"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have"
Thomas Jefferson

Monday, December 29, 2008

What Will Be The Hot Issues For 2009

The way 2008 is ending, 2009 will fire up with hot issues. Lets take a look at what will be hot in 2009 at the national, state and local levels. Add your own issues or thoughts to the issues.

Local:

Mercy - The community must come up with a plan for a possible Mercy closure. The plan needs to address the residents care, which needs to remain local, retention of the jobs in the area, the reuse or demolition of the building. The task is best suited to be handled by a group overseen by city and county elected officials, it has no business being handle by a volunteer group such as the Assisted Living Community Group as well the issue cannot be solved without Samaritan at the table. AL group should certainly have a seat at the table but not the lead role. The community needs a change in direction of where this issue is headed and how it is currently being handled.

Jail - The county will address the design and building of a jail for the future, a project that will cost local taxpayers millions of dollars. All of this because a state agency says they have to, forget the fact the present jail is being underutilized. Forget about the fact, the state agency does not allow a facility built for a certain capacity to reach that capacity. They are a typical state agency, in here to exercise their authority no matter what the cost to the taxpayer.

Budgets - The local budgets will continue to bleed red ink while the state passes around their pain, they will make it others pain.

Windmills - local town, villages and county will continue to gnash their respective teeth over how much they will all cash in on the windmills, all the while the companies will be laughing on their way to the bank over the PILOT they are about to agree to.

State:
  
Budget - The Governor and Legislature will continue to do the bump and grind on the budget and romance us with rhetoric such as what Paterson did and then he unveils a budget that does not decrease spending, only "slows down the growth of spending." UGH! His budget certainly did not meet his rhetoric. He proposed a budget that has slight growth of spending and he is using it as a political weapon against the legislature. If they increase spending they look irresponsible, if they decrease (like he should have) then they become the bad guys of government, in the meantime Paterson looks ahead at his election.  

Senate - The leadership battle will continue especially with mad man former gang of three four member Senator Elect Hiram Monserrate's recent episode of woman abuse which puts his swearing into office in jeopardy. The leadership struggle is in high gear. Not to worry though, whomever emerges is weak in a sense there will be no solid majority on either side.

National:

Three Words Obama, Hillary and Economy.

McHugh - We will watch Johnny Mac at his new leadership role and will be looking for the benefits. Go get'em J M.

5 comments:

Earthbob said...

The County should have a role in resolving the Mercy Situation.

How it addressed the County Home Situation was very sobering, and that experience should arouse some fresh ideas from our County Legislators.

Anonymous said...

Good prognostication.

By the way, the Obesity Tax doesn't make sense to me.

Gov. Paterson wants to curb the consumption of all that sugar in non-diet soda, but the artificial sweeteners in diet soda can also be harmful. In fact, studies show that you'll ultimately consume the same amount of calories whether you drink diet or non-diet soda.

Stump Speech

Danny M. Francis (Eyepublius) said...

Nasiness aside - who has had the White House since Jan 20, 2001?

Who was in charge of Congress from 1995 - 2007?

And, how did this happen in the last 6 years and on whose watch?

Economic Meltdown

I can't spell their names here in public, but their initials are G.O.P.

~ dmf

Danny M. Francis (Eyepublius) said...

That was supposed to be nastiness, not nasiness - what the hell is nasiness anyway? LOL

Anonymous said...

Isn't Darrell the expert on saving hospitals? Can he help Mercy?

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