Finally someone at City Hall spoke the truth. As I have repeatedly posted the City's share of County sales
tax revenue has been stuck in cement and screwing City property owners. City budget analyst Jason Cuthbert
will be fired today for daring stating the truth that if the idiot City Council approves this sales tax sellout
tonight the City is finished. "I don't want the City to go down the tubes," Jason Cuthbert stated.

  The DEM hacks refuse to "work together". McCheese and every County Legislature that represents the City
should resign in disgrace today. They keep putting party over the City that they are supposed to represent.
Any Council person that voted for this taxpayer ripoff tonight is finished in politics. Barbara is in the hospital
and Vince will vote NO!

Quoted from benny salami

Finally someone at City Hall spoke the truth. As I have repeatedly posted the City's share of County sales
tax revenue has been stuck in cement and screwing City property owners. City budget analyst Jason Cuthbert
will be fired today for daring stating the truth that if the idiot City Council approves this sales tax sellout
tonight the City is finished. "I don't want the City to go down the tubes," Jason Cuthbert stated.

  The DEM hacks refuse to "work together". McCheese and every County Legislature that represents the City
should resign in disgrace today. They keep putting party over the City that they are supposed to represent.
Any Council person that voted for this taxpayer ripoff tonight is finished in politics. Barbara is in the hospital
and Vince will vote NO!

Perhaps we should start a Jason fund for when he loses his job for his honesty.

I am sure Jason knew he had no choice.  This info would be coming out in a report regardless when the state completes its Audit of the City.  He just put it on the table rather than be scapegoated later in the report.  Good for him for coming clean earlier.  

Not sure he will lose his job.

Quoted from visitor

Not sure he will lose his job.

stranger things have happened.

If he is accurate and did it as an act of conscience, then, terminating him might very well backfire.  

The lies and misleadings are finally unwinding.  The "Leaders" cant play on both sides of the issues anymore.  If Metroplex is working and growing the city then how can the nearly flat payment between $11 and $11.7 million be fair.  The citys deal must be renegotiated.  Carl Erickson and Vince Riggi also need to be recognized here for there voice on this issue.

Quoted from bumblethru

stranger things have happened.

Yes they have. I'm sure also that his workplace environment has changed dramatically in the past 24 hours and that it's not unreasonable to think that rather than being terminated he could be made so uncomfortable that he would resign. Courage comes in many forms, Jason has exhibited just one and I for one applaud him for drawing a line in the sand and making a stand.

Making the work environment uncomfortable (aka hostile) as retribution is playing with fire.  

Quoted from visitor

Making the work environment uncomfortable (aka hostile) as retribution is playing with fire.  

I agree, but unfortunately we shouldn't be naive and think it doesn't happen.

Quoted from TakingItBack

Carl Erickson and Vince Riggi also need to be recognized here for there voice on this issue.

Karl is part of the problem. He makes noises and then votes the DEM stooge line. Erickson is head of
the City Council "finances" Where's his plan? We know McCheese is brain dead but we expect more from him. All the chickens are coming home to roost and all the DEM ruining dogs will be held to account.

  Dump McCheese hand picked stooge Marion Poterfield {also a pathetic DNC delegate}. Vote for Bob
Sanders on Thursday as a protest vote. Meanwhile the City DEMS had a big party at the Stockade Inn, back
slapping and toasting the fiscal demise. Problem? What problem? A bunch of Alfred E Newman idiots. Pack the Council tonight demanding a NO VOTE to the County ripoff. Jason Cuthbert for Mayor!

Loki - Oh, I'm sure it happens.  But, it would be ill advised - putting a fire out with gas.

Cuthbert is speaking now, speaks how the employees, council, etc exist to benefit THE TAXPAYERS (i.e, NOT the downtown political cronies and millionaires and DV).

If McC remotely DARES to terminate him, then McC should be terminated


No more cheerleading for McC, the dem council, and the political hack puppets and millionaires downtown.  Start cheerleading for the residents, the financially struggling homeowners paying the highest taxes in the country and the renters whose rent keeps going up.   Shake the pom poms for an IMMEDIATELY HALT to ANY spending on downtown, let the greedy private sector pay for it itself.   DOWNTOWN HAS DONE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to benefit the city, it has merely caused a DRASTIC REDUCTION in the tax base and caused the taxes in the city to be virtually the highest in the whole U.S.

All for nothing. He will fall victim to the coming big layoff. Great leader who should run for public office. Got a
huge ovation but not enough to change the corrupt DEM implosion squad. They have more carcasses to pick over.
Make sure Proctor's gets a few more taxpayers millions-no?

Quoted Text

Sales tax deal OK'd
Schenectady passes measure despite budget analyst's warnings
By Lauren Stanforth
Updated 10:48 p.m., Monday, September 10, 2012

SCHENECTADY — At a controversial meeting Monday night, City Council passed a sales tax-sharing deal with Schenectady County — a day after the city's budget analyst slammed the deal, saying the city will lose millions in prospective revenue over a politically motivated agreement.

The council voted 4-2 in favor of accepting $600,000 more in sales tax next year, with Democratic City Councilman Carl Erikson visibly distraught over his colleagues supporting the measure.

"I disagree with the arguments on so many points," Erikson said, referring to Mayor Gary McCarthy's and County Legislator Gary Hughes' contention that the city is lucky to get $11.7 million under the deal — a figure that has barely changed since 1998, while the county's take has more than doubled from $25 million to $60 million in 2012.

"The money belongs in our pockets," Erikson said. "This is a sad day."

Just before the vote, however, City Council members Leesa Perazzo and Marion Porterfield appeared to be questioning their support, agreeing with Erikson that the deal needed further discussion. City Council President Denise Brucker agreed to go into executive session immediately, but not before members of the audience yelled out in protest that the session was not being called properly. Council members retreated to their committee room on the first floor before returning to chambers and voting.

Perazzo said what convinced her to vote "yes" was the fact that the county has agreed for the first time to raise the sales tax payment yearly depending on the percentage of growth the county itself sees in revenue.

"We have spent a multitude of hours asking questions, challenging and examining the options," Perazzo said. "I now understand the advantages."

Central to the debate is the fact that the city does not know how much sales tax it would collect if it did it on its own. City officials have said the state does not have data concerning what specific addresses sales tax is generated from.

County Attorney Chris Gardner has argued that when the city collected its own tax in 1988, it amounted to about $6.7 million. Considering the loss of businesses downtown since then, and the growth in the suburbs, the city would struggle to crack $11 million in collections now, Gardner said.

But city budget analyst Jason Cuthbert, going against McCarthy's wishes, reached out to City Council members Sunday, showing them charts detailing the massive growth in sales tax revenue Schenectady County has enjoyed and saying that the county has had the luxury of reducing taxes over the years while the city has struggled to balance its budgets.

Cuthbert elaborated in an interview with the Times Union that McCarthy and Gardner, long Democratic allies, were inking the deal to demonstrate the party's continuing cooperation in order to retain Democratic power in county politics. McCarthy denied the claim.

Cuthbert said if the city didn't negotiate a better deal, it would see up to 100 employees laid off and severe cuts in services.

"For a city our size, the current agreement is the worst sales tax agreement in the state," Cuthbert said at a public hearing before Monday's vote. "This proposal would be an albatross around the city's neck for the better part of a decade."

In another significant vote Monday night, City Council voted not to lay off five employees, with Porterfield, Erikson and Vincent Riggi saying there wasn't enough information provided to show why the positions in question were being cut.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Sales-tax-deal-OK-d-3854710.php#ixzz269vwONV6