The closer we get to election year, the more Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan (Democrat, Citizen Action flunky, socialist) sounds like a conservative Republican. But don’t let his rhetoric fool you.

Today’s Press & Sun-Bulletin runs a story with the headline, Ryan freezes city hiring. The story reports the hammer has come down: No new hiring for the city through the end of this year. This comes after Ryan tried to hand out generous raises to people who work directly for him only a few months ago. But with Democrats, facts never get in the way. Yesterday was yesterday and is forgotten. Today? A new day!

Ryan told department heads who just handed in artificially inflated budgets (knowing this would happen), to “cut spending 5 percent.” Just like a used car dealer: Raise prices 10% and then cut them 5% so it seems like the customer is getting a bargain. Department heads knew they would be told to cut, so they just padded their budgets ahead of time.

Mayor Ryan has a problem…he can’t afford to raise taxes this year or next, which will be an election year. A few months ago, Ryan raised water and sewer rates for all Binghamtonians 43%. And Binghamton property taxes have gone up every year he’s been in office. One thing politicians know is this: You don’t raise taxes in an election year.

The latest tactic Dems like Ryan use to cover up their own incompetence is to blame everything from syphilis to global warming, including the New York State and Binghamton economies, on George W. Bush. From the article:

“The national economy is reeling, banks are defaulting on bad debt, the state is experiencing major shortfalls in revenues and the skyrocketing price of oil has increased costs all across the board,” Ryan said. “I do not need to say that these larger trends deeply impact our local budget.”

What can I say. I’m ashamed of people like Matt Ryan and the socialist Democrats that run our local government.

Wake up! We spent $44+ BILLION for Medicaid last year in New York State! That’s an astonishing $2,316 for every man, woman and child in the state. What is Medicaid? Socialized medicine. My non-working neighbors get better health care than I do, and I pay for mine. (I also pay for theirs via Medicaid.) And you blame Bush? Get your head screwed on straight! We’ve made a mess of our state and our city by being socialists and pretending we could tax everyone and everything and give it away–to buy votes. That day is quickly coming to an end.

People like Matt Ryan and the Citizen Action Council (formerly known as the Binghamton City Council), don’t have a clue how to respond or to govern. How about this brilliance from City Councilman Robert Weslar, Democrat:

“We’ve got to spend what little money we have in the best possible way.”

The “little money” he’s referring to is a budget of $73.5 million for Binghamton, which has a population of 45,000. That’s $1,633 for every man, woman and child who live inside the city limits. And they STILL want more!

Oy veh.

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