Brooks-Minarik Tax Raise To Hammer West Side
According to a table released by the Monroe County School Boards Association, the FAIR plan will raise property taxes by up to 6% - and the tax hikes fall predominantly on Monroe County’s West Side.
This invites the question: who’s looking out for West Side interests in the Monroe County Legislature? The answer: NO ONE. But we know who’s not….
Maggie Brooks and Dick Yolevich
Dick’s from the 1st Legislative District - which has parts of the Brockport, Spencerport, Churchville-Chili and Hilton School Districts in it.
Dick has let his constituents down very badly here. By voting “yes” to Brooks’ FAIR plan, he has voted to raise taxes - and done so in a way that disproportionally effects his constituents.
Did he even know what he was voting “yes” to? Or did he just march in lockstep, like a good Republican soldier? I’m guessing that he didn’t even read it.
It’s looking like he got taken for a sucker by Minarik, Brooks, and the East Side gang. It’s bad enough that they mock and disrespect West Siders in private - now they’re rubbing your face in it.
Dick’s not running unopposed. Readers, it’s time to put your money where your mouse is, and drop some cash on Todd Dunn.
[btp here: Short on cash, but have some time? Volunteer to help out Dunn's campaign.]
(data H/T Jiminy Bizbo)
In the past week I’ve received 5 mailings from Ray DiRaddo, all of which point out how he is lowering taxes for us Greece residents. Way to go Ray! As Ray’s math skills illustrate, he clearly has no interest in promoting education. (Thanks for the 6% increase, Ray!) One of his mailings was a postcard explaining how he would be walking the neighborhoods soon and visiting his constituents. There must be some mistake. I can’t see this coward having the guts to walk the lower income sections of the town, such as the Dewey/Stone area, which are full of first time home buyers and young families. As a resident in this area, and paying nearly $3500 in taxes on an $80,000 home, I can attest that he is not welcome here.
I was once a proud Republican. Now I’m a disgusted independent. Every voter in this county who has children or grandchildren in schools should, as a matter of duty to these kids, vote the bastards out and send Maggie a message.
Lest anyone think the Democrats are innocent in this matter, please ask yourself why there is no candidate to stand up against Maggie? I can’t believe that not one democrat has the desire to lead the county, or to at least take Maggie and Minarik’s cronies to task. Shame.
The legislature passed this UNFAIR plan and whether or not there is Dem running against Maggie for County Supervisor is irrelevant. If there was a Dem was running, the whole UNFAIR thing would have happened anyway. This is typical illogical bullshit to blame Dems for something that the Rethuglicans controlled 100%.
The Republicans in the legislature are most certainly to blame, but do you really think this would have happened if Maggie weren’t running unopposed? Certainly not until after the election… I’m sure she would have rammed it down our throats then. But she did not have to wait as she had nothing at stake, and nothing to lose.
I’m pretty sure that the State’s deadline to accept the plan was before the elsection.
Yes, I blame the people who took action for the actions they took. I do not blame people who had no power to stop an action, for the actions taken by others.
Your argument is equivalent to saying: When a man beats his wife, it is his wife’s fault for not stopping him. Your argument is 100% bullfeathers.
Shame indeed.
Great screen name.
It’s really strange to me that some of the strongest Republican areas, like Greece, are going to face a higher share of the deficit. They must have known how the numbers would shake out when they came up with the plan, but why would they alienate their most solid towns?
51%
They know they’ve got a good spread there: those are places where they can afford to lose 6-8% and still get 51%.
Perhaps I missed it, but why are taxes higher on the West side? And what would they be if we didn’t have this U.N.F.A.I.R. plan — I presume the answer to this 2nd question is that taxes would go up ZERO percent, but could someone please confirm this?
Speculating, is the reason taxes are high on the West side because there are more Democratic voters there? Is this some form of punishment that the East Side doesn’t deserve as much?
This whole post raises a valid issue, but it also raises a whole host of unanswered questions.
The reason they got hit harder is because the sales-tax share was a larger proportion of their budgets. I suspect this is because, in many of the east side districts, boards & voters have tended to approve budget increases funded by local taxes at a greater rate than the west side - so over time the proportion of their budgets funded by the sales-tax share diverged.
I’m kind of guessing with this line of thinking, so please don’t hold me to it!
Anyone else have thoughts as to the reason for the east-west disparity?
i would guess that since the west siders are more prone to voting down school budgets, minarik figures they won’t be as upset with ‘making schools trim their 2%’ or whatever. plus the west side votes more solidly repub than the east side, who have the nerve to have both a democratic assemblyman and congresswoman.
