By The TimesLEdger
It has been called one of St. John’s University’s darkest hours. Last week St. John’s president, the Rev. Donald J. Harrington, expelled one basketball player and suspended five other players and a team manager. Knowing how important the basketball program is to both students and alumni, this must have been a gut-wrenching decision.
Nevertheless, it was the right decision. The players were involved in an incident in which several players went to a Pittsburgh strip club and then allegedly agreed to pay a woman $1,000 to come back to their hotel room. The woman accused the players of raping her. Police later determined that her story wasn’t true and arrested the woman who made the accusation.
That kept the students out of jail, but it should not stop them from being expelled. Going to the strip club demonstrated remarkably bad judgment. Paying a woman to come back to their room — if that indeed happened — was even worse.
Harrington said the incident reflects “the culture of the team. For something like this to happen, there has to be a sense that this is acceptable,” he said.
Some colleges occasionally bend the eligibility rules to attract the top athletes. As the result of aggressive recruiting, the basketball program at St. John’s is nationally famous. But sports can never be more important than the overall reputation of the school. The most important mission of any school is to turn out graduates with character. This is more important than academics and it is more important than any sports program.
State residents are in for a nasty surprise when they fill out their New York State tax returns this year. A new line has been added to the return asking filers to estimate how much they owe in state sales tax for purchases made over the Internet or by driving to New Jersey.
The Legislature quietly approved the measure adding the soon-to-be-infamous Line 56 last spring. Then, with the stroke of his pen, Pataki raised taxes for most New Yorkers and nobody noticed. For those who did not keep receipts from their Internet purchases – which is just about everyone – the state expects an honest estimate of the value of your purchases. The state assumes that most people in a certain income bracket made at least some Internet purchases and a failure to put anything on Line 56 could trigger an audit.
We don’t remember any debate about Line 56. Was there even one senator or assemblyman from Queens who stood up for the taxpayers? Although the law requiring payment of sales tax for Internet purchases has been on the books, until now there was no effort made to enforce it. For all practical purposes, this is a new tax, a new burden on a people already paying higher state sales tax.
As far as we know, the state does not have the ability or the resources to track Internet purchases and forays to New Jersey. Line 56 relies on the honor system. We suspect Line 56 will make liars and tax cheats out of millions of otherwise honest people who will lowball their estimates, if they put down anything at all.
If the state insists on squeezing taxpayers with Line 56, it is only fair that it adds another line allowing Internet shoppers to deduct shipping costs. This is not just another money grab from the Albany bureaucrats who shortchange the city year after year. It is also a curtsey to New York retailers who contribute substantially to re-election campaigns.
In a year when the state sales tax was raised and the exemption for purchases of clothing removed, Line 56 is yet another kick in the pants for millions of hardworking men and women.
Nice work, governor.
