As I contemplated Obama’s apparent endorsement of a plan to bulldoze fallow portions of rustbelt cities like Flint, Michigan, I began considering America’s larger economic and infrastructure dilemmas. By now, we are familiar with that nasty term ‘rustbelt’, especially us here in Upstate NY. However, looking around the country, at California’s economic crisis, at our inability to rebuild New Orleans, or just at the general dysfunction that hinders our nation’s ability to maintain a minimal infrastructure and provide basic services such as public transit and healthcare, which other developed countries provide as a rule, I realized, that the ‘rustbelt’ phenomenon wasn’t merely limited to places like Flint, MI, Youngstown, OH and Upstate, New York. Our entire country has become a ‘rustbelt’, warranting an entirely new classification to better clarify our standing in the world. ‘Undeveloping nation’ seems to capture it.
The idea of bulldozing deteriorating urban neighborhoods, which at first seems unthinkable, begins to seem more and more like our only option. If we really have so little vision for our own future and can not come up with sustainable uses for our historic industrial cities and the factories that made this country great, then a wrecking ball is perhaps a suitable and appropriate fate. But why limit this logic to the Flint, Michigan’s and Gary, Indiana’s of America? Why not have the whole nation simply cut it’s losses and ‘shrink to survive’?
Take the stimulus bill for example. The problem with Obama’s stimulus package is not whether it’s too big or too small to make a dent in America’s crumbling infrastructure and economic recession (which it is by far). Nor is it an issue of bad fiscal policy leading us to dangerous and reckless state interventionism, an argument that the Republicans are betting it all on. The problem as I see it is that spending trillions of dollars to maintain an infrastructure that was originally put in place to accommodate a much larger and growing economy is inherently a losing proposition. Few want to admit it, but the dams, levies, bridges and aqueducts that were built largely in the first half of the 20th Century, are outsized relics of an America whose best days were just ahead.
Everybody’s favorite new word seems to be ‘infrastructure’, as if throwing money at our ‘infrastructure’ will magically lift us out of recession and save us all. But the problem is not that we have neglected our infrastructure, which we certainly have, it is that the costs of maintaining that infrastructure are very simply going to outpace the amount of wealth being generated by our economy. Sadly, the degree to which Americans will be forced to ‘re-adjust’ to a lower standard of living and lower level of services has yet to be fully appreciated.
What’s worse, this is not just about spending enough money to meet our current and future needs. In the very near future, this outsized infrastructure will begin to present serious risks for future generations. Not only will we not have the money to maintain our levies and dams, but we may not have the money to safely decommission them either. With states and cities flat broke there will be no easy answers as to how best to deal with those crumbling dams, unstable levies and collapsing bridges.
I can seriously imagine that ten to twenty years from now this country might be so broke and dysfunctional that major pieces of infrastructure like our own Gilboa Dam will essentially be abandoned and left to rot, with no one standing up to claim responsibility for them. This leads me to the conclusion that our smartest solution to the infrastructure problem may not be to sure-up or build more of it, but to decommission and safely dismantle some of these structures and systems while we still have the resources and know-how to do so.
For example, we might consider closing down some bridges and sections of highways. We’ll never be able to fix them all and it’s only a matter of time before they start collapsing and killing people. Of course this may not be necessary when increases in gas prices begin to force a majority of drivers off the roads for good. Perhaps we should also start shutting down the airports. Pilot salaries start lower than those of a Wal-Mart cashier, and we are outsourcing all the mechanical work. The airlines can only maintain existing standards with less and less for so long until the planes start falling out of the sky.
Throughout the U.S., many cities should simply be abandoned. New Orleans is a good example. It is doubtful that we can sure up those levies, and even if we did, complacency would set in in a few years and insure that they once again fell prey to neglect and budget cuts. New York City’s bridges and tunnels are also a major liability. They were all built at least over fifty years ago and are already showing their age. Yet, America will never again see the kind of wealth that was tapped to build these transportation systems in the first half of the 20th Century. Close them down now before the next disaster occurs and kills hundreds of people.
