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Quoted by cicero

....We want solutions......Not rhetoric.

Amen.  The public wants to hear our elected "representatives" speak honestly about their views on the issues.  As cicero states, rhetoric is unwelcome.  The voters' perception of political pandering has become keenly tuned as the result of Kosiur's sponsoring of the ill-conceived sex offender residency legislation just before announcing his unsuccessful bid for NYS Assembly.

Watching the politics in the city of Schdy is much like watching a schell game and the residents are the ones trying to follow the pea.

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The methodology the authors of the report used to arrive at their rankings was to add median school taxes, local property taxes and county property taxes and divide that total by the median home value, which leads our county to rank 10 th . The report ranks Schenectady County 77th in the nation for median property tax dollars paid on homes and 417th in median home value. This would mean that home values are lower and more affordable in Schenectady County as compared to downstate counties and counties around the nation.

wait until this housing/mortgage false #'s game finishes....then we will surely know the 'true' value of our homes/nation.....it is not necessarily just the amount of our taxes as much as the kind of VALUE we put on our neighborhoods/homes.....

if we traded in chickens and I had fatter chickens than you, and my chickens could feed more people(sewers, streets, garbage, roads and the likes) my chickens would have more value....does it mean I have MORE chickens--no--just better managed chickens and with care as to what is the best/right goal...

we tend to look at $$ as a greed thing, whether it be the government or the rich/poor.....but $$ can also be a 'lazy choice' for an individual/society---I'll pay some one else to do it for me, I can afford it/the government can afford it..........it doesn't matter the chicken or $$---what is the foundational value.....

Quoted from senders

if we traded in chickens and I had fatter chickens than you, and my chickens could feed more people(sewers, streets, garbage, roads and the likes) my chickens would have more value....does it mean I have MORE chickens--no--just better managed chickens and with care as to what is the best/right goal...

   WHAT THE FUNK???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Quoted from CICERO

   WHAT THE FUNK???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

DITTO!

it was meant to make fun of our 'value of money' and personal responsibility.......if it was chickens, the homeless and 'unemployed/out of work' welfare folks(and those who think other folks are there to 'take care of their whims) wouldn't be looking for hand outs and they(and us) would have a better picture of "work for your food"......we just water it down with the false value's of credit cards/subprime mortgages and taxes that a fat government takes and mis-manages.....not teaching or leading but pandering and taking......

capitalism is good but it will also dump us and forget us, if/when we have no 'value'........

Quoted from senders

if we traded in chickens and I had fatter chickens than you, and my chickens could feed more people(sewers, streets, garbage, roads and the likes) my chickens would have more value....does it mean I have MORE chickens--no--just better managed chickens and with care as to what is the best/right goal...

Sorry......I meant to say....WHAT THE CLUCK!!!

http://www.dailygazette.com

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SCHENECTADY COUNTY
Smaller county tax bill eyed
2 parties submit budget changes
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

