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“These non-mandated services must be preserved,” said Savage “They make Schenectady County a special place to live and raise a family.”

Quoted from Kevin March

Including those park projects in downtown Schenectady they approved last year...and the job training for people from Duanesburg to Niskayuna...in a dilapidated building around the corner from the Schenectady City Hall.  great job on those "non-mandated services" that "must be preserved."  

Quoted from Rene

Can you expand on that for me?  What job training for people from Duanesburg?  If you are referring to the Schenectady County Job Training Agency Program that was supposed to provide kids with training opportunities in different fields of work that would help them with a career path........we paid the county for that.  As a note, we discontinued it in our 2009 budget due to the number of complaints from Duanesburg residents as well as budget constraints.  The understanding was that no kid would be turned away and yet many were.  The intent was to learn a vocation but many did nothing more than grunt work.

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April 8, 2008, 7:57am
http://www.dailygazette.com
County asks state for money for youth job training center

    SCHENECTADY — Schenectady County is seeking a $750,000 grant from the state to create a learning facility to train more than 1,100 atrisk students from the five towns for high-paying jobs.
    The county Legislature will discuss the grant application at its meeting, 7 p.m. tonight at the county office building.
    Northeast Parent and Child Society would receive the funds and establish the Career Development Center at 530 Franklin St. The center would offer job training at a computer lab, targeted at 18- to 24-year-olds from Niskayuna, Glenville, Rotterdam, Princetown and Duanesburg.
    The youths, who come from lowto moderate-income families, either did not finish high school or fi nished high school but cannot fi nd a job.
    The program would provide job skills, often through partnerships with local businesses, in occupations involving computers, digital imaging, graphics, construction, brownfield remediation and as emergency medical technicians.
    In other business, the Legislature will consider home-rule legislation allowing the Metroplex Development Authority to increase its bond cap from $50 million to $75 million.
    Metroplex has tapped $42 million of its cap and is seeking the increase it to move economic development efforts beyond downtown, its initial mandate. The legislation would also extend Metroplex’s expiration date by five years, to 2033.
    The state Legislature would have to approve the request.  

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Legislator Philip Fields, D-Schenectady, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, unveiled the amendments, which were made to trim the county budget.  Under this budget, the average homeowner in Schenectady County, with property valued at $150,000, will see an approximate $86 increase to his or her taxes this year, versus the originally proposed $125 increase.

Quoted from benny salami

Here's what we need to do. Throw every Krat out of office starting with horrible "Silent" pro-County tax Judy D. Over there in the City we will take over a minor party and start a write in campaign to dump nit wit Krats like Karen Johnson{D-Proctor's}, and "Strawberry" Fields. In Nisky/Glenville we have plenty of good Conservatives ready to serve after County changes are made.

Quoted from bumblethru

No replacing of any of the county legislatures! Abolish county legislative  and form a Board of Supervisors.

Quoted from Brad Littlefield

Certainly consolidation of the administrative functions (e.g., dispatch) makes sense and would not only result in cost savings but would likely increase efficiency.  

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Political deception

The blatant chicanery employed by politicians hookwinking voters never ceases to amaze me.

The most recent local deception was Democratic county Legislator Marty Finn's vote against a new county budget that included an unpopular 9 percent property tax hike.

Finn joined four county Legislature GOP members voting "nay'" on the budget.

All 10 fellow Democrats voted in favor.

We all like mavericks bucking their own political party pals while striking a blow for taxpayers.

However, who can help suspect Finn voted "nay'' because he was up for election days after the vote?

GOP Legislator Angelo Santa Barbara said common sense tells you the Democrats should have had at least one other ruling party member join Finn in voting "nay."

That would've taken away some of the odor.

The Democrats have common sense.

They also display arrogance because the Schenectady GOP is on life support.

Finn won election in a landslide without need to bamboozle the voter.

GOP Legislator Joe Suhrada wonders if Finn will vote against the next budget increase in an off-election year?

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Dear Mr. Cermak,

I read with interest your November 11th opinion column entitled "Cosby-Ditka, now that's the presidential ticket".  The portion of your column that discusses the political deception of Democratic Schenectady County Legislator Finn's vote against the 2009 county budget omitted a very important fact.

In 2007, Democrat Anthony Jasenski was appointed to the Schenectady County Legislature by the majority party.  Like Democrat Marty Finn, Jasenski ran for election to a full term later that year.  The similarities
in the scenarios continue as Jasenski was the only member of the majority party who voted with the Republican minority against the (2008 ) county budget that was crafted by his Democratic majority.  I have included for your reference an exerpt (omitted here) to the Daily Gazette story that reported on the 2008 county budget vote.

The deception, pandering to the electorate, and false promises made by politicians seems to fit a pattern; scripted moves taken (in this case) from the Schenectady Democratic party playbook.  In 2008, Legislator Jasenski (who opposed the 2008 county budget) appeared to have had an epiphany that increasing property
taxes in the county ranked 12th highest in the entire nation (is appropriate).  During his 2008 campaign for State Assembly,
Schenectady City Councilman Mark Blanchfield staged a public confrontation with Schenectady City Mayor
Stratton arguing against increasing the city property taxes in Schenectady.  This is the same Mark Blanchfield
who has supported many increases in taxes and fees during his tenure in the City Council.  One must wonder
how both Legislator Finn and City Councilman Blanchfield will vote on future property tax increases.

I appreciate your efforts to educate and inform the public.  I wanted to share with you some recent history re:
the actions of our elected "representatives".  If you review the news stories that were published in both the Daily Gazette and the Times Union re: the 2008 Schenectady County annual budget, you will discover that the positions (citing state and federal mandates for the deficit, the statement that county taxes could be reduced by 50% if the state paid for the county portion of Medicaid, etc.) and the sound bites (minority parties suggestions for cost cutting are vague, etc.) for dismissing spending cuts and for increasing taxes are identical.  The articles are available at http://www.rotterdamny.info/m-1191232304/s-0/

With your support, perhaps we can return the government from the special interests and powerbrokers to the people... "Of the people, for the people, by the people".

Respectfully,

Brad Littlefield
Delanson, NY