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Carl Strock THE VIEW FROM HERE
Cost of Sen. Farley’s office: $1M a year
Carl Strock can be reached at 395-3085 or by e-mail at carlstrock@dailygazette.com.

    Sen. Hugh Farley of Niskayuna employs 21 staff members and spends a little more than $1 million a year on his office operations, according to official state figures compiled by the Empire Center for New York State Policy, thus ranking No. 14 in the state Legislature for office expenses.
    “I have a huge district,” Sen. Farley says by way of explanation. (His district includes Schenectady, Saratoga, Fulton and Montgomery counties.) “I have two district offices” (Amsterdam and Johnstown), “and I chair three committees,” those being banking, libraries and interstate cooperation. Each committee has its own director and its own clerk, whose salaries are charged to Sen. Farley’s account.
    I pass this information along in case you are curious as to how much it costs us to maintain our legislators. I do not question the level of activity of the committees that Sen. Farley chairs. The Committee on Libraries or the Committee on Interstate Cooperation may meet day and night and have great need of a full-time executive director and a full-time clerk, for all I know, even though we never hear anything about them, but still, isn’t it interesting? Twentyone staff members to support the labors of one senator representing one district in upstate New York.
    The total cost of operating the Legislature for the current year, by the way, is $219 million, which seems to me not small for a body so widely regarded as dysfunctional, with almost all power concentrated in the hands of one leader in each house.
    “We have a multibillion-dollar deficit,” says Lise Bang-Jensen of the Empire Center. “Maybe it’s time for the Legislature to examine how it spends its own money,” to which my professional journalistic response is, Hah-hah.
    When you hear about the New York State Legislature cutting back on spending on itself, please give me a call.

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Fee on child support collections a bad idea

    New York state will be implementing the federal law that requires each state to charge an annual fee of $25 for child support services [in cases where the family has never received Temporary Assistance for Needy Family benefi ts and child support payments are more than $500 a year]. This has to be one of the most ridiculous fees the federal government has come up with so far.
    I currently receive child support for two children that I have had trouble getting from my ex, and now it’s subjected to an annual fee of $25 for the services of the support unit. The federal government is now taking food right out of the children’s mouths.
    We are not even able to pay it when we want. Now they will automatically take it right out of the children’s money. If this government is not in need of a major fix, then I don’t know what is. The politicians and government policy makers who make $100,000 a year plus sit around and think of different ways to stick it to the American people and steal right from the children. It’s time the citizens spoke up for their rights.

    MICHELE O’BRIEN
    Schenectady

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CAPITOL
New law improves NY cancer tracking
Paterson signs bill to create disease map
BY VALERIE BAUMAN The Associated Press

    Gov. David Paterson signed more than 70 bills into law Friday, including one that will give New Yorkers more clues in tracking causes of cancer found in the environment.
    The bill requires health care providers and the state to collect more data on cancer patients than the federal Centers for Disease Control mandates, so the state can create maps of cancer incidence for the public.
    “We’re now going to be able to focus research efforts on these strange and disturbing cancer clusters,” said Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, a Westchester Democrat who sponsored the bill in the Assembly. “With any luck, we’ll know which ones are statistical accidents and which ones are related to pollution and environmental problems.”
    Sen. Tom Libous, a Binghamton Republican and co-sponsor of the bill, said the maps are essential tools needed to find the causes of cancer.
    “We all want to find out the truth about how pollution in Endicott, Hillcrest and other areas of the state has potentially impacted the health of our families and neighbors,” Libous said, referring to communities in Broome County.
    The Health Department currently collects information on what body part cancer appears in, what cell type and how advanced the disease is, said department spokeswoman Claudia Hutton. Officials also collect data on where cancer patients were born and where they currently live.
    The first cancer maps will be available from the state in June of 2009. They will be posted on The state Department of Health Web site for the public to review. Later maps will show cancer clusters grouped by types of cancer.
    Among the bills signed into law and released Friday were:
    A measure that prohibits selling gasoline at different wholesale prices depending on where in the state it’s being sold.

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Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 5:07 PM EDT
DiNapoli showcases ‘open book’ Web site
The Business Review (Albany)

People interested in knowing how much money their municipality collected in taxes can do so now without traveling to city hall thanks to a new Web site created by the state comptroller’s office.

The site, www.openbooknewyork, includes revenue and expenditure information for 3,100 local governments. Users can search by city, county, fire district, school, town or village. The information goes back to 1996.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced his plans to create the Web site in June. The purpose of the site is to show how much New York’s local governments spend and collect in taxes.

For example, in 2006 the city of Schenectady reported $92.2 million in revenue and $94.9 million in expenditures.

The site also contains searchable databases of spending for more than 100 state agencies and more than 60,000 state contracts.

“New Yorkers have a right to know how their tax dollars are spent, and Open Book delivers that information in just a few mouse clicks,” DiNapoli said.

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New York must cut spending, not ask for government bailout

    I read with interest the Sept. 17 editorial, “Bad news for Wall Street, worse for state,” regarding the impact the financial problems on Wall Street are likely to have on the state.
    In general, I agree with the stated issues, but I do not agree with the suggested solution — to ask the federal government for more financial help.
    Our state leadership (and apparently the Gazette editorial staff as well) just don’t get it. Stop looking for more money to spend. Rather, stop spending!
    Why can’t we cut back on some of the unnecessary spending that takes place on a daily basis? A few examples that quickly come to mind: Employment levels on the state Thruway — at least twice what is required. Recent announcement regarding the $40 million (which will likely grow to $50-plus million) replacement of the Exit 6/7 interchange on I-87. Excessive health/ pension benefits for state employees. Excessive number of state employees. Guess who is the largest employer in the state? Would you believe it’s the state of New York?
    Wouldn’t it be great if our state leadership would do the right thing at least once in a while? Instead of finding more money to spend, how about reducing expenses and employment levels by 5 percent across the board? I mean real cuts, not reducing expenses five years from now and claiming that the tough, necessary actions have been taken (as is the usual scam).
    R. L. CLINGERMAN
    Rexford