County Leg Passes Budget - GOP shuts out Dems, as USUAL
Well, kids, it took them a record 6 hours to do it, but they passed the $1.02 BILLION (yes, with a “B”) county budget last night.
The D&C has a writeup on the rollicking session, but there’s a couple things they missed or can’t write about. First, a couple snippets from them:
Democratic lawmakers made several futile attempts to change the budget Tuesday night, including a proposal to add aid for the burials of the indigent and spend $25,000 to air legislative meetings on television.
But Republicans opposed each proposal. Ultimately, the budget passed along party lines, 17-12.
Yup, just as I predicted. Dems propose, Republicans squash. When a dorky guy with a keyboard can predict what skilled politicians are gonna do, you know they’re in a rut.
There were some fairly serious structural flaws with the budget. The biggest one that jumps out in my mind is this:
The county, for example, will pay some future pension costs in advance by using current reserves, which cuts the budget gap by $15 million. It also anticipates $23 million in new revenue through such initiatives as selling use of its fiber-optics network, [and] selling power from gas at the Mill Seat Landfill in Riga…
I call this plan “Plugging budget gaps with future revenue so I can be re-elected as county exec.” Or, “Honey, I know we have that structured settlement payments thingy-dealie to help us through retirement. But how ’bout we get it all up front? ‘Cause we’re goin’ to Vegas!”
As the final budget before Brooks seeks re-election in November 2007, the proposal sparked little controversy.
Only four people spoke at a public hearing last week, and eight people addressed the budget proposal during a public comment period Tuesday.
Most speakers encouraged legislators to fund programs for the poor. “Do justice for the poor,†urged Rita Taylor, 53, of Rochester.
“Little controversy” is what you get when you give people 3 weeks to understand a 700 page budget. That wouldn’t be part of the plan, would it?
It doesn’t matter anyway, apparently during this testimony many of the GOP legislators were having a back-room conference anyway. From a friend of mine who attended:
Various members of the public were discussing (among other issues) how the county budget would impact their lives. Some of the testimonials were truly heart wrenching. Where were the Republicans during these testimonials? Well, about half of them were socializing in their back room of the chamber. Talk about disgusting.
The Monroe County GOP: “We care”
Another bit from the D&C:
Democrats alleged that the Republican administration has been taking in more money than it has let on to the public. As a result, the minority caucus proposed a series of amendments that would either lower the tax rate or add new services.
“This budget is constructed as smoke and mirrors,†Palumbo said.
Hear that? Lower tax rates, new services. File both under more value for your money, or savings. But…but…I thought the GOP was the party of lower taxes? Why would they shoot that down? Time for a new PR offensive, Steve Minarik– we don’t want the people to get wise.
The D & C had a front page item on the budget including transferring $175K from Cornell Cooperative Extension, which has done lots of good things locally for a long time, to some new Ag Research thingy at MCC. I wonder whose brother-in-law gets the contract to build it?
[...] And yes, if you’re into noticing trends, and paid attention to the 2007 county budget, the county continues to be all about “1-shot” deals to plug budget gaps now, sacrificing future revenue. [...]
[...] OK, renewal energy at the Riga landfill. The one where we used a 4 million dollar one-shot budget infusion to close the 2007 budget and Monroe county residents won’t benefit from the eventual planned output of “enough to power about 6,000 homes or the equivalent of 110-thousand barrels of oil a year“. From the sameÂÂ 10 NBC news report. Monroe County is securitizing the benefit. In other words, taking money “up-front” in the first year. It’s like someone who wins the lottery and takes the smaller lump sum, instead of the whole prize over time. Brooks says the county will realize a 4 million dollar benefit for the 2007 budget, instead of taking about 5.5 million over the 10 years. “We feel these are very real assumptions, very real conservative assumptions. And it’s an opportunity for us to securitize that asset, somewhat as a one-shot for the 2007 budget,†said Brooks. Brooks defended the one-shot revenue from the methane electric plant. “We have chosen, we made that decision, and we talked about that when we put the budget together. This is clearly a one-shot. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. It’s allowing us to plug a hole in our 2007 budget,†said Brooks. [...]
[...] editorial page. In the end, the $1 billion dollar budget passed on party line votes - all Democratic ideas were ignored. That is so unFAIR but that would come a year later. One of the ideas shot down was a bit about [...]