Ain't Nobody Got Time For That

It's the Christmas season, so let's take a look at who has been naughty and who has been nice in Upstate NY.

This year, I confess I was stupid. I decided to run against, as it turned out, a machine politician for the Oneida County Board of Legislators. With the help of the machine (a State Senator who turned out to be her $75,000 bagman and the County Executive who worked for her behind the scenes), she won. As I have always believed, people deserve whomever they elect. Let's take a look at Oneida County and see what the people are going to get in their gift bag (aka the tax bill that will arrive in your mail shortly before next year):

Your first present is the salary increase of 91% that the Board of Legislators gave themselves. Timing being important, they somehow managed to vote on it after the election. Gee, I wonder why. One of the best reforms that could ever happen would be moving election day to a week or two before taxes are due. $16,000 per annum (more for plum positions) for 12 official meetings a year is ludicrous. Knowing that there are people in the district I ran in that live at or near poverty wages (take a walk through Chadwicks; it's not 90210) that live (in some cases) at or below that $16k a year, I'm embarrassed to live here. As I learned after 12 years on New Hartford Town Board, there are quite a few people living one paycheck away from disaster. Every elected official should experience what it's like to live on a shoestring at some point in their life so as to know the impacts their decisions may have on those they govern. Sadly, when I ran I addressed this by promising  I would not vote for any increase larger than what the rank and file workers got. It's a pretty safe bet nobody else got 91%... and if I'm not mistaken, there are 2 unions at an impasse with county government and they have not had any pay increase for quite a while ... years, if what I'm told is true. But, ain't nobody got time for that.

Your second present is the big increase the County Executive wants, and most likely will get considering how the dog and pony show is run. He thinks he's worth a raise of 22%, which in real dollars is over $25,000. $114k to $140k? Ain't nobody got time for that, Mr. Picente. You're not doing a great job even though you think you are. (Humbleness is not your forte.) Looking at your (yes, YOUR) Marcy-Nano failure, your refusal to submit a budget that lowers the sales tax (I'll get to that in the next present), your blowing the OC budget up ~ $15 million in one budget year ... And other idiotic ideas, like touting how you're trying to get Amazon here .. As if we're in the running! FWIW, Amazon has been courted by better than us. Chicago has offered to let Amazon pocket $1.3 billion dollars in income taxes paid by it's employees to do whatever it wants to with the money. Chula Vista has discussed giving Amazon $100 million in free land along with a 30 year exemption on property taxes (worth $300 million). Boston is willing to get in bed with Amazon with a task force of city-paid employees. Fresno has pledged to set aside 85% of all taxes and fees generated by Amazon into a fund partly overseen by company executives. And you think Oneida County is in the running? What can you offer them that even begins to compare with these things? And the real question is, if we have to bribe companies by giving away everything, why would we even want them here? Employment is nice and all, but infrastructure load and support costs could easily put us in the red. But yet, we (the taxpayers) still pour money into your going-nowhere projects. Look how your AMS deal in the Marcy project went bad: A nice big, new building with a big lighted sign that proudly said 'AMS' was constructed ... and after it was built, they pulled out. What, you built the building and put the sign there with no inked commitment? No good faith money? Please correct me if I'm wrong because we're going to pay for these boneheaded ideas for decades to come regardless if what happens.

Your third present is the 8.75% sales tax (highest in Upstate NY) that could have been reduced by half a percent so easily in this budget. Watching a $15 million dollar increase in any one years budget tells me that the money was there to reduce the sales tax levy and the County Execcutive refused to do it. He chose to spend it. According to one legislators website, a quarter of a percent equals about $7 million dollars in revenue; this means $15 million is easily able to wipe out half a percent. Considering our immediate bordering counties can run their governments with a sales tax rate ranging from 7.75% to 8.25%, the question is obvious: Knowing we are over-taxed and over-regulated and it is the most identifiable cause of our population loss (10,000 people every 10 years since the mid-1970s), the question begs: What course of corrective action should government be taking to stem that loss? The answer is obvious, of course. But again ... Ain't nobody got time for that.

