Sales tax deal shows evil of oneparty rule in Sch’dy BY ROGER HULL For The Sunday Gazette
Politicians all too often pursue a strategy of hiding essential information. Last fall, we certainly saw that strategy in the mayoral race in Schenectady, when my opponent, Acting Mayor Gary McCarthy, denied the city’s obvious impending fi nancial crisis — until he was elected and had to admit it. At times last fall, I accused the City Council of being puppets and the mayor of being the puppet master. Not surprisingly, the members of the City Council took issue with me—and then they voted again and again and again for whatever the mayor wanted. Now, the council has voted to approve a deal with the county regarding the division of sales tax proceeds. Four members thought it a good arrangement; two others, including Vince Riggi who was elected last fall with Alliance Party support, did not. I certainly agree with those who voted “no.” I also appreciate the courage of city budget analyst Jason Cuthbert. He dared to provide the City Council with historical information about the sales tax; he was fired by the mayor for having the courage to do so. His crime: telling the City Council that the emperor had no clothes. Where’s the outrage of the puppet council members? Only Vince Riggi and Carl Erikson tried to stand up for transparency; only those two members of the council challenged the mayor. A city employee was fi red for giving to the City Council information about the city and county sales tax. It is hard to imagine an action more improper, more petty, or more vengeful than this one. However, I think there is a far more basic point — the evil of oneparty rule. That evil has far-reaching effects. PUPPETS & PUPPET MASTER I believe now, as I did when I accused council members of being puppets, that the mayor is pulling their strings. I also think the cracks that are appearing in council ranks are a good thing and that Vince Riggi and, at times, Carl Erickson are doing what members of the City Council should do — question the mayor and vote against him when they believe him to be wrong. The evil of one-party rule (and, yes, I would feel the same way regardless of which major party was in control) extends itself to the county. In the process, those evils also extend to the negotiations that resulted in the sales tax agreement. Just as the mayor pulls the strings of the City Council, so the county attorney pulls the mayor’s strings. Until there is real competition, until we do away with oneparty rule in the city and in the county, we can expect more of the same. Do we really think council party members will not follow the lead of their boss, the mayor? I for one don’t. And should we expect an armslength negotiation on a sales tax agreement when the power behind the party throne in the county (the county attorney) negotiates with the mayor? No. It is more of the same; it is just that the city’s puppet master has become the county’s puppet. Let’s state the obvious: There is one pot of money. If the city gets more, the residents of the county (which obviously includes city residents) get less. It just seems dramatically fairer, though, to spread the costs of services over the 157,000 residents of the county than to have 66,000 city residents pay the cost through increased taxes or decreased services (which, in the case of taxes, are the highest in the Capital Region and which, in the case of services, cannot go much lower). For 24 years, I ran two institutions. Despite fi nancial challenges, I never laid anyone off for fi nancial reasons. If layoffs in the city, also denied during the mayoral campaign, are to be avoided, we need more revenue. Unfortunately, the mayor “blew” his best opportunity for that revenue. The mayor may feel confident about his plan for the future, as he stated on May 6, but no one else should. And certainly, members of the City Council, who were kept in the dark until Jason Cuthbert’s courageous action, should feel no confi dence. No one with an independent bone in her/his body could. Starting in Nov., I hope voters will realize, as they began to do last fall, one-party rule serves only those in the power structure of the party. It does not serve residents. It never has, and it never will.
Let’s state the obvious: There is one pot of money. If the city gets more, the residents of the county (which obviously includes city residents) get less. It just seems dramatically fairer, though, to spread the costs of services over the 157,000 residents of the county than to have 66,000 city residents pay the cost through increased taxes or decreased services (which, in the case of taxes, are the highest in the Capital Region and which, in the case of services, cannot go much lower).
Quoted Text
The $60 million in sales tax the county keeps pays for items that get pumped back into Schenectady, like $23.5 million for public assistance and child protective services – 92 percent of which is used by city residents.
