What is wrong with this picture.

[dude1394]

First..

ALBANY - Gov. Paterson's proposed $121 billion budget hits New Yorkers in their iPods - and nickels-and-dimes them in lots of other places, too.

Trying to close a $15.4 billion budget gap, Paterson called for 88 new fees and a host of other taxes, including an "iPod tax" that taxes the sale of downloaded music and other "digitally delivered entertainment services."

Second a budget increase.

Paterson's 2009-10 budget proposal represents only a 1% increase in total spending from this year's budget - the smallest increase in a dozen years. It also calls for:

* A 3.3%, or $698 million, reduction in school aid.
* $3.5 billion in health care savings, including reductions in payments to hospitals and nursing homes.
* Video slot machines at Belmont Park, more multistate lottery games and expanded hours for the state's Quick Draw lottery game.
* Layoffs for 521 state workers and the elimination of seven state agencies.

"This is where we are," Paterson told reporters. "Maybe we should have thought about this when we were depending on what we thought was inexhaustive collections of taxes from Wall Street - and now those taxes have fallen off a cliff."