November 28, 2005
by Dylan Skriloff
New York State government needs to get more efficient and stop dragging down the state's economy, Attorney General and 2006 gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer told over 300 RBA members gathered at the Pearl River Hilton for the Annual Celebrity Dinner.
"A crisis is a terrible thing to waste, it's a chance to challenge the status quo," said Spitzer, who gained national fame for his investigations and prosecutions of fraud in the financial sector.
The crisis that Spitzer referred to was the state's current predicament of having some of the highest energy, education and Medicare costs and one of the least business-friendly tax codes in the country. This is driving business out of the state during a time of historic global economic change. The government must get out of the economy's way, he said.
"Government is at worst an impediment, at best it helps and understands," Spitzer said. Since taking office in Albany in 1999, Spitzer's said he's seen a state government slow to move its feet and get things done.
"Blaming and weaving," was the government's response to challenges, he said.
He joked at one point with former state assemblyman and current Clarkstown supervisor Alex Gromack that he was smart to leave Albany because he now has a job where he can do something.
Spitzer cited historical instances of New York's government taking positive action to help the state grow. The building of the Erie Canal turned the state from an agricultural base to the country's shipping and manufacturing hub.
"NY would never have been what it was for so long without the Erie Canal," he said, pointing out that many bashed the canal project and derided then Gov. Clinton. "We now know it was one of the wisest investments in the history of government," he said, though now the canal region has become among the most depressed in the country.
"If you want to get depressed take a drive from Schenectady to Niagara Falls," he said.
More modern examples of positive government interventions were the New York State Thruway and the SUNY and CUNY systems. He noted that Governor Dewey had also helped by changing tax codes to attract corporate headquarters. Now, the state's tax codes are out of tune and need to be made more business friendly.
Just as State Assemblyman Joseph Morelle did at an RBA event in July, Spitzer took odds with Empire Zones, which are business-friendly tax incentive zones in certain areas of the state. These may simply take jobs from one part of the state to another; what really is needed is statewide reform, he said.
Spitzer wondered why the state can't seem to get major projects moving. Both the Tappan Zee Bridge and the Peace Bridge that connects Buffalo and Canada are still in the discussion phase after nearly a decade. The Peace Bridge delay is putting in jeopardy what shipping and manufacturing jobs remain in Western New York.
Spitzer cited his office as a place where things were actually getting done because he had always hired the most competent people, something that does not always happen in Albany.
Specifically, he cited the various authorities, such as the canal authority, the thruway authority, etc. as often-times being headed by cronies that keep
decision-making out of the public eye.
He praised his office for a sevenfold increase in Medicare fraud recoveries since he was elected.
During his speech Spitzer cited Thomas Friedman's new book, The World is Flat, as a must-read for anyone keeping track of the global economy. With manufacturing jobs leaving for overseas, Spitzer repeated the common theme that intellectual capital is the country's future.
Spitzer told the RBA that as governor it would not be his job to choose what industries should dominate the future but to create the environment where those industries can thrive. He did say he expected the high-tech sector and the SUNY system to be important to the state's future.
He also lauded voters for rejecting Prop 1, which would have placed responsibility for the budget process in the hands of the state legislature.
"Accountability means one person is responsible, not 212," said Spitzer, who was among the leaders in the campaign against the proposition.
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