Roger Hull wants to spread the fiscal pain of the City to the residents in the rest of the towns around Schenectady County. Roger wants the rest of the county to be equally as poor and in as poor fiscal shape as the city. He was the great republican(Alliance Party) hope that ran for Mayor. Not only is he a supporter of Metroplex, but now we find out he also wants to pass the cost of city services onto ALL the county residents.
Hey benny, talk to the country reps in your district and tell them you want your property taxes raised to make up for the loss of sales tax revenue your town is losing in order to give more to the city.
The problem in the city is due to a failed governance and lack of fiscal oversite. Until the city gets it's house in order....the counties should NEVER consider paying for the cities mess!!
HOWEVER.........this will be a hard sell since the county is under a one party dictatorship rule!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
HOWEVER.........this will be a hard sell since the county is under a one party dictatorship rule!
One good thing about the one party rule is, all the plutocrats and most city employees live outside the city, so the plutocrats that run the city really don't represent their constituents, they are more concerned about protecting their suburban neighborhoods where most of the people collecting a city paycheck live. They don't want to sh*t where they sleep.
Roger Hull wants to spread the fiscal pain of the City to the residents in the rest of the towns around Schenectady County. Roger wants the rest of the county to be equally as poor and in as poor fiscal shape as the city. He was the great republican Democrat Lite(Alliance Party) hope that ran for Mayor. Not only is he a supporter of Metroplex, he created it, and now we find out he also wants to pass the cost of city services onto ALL the county residents.
Hey benny, talk to the country reps in your district and tell them you want your property taxes raised to make up for the loss of sales tax revenue your town is losing in order to give more to the city.
+1 for a great post. As I said before, Hull is a progressive liberal that lives in academia, the land of unicorns and rainbows. Everything looks great on paper.
I did make a few minor corrections.
➊ There are no conservative republicans anywhere to be found in Sch'dy....Changed this to Democrat Lite
➋ Added in that he created Metroplex
"Approval ratings go up and down for various reasons... An example is the high post 911 support for GWB even though he could be said to be responsible for the event." --- Box A Rox '9/11 Truther'
Melania is a bimbo... she is there to look at, not to listen to. --- Box A Rox and his 'War on Women'
Roger Hull wants to spread the fiscal pain of the City to the residents in the rest of the towns around Schenectady County.
I agree. The City's problems should not be spread throughout the surrounding towns ('consolidation of services will take care of that)....but with that said, Metroplex has decimated the tax base of the City, leaving one of the only multi-million dollar areas completely out of the loop (that would be Downtown).
This is NOT the fault of anyone but the City and the Plex. In my opinion, the Plex should be dismantled, all the sales tax they generate should go back into the loop and the County and City should go back to bringing in business with focus on track records - not with bribing companies with tax exemptions and grants.
The City created its own economic mess with the Plex at the helm. Fix it now or you're going to sink.
I won't comment on the specific "sales tax deal" except to say that I believe that towns like Rotterdam, Niskayuna and Glenville - where most of the sales tax is generated - have been getting - unfairly - the short end of the deal for many years. Ultimately the only way to rectify the structural fiscal problems in our cities, towns and counties is for a) the state to finally deal with and fix the problem of unfunded state mandates and b) to deal with and replace the out-dated 19th century system of local and county governments with a system that meets the reality of 21st century living patterns and service delivery needs.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
I won't comment on the specific "sales tax deal" except to say that I believe that towns like Rotterdam, Niskayuna and Glenville - where most of the sales tax is generated - have been getting - unfairly - the short end of the deal for many years. Ultimately the only way to rectify the structural fiscal problems in our cities, towns and counties is for a) the state to finally deal with and fix the problem of unfunded state mandates and b) to deal with and replace the out-dated 19th century system of local and county governments with a system that meets the reality of 21st century living patterns and service delivery needs.
YOU LOOOOOOVE THE STATE MANDATES....
