A Budget Savings Idea: 'Cut Stupid Waste'

ALBANY—It's been a few weeks since Senate Democrats launched this site (and allowed them people to text message ideas to 41411) for New Yorkers to share ideas to balance the state budget.

Austin Shafran, a spokesman for Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, said the staff has received over 2,000 ideas from 1,500 different individuals. Here are some of the highlights :

• "Cut stupid waste."
• "Separate NYC from the rest of the state."
• "Hire a welfare mother to go over the budget with you. Seriously. I used to be one myself before I was able to get an education and job skills so I could get a job. If anyone knows how to make one cent do the work of two, it's folks who have that in their backgrounds. However, be prepared to have a LOT of the fat trimmed off the pork."
• "Here's a good way to enhance revenue for NYS. My wife and I are both retired members and pensioners of the New York State Teachers' Retirement System. We pay absolutely NO state income taxes even though our gross income is over $90,000 which includes pensions and Social Security."