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Thread: What I told the county legislature last night

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    What I told the county legislature last night

    Testimony at Erie County Budget Hearing

    November 27, 2006

    By James Ostrowski

    jameso@apollo3.com
    blog.jimostrowski.com

    I’m Jim Ostrowski, President of Free Buffalo, but I will give only my own personal opinions today. There are lots of lobbying laws out there that, ironically, make it more difficult for groups like ours to exercise their first amendment rights.

    Erie County is suffering through 45 straight years of decline; decline in our population, our economy, our culture and our way of life. At the same time, however, government on all levels got bigger, spent more of our money and barked ever more orders at us. One thing followed the other: bigger government shrank the economy and population. Anyone who denies this is in a state of denial.

    According to the Tax Foundation, Erie County has the 7th highest property taxes in the nation as a percentage of assessed value. While these taxes include county, municipal and school taxes, as Free Buffalo member Dave Bailey told the Orchard Park Town board this year, “everyone in the lifeboat must put an oar in the water.” You must do your fair share in cutting the cost of government in this county. And please, we don’t want to hear about Monroe County, which has higher taxes. We’d rather hear about Erie County, Pennsylvania, whose taxes are $800 lower.

    Erie’s doing very well by the way. Lower taxes give their citizens more money to invest in business and maintain their properties. Ten percent of the workforce in Erie County, PA works for the government. Here, it’s 17 percent. If we’re getting something for that extra seven percent of the workforce, please tell me what that is. Alleghany County where Pittsburgh is located, also has a figure of 10 percent, so please don’t tell me it’s because we have a larger, more urban population.

    The only way to turn this area around is to reduce the government’s consumption of our capital. You people have to spend a lot less of our money, in other words.

    Corporate welfare and pork barrel projects will not do the trick. They’re bread and circuses. They’re zero sums games. They take from some and give to politically-connected others. They rob from the poor and give to the rich as with Bass Pro. They are moving the decks chairs around on the Titanic.

    I’ll resist the temptation of asking what happened to that $14 million this body appropriated for Bass Pro. Down the old memory hole, I suppose.

    And please don’t tell me about mandates. You know and have probably supported the very same people who have imposed them. Talk to your friends and your fellow party members in the State Legislature, the Governor’s office and in Congress and demand that the mandates be lifted. Stop supporting their campaigns. Stop taking their campaign money.

    As for Medicaid, every single member here is either a Democrat—whose party brags about starting Medicaid, or a Republican, whose party said about Medicaid, “Me too,” as it is wont to do.

    Getting down to cases, what should be cut? As Free Buffalo outlined in its analysis of the 2006 budget, these things can be cut:

    1. Employee compensation; it’s too high, 28 percent too high; if the unions won’t budge, lay off enough workers to accomplish the same results and the unions will come back to the table faster than a speeding bullet to restore those jobs.

    2. Pork and corporate welfare; this stuff is an economic loser, it corrupts the political process and makes real change more difficult. As Free Buffalo proposed, corporate welfare should be banned in the County Charter in the strongest possible terms.

    3. Funding for culturals. Mr. Giambra brags about increasing funding for ”cultural organizations.” There is, however, one cultural organization he overlooks, the Erie County family struggling to pay its bills in an overtaxed, depressed economy. What gives you the right to take scarce dollars out of our pockets to give to museums and concerts halls? Besides, cultural organizations should be independent of politics, not the lapdogs of politicians. Free Buffalo is currently trying to raise funds for two cultural organizations, a Grover Cleveland Library and Museum and a Hall of Fame for those who have contributed to individual liberty throughout history. We will not accept a penny of government money for those projects. That way, we can maintain our independence and speak freely on all controversial public issues. Culturals should be funded from the discretionary dollars of those who support the values promoted by those culturals. We don’t expect those who don’t agree with us that Grover Cleveland was a great president to subsidize our venture.

    4. The NFTA. They’re a large, wealthy bureaucracy running an antiquated, nineteenth century public transit system. It’s time to get the NFTA off the dole. Deregulate public transit and get some competition in here. Without competition, innovation will not occur. If the NFTA was in charge of transportation in 1900, the horse and buggy industry would still be thriving.

    If these and the other recommendations of Free Buffalo’s report were enacted, we could afford a large tax cut in property taxes, the sales tax or both.

    Erie County has two choices, roughly similar to the choices facing the Soviet Union in 1945. We can change now or we can change later, after we’ve wasted another 45 years and after the utter devastation of our community which is sure to follow if we continue on the present road to nowhere.

