There is ONE major reason I blame the legislature more for this fiasco than our King:

They are too GUTLESS and PATHETIC to accomplish ANYTHING, period.

Our King decreed that a deficit existed. He advocated raising the sales tax to close the gap, an unpopular measure which NONETHELESS got PASSED by this group of sackless wonders, only to then FAIL a week later!

How PATHETIC is that?

Now suddenly a bunch of those legislators have decided that raising the tax is no longer a good idea (election ploy).

OK

Then make cuts.

OH, we just can't do THAT! People will be upset!

Then we have the chairman of this group of idiots going out of town for a "family event" on the eve of the biggest meltdown, I mean budget meeting, yet

BOTTOM LINE: there is absolutely NO WAY to close this gap NOW (there is NO TIME to "bring people to the table" because the numbnuts have wasted the time they DID have) WITHOUT raising taxes

I understand the whole "let's re-engineer our entire government" argument, but it aint happening in the space of an afternoon

What we need to do now is raise the sales tax, borrow the money, and spend the next few months (before the 2006 budget is made up) figuring out ways to save $$ and become more efficient

I'm all for reform. But right now, we have an IMMEDIATE CRISIS that needs IMMEDIATE solution.

We DO NOT want a control board here.

Half the legislature will be GONE. Let's elect some GOOD people this time around and solve our problems.

A group of Albany fatcats running our finances is NOT what we want.

ALL THAT being said, I FULLY expect this PATHETIC group of LOSERS to throw up their hands, say "we give up" and allow our local gov't to be swallowed up by the special interests in Albany