Andrew Cuomo tells local governments to consolidate.

Alternate title: Son, you’re on your own.

The New York state budget currently under negotiation may be remembered years from now as the beginning of the end for many small towns, cities and school districts.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo had tough words Friday for local officials facing fiscal crises and seeking more help from Albany, telling them they should consolidate services or whole governments and school districts rather than looking for relief from Albany.

(H/T: Instapundit) Translation: Andrew Cuomo has made all of the tentative, half-hearted attempts that he dared to rein in public sector unions. Any further shortfalls in revenue will simply have to be borne by the local authorities. If they don’t like that, well, they should have joined a public sector union.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Hey, you know that ‘temporary’ millionaire’s tax NY has? Well, guess what…

A second extension of the so-called temporary millionaire’s tax which raises $1.9 billion a year is also being discussed in a budget that was billed to have no tax increases, according to two state officials familiar with the talks. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss issues in closed-door negotiations.

They want to do that now instead of in 2014, when it might be an actual election issue. Of course.

PPS: Lest you think that I’m ignoring the NY GOP’s role in all of this… I’m not. Right now they’re playing the ‘tax cuts tax cuts tax cuts’ game, largely because that’s a lot easier than playing the ‘cut entitlements and spending’ game. I’m from the Northeast myself, but goodness gracious: most of the state parties (on both sides) are fairly useless…