Pro-tax

On Tuesday, October 20, 2009, Brian Lehrer addressed Governor Patterson of New York on WNYC. Brian Lehrer is known for working to "maintain a balance between issues as the affect listeners, and "horse-race" pundit discussions of politics." Tuesday he initiated a conversation with the governor pertaining to New York's dire financial situation.

After a long discussion about the tightening budget and huge cuts the state would have to make before mid-December, Lehrer suggested the solution of the Soda Tax. The Governor agreed wholeheartedly that trying new revenue enhancements would substantially help their situation. Patterson stated that he had presented the idea of a Soda Tax earlier for this year's budget which legislation declined. He says that New York's situation today has passed the point where the Soda Tax can help them this year, and that budget cuts must be made instead.

The opening sentence of a New York Times article posted on the 14th of this month reads, "Deteriorating economic factors have propelled New York State's projected budget deficit to $4.1 billion, according to the state's comptroller, who warned on Wednesday that state leaders needed to do more to address an increasingly dire situation."

The public must be informed that we have to make a decision one way or another on how these payments will be made. A tax on something as highly consumed as soda could utterly change our financial situation. As Governor Patterson put it, "You can't keep voting down the ways to create revenues and then saying that you don't want to make cuts."