there's a real fat chance those taxes would be cut.
Democrats who control the Legislature and the governor's office for the first time since the late 1930s plan to ram the budget through with virtually no debate or scrutiny using special "messages of necessity" issued by Paterson that will circumvent the legally required three-day waiting period designed to give lawmakers, and the public, time to review proposed new laws, several sources said.

As lieutenant governor and Senate minority leader, Paterson strongly opposed using the "messages" to cut off debate... [NY Post]
It seems our accidental (post-Spitzer) governor lacks the disciplinary skills to keep his loyal (ahem) minions on message. With every radio station in NYC today reporting, "Governor Patterson is planning to raise taxes and then pretend he wants to cut them...", it's on to political Plan B.

How does one know when a politician is lying? One sees something like this...