   Taxpayers across Schenectady County could catch a slight break in the county portion of their bill for 2008, under plans to be adopted this week.
   Democrats in the Schenectady County Legislature would cut in half a tentative 9.7 percent increase in the property tax levy while Republicans would reduce it to below zero percent.
   In both scenarios, the county’s full-value tax rate shows a decline from the current year’s rate. The tax rate can decline while the tax levy — the cumulative tax bill — increases, because total county property value has increased.
   Both parties submitted their budget amendments Sunday. The Legislature is scheduled to vote Thursday at 7 p.m. on the tentative $283.4 million budget for 2008. The county must adopt a budget by Nov. 1.
   Under the Democrats’ proposed budget, a homeowner with an assessed property value of $140,000 would pay $873.60 in taxes in 2008; the GOP proposal would mean a tax bill of $831.60.
   Homeowners paid $918.40 in 2007 under the full value tax rate of $6.56 per $1,000. However, property tax rates vary from town to town and in the city, depending on fi nal assessments and equalization rates. These are set in December.
   Tax bills for 2008 are calculated on a full value tax rate of $6.24 per $1,000 under Democrats, compared with $5.94 per $1,000 under Republicans.
   Democrats would reduce the projected tax levy to $60.6 million; Republicans to $57.6 million. As outlined in the initial budget submission, the tax levy for 2008 would have been $63.6 million. The 2007 tax levy is $58 million.
DEMOCRATIC PLAN
   County Legislator Philip Fields, D-Schenectady, chairman of the Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee, said Democrats are proposing an “austere budget that will change the face of Schenectady government.” Democrats hold 11 of the 15 seats in the Legislature.
   Approximately half of the savings come from eliminating 15 positions, some filled and some vacant, and by reducing benefi ts and salary increases for management in 2008. The county employs approximately 1,200 full- and parttime staff.
   Another $1 million is achieved by reducing “dependency on professional contracts,” Fields said. The county, for example, is seeking to hire an outside agency to provide medical services at the county jail for $930,000, or $200,000 less than its current contract with Hometown Health. Hometown Health has told the county it no longer will provide services after Jan. 1. It had sought a 10 percent increase in the contract, plus additional financial support; the county offered 3 percent.
   The county also eliminated or reduced contracts with the Law, Order and Justice Center and Catholic Charities.
   Fields called these changes part of a restructuring of county government. “It is important to make these changes now. These are realistic and doable, and painful,” he said. “We are under a situation where we have to tighten our spending. We really have to in order to realize savings to taxpayers.”
   Under the Democrats’ restructuring proposal, social services took the largest cuts: $838,800 of the $3 million. “We are reorganizing our services within social services. We are trying to reduce services we are not mandated to provide,” Fields said.
   Democrats cut a $129,000 line item of attorneys attached social services, transferring most of these responsibilities to the County Attorney’s Office, headed by Chris Gardner. They also reduced day care costs by $250,000, to $6.9 million. The county provides day care services above mandated levels. Social services also will absorb the currently independent Schenectady Job Training Agency, resulting in savings totaling nearly $150,000.
   “People are having to do more with less,” Fields said.
   Under the Democrats’ proposal, the county will not fill some of nearly two dozen vacant positions in social services. It will, however, fill most of the positions required under the Xctasy Garcia Act of 2007, Fields said. The county passed the act to tighten its reporting procedures and improve oversight dealing with cases of child abuse.
   On the revenue side, the county expects to collect some $1.2 million through the sale of land, Fields said. He would not reveal the affected parcels, saying negotiations are under way.
   Democrats do not plan to tap additional money from the fund balance, nor do they plan to increase projections for sales tax and mortgage tax receipts for next year. They used both tactics to provide reduce the tax levy in 2007.
   Fields said the Democrats’ proposal will “maintain vital services for seniors, the library, the community college and the county nursing home.” All are non-mandated services.
REPUBLICAN PLAN
   Republicans are proposing nearly $7 million in cuts, offering a 0.6 percent reduction in the fi - nal tax levy, said Minority Leader Robert Farley, R-Niskayuna.
   Their proposals would also make structural changes to county government, helping save county taxpayers millions of dollars in the long term, Farley said.
   “We need to cut taxes and control spending,” Farley said. “Our taxpayers can’t handle tax increases any more. It is not our people who need to go on a diet, it is the government.”
   Republicans are seeking a 10 percent across-the-board reduction in funding of discretionary programs, generating $650,000 in the first year and more in later years, Farley said.
   They are also proposing a freeze on hiring and salaries for management and non-contract employees, achieving $950,000 in savings. “No person could be hired without approval of the county Legislature,” Farley said.
   They would obtain another $750,000 by rolling back salaries to 2004 of “executive staff hired at the whim of the majority,” Farley said. Democrats took control of the Legislature in 2004.
   Another Republican proposal is to make county legislators pay for their health insurance. This proposal would save at least $140,000 annually. County legislators receive free health insurance, estimated at $14,000 each annually, in addition to a $14,000 stipend. Farley said he is does not accept county health insurance.
   Republicans would deny funding to the county Department of Motor Vehicles unless it follows state law and requires all applicants to provide a Social Security number when obtaining a driver’s license. “If the county clerk does not follow the law, close the department and make him follow the law,” Farley said.
   Gov. Eliot Spitzer issued an administrative policy change to the state’s county clerks, requiring they issue licenses to illegal aliens regardless of whether they have Social Security numbers. The issue has become a political brawl.
   Republicans are calling for performance audits of both the county jail and social services, saying they could save millions. A performance audit looks at how the system works and offers recommendations on how to improve efficiencies, Farley said. An outside agency would conduct the audits.
   “The state tells what you are doing wrong, but it won’t tell how to do it right,” Farley said.
   On the appropriations side, Republicans would add $1.3 million to the budget to create a high-tech energy park on county-owned land. The park would target defense companies, hightech companies and energy companies, such as those that build or develop wind power, turbines and advance energy fuels, Farley said.
   “We offer a work force with background in energy technology and we could become a Mecca for that type of technology,” he said. “This is a small amount of money to start with.”
   Republicans also would provide $100,000 to the Schenectady Free Health Clinic, which would replace a member item grant from Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady. Spitzer eliminated the grant, saying Tedisco violated appropriation rules by allocating it.
   Republicans in the county Legislature called Spitzer’s action “an effort to punish Assemblyman James Tedisco for failing to back a misguided and ill-conceived plan to issue driver’s licenses to illegal aliens.”
   Republicans also would add $50,000 to the budget for the Schenectady County Small Business Center on Albany Street.
   Farley said Republicans have offered most of these amendments during the last four years.  