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    If you agree with my remarks, please send a copy of them to your legislator.

    http://www.erie.gov/legislature/legislators.asp

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Ostrowski
    If you agree with my remarks, please send a copy of them to your legislator.

    http://www.erie.gov/legislature/legislators.asp
    I sent it on, JO, with a remark about the proposed pay raise for themselves.

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    Thanks!

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    Quote Originally Posted by speaker
    I sent it on, JO, with a remark about the proposed pay raise for themselves.
    I did the same. Nice job.

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    Thanks. I was the 55th speaker last night but only the second to speak on behalf of taxpayers. But if we can send them 1000 emails, that could swing two or three votes and lead to significant cuts. Those cuts would then decrease the property tax rate.

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    Below is a written version of what I submitted last night:

    I am writing to urge the Erie County Legislature to take the necessary steps to not renew the temporary sales tax increases imposed in 2005 and take the necessary steps towards further reform and expenditure reduction.

    First and foremost at the beginning of the 2005 budget debacle many County Officials said that it was irresponsible to use a hatchet to make the necessary cuts and that a top to bottom review is needed. Where is this top to bottom review? The Legislature when voting to pass the home rule message requesting the initial sales tax increase of .25% in June 2005 also created a Citizens Budget Review Committee. What has it done, nothing as far as I can see! We need this top to bottom review and during this review, process improvement methodologies such as six sigma and DMAIC should be implemented. Through process improvement methodologies we can identify and eliminate processes and procedures that do not add value to the output which will reduce waste, cost and inefficiencies.

    There has been some steps made toward reform, for example the passage of Proposition 1 on amending the County Charter which I believe is a good first step.

    The recent proposal put forward by the County Executive and Budget Director with the STAR program merits further consideration and possibly implementation, however because it would be necessary to obtain approval from multiple legislative bodies it is not practical to be counted on in this budget or any four year plan. Also we need to take a look at negotiating a new Sales Tax Distribution Agreement.

    However, I am not happy with the proposed extension of the “temporary” sales tax imposed in 2005 (both the quarter percent and half percent). It appears that we are seeing it become the same type of temporary tax that the Rutkowski 1 percent is, which is in essence permanent. Also there is no guarantee that the county will not have to share this revenue with the municipalities as well like it was compelled to do with the 1% sales tax increase imposed in the mid 1980’s.

    I recognize that government needs tax revenue for its support and I am not saying that we should not fund essential services. I am saying we should spend and raise the money to run government in the wisest way and in a manner that reduces its affect on the taxpayer and the County’s economy.

    I would much rather see a property tax increase than an extension of the sales tax or sales tax increase. Unlike sales tax, real property taxes are tax deductible. Also I enjoyed the property tax break County Executive Giambra and the legislature never should have given us and it is now time to pay the piper even if the property tax rate were to go to the pre-2000 level.

    Property taxes are fixed where sales tax is not for example the state and Erie County got an unexpected boost in revenue from the gas price spikes the past couple of summers because it is a percentage of sales prices. I do not think this County should get any more revenue than it absolutely needs or the needed changes may not occur.

    Many have said that the sales tax is more fair because then the visitors to our county share in its cost. I do not agree with this statement for the following reasons 1) what visitors? I have not seen any data to quantify this; 2) we want our sales tax lower to bring visitors here and spend their money here not to drive them away more. If we lower the sales tax we will increase volume rather than depending on increased margins, By reducing the margin of taxes and increasing the volume our retailers will benefit and the value of retail space in this county will go up and will bring an increase in the property tax base; 3) there is an increasing amount of Indian land in this county as well as the number of retailers that will be situated on that land that do not collect sales tax from non-members and if our state officials are going to continue their unofficial and illegal policy of non-enforcement on such retailers we must act to mitigate this self imposed competitive harm to law-abiding taxpaying businesses in Erie County; 4) it is a very regressive tax.

    To those that argue that property taxes only affect property owners, renters do pay property taxes it is just that the land lord is the conduit. If the land lord does not take into account this cost when he sets his rental price he probably should not be in that business.

    Furthermore this body has a duty and an obligation to insure that the revenue estimates provided by the County Executive in this budget are reasonable and if it does not believe them to be then you have a duty to strike or reduce items of appropriation. It should be noted that under the County Charter such reductions do not need executive approval. To say that this body has no control over inflated revenue projections is simply not true.

    Recently the County Comptroller released his comments on the proposed budget and noted that even if the extension of the sales tax is approved the revenue received may not be what is anticipated due to recent trends in sales within the county.

    Based on media reports if the sales taxes imposed in 2005 were to expire and not be renewed we would be looking at making up $8 million in anticipated revenue for the 2007 budget. This can be made up with a modest increase in the property tax for 2007 and the cuts proposed by the minority could be used to replenish some of our reserve funds which from my understanding some of those funds are overdrawn.