There’s no point in denying the inevitable. We should accept the writing on the crumbling wall. America is on its way to becoming a third world nation. Over the past 25 years, America has handed it’s economic dominance to China and submitted to a corporate-dominated laissez-faire economic orthodoxy that disparaged government-involvement in the economy as ‘socialistic’ and worshipped at the altar of so-called ‘free trade’. Conservative republicans, largely working in concert with democrats have strangled public education, abandoned our neediest cities, helped ship America’s manufacturing base overseas and used their control of the government to prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that government couldn’t do anything right. They have heaped unending abuse on the public sector while encouraging the nation to puts its faith in some infallible free market. The end result of this is either a race to the bottom, or a slow, inevitable decline.
As I see it, those are our two options. The first is to continue on our current path, letting the rich look for better countries in which to park their wealth and spending billions on a bloated military, all while denying the fact that we are fundamentally a nation of losers on our way down. The second option is to accept that we are a nation of losers. We tax the rich at 75%, slash the military budget (who are we to be running the world anyway?), and run up the biggest tab with China that we can get away with. Then we take that money, give all Americans free health coverage, a free I-Phone, and a monthly tax rebate check. Tell everyone to move into their parents’ basement, play Guitar Hero for the next 25 years and make the ride down an enjoyable one.
Our best hope is a few good decades before our freefall into barbarity and cannibalism.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Why the county should ignore Bill Cherry
Though the act may have left him something of a self-made martyr for his cause, Bill Cherry’s recent resignation from the position of county budget director was essentially the grown-up equivalent of a temper tantrum, borne of his apparent failure to understand the limits of his own role and authority in the administration of Schoharie County’s finances. Yet it’s easy to sympathize with his frustration; when you think you have all the answers and no one listens to you, it tends to get on your nerves.
Clearly, Cherry’s position was not an enviable one. Schoharie County’s lack of any clear-cut administrative or managerial role thrusts an awkward list of responsibilities, in the form of it’s ‘budget director’ position, on already fully active department heads, which promises to test their time, skills and egos. Whether you agree or disagree with Cherry’s forceful admonitions to the Board of Supervisors (calling for hiring freezes and draconian budget cuts), you should recognize that these proposals come not from his skill or expertise as an administrator, but rather from his lack thereof.
For the past several years Bill Cherry has been something of a broken record, telling the Board of Supervisors to simply stop spending and stop hiring. This was understandable as Cherry is clearly capable of simple mathematics; meaning he could add up the amount of revenue coming in and clearly see that it did not match up to what the county was spending. These are very practical and common sense solutions and explain why Cherry has substantial support from county republicans. Surely it feels good to be able to take the high ground and give those out-of-control supervisors a public spanking. However, in an administrative role, these simplistic feel-good solutions don’t cut it.
This is why Schoharie County needs a professional administrator with the education, skills and experience to play around with the numbers, fine-tune the budget process, and insure that the county is effectively using its resources. We all want to see county government operate more efficiently, but service cuts and hiring freezes are not necessarily the healthiest answer in a recession, especially when the federal government is shipping billions of dollars to state and local governments to maintain services and increase hiring. Not only does the county provide an array of services that keep people able to live here and maintain property tax rolls, but county government is a source of employment for hundreds of residents and this helps to keep our economy afloat, especially during hard times.
Politically, it would solve the problem of tasking existing county officials with an impossible job and would eliminate the, shall we say, misunderstandings that arise from this situation. Put simply, asking other department heads to serve in this quasi-administrative capacity is merely a recipe for further frustration. It also places the Board of Supervisors in the very difficult position of having to override what is perceived as objective, expert economic counsel. The wise move for the county would be to fill all current vacancies and freely hire new staff as necessary. Yet it can not do so without disregarding the advice of Bill Cherry (or whoever else is in the position), whose advice will inevitably be given far more weight than it deserves.