  
  
  

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Democrats hold 11 of the 15 seats in the Legislature.
Approximately half of the savings come from eliminating 15 positions, some filled and some vacant, and by reducing benefi ts and salary increases for management in 2008.

Too funny.  The Legislature has 15 seats.  The savings come from eliminating 15 positions.  Could we, the taxpayers be so lucky?  

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On the appropriations side, Republicans would add $1.3 million to the budget to create a high-tech energy park on county-owned land. The park would target defense companies, hightech companies and energy companies, such as those that build or develop wind power, turbines and advance energy fuels, Farley said.
   “We offer a work force with background in energy technology and we could become a Mecca for that type of technology,” he said. “This is a small amount of money to start with.”

I applaud the Republicans for appropriating funds to create high paying and permanent jobs in Schenectady County.  This is what is needed to raise the standard of living of county residents, increase the property tax base, and provide jobs to our citizens including those young people who are fleeing New York State after graduating from college.  I question, however, that these funds should come from the Metrofx, not from county annual budget.

I support the Republicans' proposal to create a tech park in Schenectady County.  We need to invest our tax revenues to create permanent career positions, not minimum wage (or below) retail and service jobs.

http://www.timesunion.com

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Job cuts part of county plan
Lawmaker says goal will be reached largely by not filling vacant posts
  
By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer
First published: Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Editor's note: This story first appeared Monday night on timesunion.com.
SCHENECTADY -- Layoffs are in the offing for some county workers, and a number of now-vacant jobs will be eliminated in what legislative Ways and Means Committee Chairman Philip Fields called a painful but necessary part of tinkering the annual budget.

  
While the Democrat declined to say how many employees would be given their walking papers, he said most of the staff reduction would come through simply not filling positions that in some cases have been vacant for years.

As a result of the cuts, the proposed property tax hike in the revised spending plan has been chopped to 4.5 percent -- down from a near-double-digit increase.

The elimination of those 15 positions, coupled with freezing salaries of management-level county workers and capping runaway overtime, would mean about $1.5 million in savings for the county.

The latest job cuts are in addition to 50 by attrition already included in the preliminary budget introduced earlier this month by County Manager Kathleen Rooney.

Fields said there are also plans to cut costs by reducing reliance on outside vendors for professional services and to have in-house staff do more of those tasks. He estimated that change alone would save the county about a million dollars.

Overall, the budget has been trimmed by about $3 million to about $281 million, with the tax levy or amount to be raised through county taxes, coming in at $60.5 million. All those numbers were higher under Rooney's original tentative budget.