Your fourth present is the bill you are going to pay for a downtown hospital that is going to come in (after everything is totaled up) at about the billion-dollar mark. I can understand why the Utica Mayor wants it, but looking at it from outside, I ask myself why county leadership is pushing for it also. It is obvious most people in the county do not want to go into the inner city for healthcare. It is clearly unpopular considering that if we really, really need a new hospital, the existing St. Lukes Hospital complex can easily accommodate it. St. Luke's is already tax-exempt which would save the city from removing four or so city blocks of taxable property via the eminent domain process, there is already a separate power plant at St Luke's and traffic wise, it is more centrally located. But the county and the city are already moving ahead by approving the construction of a parking garage there ($45 million before change orders and cost upgrades) ... I really don't want to pay for this and most certainly I will go to Cooperstown, Syracuse or Albany before I will consider going to downtown's new hospital. And I'm not alone. This new hospital is going to be such an issue of contention that it will take a generation or two to get comfortable with. In the meanwhile, it will have to be paid for and we all know where that money is coming from. I feel sorry for Uticans who own property because they will get to pay for it twice: Once in their city taxes and again in their county tax. Why county leadership turns a deaf ear to vox populi is beyond me and I just add it to the raw stupidity of those who are better at running political campaigns than they are at governing. Lastly, a very smart person told me long ago not to put all of your eggs into one basket. Currently, we have three hospitals serving the region. If there is a major catastrophe and it impacts one of the hospitals to the point of closing, we still have two others to rely on. Do we really need a new hospital, and is it wise to have only one hospital in the area? If for any reason it is forced to close (use your imagination, bad things have happened to hospitals before) ... are we protected? Uticans, again your future is being mortgaged: They have eyes on the Police Station and Court Building, and if they get what they want, you are going to get to pay for a new multi-million dollar facility to replace these. The rumblings are already there; last week the newspaper ran an article about how the police station is old and has problems. You're being softened up, do you see it coming? Ain't nobody got time for that.

Your last present is that this area is going to continue to suffer and that is directly a result of the decisions of those you have elected over the last three or so decades. A look at the political personalities almost guarantees it. You have a County Executive who loathes our (same party) Congresswoman and has gone out of his way to throw every stone possible in her path, you have a State Senator who has hurt her in the past by helping redistrict her previous Assembly district into oblivion (how did that turn out, Joe), and you have both of them seemingly putting her almost-guaranteed opponent into the limelight lately. How these people will function together is a mystery to me. Meanwhile, about 1,000 people a year are voting with their feet and leaving for greener pastures. Some head to states with no income tax and (much) lower sales tax rates, some head to states with much lower property taxes and some just look at the bleak employment picture and head out. All of this is happening, btw, while thousands (estimated over 25,000 so far) of refugee immigrants are moved into the area. No, I'm not against this resettling. Filling the empty inner city housing and getting people here is a better solution than continued atrophy. We need better leadership. But, as somebody once said ... Ain't nobody got time for that.

Merry Christmas.

Now for National Politics: The Humor is the Profit

Last week I received an unexpected piece of mail. It was a request for a political donation from a US Senator from the Boston area. Yes, Ms. Elizabeth Warren has somehow decided that I am friendly to her views and that I might be inclined to donate money to her "grassroots" cause. Ms. Warren couldn't be more mistaken; I am not one of her supporters and if there ever was a lesson in grassroots politics, it came from the current 45th President who recently demonstrated how to get elected as a populist. Here is some of her propaganda:

Yeah, I couldn't help but laugh. Ooh scary! The GOP's heavy hitters are here and We'll win if we're united were real gut-busters, but the best one was Thank you for being a part of this. ... Which almost is as humorous as your claim that Breibart is taking aim at you and using some billionaire to do it. Why, the nerve! I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess it's not Bloomberg or Soros. To add insult to injury, you resort to the politics of fear in your message and of course, that's page two out of Saul Alinsky's handbook for anarchists. Or is it page three? And FWIW, Breibart is taking aim at all of the liberal left, not just you. But really, aren't you taking aim at each other every day?

