How can the county use a surplus to balance a budget??????  maybe it's just the lingo they use.....but, a surplus comes AFTER you pay the bills.....

oxymoron.......there they go hedging on our properties,,,,the feds down to the local yokels........what the hell......

How on earthe can three people be blamed for raping the taxpayers.  Last I knew there are 15 on the legislature.  If 12 vote in lockstep the remaining three are simply inconsequential.  My math sucks so check me on this one.

Rene, why do you do this to yourself? You should know better than to respond to good ole' Sal!

Right let's blame the 4 person GOP minority, who forwarded a NO TAX increase County budget proposal for the Democratic fiscal mess. In only 4 years these County Krats, "led" by Judy D, have wrecked this County.

     Working together works-to chase out private business and all working people. And they give Ray awards instead of a pink slip! Even Democrats are laughing at this insanity. There should be no huge surplus, that means taxes are too high. And they refuse to spend some of it. No, better to raise taxes on the County sheeple-AGAIN!

I dont know what you are talking about there ben

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

SCHENECTADY COUNTY
Legislature plans $2.2M cut in budget Even with proposed reduction, property taxes will increase
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

    Majority Democrats in the Schenectady County Legislature are proposing to cut $2.2 million off the proposed tax levy increase, reducing it to 9.2 percent when they vote Thursday to adopt a budget for 2009, officials said.
    The proposed tax levy is $68.4 million — up 12.9 percent over the current year’s figure — in the tentative $279.9 million budget. The Legislature has to adopt a final budget by Nov. 1.
    Democrat Michael Petta of Schenectady said the $2.2 million reduction will come at least partly through savings in prescription drugs costs. The county has saved millions through its pharmacy benefit manager. “They might have to go further than that,” he said.
    Democrats met Sunday to discuss their proposed amendments to the budget, legislators said. No further details were available.
    Republicans met Monday night to discuss their amendments. Minority Leader Robert Farley, RGlenville, said Republicans went line by line through the budget to make cuts. They are hoping to reduce the tax levy increase to zero.
    Farley called the proposed 9.2 percent tax levy increase “obscene. You heard the comments here tonight. People can’t afford to pay their bills.”
    Ten people spoke Monday night at a public hearing on the tentative budget. Half were against the proposed 12.9 percent levy increase. The others spoke in support of the Glendale Home and on other issues.
    Evan Christou of Rotterdam said, “The people of Schenectady County have reached a point of pain and it has to stop. There is no extra money to pay taxes.”
    Several speakers mentioned that city, town and school taxes are also increasing this year.
    Tim Macfarlane, of Glenville, the Republican candidate for District 3 of the Legislature, representing Glenville and Niskayuna, said legislators missed a chance to control costs. He said that instead of granting raises over three years to unionized workers — costing more than $5 million cumulatively — the county should have frozen wages and offered a one-year contract.
    “You pushed the problem on to the next two years. You should have held the line and should have looked at the problem,” Macfarlane said. He is facing Democrat Martin Finn for the seat in November.
    Ric Lucia of Schenectady said county legislators aren’t listening to the people about high taxes. “I am not getting that warm and fuzzy feeling from government that it can do more with less,” he said.
    Several speakers asked the Legislature not to grant 3 percent raises to top managers. Most of the top managers in Schenectady County government are scheduled to receive raises under next year’s proposed budget.
    At least 40 people attended the hearing. About a dozen wore Tshirts with the logo of Local 1199 SEIU, the union representing workers at Glendale Home.
    Jeff Zabielski, president of the local CSEA unit at Glendale, spoke of the high quality of care at the skilled nursing facility and of the dedicated employees there.
    Glendale employees have attended past public hearings, fearing the Legislature will cut the facility’s budget in hard fiscal times. Glendale is a non-mandated program that requires an annual subsidy from the county. This year’s subsidy is $4.8 million. Despite the cost, majority Democrats support the home.
    The tentative 2009 budget cuts 50 positions from the county work force of approximately 1,200, reduces programs and services and consolidates county departments.
    The 2009 budget is less than the current $283.4 million budget because the county does not have to log $4.5 million in Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program grant money on its books. The state is paying that amount directly.
    Revenue projections for next year show little or no growth in sales tax and declines in mortgage recording fees and interest income.

In a recession your County Democrats want to raise property taxes 9%! They sold nothing, they closed no city library branches, there is no 10% County wide layoffs. Unlike every other County they did absolutely nothing. More hot air about non-existent cuts.

     Of course "Sal" doesn't understand. His guys fumbled the ball and are done next year.

We can only hope Benny, that they'll be voted out.

Perhaps our county leaders (tic) have just been so busy governing that they are unaware of what is ACTUALLY happening in Schenectady. Well, let's bring them up to speed:

Let's start with an article that was in the Gazette August 22, 2007,http://www.rotterdamny.info/m-1187787964/s-new/
that warned of an imminent  decrease in future mortgage tax revenues due to sub-prime mortgages and a shaky stock market. They have had over one year to prepare a budget conservatively.