"It's a painful process that we endured to get to this point," Fields said, stressing that the layoffs would affect everyone from people in lower-paying jobs to those in management. "There are many departments that have been hit."

The Republicans also offered amendments of their own.

Minority Leader Robert Farley said proposed cuts include an across-the-board hiring freeze, salary freeze of nonunion contract employees and making changes in the way the county routinely does business.

Fields' committee also factored in the expected sale of county-owned property that, when completed, would add another $1.2 million to county coffers. He refused to discuss the impending deal for fear that it might jeopardize ongoing negotiations.

"It's almost a done deal and may happen this year," Fields said.

The Legislature is also proposing an initiative aimed at Medicaid fraud and reducing abuse as well as completing its audit of the Department of Social Services in 2008. That will likely result in consolidating some programs.

The new budget numbers were revealed Monday, just three days before the Legislature meets Thursday. Legislators will vote on the amendments, then take action on the revised budget. If rejected, the budget would revert to the numbers under Rooney's original proposal. Under that $283.4 million budget, property taxes would have risen 9.7 percent. Paul Nelson can be reached at 454-5347 or by e-mail at pnelson@timesunion.com.

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As a result of the cuts, the proposed property tax hike in the revised spending plan has been chopped to 4.5 percent -- down from a near-double-digit increase.

Still not good enough.  Find some more pork to cut out, please, Mr. Fields.  As Brad Littlefield stated...

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“A cut to an increase is still an increase.”

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“Desperate times demand desperate actions,”

Guess in a couple weeks, we can start showing the majority what we think.  Show them at the polls.

http://www.dailygazette.com

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SCHENECTADY COUNTY
Legislature approves $283 million budget
Plan eliminates jobs, reduces tax bills
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

