Noise From Candidates In The 118th

The noise from the candidates in the 118th Assembly District has not even reached a level on the sound meter. This is like watching a Papal conclave and seeing black smoke from the cigar smoke filled back rooms to mean "no candidate yet" and everyone still waiting for the white smoke and ringing of the bells.

It appears John Burns and Greg Pacquin are engaging on the Democrats side while Patty Ritchie and Phil Reed have encountered each other's desire on the GOP side.

The populace of the 118th anxiously await a signal of white smoke from either side, a gesture meaning they have their candidate.

On To June 3rd, Possibly Even Denver

It is quite likely, once again, today will not be a game changer. This will go all the way to June 3rd and if they split the victories today, as predicted, then this race possibly continues to the finish line in Denver the site of the convention.

Obama will still possess a clear lead of the pledged delegates at the end of the primary season, yet Clinton will clearly have a case to carry on with momentum on her side. A split in victories today positions Hillary to be favored in the remaining six contests, none are caucuses, four are closed primaries and voter demographics favor Clinton.

Obama went on a month long winning streak following Super Tuesday before being slowed down by the March 4th primaries in Ohio and Texas. This is typical of the back and forth this race has experienced with neither candidate being able to put away the other.

Obama is likely to capture only one remaining contest in Oregon, but with the closeness of each contest there has been little change in Obama's delegate lead, but Clinton certainly has been stronger as of late while Obama is damaged by peripheral distractions.

The race moves onto the battle ground of the super delegates and the careful handling of Dean, Reid and Pelosi, despite huge new registrations during this primary season, one wrong move may result in significant lasting damage.

Kotecki On Hillary and "Elite Economist"

Go To School On This Lesson

The Carthage Central School budget appears to be headed for defeat after local town and village officials have raised concerns about the spending increases. The local officials raised their concerns in a letter sent to the School Superintendent Carl Militello and School Board President John Peck a couple of weeks ago and since then there has been claims made and counterclaims raised and a proposed reduction.

The School Superintendent proposed and the Board approved a 9.8% increase in the school tax levy after several years of increasing the levy and several rounds of reassessing for the local property tax payers, making the burden on property tax payers unbearable enough to show signs of budget defeat at the polls.

The letter thus far has resulted in a lot of media attention and awareness but also a private meeting between the school officials and the lawmakers, with school officials subsequently proposing to reduce the levy by $172,000.

There are two points really worth noting. First, if it takes these types of actions to produce reductions in a budget, then the school board needs to be shown the door for passing a budget without asking tough questions. Secondly, for elected town and village officials to get involved in reviewing a school budget looking for reductions is a dangerous precedent setting practice and yet another reason the school board is inept in handling the finances of the district.

"We questioned some of their spending and some budget items, and they'll come back to us with what they decided," Mr. Burto said in an article in the Watertown Daily Times. It should not take elected officials from other taxing entities to step up and question spending, that is not their role, it is the role of the school board and a responsible administration.

The public should be calling the leadership of the school administration into question in this situation as well. Many, faculty included, have described the school superintendent’s leadership style as autocratic, which seldom fosters a productive workplace.

The School Superintendent is irresponsible to claim he cut 21 positions from the school budget, when it is reported from that meeting it was only 4 and the balance of the positions were only requested positions that were not filled.

The Superintendent and school board have also depleted the fund balance. Total fund balance in the 2006-07 school year was $7,209,942 and the school district is projecting only $209,942 by 2009-10 budget year, which means they have spent $7 million dollars in reserve funds since the 2006-07 budget year along with a $4.2 increase in state aid this year.

This issue started with the local official's questioning contradictions in statements by school officials regarding the justification of the increase and cost to taxpayers of new construction occurring at the school in recent years.

This situation bears remembering when voters step in to voting booths to elect school board members. A lesson that a community needs to elect people to school boards that possess some financial background and ability to work with budgets as well as a desire to see kids educated properly.

This is an expensive lesson the Carthage area is learning, all communities should go to school on this lesson.

Carthage voters should reject this budget.

The Real Sno-Pal

Earlier this week Senator Aubertine responded to a couple of concerns this blog has been pursuing, the ATV issue and snowmobile trail fund sweep.

However, Senator Aubertine addressed his concerns to the Division of Budget, who are simply the agency executing the decision and the letter should have more appropriately been addressed to Governor Paterson. The Governor is a fellow democrat and Aubertine should be able to persuade him to rightfully restore the funds.

Senator Aubertine should put action behind his words and demonstrate to people that he is serious and it is not political pander. Here is a bill in the Senate that he should be a sponsor on, it will prevent sweeping of funds such as the case with the snowmobile trail funds.

You will note in a portion of the press release printed below from Senator Maziarz that he addressed a fellow policy maker, the Governor.

Senator George Maziarz (R-C, Newfane) today decried a recent move by the Division of the Budget to transfer $1,000,000 from the Snowmobile Trail Development Management Account into the state's General Fund.

"This action undermines the credibility of the trail fund, violates a public trust, and will devastate our ability to adequately and safely maintain the state trail system," wrote Senator Maziarz in a letter to Governor David Paterson. "As a consequence this action will jeopardize the impact snowmobiling will have on the upstate winter economy."

SPONSORS MEMO:
NEW YORK STATE SENATE
INTRODUCER'S MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT
submitted in accordance with Senate Rule VI. Sec 1

BILL NUMBER: S7976

SPONSOR: MAZIARZ

TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the state finance law, in relation to prohibiting the transfer
of unexpended moneys from funds receiving moneys from a dedicated fee into any
other fund

PURPOSE:
To prevent the transfer of funds from accounts that are specifically supported
with a dedicated fee.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one amends the state finance law by adding a new section stating that fees
collected to support a specific fund will only be expended for that specific purpose.