No thanks, Elizabeth. You are one of the last people I will consider donating to in this upcoming political season. I'm thinking more that I'll contribute to the Conservative Republican representing the Congressional district I live in next year. So that you don't think I'm some sort of sexist white supremacist, my Representative is Claudia Tenney and she's much more in tune with how Upstate NY thinks than you are.

But thank you for sending out a mailing to somebody that doesn't think very highly of you or your politics. It is always good to see the opposition at work, and it's good to see you work so hard 'protecting Americans' as if your party is the only one interested in doing so. (They're not, FWIW.) The last time I mentioned you online, I used a term to describe you that upset some of my kin: I called you Fauxcahontas and they expressed displeasure. Personally, I can't think of any one word that describes you better and it comes from ... ah, let's say you got mixed up in the Brian Williams era and conflated the claim that you were part native American. I'd like to congratulate you for choosing Cherokee; it's the same tribe Bill Clinton used when he said one of his grandmothers was Cherokee. I can't find a popular male native name to put faux in front of that quite has the ring of your popular nickname, but we all know Bill Clinton and his wife as ... well, let's just say they are economical with the truth just as you seem to be.

There’s a running joke in Indian country: If you meet somebody who you wouldn’t necessarily think is Native, but they say they’re Native, chances are they’ll tell you they’re Cherokee.

Thank you for choosing the left fork of the road in claiming your false heritage. I read your two-page letter and I already know about the "fight." Problem is, Ms. F. Cahontas, the side in the fight you've been waging since Election Day 2016 (I love the Youtube videos showing you say Donald Trump will never be President)  is not the side I'm on. Frankly, I view you as an obstructionist.

And after researching your net worth online, it appears you are one of the 1% ! A $2.4 million dollar house in Cambridge and a DC Condo at 3/4 of a mil don't really put you in the trenches at a 9-5 job every day. Looking at net worth is always subjective, but yours seems to be quite a bit more than mine. I'm not sure how Harvard law professors who taught one class get to be worth ... $5 to $10 million, but it seems your luck got better since you were elected. Now tell us about giving you money again. All I can think of you at this point is as a mendicant begging for alms when in fact you've never been in the bread line in your life.

So please forgive me for not sending you money. It seems you have plenty already, and as I always say, put your money where your mouth is, Ms. Cahontas.

Your friend,

-Don

PS: I'm going to go out on a limb here and paraphrase you: You will never be President. God help us if you ever are.

The Mechanics of Political Pork: Timing, Location, Media

It's August 8, a little more than 1 month away from Primary Day (September 12 this year). I'd like to shed some sunshine on the $75,000 state grant that State Senator Joe Griffo bestowed in the Town of Paris this morning. The town supervisor, Mr. Christian and 2 of the board members were present along with Mrs. Pratt, your currently appointed but not elected County Legislator. Mr. Christian and I had a nice chat and I think he is really working to better things in the township. I'll add that no Supervisor is able to accomplish anything without working Council members, something I think he'd agree with.

Mrs. Pratt is running to be elected for the first time, and of course the timing, location and media presence are all part of a carefully-constructed scene set to give her what is known in the business as earned media, which is a euphemism for free press coverage. The rumor has been going around for at least 2 months now about the grant, which is to be used for pool repairs at the town park. Getting money in the form of a grant is always a good thing and I'm glad that it ended up at the Sauquoit pool. The public presentation and timing are, however, part of a carefully staged opera designed to inform the public of how deserving your elected officials are of your vote because they're bringing home the bacon, so to speak. But there is another side to it, especially when it's designed to give somebody with no real name recognition media exposure.

In the vernacular, it's called buying your votes with your own tax dollars.

Hey, again I'm glad the money is coming to the town for pool repairs and I'm glad it won't fall on town property owners in their tax bill. However, the real reason it was timed and staged today was not for the good of the town; rather, the good of those presenting the money. Let's talk about Joe Griffo first.