   The Schenectady County Legislature Thursday night approved a $283.4 million budget for 2008 that limits the growth of spending, offers a slight reduction in the county portion of tax bills and eliminates more than a dozen jobs.
   The Democratic majority also promised more difficult decisions next year, while they rejected Republican proposals that promised deeper spending reductions.
   Democrat Anthony Jasenski joined the four-member Republican caucus in voting against the budget. He also supported the Republican amendments, which would have reduced the initial property tax levy increase to below zero. Jasenski is seeking re-election in District 4. The vote was 9-5 with one absence.
   Minority Leader Robert Farley, R-Glenville, said the Legislature needed to find more ways to cut the budget. “It didn’t do enough. Our taxpayers are being crushed,” he said. He is seeking re-election in District 3.
   Legislator Philip Fields, D-Schenectady, chairman of the Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee, said the Democratic caucus “made some radical cuts in services in this county, but the cuts do not impact guaranteed services. None of this is something we are joyful of, but it is time for some fiscal restraint.”
   Under the adopted budget, a resident with a home assessed at $140,000 would pay $873.60 in taxes in 2008. Tax bills for 2008 are calculated on a full value tax rate of $6.24 per $1,000.
   The county’s full-value tax rate shows a decline from the current year’s rate under the adopted budget. The tax rate can decline while the tax levy — the cumulative tax bill — increases, because total county property value has increased.
   Homeowners paid $918.40 in 2007 under the full value tax rate of $6.56 per $1,000. However, property tax rates vary from town to town and in the city, depending on final assessments and equalization rates. These are set in December.
   Democrats reduced the projected tax levy to $60.6 million. The initial tax levy for 2008 would have been $63.6 million. They described this year’s budget as austere and part of an effort to restructure county government. They said next year’s budget will be even more severe.
   “There is no question about it, it will be difficult. That is why cuts this year have to be on-going and carry through to next year. Some are recurring cuts, such as in library and day care expenses,” said Legislator Vincent DiCerbo, D-Schenectady. DiCerbo is running unopposed for re-election in District 1.
   DiCerbo said, “The minute this year’s budget passes, we are on to next year’s budget. County employees will have to get ready for more belt-tightening.”
   Here is how Democrats reduced the initial $5.6 million increase in the property tax levy by some $3 million:
   $1 million saved by eliminating 15 positions, some filled and some vacant, and by reducing benefits and salary increases for management in 2008. The county employs about 1,200 full- and part-time staff. These are on top of the 51 eliminated by County Manager Kathleen Rooney in her tentative budget.
   Among those who lost their jobs are 28-year employee Francis Ricci, director of the Schenectady Job Training Agency, and his assistant, 30-year employee George Heigel. Social services will absorb Ricci’s former agency, resulting in savings totaling nearly $150,000.
   Ricci said he learned he was out of a job Thursday. “No one told me about it, and here I thought I was a valuable employee,” he said.
   Youth Bureau Director Shane Bargy and his director lost their jobs as well. Bargy joined the county 5 1 /2 years ago; he said he is concerned about how his “office will be able to provide services to children.” He also is concerned that without a full-time youth bureau director, the county will be unable to obtain some $300,000 in grants that support outside agencies that provide services to children, he said.
   $1 million saved by cutting or reducing professional contracts. The county is trying to hire a new medical services provider for the county jail for $930,000, or $200,000 less than its current contract with Hometown Health. Hometown Health has told the county it no longer will provide services after Jan. 1. It had sought a 10 percent increase in the contract, plus additional financial support; the county offered 3 percent. The county also eliminated or reduced contracts with the Law, Order and Justice Center and Catholic Charities.
   Another $838,800 saved in cuts to the county Department of Social Services, including removal of $129,000 for attorneys attached to DSS. Their work will be transferred to the County Attorney’s Office, headed by Chris Gardner. Also reduced was day care costs by $250,000, to $6.9 million.
   County legislators also directed County Manager Kathleen Rooney to find ways in 2008 to reduce or eliminate fraud, waste and abuse in the DSS.
   The county will target both service providers and benefit recipients. It also will step up efforts to collect money owed by former clients; ensure people with substance abuse problems are treated in the most cost-effective methods; and develop an in-house hot line for employees to confidentially report fraud and abuse.
   The county increased revenues this year by selling 20 acres of property at the county airport to Fortitech for $1 million. Fortitech will build a distribution center and research and development facility on the property.
   The Legislature defeated a series of amendments proposed by Republicans along party lines, save for Jasenski’s vote to support them. “My constituents are crying out for tax relief,” he said.
   DiCerbo, D-Schenectady, criticized the Republican initiatives as too vague in spelling out savings. “We go right down to the appropriation codes and show exactly where the savings are,” he said. “Their budget amendments in theory sound good, but they have no hard facts to back them up.”
   He cited as an example Republicans’ proposal for an audit of social services. “Last year, they projected savings of $1.5 million, and $2.5 million this year. That assumes they had some kind of benchmark last year and if so, how do they come up with savings this year?” DiCerbo asked.
   Also, many of the proposed cuts do not take effect until next year and are estimates at best, DiCerbo said. “In the best-case scenario, the savings come through, but in the worst-case scenario they don’t come through and you are left with a budget hole next. The problem there is no way to determine the methodology used to make saving,” he said.
   Farley defended the amendments, saying they would save county taxpayers millions over the long term by making government more efficient.
LOOMING ISSUES
   Fields said the county faces important budget decisions next year, including:
   Meeting a mandate by the state Commission of Correction to hire 26 to 30 additional correction officers for the county jail. These are in addition to the 18 it hired this year, county officials said. The county only budgeted for six guards in 2008.
   Dealing with a mandate from the Berger Commission to downsize the countyowned Glendale home to 168 beds. Fields said the county’s cost to meet this mandate is $500,000. The county, instead, wants to build a new facility rather than continue to use the obsolete Glendale Home, as recommended by the commission.  

  
  
  

Brad, I heard you on WROW this morning. Thanks for the recap of the meeting last night. And thanks for sharing the fact that some of the jobs that were cut, have been vacant for years. Most people are not aware of that. Good job!

It's just as we thought ask for 9.7% tax increase and settle for a 4.5% tax increase instead of the tax decrease that all the residents called for. We need tax cuts and a cap on spending to lower our taxes, Brad sure called this one.