Rather than try to figure out a way to eke out an existence within an environment defined by the State, let’s change the game altogether.

The biggest problem facing NYS is its state government.

I hesitate to jump on the “county employee slacks off all day” bandwagon - that story strikes me as apocryphal. It raises my right-wing-rhetoric radar.

There are bad employees in any large organization. I’ll bet you can find that guy sleeping in the van working for RG&E, the MCWA, Kodak, Frontier, etc. Just because you can find one jerk doesn’t mean the rest of the county employees aren’t working their tails off for little money.

I also suggest that since the genie’s come out of the chargeback bottle, we can start pushing for a Road Patrol chargeback. That’s a much FAIR-er chargeback than the MCC chargeback, and could recoup the entire cost of the Road Patrol.

I mean, we can’t even trust Wegmans anymore after seeing the huge COMIDA check they’re getting.

There is ALOT that we’re not being told or shown. That’s what needs to be exposed.

The county didn’t make one damned cut - not one anywhere - to come up with this plan.

A while back, Brett Davison at Channel 10 did a report on a county worker who got paid big money, and never went to work. He screwed off all day long, and still got paid.

The county budget needs to be scrutinized by a community panel of experts and citizens for waste. I’ll guarantee you that if you ask the people who are paying for and supporting the county to look at where things can be cut without causing major inconvenience in services, they’ll do it.

Maggie Brooks is out of touch and only concerned about making certain her cronies are taken care of and her hair combed for the next PR session. She wouldn’t know a budget cut if it bit her on the ass. She was never qualified for her job, and let’s face it, Minarik has been running the show from behind the curtain, while Dorothy has entertained us running all over Oz.

The White House has spent us out, Pataki spent us out, and now we are led to believe that Maggie hasn’t?

The GOP don’t know how NOT to spend. They just prefer to raise property taxes through reassessing your property over and over and over again. I’m afraid to screw a new lightbulb into my porch light. I just know they’ll come running up to hand me the reassessment letter stating that the new light bulb has caused an increase in my property value *AND* overall an increase to my neighbors property values as well.

They play with smoke and mirrors. Take it all away and come up with a citizens panel to review that budget.

And let’s cut the pay of the County Executive in half (since Minarik is the one who actually does the work) and move some of that money into teacher’s salaries (yes, I know it wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans, but I like the symbolism).

Seriously - they should link up with the UofR and tap into the health care plan they offer and dump the Blues. The savings would be HUGE Rochester - HUGE uh.