Aint this a crock of crap

[Cgoodsp466]

439 pieces of crap costing us 32 million.

Governing here costs $32 million


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Report shows area with 439 officials

By MATTHEW SPINA
News Staff Reporter
10/25/2006

Erie County supports an ever-present strata of 439 elected leaders, more than similar-sized regions of the country and even more than New York City, where 8.1 million people get by with about 270 elected officials.
A new study finds that those 439 politicians and their immediate staffs consume $32.1 million a year in salaries and benefits - or more than $250 million since 1996. With just half of that amount, Erie County could have dismantled the Skyway, saved every library, repaired the fountain at Martin Luther King Jr. Park and hired 200 more Buffalo teachers.

"We are sick and tired of nothing happening in Western New York," said Kevin P. Gaughan, the regionalism advocate and occasional political candidate whose report, "Paying Our Politicians," asks whether all those elected leaders impede the region's ability to improve itself.

"At the end of the day, beyond the money, what these politicians are costing us is time," he said. "Time that we will never recover. The time during which projects are not completed, land lies fallow, and citizens lose hope. So what this system really costs us is hope."

By the "system," he means the municipal boundaries that exist because they made sense decades or centuries ago and the political organizations that lay claim to those governments and protect them as part of their power base.

Erie County leaders for years have talked about government mergers or consolidation, but they have engineered only a few small successes. Had all gone according to plan, county residents would be voting Nov. 7 on whether to turn county government into the new "Regional City of Buffalo." But that idea to merge the county's two largest governments died when County Executive Joel A. Giambra's career hit the rocks with the budget fiasco of 2004-05. He lost the political clout to push the proposal, and no one in City Hall took up the cause.

Gaughan, who backed that effort and has organized community discussions about regionalism, expressed concern that entrenched politicians generally protect the status quo.

"Perhaps we were looking at it all wrong," he said Tuesday. "If you want to reduce the size of government, perhaps you have to reduce the number of politicians."

His report tells people how much their elected leaders cost them - an average of $35 a year for every man, woman and child in Erie County. That $35 covers just the pay and benefits for the politicians and their immediate help. Remember, he said, nine of every 10 elected officials in Erie County are, in theory, part-time workers.

Gaughan will explain the report at 6 p.m. today in Hallwalls at the Church at 341 Delaware Ave. He also set up a Web site - www.TheCost.org - so residents can see what they spend for their elected officials and the politicians above them.

Greater Buffalo has more governments and more elected officials than Greater Indianapolis, Greater Charlotte, Greater Baltimore and New York City, the report says. Also unlike the others, Greater Buffalo lost population since 1970, and it has the lowest birth rate.

Government employment overall, not just among elected leaders, generally fares well in Western New York. An Albany think tank recently found that Buffalo and the rest of upstate New York have added public-sector jobs this decade far faster than the private sector has been able to add jobs.

Erie County's suburbs, not Buffalo, contain the most politicians per resident. To mirror the suburbs' ratio of representation, Buffalo's Common Council would have to grow from nine members to 100. To mirror the tiny town of Marilla, population 5,600, the Council would need to be 247 strong.

But don't all governments, no matter how small, need their elected leaders?

"For him to make these kind of statements, I don't agree with it because I don't think everything is being considered," said Marilla Supervisor John R. Foss. He said the town is financially fit and can provide services better than larger entities.

"You are representing a geographic area, not just a population," Foss said. "If we closed the Highway Department and tried to have the county do it, we'd be a mess. When we had a storm last week, the Town of Marilla was the first town plowed out."

Gaughan used a grant from the Oishei Foundation and the legwork of students from the University at Buffalo Law School to complete the report. His office at the law firm Rupp, Baase, Pfalzgraf, Cunningham & Coppola became a repository for municipal budgets, nearly all of which account for their elected leaders differently.

Those 439 elected leaders for Erie County include state legislators and members of Congress. When legislative and congressional districts extended outside Erie County, the researchers calculated just the cost of the district's portion within Erie County.

Gaughan's report becomes public less than two weeks before Election Day. Bloggers and their readers were buzzing about it Tuesday, with reminders that Gaughan, after all, has campaigned for office, once for Congress and last year for Buffalo mayor.

"The idea is a good one, but I can see where this is going," said a contributor to www.buffalorising.com. "He'll propose some sort of downsizing, and put people out of work. When you place ideas ahead of people, it is a dangerous and selfish notion."

Later there was this: "One of the great mysteries in Buffalo continues to be most citizens' reluctance to change. . . . When an individual or group of individuals try to be a catalyst for change, they are often meet with resistance not only from the entrenched political fraternity, but the majority of the citizenry."

[Enough]

439 pieces of crap costing us 32 million.

Governing here costs $32 million

There are reasons this is necessary you know!

A press conference doesn't look so good if it only lasts 2 minutes! If they're weren't so many of them they wouldn't have each other to thank while they were up at the podium telling you what a great job each does! A press conference doesn't look so good if it only lasts 2 minutes!

The Erie County Police Chiefs Association, Engineering Association or Highway Superintendents Association luncheon isn't much fun unless you have 50 people there! (By the way, why does Erie County have both a Town Hwy Superintendent Association and a Village DPW Superintendent Association that have 2 separate meetings at 2 different restaurants every month)?