Cherry’s own proposal that we replace the Board of Supervisors with a ‘professional’ county legislature completely misses the point. A full-time county legislature would only mean an additional set of elected individuals representing the county. Their particular skill level and ability to deal with complex financial problems would be no better or worse than those of the current Board of Supervisors. Not to mention the fact that a full time legislature could cost upwards of three to four times what the Board of Supervisors costs us in salaries and benefits. This plainly sounds as if Cherry’s personal anger with the Board of Supervisor’s is getting the best of him.
Let’s stop wasting our time and playing games. The county needs a single professional administrator to step in and find some intelligent solutions to a budgeting process that is far too complex to be left to overwhelmed department heads. Such a professional is needed, now more than ever, to take a more active role in the day-to-day administration of Schoharie County. There’s a lot more involved than simple mathematics. The county needs a finer set of tools to deal with the fiscal challenges at hand and should avoid the blunt-force solutions that Cherry is advocating.
Clearly, Cherry’s position was not an enviable one. Schoharie County’s lack of any clear-cut administrative or managerial role thrusts an awkward list of responsibilities, in the form of it’s ‘budget director’ position, on already fully active department heads, which promises to test their time, skills and egos. Whether you agree or disagree with Cherry’s forceful admonitions to the Board of Supervisors (calling for hiring freezes and draconian budget cuts), you should recognize that these proposals come not from his skill or expertise as an administrator, but rather from his lack thereof.
For the past several years Bill Cherry has been something of a broken record, telling the Board of Supervisors to simply stop spending and stop hiring. This was understandable as Cherry is clearly capable of simple mathematics; meaning he could add up the amount of revenue coming in and clearly see that it did not match up to what the county was spending. These are very practical and common sense solutions and explain why Cherry has substantial support from county republicans. Surely it feels good to be able to take the high ground and give those out-of-control supervisors a public spanking. However, in an administrative role, these simplistic feel-good solutions don’t cut it.
This is why Schoharie County needs a professional administrator with the education, skills and experience to play around with the numbers, fine-tune the budget process, and insure that the county is effectively using its resources. We all want to see county government operate more efficiently, but service cuts and hiring freezes are not necessarily the healthiest answer in a recession, especially when the federal government is shipping billions of dollars to state and local governments to maintain services and increase hiring. Not only does the county provide an array of services that keep people able to live here and maintain property tax rolls, but county government is a source of employment for hundreds of residents and this helps to keep our economy afloat, especially during hard times.
Politically, it would solve the problem of tasking existing county officials with an impossible job and would eliminate the, shall we say, misunderstandings that arise from this situation. Put simply, asking other department heads to serve in this quasi-administrative capacity is merely a recipe for further frustration. It also places the Board of Supervisors in the very difficult position of having to override what is perceived as objective, expert economic counsel. The wise move for the county would be to fill all current vacancies and freely hire new staff as necessary. Yet it can not do so without disregarding the advice of Bill Cherry (or whoever else is in the position), whose advice will inevitably be given far more weight than it deserves.
Cherry’s own proposal that we replace the Board of Supervisors with a ‘professional’ county legislature completely misses the point. A full-time county legislature would only mean an additional set of elected individuals representing the county. Their particular skill level and ability to deal with complex financial problems would be no better or worse than those of the current Board of Supervisors. Not to mention the fact that a full time legislature could cost upwards of three to four times what the Board of Supervisors costs us in salaries and benefits. This plainly sounds as if Cherry’s personal anger with the Board of Supervisor’s is getting the best of him.
Let’s stop wasting our time and playing games. The county needs a single professional administrator to step in and find some intelligent solutions to a budgeting process that is far too complex to be left to overwhelmed department heads. Such a professional is needed, now more than ever, to take a more active role in the day-to-day administration of Schoharie County. There’s a lot more involved than simple mathematics. The county needs a finer set of tools to deal with the fiscal challenges at hand and should avoid the blunt-force solutions that Cherry is advocating.