    Therefore I urge this body to adopt a budget that would not require the extension of the sales tax imposed in 2005 even if it means an increase in property taxes and compel a genuine top down review and improvement of all county processes in all county departments.

    Thank you for your attention in this and all future matters.
    “We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” ― Thomas Jefferson

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    The culturals are sure pulling out the stops.

    I received this from the Historical Society:

    Dear Members and Friends of the Historical Society:

    Thank you for reading this message from a concerned citizen that was just forwarded to me. Please help if you can.

    It is time to view the budget discussion as a crisis for the cultural organizations. It is time to mobilize ALL the supporters of the arts. Attendance at the public hearing Monday at 5:00 is imperative for every possible supporter of every art/cultural group. Other actions are needed, too.

    A personal letter and a visit is the most effective method of sending a message to an elected official. Making staff sign for a special delivery letter (or package of letters) is also dramatic and memorable. Most of the legislators have never been through a budget cycle, much less an organized response from the cultural community. Every organization must get the attention of the individual Legislators and maximize the message of support for full cultural funding (restored after 2 years).

    Emails are a last resort - they may be easy but they are not effective. If supporters can only send an email, it should be sent TO the organization(s) they support for the organization to print out and hand deliver to each legislator - preferably delivered by a very large group of people/supporters, making the delivery personal, memorable, newsworthy, yet respectful. Perhaps many organizations could "team up".

    Make your presence remembered! A massive message delivery effort in person/large groups, repeated regularly throughout the day on Monday and/or Tuesday, would begin to have an impact. The goal is to create an overwhelming response that no elected official can forget or ignore.

    We need to maximize steps to mobilize volunteers, members, staff, docents, ushers, donors, trustees, etc.

    In my opinion, it is very important to let the individual legislators know their "public" includes supporters of art and culture. Many organizations in this sector sell seats, attract members and donations, employ citizens, and welcome volunteers, docents and visitors from every zip code in the County. The location of the venue (the fact that it is located within one legislative district) is far less important than the wide range of support and audience attracted to the cultural organizations from throughout the community and beyond.

    A few talking points to remember: Ask the elected leaders, who together serve as the Legislature, to consider the regional impact of the arts, not by neighborhood or district.

    This sector successfully brings new dollars into our community. The community receives a high rate of return on its investment.

    National, state and regional awards of excellence have been received by our arts organization.

    The sector has been repeatedly identified as an important area for future economic growth.

    Many employers already know that WNY is a tough sell when they are recruiting - the rich and vibrant diversity in the cultural community is one of the frequently cited assets used as a door opener for candidates as well as a significant reason for accepting a job offer.

    Cultural tourism is based on having strong assets to market. Reducing funding to the arts will weaken Erie County's ability to develop this important tourism market. The investment in the CVB must be considered in tandem with the funding for the arts.

    The sector has been de-stabilized for 2 years due to cuts in cultural funding. A third year will have extremely negative consequences.

    It will be tragic for the regional impact of the arts if the Legislature cuts cultural funding by up to 50% from the proposed budget.

    Hopefully, we can all work together successfully this year. The next step will be to find the will to take this discussion out of local politics for the future.

    See you Monday at 5:00 at the Legislative hearing in the Legislative Chambers, 92 Franklin St., 4th Floor.
    Truth springs from argument among friends.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Ostrowski
    If you agree with my remarks, please send a copy of them to your legislator.

    http://www.erie.gov/legislature/legislators.asp
    Jim, I sent it to my legisature, Tom Mazur.
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    Quote Originally Posted by dtwarren
    We need this top to bottom review and during this review, process improvement methodologies such as six sigma and DMAIC should be implemented. Through process improvement methodologies we can identify and eliminate processes and procedures that do not add value to the output which will reduce waste, cost and inefficiencies.
    With the exception of a few (Locklear, Konst, Weinstein, Ranzenhofer), I doubt individuals like Holt, Smith, Iannello and Marinelli have the mental capacity to implement any common sense improvement methodologies.

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    Reminder--send a copy of remarks to your legislator. See above.

    They will vote soon.

    Looks like only four votes for the taxpayer.

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    The budget will be decided at a session tomorrow starting at 1:30pm. I plan to be there part of the day.

    I hope this year they won't have any illegal meetings.

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    The proposed Erie County budget gives away $5 million of our hard-earned dollars to the artsy-fartsy crew.