I like Joe, but sometimes he's a little too much of a political animal for me. Arriving with one of his aides/photographer (Rocco LaDuca, former Utica O-D reporter), he had his press releases ready along with his usual spiel about how wonderful Sauquoit is and how he is glad to help keep the quality of life good for the residents. While Rocco took pictures of him speaking, he ventured into left field with how without Mrs. Pratt asking him for the money, why, he wouldn't have known about it at all. Continuing to lay more accolades on her, he went on praising just about everything and everybody in the town... well, except me. Nothing was mentioned about the upcoming election (and at a media splash like this, it never will be mentioned, just implied) ... the message is clear because the stage was carefully set: Again, the timing, the location and of course the media presence.

In politics, no good deed goes without ... making sure the media gets the word out.

The town board was, of course happy to take the money, as would I be if I were in their shoes. But even one of the town board Councilmen who completely is in the bag for Mrs. Pratt seized the opportunity to praise her, almost as if she were pulling out her own personal checkbook and writing the check right then and there. But if you read the minutes of the Town Board this year, you find these pearls of wisdom:

At the Feb. 8, 2017 Town of Paris meeting:

Supervisor Christian welcomed all guests and extended the privilege of the floor, of those present was newly appointed County Legislator Mary Pratt to introduce herself and answer any questions.

Supervisor Christian spoke about the following topics:

 Pool repairs or abandonment to come to a vote before spending a significant amount of money. 

Fast forward to the  April 12, 2017 Town of Paris meeting:

“Town Board spoke about sending out a newsletter with information on pool repairs.  Supervisor Christian stated that County Legislator Mary Pratt never returned his phone call or email about pool repair funding.”

Oh Sweet Jesus. She never even bothered to return the Supervisor's phone call?

May 17, 2017 Town of Paris board meeting

Supervisor Christian spoke about County Legislator Mary Pratt helping to obtain funds for pool repairs.

...But let's save telling the public about it until ... Oh, August ought to be good enough.

There's another story about how Mrs. Pratt wrangled the endorsement in the Town of Paris, but I'm saving that one for personal conversations. Let's just say she didn't initially get it and a $75,000 grant might be the reason that changed. Maybe. (Ask me and I'll be glad to tell you.)

Mrs. Pratt, of course is not stupid and used the opportunity to put herself on the evening news for free. And she is learning ... She did convince the county executive to give $1000 to the Town of Bridgewater for playground equipment. The only mistake she made there was promising the money before the Republican Committee in Bridgewater met and unanimously endorsed me. All the other committees were split; there was no unanimity in New Hartford or Paris Republican Committee votes. And neither one of us garnered the Conservative endorsement either; we are in a Primary for that party line also.

But as I mentioned to the quite hard working and intelligent Supervisor in Bridgewater (Dale DeKing), I'd be a little miffed if I only got $1000 and Paris got $75000. And so far, New Hartford has not gotten a nickel. But the grapevine is rumbling pretty strong lately ...

Or wait! Tonight there is a meeting at the Willowvale Firehouse in Chadwicks about stormwater projects. Maybe there's more pre-election day pork coming. If so, I'll edit this post and add details about it tomorrow morning. For the resident's sake, I hope more money is coming in grant aid form.

Anyway, Here are a few pictures of the town park, pool and the media show this morning. And I did manage to chat with Joe Griffo as he walked out. I casually told him the pail of water he was carrying was getting rather full, which is another euphemism for doing political work aimed to help somebody else. His reply? It always is, Don. How can you not like Joe Griffo? It's hard, because I do like him. I just wish he'd not lower himself to be used like this in such a blatant political manner.

I'll update this if the meeting in Willowvale produces any real results tonight, and as always:

8/8 Update after the Willowvale meeting: There was plenty of political hot air, but no announcement of more pork money. Maybe closer to election day, if I were to guess. I urge everybody to watch the video at newhartfordonline and decide for yourself.

Please remember to vote on Tuesday, September 12 if you are a District-16 Republican or Conservative. Primaries are traditionally very low voter turnout, so if you want change please consider me. Thank you.

-Don