The entitlement state - New York

From Yahoo News/Reuters:

New York state asks Washington to cover all storm costs
New York state on Wednesday asked the U.S. federal government to pay all the costs of cleaning up and repairing damage from massive storm Sandy that tore through the Northeast this week and crippled New York City.

Governor Andrew Cuomo said he is asking fellow Democrat, President Barack Obama, to pay 100 percent of the estimated $6 billion bill, at a time that state and local government budgets remain constrained by a weak economic recovery.

That would be a significant change from last year when the federal government covered about 75 percent of the $1.2 billion cost paid by New York to clean up after storm Irene hit the region.

The two U.S. senators from neighboring New Jersey, the other state hit hardest by the storm, also asked that the federal government cover more than the usual share of the cost, given the size of the disaster and the financially strapped local coffers.

So you want the rest of our 56 states pay for your failure to establish and maintain a contingency fund for disasters such as this? As I have mentioned, I am involved in our local water board and WA State law requires us to maintain a separate bank account with enough cash to replace the most expensive piece of equipment (our two water tanks). We are running very close to the bone (don't want to raise the rates) but we have over $100K stashed for contingencies. If WA State makes us do this, the States themselves should operate under the same rules. More:

Cuomo said in a letter to Obama that "initial estimates project up to $6 billion in lost economic revenue in the greater metropolitan area and the state" due to disruption to business in the world's financial hub.

Cuomo added that "the significant impact from Hurricane Sandy plainly warrants providing this assistance."

The state, he said, was still battling multi-building fires, tunnel closures, and power outages at hospitals and other vital facilities. Plus there are destroyed homes and people needing shelter.

"Moreover, the cost to restore the complex electrically driven subway and rail transportation systems after total inundation from saltwater flooding will place a tremendous financial burden on New York state," Cuomo said in the letter.

If you call yourself "the world's financial hub", you are doing your customers a disservice by not providing backup to the infrastructure. After your admission that you cannot fix this and need Federal bailout money they will probably look for some other place to work. As for the subways, you are not maintaining your infrastructure -- you squeaked by with Hurricane Irene. A year ago, the surge was one foot below overtopping the barriers and flooding the subway. Did you do anything beside put on a clean pair of BVD's? Nope. Now you got pee-pee smacked and you want mommy to make it better...