And the nominees are.......

[Jim Ostrowski]

We're looking for nominees for the 2006 hero of the tax revolt award.

Also, we may issue a status quo award for the politicians who did the most to preserve the political class’s stranglehold on power.

Any nominees?

[steven]

Who is we?

If its free buffalo than I would suggest you go the 12th man route.

If its someone else than as much as I disagree with a bunch of your policys I would say You.

[granpabob]

what Hero my taxes are higher this year . you mean the guy who helped raise them the most or what. when my taxes go down then talk to me about hero's .your dreaming if you think we realy had a tax revolt

[Jim Ostrowski]

Steven, thanks for the suggestion but as CEO of Free NY, I have absolute immunity from award-receiving.

As for the 12th man, wow, does that open up a can of worms!

Do the mean the 12th man should get the hero award or the status quo award?

Because I have no hesitation in saying that the passivity of the general public around here in the face of the slow collapse of their community and economy, has been a huge boost for the status quo.

If I do a rough calculation of the number of people who donated funds to FB or PC or showed up at an event, then eliminated the substantial duplication of people, I would say that about 2500 people supported the tax revolt.

Let's say for the sake of argument that there are 800,000 adults in Buffalo Niagara.

That's three-tenths of one percent.

(That's not to say that most people disagree with us; I believe that a large majority agrees with us.)

You may think I'm complaining and laying blame, etc. I'm not. I understand perfectly why people are apathetic. I discussed this in great detail in my book. Few people realize that many of the strategies and tactics of Free Buffalo were and are designed specifically to overcome this problem of "rational apathy."

In response to the previous poster, I've often said that if all the people who said changing things around here is impossible and trying is a waste of time, actually pitched in, we could win this fight. But wishing won’t make it so. I think that many people who say our efforts are pointless are probably rationalizing their own choice to do nothing about the decline of their communities but that’s okay. I understand. Rationalize away. My job is to get you to un-rationalize and get involved.

The fact remains that the 12th man will produce 80,000 for a football game and 50,000 for shopping at the Galleria, but when you have a $10 rally to save their own community, 550 people showed up. People will show up for a specific charitable event but apparently they don’t think the survival of their community as we have known it is a good cause too.

Again, none of this is surprising or shocking. People don't get involved in politics because they deem their marginal efforts not to be worth the price.

Anyone familiar with history or politics knows that. Political change happens in gigantic spurts when a long train of abuses produces a sudden burst of citizen anger (1776; 1989 Soviet Union; 1994 Congress).

We tried to channel that anger to the best our abilities and continue to do so.

I’ve said this many times. The last successful nonviolent political movement that succeeded in changing course and making government smaller was Jefferson’s velvet revolution of 1800.

I apologize for not having matched his achievement (yet).

[Jim Ostrowski]

granpabob, I notice you live in OP.

Free Buffalo helped Mary Travers Murphy save that town hundreds of thousands of dollars on insurance costs. Otherwise your taxes would almost certainly be higher.

http://blog.freeny.org/?p=923/#comments

That's a drop in the bucket compared to what we could do if we had real support.

[steven]

Ok then. what about the amherst supervisor, mohan?

[speaker]

Because I have no hesitation in saying that the passivity of the general public around here in the face of the slow collapse of their community and economy, has been a huge boost for the status quo.

If I do a rough calculation of the number of people who donated funds to FB or PC or showed up at an event, then eliminated the substantial duplication of people, I would say that about 2500 people supported the tax revolt.

Let's say for the sake of argument that there are 800,000 adults in Buffalo Niagara.

That's three-tenths of one percent.

(That's not to say that most people disagree with us; I believe that a large majority agrees with us.)

You may think I'm complaining and laying blame, etc. I'm not. I understand perfectly why people are apathetic. I discussed this in great detail in my book. Few people realize that many of the strategies and tactics of Free Buffalo were and are designed specifically to overcome this problem of "rational apathy."

In response to the previous poster, I've often said that if all the people who said changing things around here is impossible and trying is a waste of time, actually pitched in, we could win this fight. But wishing won’t make it so. I think that many people who say our efforts are pointless are probably rationalizing their own choice to do nothing about the decline of their communities but that’s okay. I understand. Rationalize away. My job is to get you to un-rationalize and get involved.

The fact remains that the 12th man will produce 80,000 for a football game and 50,000 for shopping at the Galleria, but when you have a $10 rally to save their own community, 550 people showed up. People will show up for a specific charitable event but apparently they don’t think the survival of their community as we have known it is a good cause too.

Again, none of this is surprising or shocking. People don't get involved in politics because they deem their marginal efforts not to be worth the price.

Anyone familiar with history or politics knows that. Political change happens in gigantic spurts when a long train of abuses produces a sudden burst of citizen anger (1776; 1989 Soviet Union; 1994 Congress).

We tried to channel that anger to the best our abilities and continue to do so.

I’ve said this many times. The last successful nonviolent political movement that succeeded in changing course and making government smaller was Jefferson’s velvet revolution of 1800.

I apologize for not having matched his achievement (yet).

And I agree with JO! The citizenry here seems to be just so doggone lethargic, and WE are the ones who can change anything! Bass Pro drones on,
taxes go up, there's a huge amount of money for the Buffalo waterfront, just waiting to be looted, no one seems to see any point in looking into the Seneca Nation's casino, NF wants money that's been earmarked for the waterfront, to be spent on diddly wops, everyone complains but very few stand up fro anything.

[Jim Ostrowski]

We gave Satish an award last year at the Taste of Freedom.

Previous awardees were Paulette Peterson of Free Buffalo, Rus Thompson and Tony Fracasso, some sort of internet dude.

[nickelcityhomes]

I'm trying to think of a local business owner who thumbed his nose at some draconian regulation imposed upon his business at the risk of huge fines. Or a business owner who found a way to circumvent some silly law. That's the guy I would vote for hero if I could think of someone.

As for the status quo award, it's almost impossible to differentiate between any of the 400+ policians representing some portion of Erie County.

[Jim Ostrowski]

Good idea, because a regulation is a tax on non-monetary wealth.

[Ragin]

I'm trying to think of a local business owner who thumbed his nose at some draconian regulation imposed upon his business at the risk of huge fines. Or a business owner who found a way to circumvent some silly law. That's the guy I would vote for hero if I could think of someone.

Carl Paladino and his fight to remove the tolls?

(DISCLAIMER: I don't know much about him other than this issue)

[speaker]

I like Satish, too.

[therising]

Take the Time Magazine Man of the Year approach.

What single person contributed most to the Tax Revolt? ( I didn't know there actually was a Tax Revolt but that's neither here or there)

Joel Giambra, of course.

Without Joel, we would've never gone through a lot of grief, which, in turn, led to the "Tax Revolt".

[Jim Ostrowski]

Tell these folks there was no tax revolt:

Wroblewski
Dusza
Swanick
Giambra (not running for re-election)
Naples
D. Marshall
Masiello
Grelick
Hoak

[JustRetired]

Take the Time Magazine Man of the Year approach.

What single person contributed most to the Tax Revolt? ( I didn't know there actually was a Tax Revolt but that's neither here or there)

Joel Giambra, of course.

Without Joel, we would've never gone through a lot of grief, which, in turn, led to the "Tax Revolt".

Butch Holt, he revolted by not paying.