If you’re not a resident of New York, this story has no impact on you. However, it’s a great example of local politics and why it’s important to pay attention to them.
Last year, New York governor George Pataki, a Republican, vetoed (among other things) the portion of the state budget that provided funding for libraries across the state. One of the effects was that local library branches were going to have to cut way back on the frequency of inter-library transfers, a service which I use all the time.
The resulting uproar across the state was large enough to motivate many Republicans in the state legislature to vote with the Democrats to override the veto, but the state budget process is so screwed up that it took until this summer for the budget to be approved. (As a side note, New York has not had an on-time state budget in twenty years). It comes out now that Pataki made a deal with Republicans in the legislature that if they refused to back Democrats’ efforts to override his veto of the library-relate budget lines, he would provide the funding out of a discretionary fund.
The trick, though, is that he would only provide this funding to libraries in districts represented by Republicans. As a result, we end up with the bizarre situation wherein those of us who live in districts represented by Democrats who opposed the cuts are now facing those cuts, while the districts represented by Republicans who supported the cuts won’t be facing them.
So what do you suppose your government might be up to?