When the head of an executive branch gives his "State of…" address you often find yourself saddled with a sense of patriotism for that leader’s bailiwick. Presidents, governors, and mayors act as community salesmen during these speeches, selling you on the wonders of their domain as much as their job performance. The bad that has occurred or the blight that exists is glossed over and the leader focuses on nothing but the good that has happened (or what he thinks will happen) under his watch. The audience gets caught up in the moment of the speech and is overcome with civic pride.

As time passes and the audience (be it taxpayers, press, legislators) has a chance to reflect, it quickly becomes apparent that they were misled and the address was nothing more than a pipedream.

This same high and its crash apply to the State of the State Address that was delivered by Governor Eliot Spitzer last week. A look back at his speech finds that it is fraught with mistruths about the past year and optimism for future years that is lacking in backing.

First off, he did admit that that his "differences attracted more attention than agreements" when it came to working with the legislature. But this disconnect – based in Troopergate, Choppergate, and the drivers license debacle - was mentioned only briefly. These volatile issues defined Spitzer’s first year and merited much greater attention in his speech. After all, these issues destroyed any semblance of teamwork in Albany, created an insurmountable logjam in legislative proceedings, and caused Spitzer’s approval rating to tank, going from his 70% electoral victory to a rating that was consistently below 30%. A true leader would have talked at length about what drives his leadership style, how he handled the drama, and what he plans to do to address these monstrous dark clouds that hang over his/our heads. The state can move forward only after the man in charge assumes sensible responsibility and gets people to believe in and follow him.

That brief statement segued into a short ramble about how the executive office and both houses working together brought about change to workers compensation, Medicaid spending, and budget reform. Never mind that most of that occurred in Spitzer’s first two months and were remnants of the Pataki era that should have been passed years earlier but couldn’t because one or two of three powers threw up a roadblock based in party politics. With the Democrats taking the executive throne in January it magically "balanced" out that situation and those reforms passed. It was a too-little-too-late win for NYS taxpayers because it was a perfect indication of how divisive two-party, upstate vs. downstate politics have hung our residents out to dry.

The greatest volume of Spitzer’s speech focused on his wish list which may sound good at first but, when you look at the underlying ramifications and costs, is quite nightmarish. He feels that higher education is due $4 billion in new funding, money he thinks will magically come from the state lottery system. Speaking of youth, he wants the state to fight childhood obesity. Philosophically, it’s a worthwhile cause, but realize parents, teachers, and the media and medical sectors have failed in this endeavor, so how can a state government (gluttonous and oversized itself) correct the situation? Some say his fat-busting plan will cost $380 million.

The crown jewel of Spitzer’s speech was his focus on taxes. He wants to increase property tax relief, enlarge STAR, and cap the expansion of property taxes. Those are things we all want and deserve. Yet, if they (Albany) want to talk the talk they had better walk the walk: early budget drafts show a deficit of $6 billion. This massive hole can only be rectified with higher taxes, so Spitzer’s speech appears to be baiting us with the false hopes of lower taxes while the he and the legislature spend frivolously.

This all proves the Governor’s address was a study in promotional politics. Spitzer’s high hopes and lack of attention to the true Empire State advertises only the small amounts of good perpetuated by his system and, in a way to save face, truly ignores they harsh reality of overtaxation and associated decline that we try to overcome every day.