The D&C had a decent writeup of last night’s Cirque du So-Lame, featuring Brooks/Minarik’s plan for minimizing GOP losses in the County Leg getting other entities to pick up the tab for years of GOP mismanagement at the county level:

Schools lose cash in county fiscal plan

Democrats decry measure; districts likely to sue over it

James Goodman
Staff writer
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(September 27, 2007) — The Monroe County Legislature approved a plan Wednesday night that will result in suburban school districts losing almost $24 million a year in sales tax revenue.

(snip)

…the package, approved by the Republican majority hours after County Executive Maggie Brooks introduced it, will hit the taxpayer in the pocketbook in other ways and drew sharp criticism from Democrats.

That’s right, it was approved in an emergency session of the Leg, called less that 24 hours before. The Dems were not consulted, the city was not consulted, and no-one outside the GOP leadership even KNEW about it prior to Brooks’ presser. This is what you get when the GOP controls county government. No checks, no balances.

School boards are expected to sue over the loss of money.

“We are going to sue based on the fact that is a violation. The law does not permit such a change in the distribution of monies,” said Jody Siegle, executive director of the Monroe County School Boards Association.

She’s not the only one ticked off:

Jeff Crane, superintendent of the West Irondequoit Central School District and president of the Monroe County Council of School Superintendents, said the suggestion that sales tax will be replaced by record state aid is inaccurate because that money is tied to specific uses and programs.

Thank you! It’s typical of the way the county is being managed to gamble against the county doing well, but ever-hopeful that the state will magically have “record state aid”.

This is funny:

The state Department of Taxation and Finance in May questioned whether the county can legally shift sales tax revenue away from other municipalities to pay for Medicaid expenses.

“It is also important to note that choosing the sales tax option does not relieve the county of any obligation it has to share net collections from its sales and use taxes with localities,” says the opinion.

The county disputes the state’s interpretation.

So, just like George W. Bush, using “signing statements” to sign bills into law but saying they don’t apply to him, our county government is trying to operate outside the Rule of Law. You don’t like the state law, work to change it. You can’t just ignore laws because it makes it harder for you to get re-elected.