Section two - effective date.

JUSTIFICATION:
Various funds exist in the state budget to support specific activities of all New Yorkers
such as land conservation, fishing and hunting and maintenance of trails throughout the state.
Fees supporting such funds are paid with the understanding that the state will dedicate the
total revenues derived from these fees to the payment of expenses directly related to the
specific activity for which the fees were collected.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Bill.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.

---

Derby Tuesday

The Kentucky Derby was yesterday and the winner was Big Brown.

Hillary's favorite to win, Eight Belles.

Coincidently, Eight Belles finished second, collapsed after the race and was euthanized!

Hillary hopes to have a better day come Tuesday in North Carolina and Indiana, but if she does not come away with at least one victory, Wednesday will be the equivalent of a political euthanizing.

There is sure more sympathy for the horse.

Pork Roast, Come and Get It

The pig is roasted and time to carve it up for this year. The Albany pig is ready to fly and it is just in time for the beginning of the election season. The Senate and Assembly released the list of pig droppings today, here is the lists for both the Senate and Assembly.

Not surprised, Assembly Speaker Silver takes care of himself first to the tune of $3,020,00.00 - that is correct, you read it correctly, it would be $3 million just for his district, that would be 12 TIMES GREATER than Northern New York. In addition, he and another member have joint pork for $1.2 million, and there are four other members who take home over a million dollars of taxpayer's money and the balance of the 150 members in Silver's Assembly take home considerably less than a million. The top four other than Silver, who is #1;

Robin Schimminger, $2.2 million

Susan John, $2.1 million

Bill Scarborough, $1.6 million

Bill Magnarelli, $1 million

Progress (sarcasm) is being made, since 2006 when member items first became fully disclosed for the public, Silver took home over $7 million.

The candidates for Assembly in the 122nd and 118th need to vow to the public they will not support this guy for Speaker and vow to fight against him, he is abusing his power.

WFP In The 118th

The deadline for filing questionnaires for the Working Family Party was yesterday, May 1. Candidates interested in obtaining the Working Families party line were required to fill out an on line questionnaire that has been posted on the Working Families website since April 1.

It is interesting to note from their website these comments;

Please note: Candidates seeking the Working Families endorsement are discouraged from running on the Conservative or Independence Party lines.

Please note: To participate in the endorsement process, you must agree that if you do not receive the Working Families endorsement, you will not seek the WFP line through an Opportunity to Ballot (OTB) or any other means. The Working Families party is essentially about taxing businesses and higher income producers more and increasing New York State spending considerably. Here is a sample question you would have encounter if you filled out the questionnaire; Understanding the broad negative effects Wal-Mart and warehouse clubs will have on communities, will you actively work with the Party and its affiliates to block the construction of any Wal-Mart or warehouse club?

We have unconfirmed information that only two candidates or potential candidates have filed the questionnaire and they are Donald Lucas of Massena and Massena Police Chief Tim Currier, who is said to be interested in running for the open seat.

An email to Working Families Party so far has not received a response.

School Spending & Levy Per Pupil

This is quite appropriate for this area given the current hostile environment the Carthage area is experiencing with the school budget proposal.

The Empire Center for New York State Policy issued an analysis of submitted data for the Education Department's annual school property tax report cards and found spending per pupil increased an average of 5.8% or approximately 1 1/2 times the rate of inflation and per pupil levies increased by 4.2% while inflation was estimated below 4%.

Results of the data show 20% of the school districts statewide proposed spending plan increases at or below inflation. Northern New York regional data shows budget changes in per pupil spending at 6.4%.

Locally, there is hostility in Carthage as elected officials have objected to the school district budget increase.

How do we measure up:
Statewide Averages
Spending 5.8% increase to $18,768 per pupil
Levy 4.2% increase to $10,796 per pupil

Jefferson County Averages
Spending 8.3% increase to $14,111 per pupil
Levy 4.6% increase to $3,330 per pupil

The big gainer according to the report in Jefferson County was
Watertown City School District.
Spending 17.5% increase to $12,971 per pupil
Levy 9.9% increase to $3,081 per pupil

The hot spot of Carthage
Spending 5.6% increase to $15,273 per pupil
Levy 4.2% increase to $2,819 per pupil

Ironically, Lyme has the highest per pupil spending at $17,584 while neighboring General Brown is the lowest at $12,141. Conclusion might be a merger be examined in that area.

Total school budgeted spending for Jefferson County is $262,662,945.00 (no report from Belleville Henderson included)

Lewis County Averages
Spending 6.6% increase to $17,095 per pupil
Levy 5% increase to $4,339 per pupil

St. Lawrence County Averages
Spending 6.9% increase to $17,998 per pupil
Levy 5.7% increase to $5,171 per pupil

NYS Division of Budget Proclaims a Recession.

The New York State Division of Budget released an updated financial plan and economic forecast, as expected, the outlook is bleak at best.

A revision of out year budget gaps show despite a balanced budget this year the state will face a deficit of $5 billion in 2009-2010, $7.7 billion in 2010-2011 and $8.8 billion in 2011-2012.

Based on New York City's budget, Mayor Michael Bloomberg should be Governor of New York State. New York City spending will remain virtually flat in next year's budget, increasing only a mere 0.1%. The Mayor enacted a 7% property tax reduction last year and anticipates maintaining this through 2009 and he is using resources this year to begin closing out year budget gaps as well as paying "down" out year debt.

Refreshing to actually witness fiscal management somewhere in New York State.