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
No, I don't love the state mandates. I have been calling for action to fix this problem for many years.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
I won't comment on the specific "sales tax deal" except to say that I believe that towns like Rotterdam, Niskayuna and Glenville - where most of the sales tax is generated - have been getting - unfairly - the short end of the deal for many years. Ultimately the only way to rectify the structural fiscal problems in our cities, towns and counties is for a) the state to finally deal with and fix the problem of unfunded state mandates and b) to deal with and replace the out-dated 19th century system of local and county governments with a system that meets the reality of 21st century living patterns and service delivery needs.
This is b/c your gf Savage spend all the extra sales tax growth on patronage, raise for cronies and the nursing home for connected relatives
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
a state mandate would be about your school district mergers and all other mergers you call $$ saving.....
Perhaps, you are too ignorant to understand that the state constitution requires the state to provide public education and that the state has control over how that public education is delivered. At one time, it was provided by one room school houses, which gave way to with time and necessity to larger schools (many school districts in the state had K-12 in one building for a number of decades) and those in turn gave way to the central school districts and city school districts ----- which now number over 500.
You could argue that the one room school houses and the single building K-12 districts and, now, the central school districts and city districts are ALL state mandates --- and they are --- But they are NOT unfunded mandates as the state long-ago made provision for these districts to finance their operations through a school property tax.
My proposal -- which is one that MANY others have advocated for at least the past 3 or 4 decades -- is that the ADMINISTRATION be consolidated ---- by eliminating the 500+ central and city school districts with 62 county school districts. It has been proven to save money and make educational administration more effective and efficient in the numerous states that have a similar set up.
There is simply no good reason to pay multiple superintendents and other district administrator salaries (in Schenectady County - we have 7 of every position - 7 superintendents, 7 business managers, 7 (or more) assistant/deputy superintendents. and on and on).
I really don't care that you and your nayboob comrades are so immature and ignorant that you have to resort to personal attacks --- I know that the facts are solidly on my side. I will continue to call for the consolidation of school districts (and other taxing districts) because I know that this is a 21st century solution that will save taxpayer dollars, reduce redundancy and waste --- and ultimately will make our state more competitive.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
Perhaps, you are too ignorant to understand that the state constitution requires the state to provide public education and that the state has control over how that public education is delivered. At one time, it was provided by one room school houses, which gave way to with time and necessity to larger schools (many school districts in the state had K-12 in one building for a number of decades) and those in turn gave way to the central school districts and city school districts ----- which now number over 500.
You could argue that the one room school houses and the single building K-12 districts and, now, the central school districts and city districts are ALL state mandates --- and they are --- But they are NOT unfunded mandates as the state long-ago made provision for these districts to finance their operations through a school property tax.
My proposal -- which is one that MANY others have advocated for at least the past 3 or 4 decades -- is that the ADMINISTRATION be consolidated ---- by eliminating the 500+ central and city school districts with 62 county school districts. It has been proven to save money and make educational administration more effective and efficient in the numerous states that have a similar set up.
There is simply no good reason to pay multiple superintendents and other district administrator salaries (in Schenectady County - we have 7 of every position - 7 superintendents, 7 business managers, 7 (or more) assistant/deputy superintendents. and on and on).
I really don't care that you and your nayboob comrades are so immature and ignorant that you have to resort to personal attacks --- I know that the facts are solidly on my side. I will continue to call for the consolidation of school districts (and other taxing districts) because I know that this is a 21st century solution that will save taxpayer dollars, reduce redundancy and waste --- and ultimately will make our state more competitive.
here's the deal dufus....
mandate for foreign language no spanish teacher english is split into 2 classes to fill the time so that 2 tenured teachers with salaries/bennies intact can stay....
you can squabble over the technical terms....unfunded is unfunded because the state cant decide that ALL teachers must make $60,000 year with guaranteed jobs/bennies...but the requirements for graduation stay the same....
you can consolidate all you want....but above $$ argument lives 'outside' the box/issues...but DAMN, they will wear shirts/colors to school and get the undereducated/young/without life experience kids to participate in the 'color wearing'
education isn't free....I get that.....but don't 'F' with me
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
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