We have so many of those shiny silver shovels and big scissors. You know the ones we use for ground breakings and building openings that political hacks use on TV. What would we do with all of them?

Didn’t you read the stories during the county budget crisis? Jobs help the economy, and what better job than a high paying government job? What would we do with all these people if we cut positions? They would all be on unemployment and a drain on our economy! (At least that was the thinking of laying off county employees last year)!

We have a lot of “good people” (yeah right!) helping the cause. You think all these people who hang political signs, work phone banks and are committeemen for their political parties are doing it just for fun? HECK NO!!!!! They want the gravy that comes with it! They want the summer help job at the recreation dept for their kid. They want the endorsement for school board member! They want to run for Highway Superintendent! They aren’t doing it for nothing. You have a lot of people kissing a lot of butt and politicians must offer the sundae with the cherry on top to keep the machine alive!

The Erie County Water/Sewer Authorities, NYSTA, NFTA and the other Authorities have grown to huge proportions, whose going run these Authorities? You think they are going to put someone in charge that doesn’t have a political “trust”???? Next thing you are going to recommend is that they hire the “best person for the job”??? You need a BIG POOL of political scumbags to choose from to fill those jobs!!!!!! If you lay off and cut all the political jobs there wouldn’t be enough people to go around!!!!!! We got to recycle these people you know!!!!!!

Cgoodsp466, next time I wish you’d think a little before you just go ahead and post something so negative!

[Cgoodsp466]

There are reasons this is necessary you know!

A press conference doesn't look so good if it only lasts 2 minutes! If they're weren't so many of them they wouldn't have each other to thank while they were up at the podium telling you what a great job each does! A press conference doesn't look so good if it only lasts 2 minutes!

The Erie County Police Chiefs Association, Engineering Association or Highway Superintendents Association luncheon isn't much fun unless you have 50 people there! (By the way, why does Erie County have both a Town Hwy Superintendent Association and a Village DPW Superintendent Association that have 2 separate meetings at 2 different restaurants every month)?

We have so many of those shiny silver shovels and big scissors. You know the ones we use for ground breakings and building openings that political hacks use on TV. What would we do with all of them?

Didn’t you read the stories during the county budget crisis? Jobs help the economy, and what better job than a high paying government job? What would we do with all these people if we cut positions? They would all be on unemployment and a drain on our economy! (At least that was the thinking of laying off county employees last year)!

We have a lot of “good people” (yeah right!) helping the cause. You think all these people who hang political signs, work phone banks and are committeemen for their political parties are doing it just for fun? HECK NO!!!!! They want the gravy that comes with it! They want the summer help job at the recreation dept for their kid. They want the endorsement for school board member! They want to run for Highway Superintendent! They aren’t doing it for nothing. You have a lot of people kissing a lot of butt and politicians must offer the sundae with the cherry on top to keep the machine alive!

The Erie County Water/Sewer Authorities, NYSTA, NFTA and the other Authorities have grown to huge proportions, whose going run these Authorities? You think they are going to put someone in charge that doesn’t have a political “trust”???? Next thing you are going to recommend is that they hire the “best person for the job”??? You need a BIG POOL of political scumbags to choose from to fill those jobs!!!!!! If you lay off and cut all the political jobs there wouldn’t be enough people to go around!!!!!! We got to recycle these people you know!!!!!!

Cgoodsp466, next time I wish you’d think a little before you just go ahead and post something so negative!

Your right Enough I am a bad boy and deserve to be punished.I say take away my Nice Home,My Suits my Single Malt my Not so legal Cuban Cigars.And Banish me to A government Job.Oh wait! then I could still have all this neat stuff and not work for it.

[Enough]

Banish me to A government Job.Oh wait! then I could still have all this neat stuff and not work for it.

Ohhhhhh No You Don't!!!!!!! You aren't just going to get a government job that easy!!!!!!!!!!

You're punishment is you have to go out and hang political signs this weekend for your favorite party bosses.... Then you must work the phone bank on election night and call all your neighbors and tell them to get out and vote! Third, you must go to your favorite political party election headquarters and kiss their butt! Then maybe, just maybe you might get that $35,000 a year job working at your local parks department riding around all day on a lawn mower cutting the local golf course!!!!!! But you gotta promise to take the 35 holidays off a year and be loyal to kissing the butts of both your political leaders AND union leaders!!!!!!

[Cgoodsp466]

Ohhhhhh No You Don't!!!!!!! You aren't just going to get a government job that easy!!!!!!!!!!

You're punishment is you have to go out and hang political signs this weekend for your favorite party bosses.... Then you must work the phone bank on election night and call all your neighbors and tell them to get out and vote! Third, you must go to your favorite political party election headquarters and kiss their butt! Then maybe, just maybe you might get that $35,000 a year job working at your local parks department riding around all day on a lawn mower cutting the local golf course!!!!!! But you gotta promise to take the 35 holidays off a year and be loyal to kissing the butts of both your political leaders AND union leaders!!!!!!

I feel like Steve Mcqueen in Papion.