Coupled with this fact, we have....
- MEM files bankruptcy
- Acme Printing closes
- Lingualinx moves to Cohoes
- Backstage Bar & Grill is up for sale
- Sun-mark moves out
- Cyclics Corp Moves out
- Van Dyke forecloses
- Parisi's Restaurant closes
- Bombers?
- The Big House?
- The Alco?

And yet they recklessly continued to pay Ray Gillen, who is the highest paid department head, $150,707.

They hire Joseph McQueen, who is chair of the Glenville Democratic Committee, as the Director of Communications at $60,000/year.

They create a position for Kosiur at $80,000/year

They have yet even attempt to sell Glendale. (And my thought is that the workers are unionized, which would come to an end if owned privately.) So it comes down to the fact that it's just a 'union thing'. It really has nothing to do with the 'poor old folks'.

And this is all done in the mist of a recession/depression! Now I know, and I'm sure everyone will agree, that our legislatures are very very busy and must have just missed these facts. Perhaps someone needs to bring to light to them that our county 'negatives' are clearly out weighing our 'positives'. And perhaps, they should be reminded that when the economic red flags come up a year before the budget process begins, they should start early on planning a conservative budget where there could clearly have been NO INCREASE. Just like in our neighboring counties.

Quoted Text

They have had over one year to prepare a budget conservatively.

I can just see them blaming "Ang", Suhrada and Farley for the mess, cant you?

Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil,  
The Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off.  
We apologize for the inconvenience.

Bravo BT great review of the complete failure of the "Arts and Drunks District" Downtown and Metrograft Ray's delusions. Parisi's last dinner service is this Saturday. In the meantime, Trustco and Sunmark both left Downtown taking over 600 jobs to Glenville and Latham. And they keep handing awards to each other. Phillip Morris picked on an arts award at City Hall last night, after a horrible summer when long time employees were let go and told not to report. Metrograft is killing Schenectady County. Judy D. and Tony J. should resign today. The indecision is unbelievable.

     I though ANG and the horrible County Democrats were going to cut something? The silence is deafening. They all must go-if unopposed write in somebody. Organize!

YES MobileT, it is the four guys who haven't the power to do the ordering of the toilet paper for the rest rooms. Makes sense if you drink koolaid enough.

I attended the meeting of the County Legislature last evening.  During public comment, I read excerpts and quotes taken from several newspaper articles that were published by the Daily Gazette and the Times Union in 2007 regarding the 2008 County Budget.  The sound bites this year are the same as last.  These quotes spoke to:

• the Federal and State mandates being responsible for the county budget pressures
  
• that the county property taxes could be decreased by 50% if the state paid for the county portion of Medicaid
  
• that the county surplus shouldn't be used to offset the revenue shortfalls
  
• reductions (same target number of 50-51) in county employment - some positions that are unfilled
  
• need to perform an audit of DSS
  
• need to begin budget work for the following year as soon as this budget is passed
  
• Republican recommendations for spending cuts not considered by Democratic majority
  
• Resulting tax increase will be less than that in proposed budget due to hard work by Legislators
  
• No cuts to services
  

These lines are tired and the recording of these quotes by the media should invoke in residents the sense that the current Legislature is unwilling to make the difficult choices and decisions to address the excessive spending and exorbitant property taxes.  The audit of DSS did not occur in 2008.  Bipartisanship in addressing the significant budget deficity is not occurring.

As an obvious exhibit of the lack of cooperation between the majority and the minority parties, I was present when Daily Gazette Michael Lamendola approached Minority Leader Farley after the meeting (and in the hallway) to inform Farley that the majority had just reported to Lamendola that the tax increase will be reduced from 12.98% to 9.2% due to reductions that were identified by the Democratic caucus.  No additional information re: the nature of these cuts was provided.  Farley stated in response that he had no information pertaining to the budget amendments proposed by the Democrats.  He reported that the Republican minority has performed a line by line audit/review of the 2009 County budget and has identified spending reductions that would eliminate the need for any county property tax increase.  These amendments will be presented at Thursday nights meeting of the Legislature.

Finally, the public seating area of the conference room was filled.  I estimate that between 25-30 people in attendance were workers and administrators from the Glendale Home.  Many of them wore union t-shirts.  There were approx. 10 people who spoke.  Contrary to what Lamendola reported, I would estimate that 7 or 8 spoke of the need to reduce the budget and resulting tax increase.  2 or 3 spoke in support of the "hard work" by the County Legislators and/or of the job performed by those who work at the Glendale Home and the need for continued financial support for the facility.

One additional point worthy of mention is that several who attended are among those who are either presently running for office (Tim McFarland - District 3 County Legislature race) or who are rumored to be considering a run for political office.  

By the way, I was disappointed to find that none of my friends on this forum was able to attend the meeting.  I was hoping to enjoy a cup of coffee together afterward.