Mr Smith Responds - Answers? Look elsewhere.
Actually, listen to Mr Smith - he is very good. Very good at dodging answers because when it comes to substance, all he is, is smoke and mirrors. Look at the clip and read my responses below. He, of course, is not up for reelection due to term limits so he has nothing to lose by defending the indefensible.
Unlike the previous clip where he bristles at the fairness of the unFAIR plan, in this clip he addresses the issues raised by the Monroe County Democrats. I’ve indented his main arguments.
The Dems said that this plan wasn’t discussed and it has been discussed for years. It has been in the paper. It has been presented at community forums and discussed at bipartisan meetings?
Um - I must have missed the memo - in fact I think the entire county missed the memo. Then again, if this was that transparent - why not give an extra couple of days for review? Why pass it at the last minute? WHERE WAS THE COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT??
The County Republicans followed the process and just followed the rules of the legislative body.
Well why bother having a minority party anyway, be it Democratic or Republican? I mean, listen to Haney or Andrews and see if the process is fair. It most certainly is not. That Mr Smith simply does not recognize the unfairness of the existing system - no notice legislation- underscored his adherence to a flawed philosophy. A single lawmaker knows better than the collective group. The process to which Mr Smith refers should be changed.
The Dems say that it is a pessimistic view. Well, per Smith it isn’t.
Sorry, Bill, but under this plan the county traded future tax revenue for Medicaid cost. In short, it gets more benefit than outlay. This holds true UNLESS sales tax revenue increase. Now, why would sales tax revenue increase?
Well, if Monroe County and its incumbent Republican leadership political leadership ever get around to reversing the brain and business exodus and attract business here - we get an influx in jobs. More jobs, more spending, more spending more sales tax revenue. That additional revenue will go to the state.
So this only works to our advantage if our growth is stagnant.
Smith laments how Dems claim this is illegal and says in between the blah and the blah that it isn’t. Sorry Mr Smith - Dems never said the intercept is illegal. But thank you for putting words in their mouth. They said the calculation on the taxing tax sharing proposal is illegal. Oh, lots of folks think it is, especially the school boards. THEY ARE SUING THE COUNTY.
Then there was the cute little water Authority shift. The Dems don’t know how much water costs. I was at the meeting when the MCWA questions were being asked through the Chair to the Administration and they were not being answered. But then again - the MCWA had nothing to to with this process, now does it?
Finally - pleading innocence with MC County Budget as only 20% is being managed by the County. So my question is, why manage any of it at all. What is the point of relevance that is only responsible for 20% of a total budget. Eh Mr Smith? Why are you even here?
hey thanks for the nod of approval
Great post.
My wife is listening in right now on one of those Maggie Brooks phone calls. It started out with mostly women who have been able to ask questions, and they seem to be queued up. All the questions have been softballs, with a caller saying she’s had to cut her budget, why shouldn’t schools. Maggie’s sales pitch seems to be during tough times we all have to cut our budgets and it’s only a 2% cut. Maggie says the county will help schools adjust their budgets because the county has cut budgets of its departments so successfully. What she didn’t say, but seems to be the implication, is that the county’s help won’t be supplementing deficits left by her plan, but helping them to reduce staff and programs, I guess. Just what we all wanted. Of course, she’s not acknowledging the effects of the cuts in budgets of county departments. Try asking someone who needs emergency housing or public assistance how that’s working out.
During the course of this call Maggie asked callers the following question (not quite a quote) - During tough times (the phrase was repeatedly used) governments, families and businesses have all had to cut 2%. Shouldn’t schools be able to cut 2% without hurting education. Press 1 if you agree, press 2 if you don’t. My wife is telling me that the question was even more slanted but she didn’t write it down as it was being asked. Who here thinks this slanted poll will be used by the Republicans at some point this week?
Ruth on the phone asked why there can’t be time limits on assistance provided to the poor, elderly, etc. This is a real compassionate crowd.
Now there’s a man asking about a commission that had been put together by prominent business people - and their recommendations. If he knows about this report he must have been primed with the question. She says they’ve tried to incorporate those recommendations. What a surprise.
Eugene from Irondequoit says he just moved to Rochester from Buffalo. He said in Buffalo they shut down libraries. He’s asking if she’s going to harm students or intellectual pursuits. Now he’s asking about whether she’s considered privatizing aspects of the county. What a surprise - Monroe County has voted to privatize the golf courses here and the quality of the courses and revenue stream have both improved. The landfill has been privatized and again all is better. She also mentioned privatization of home health care. She says they privatized information services and formed a partnership with a local development corporation. A prize to anyone who can figure out what company that is and how much they have contributed to the Republicans.
Chris from Webster is on the line. This is about the third or fourth man in a row. He’s saying the focus is on schools being asked if they can cut 2% out of their budgets. He says if the problem is unfunded mandates, why are we going after school budgets. Wait - how’d he get on the line? He asked if the real issue is unfunded mandates, why isn’t the solution addressing those? She answers we woudn’t be fighting amongst ourselves if the issue of unfunded mandates was addressed at the Albany level.
Now there’s a question about the schools’ lawsuit.
Kim from Penfield started asking Maggie, compared to the rest of the world we’re so far behind in education, why would we want to cut that. Guess what - she’s the first caller they lost!!! Maggie responds that the county has cut its workforce by 11%, frozen wages, etc. I think she forgot about things like the Water Authority.
Ann on the line is asking whether the school districts will be raising property taxes to offset the Medicaid swap. She says the schools will say in the spring that the evil county executive took away their money. Maggie asks what will the schools tell you about why they raised property taxes last year and the year before. She notes that folks can vote on a school budget, and asks us to listen to how schools are rationalizing their school budget.
I’ll continue in the next comment.
They took my wife’s question by computer, and said they’ll get back to her with an answer, but she never made it into the virtual town hall discussion. In taking the question they asked her what her name was and what her question was. Maybe the woman who got cut off gave a softball question, but then asked a tougher one when she got on.
I think (and I could be wrong) that these “callers” were all set up with questions, even the ones addressing concerns with the plan, so that Maggie could give a half hour or 45 minute prepared speech. No questions about why the Dems were excluded from the process, no questions about why schools were excluded, no questions about the effects on county departments of the cuts she’s so proud of, no real confrontational questions. Or maybe we’re just very polite around here. I’ve read that in the D&C.
Here’s a question for all of you - what questions would you ask Maggie Brooks about all of this? Maybe that can be made into a thread.
[...] « Mr Smith Responds - Answers? Look elsewhere. [...]
I can’t abide by Mr Smith being referred to as Mr Smith as Jimmy Stewart’s character was a liberal minded individual. Sorry Stlo7, he’ll always be “Mr Bill” to me. “Oh, noooooooo!”
Fair enough but that wasn’t a reference to Stewart. I suppose he could be Agent Smith from the Matrix.
Ah, yes, much more appropriate!