If the phrase “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore” ever applied to a situation, it certainly should be applicable to what’s occurring in our “buried-in-red-ink” State of New York right now. It’s unfortunate that it took the closing of Rogers Center (among others) to awaken many of us to just how far our state government is willing to go in its desperate attempt to repair the overspending and irresponsible fiscal policies and decisions that have basically bankrupted our state and negatively impacted so many of its residents.

Last week, I reported the glaring imbalance that saw the NYSDEC being hit with a disproportionate percentage of budget cut actions as compared to cuts that would affect those of other state departments. Hit especially hard were those in the fish, wildlife and marine resources. For example, 75 percent of DEC budget comes from other sources of funding distinct from the General Fund, primarily being from the Conservation Fund, a supposedly dedicated fund fed by sporting license sales and special sales taxes on certain sporting goods.  And while only 2 percent of the State General Fund employees work at DEC, the DEC is being hammered by 16 percent of the state's layoffs, so far, with probably more to come.