    It's no business of the government to be subsidizing culture. With our tax dollars, they can turn democracy upside down. They take our money to promote certain ideas and values, which then seep into the culture, change attitudes and ultimately votes. Instead of the electorate choosing the government, the government chooses the electorate. Call it intellectual gerrymandering.

    That said; let's take a look at some particularly egregious cases.

    The CEPA Gallery is getting $50,000. On of their recent exhibits was called "Deviant Bodies 2.0". Check it out.

    Here are some of the artists:

    Emi Koyama, Portland, Oregon
    http://eminism.org/

    Koyama is a multi-issue, social justice slut, synthesizing feminist, Asian, survivor, dyke, queer, sex worker, intersex, genderqueer, and crip politics. She has been the keynote speaker at the Translating Identity Conference and the Western Regional LGBTQIA College Conference. She is currently the director of Intersex Initiative, and is putting the “emi” back in feminism since 1975.

    Del LaGrace Volcano, London, England
    http://www.dellagracevolcano.com/

    A gender-variant visual artist accessing 'technologies of gender' in order to amplify, rather than erase, the hermaphroditic traces of the body. I name myself a gender abolitionist and a part-time gender terrorist. Volcano believes in “crossing the line as many times as it takes to build a bridge we can all walk across”.

    Volcano has produced four monographs: “Love Bites,” Gay Men's Press 1991, “The Drag King Book” (with Judith Halberstam), Serpent's Tail 1999, “Sublime Mutations,” Konkursbuchverlag 2000 and “Sex Works,” Konkursbuchverlag 2005. His latest short videos include “GENDER QUEER: Qu'est-ce que c'est?” 2005, “The Passionate Spectator” 2003 and “Journey Intersex” 2000.

    Michela Ledwidge, London, England
    http://thequality.com/people/michela/

    This mashed-up installation continuously re-mixes, via audience participation, one web installation and three videos. Tackling how gender identity and sex markers (legal sex on birth certificates and driver’s licenses) impact our understanding transitional milestones such as marriage, it is mixed in with video that examines the self-imposed rules of femininity by transwomen.

    Watch : http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?...94804704267014

    Philipe Lonestar, Oakland, California

    Bio:
    Philipe Lonestar is a radical genderqueer media artist and activist from the south. ze draws on zir experiences as a sex positive genderqueer, domestic violence and mental health advocate, abuse survivor and white middle class suburban child. zir films have screened all over the united states and europe in various queer, feminist and trans film festivals as well as basements, living rooms and street corners. philipe currently lives in oakland, ca where ze is beginning work on new black and white 16mm genderqueer film portraits. These shorts explore connections between gender binary and corporate monoculture resistance through genderqueerness, analog art and handmade craft.

    Artist Statement:
    Art expresses connections too complex, too physical and too brilliant to be explained in academic theory and verbal communication. My work exists within a radical queer community where we learn together, love together and care for each other as we forge new gender and sexuality frontiers. We embrace our contradicting identity constellations as each part of our being, categorized and assigned different power designations in this culture, attempts to live in the fluid container of our bodies.

    I draw on my understanding of gender having lived as a white heterosexual woman, bisexual dyke, ***, genderqueer femme and transsexual woman. I see my various gender expressions as a lens with which to explore life in a patriarchal binary culture as each outward set of signs elicits a different reaction of power play and treatment by society. Color, texture and image are emergency rations to cultivate expression and find beauty in a terrifying and gorgeous world. I am interested in how emotions of delight and trauma in daily experience are stored in the body until expressed creating layers of memory and association that we carry with us framing our perceptions.


    Hallwalls is getting $54,000. They had an "impeachment teach-in" resulting in this website. Not a very artistic website if you ask me. If this teach-in was sponsored by Hallwalls, then you have county funds going to a political organization in violation of the rights of taxpayers not to have their funds spent on political causes they oppose.

    Here's the problem. When the government starts to pick winners and losers in the culture wars, it makes losers of all those who dislike the "art" thereby promoted.

    This stuff should be paid for by those want it.

  15. #15
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    Vive La Casa

    Michael Weiner, commissioner of the county's Department of Social Services, said that Vive provides a valuable service, but not one that is required by New York - making it less of a priority in the county budget.

    What the "F" is wrong with the Legislature. Why would they even consider funding a shelter for refugees with my tax dollars. These individuals are not U.S. citizens, residents of NYS, or Erie County. They contribute nothing to society, they don't have a job, and they don't pay taxes.

    IMO, funding this shelter with my tax dollars is illegal. Once again, significantly cut all funding to social services and eliminate funding for all non-mandated services, especially the culturals. If someone chooses to make a private contribution to this shelter, fine, but in no way should my tax dollars be used to fund this operation.

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