“west siders are more prone to voting down school budgets”
I think that’s the reason for the difference in their budgets, which leads to the differences in what proportion of their budget the sales-tax share accounts for (see my response above)
Can we get a MCSBA member or a school board member to verify this?
Incorrect. The towns hit the hardest have the largest retail sales tax revenues that the schools are dependent upon. Hence Marketplace Mall in Henrietta, The Mall at Greece Ridge in Greece. That combined with the census figures makes them the hardest hit. The larger you are, and the more commercial/retail you have, the harder this hits.
I wonder where Maggie shops?
Henrietta has some very large shopping areas and malls, but one of the lower tax increases shown on the map.
You’re going to have to elaborate on that, I don’t understand what you’re saying.
If only there had been an open process, the voters and towns could have assessed the impact on each town and school district, and addressed it to their elected (so-called) representatives. If only there had been an open process, we would know why it is that some areas are hit harder than others, instead of having a bunch of people without the data (like us) attempting to guess.
Very true - excellent point.
Guess what? We’re not the only ones in the dark on this: Republicans don’t even know what’s going on (maybe the East Side inner circle does, but they’re not sharing)
Do you really think Yolevich can explain why his district got screwed? Come on - he didn’t even know that there were differeing impacts.
Thanks for pointing that out Charles. You make it sound as if having an open process would be a good thing
“It’s really strange to me that some of the strongest Republican areas, like Greece, are going to face a higher share of the deficit. They must have known how the numbers would shake out when they came up with the plan, but why would they alienate their most solid towns?”
I think the answer is simple, it was a Minarik mandate. These guys aren’t expected to actually think about what they’re doing. That right was taken away when they decided to run for office as Republicans.
Diraddo is the Greece Town Attorney + MC Legislator 6th LD, Helfer is Assistant County Executive + Town Coucil Member, Bilsky is County Risk Manager + Town Council Member, Barry is the GOP Clerk of the County Legislator + Town Council Member, Jeff McCann is Deputy Supervisor Town of Greece + MC Legislator 19th LD.
Bottom line - they could give a damn about Greece! They only care about Maggie and what is in the best interest of the Metro Government Operation they call Monroe County.
isn’t there a legal issue involved here with dual offices
I don’t think so - it’s always struck me as vaguely sleazy in a conflict-of-interest way, but I don’t think it’s illegal. Good point, though.
(Edit - I was wrong - I’m now thinking that it is illegal)
Jimmy is correct but the situation is more serious than that. There is a serious question whether some of these examples of dual office holding which is sometimes illegal represent examples of “incompatible offices” which are always illegal.
In law conflicting duties make offices incompatible.
I recommend someone taking this to Mike Green for an advisory opinion form the attorney general. Advisory opinions are generally pursued through the municipality but in this case Diraddo is involved.
An individual citizen apparently can not ask for such an opinion.
Clearly the interconnections of some of these officials on the FAIR (sic) plan suggests the possibility of conflicting duties.
Isn’t there a legal issue here?
Here’s the link to the Monroe County Code - a place for all to start looking. Dig in. (I haven’t read it myself.)
http://gcp.esub.net/cgi-bin/om_isapi.dll?clientID=63221&infobase=monroeco.nfo&softpage=Browse_Frame_Pg42
Look at Chapter 45 of the County Code- that sets out the dos and don’ts, at least as the county law regulates them. The question then becomes whether the duties and actions of an individual acting in another capacity conflict with the requirements of their job in the County Leg as set forth in this code. I’m sure there are applicable NY limitations too, but I’m not really familiar with all of this.
Here’s where to look:
http://www.oag.state.ny.us/lawyers/opinions/indexsub.html
The State Attorney General has a whole section devoted to informal decisions, those being suggestions as to the potential outcome of a scenario if it were brought to a court of law.
And…they have already covered Risk Managers - check this out - it appears as those Mr. Bilsky is in violation of the law - and he’s just the first one I’ve looked at. We need to look at residency as well. Residency defined.
http://www.oag.state.ny.us/lawyers/opinions/1999/informal/99_30.pdf
The legal issues concern the nature of dual office holding and incompatible offices this is noted int eh decision Jimmybizbo cites.
There are also decisions on town attorney’s holding dual office on the cite Jimmy notes if I recall
Ask mike green to look into this.
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