We all have our code of conduct, the rules we live by.  Today I broke one of these personal rules, and I’m reminded why I had made it.  What was this mistake? I was totally ticked off regarding the Governor’s budget proposals. Now, this at first does not seem so bad. Why?  Because watching the news and hearing some other peoples reactions it seems not too many people like this new budget. But here is where my rule comes into play. Simply put it’s:

Don’t trust the news!

Ok that might be a little too simple but it definitely gets to the point (oh and sorry Dave, nothing personal).  A little more accurate would be:

Trust the news to spin it their way!

And there lies the problem.  None of the news stations that I’ve seen so far are above this yet. CNN and FoxNews are my two primary examples.  CNN leans, politically, heavy to the left (I know, people who like to watch it don’t want to admit it, but seriously they do) and Fox has just a steep tilt to the right (yes, I’m a Republican, and I can admit this to be true.  And no I don’t fear losing my card).  I’ve watched both, more Fox than CNN, just due to my mindset towards whose accuracies I can follow better.  

The rule doesn’t stop there though (hence the reason I need to write them down as they can be rather complex) as it’s followed up with:

Check the references

This one I learned back, around late 80′s early 90′s from the movie Real Genius, though I didn’t realize it at the time.  Basically put the Internet has given us a amazing tool where when somebody said they read some “fact” you have the ability to research it.  Granted you have to make sure your research is with credible sources, just try to avoid the news sites as much as possible.  This is simple for the budget article, just go to New York States Division of the Budget site (http://www.budget.state.ny.us/).

I took the time to start reading the state budget.  There’s a 150 page short version, and a 560 page (both numbers are approximants) longer number laden one.  I’m not going to comment on the longer one, cause it’s well…. long (duh!).  So I looked at the “handbook” that broke down a little bit more as to what’s changing.

Ok, so after the read, I’m not quite so infuriated, as there are indeed many good points to it.  This brings me to the point about what is true (and thus, legally printable) and what is accurate. Lets take one of the CNN highlights.

  • Plan calls for major reduction in services, including $698 million for schools

OK lets start with the numbers… we see $698 million which to us seems like a rather large number… I mean I’d love to have just 1% of that.  The School Aid Budget line goes from $21,391 million ( or 21.4 Billion for the rest of us) down to $20, 693 million.  So yes it’s true, the Gov is taking $698 million out of a 21 billion dollar budget.  Panic time? Not hardly, plus some of that $698 mil is due to some accounting trickery of money reduced due to the fact that they aren’t increasing the line item.  Basically put, If my pay was suppose to go up $20 next month, but my boss, due to “Trying economic times”, puts the kabosh on it.  He effectively cut $20 from next months budget (No, my wondrous boss, that’s not a hint or suggestion).  And that my friends is the difference between true and accurate, and why one should always research the headlines. 

One thing I do want to say.  After reading this, I’m not totally upset with this budget, like I was when I linked in the CNN article. But it’s still not the perfect solution in my mind.  It seems like there are areas that aren’t touched on at all, and personally I don’t like seeing the budgets of education systems or our police force dropped at all.  Granted that’s me, and that’s how politics works, but still.  There is nowhere in this budget where we see the politicians who will be calling on us to “tighten our belts” to be doing the same in any significant manor. How many staffers do they really need? And what about their payroll.  Granted, it may be that the Governor can’t call for that, but if he is working with the state legislation, then it could / should be added.

I’m sure, as I research this some more I’ll be able to come up with more areas that probably could use some reworking, but it’s getting late now, and I’m starting to lose focus on the issues (that and I was watching Mythbusters while typing this, that does nothing for the concentration).  So ultimately I need to always remember my cardinal rules about the News, and read before I panic.