Gaveled In for Life
The dysfunction and stalemate that has gripped Albany since the June 8th Republican takeover has only really served to emphasize that which most of us already know: our state government is in the hands of a cabal of shameless, self-serving creeps and we are powerless to do anything about it. Sure, this latest spike in madness or shenanigans or whatever you want to call it, has more people than usual talking, and proposing bolder and crazier solutions. But at the end of the day, nothing short of voting each and every one of these legislators out of office and instituting a wide range of reforms will result in any meaningful changes. Sadly, even with the current mess in the State Senate, this does not seem possible. This leaves only one real option to fed-up residents of the State of New York: shut up and deal with it.
Everyone who observes this crisis of governance has a few good ideas on how to clean up this mess. Republican gubernatorial candidate and former Long Island congressman Rick Lazio has suggested abolishing the assembly and senate and replacing them with a uni-cameral legislature. Hey, it works for Nebraska! But what’s to stop a uni-cameral legislature from being just as self-serving and corrupt as our current bi-cameral one? Nothing as far as I can tell. Probably just an empty gesture exploiting this mess to attract attention to his own candidacy.
Similarly, likely gubernatorial candidate Rudy Giuliani has called for a new constitutional convention. Plenty of good reforms could come out of this, such as tougher campaign finance regulations, non-partisan redistricting commissions and even possibly term limits. But they won’t, so keep dreamin!
Most likely, the next governor, who I’m betting will be a Republican, will get elected on a tidal wave of support for reforming New York’s broken government. But once in office they will realize that A. reform is impossible and B. they have more to gain by cooperating with the system. More backroom deals will be made, everything will go back to normal and money will continue to change hands, in other words, democracy as usual.
Of course, I’d be willing to bet that most New Yorkers would be happy to see our state government simply return to its status quo of corrupt backroom deal-making if it meant a return to some semblance of functionality. At least our municipalities would have those necessary ‘housekeeping bills’ passed and would get their damn money, right? What this essentially means is that all of us are just as in hoc to state legislative leadership for our own ‘member items’ as all those cowed little legislators. Still, I wouldn’t bet on a single incumbent being tossed out of office in November.
But will things ever go back to normal? Don’t count on it. If the Republican coup is allowed to stand and democrats recognize their leadership as legitimate, this would virtually guarantee that each election would be followed by endless backroom wrangling and scheming intended to sway the weak links of the majority party. If Republicans get away with this, they will do it again and again and again. Democrats need not worry, they will try to do it as well.
Sure there are reforms that if passed could force these creeps to have a real bad day. For example, if we adopted a system of impartially drawn legislative districts, it would mean real, competitive elections, and our legislators would actually have to pay attention to the voters. But this will never happen. We could also implement term limits, making it impossible for weasels like Espada and Skelos to ensconce themselves in office for as long as they are able to favorably gerrymander their districts. But this too, will never happen. Then of course, we could also do away with legislative member items, well, yeah right! Better yet, why don’t we just ask these guys to be honest and ethical and focus solely on the ‘people’s business’?
What this all boils down to is that here in New York we have a caste of political leaders who are so beyond accountability that they feel that they can do whatever they want, which is exactly what they’re doing. It should make you angry, but not too angry. After all, there’s nothing you can do about it. This is only a democracy.
If anyone has any better ideas, I’m all ears.
Everyone who observes this crisis of governance has a few good ideas on how to clean up this mess. Republican gubernatorial candidate and former Long Island congressman Rick Lazio has suggested abolishing the assembly and senate and replacing them with a uni-cameral legislature. Hey, it works for Nebraska! But what’s to stop a uni-cameral legislature from being just as self-serving and corrupt as our current bi-cameral one? Nothing as far as I can tell. Probably just an empty gesture exploiting this mess to attract attention to his own candidacy.
Similarly, likely gubernatorial candidate Rudy Giuliani has called for a new constitutional convention. Plenty of good reforms could come out of this, such as tougher campaign finance regulations, non-partisan redistricting commissions and even possibly term limits. But they won’t, so keep dreamin!
Most likely, the next governor, who I’m betting will be a Republican, will get elected on a tidal wave of support for reforming New York’s broken government. But once in office they will realize that A. reform is impossible and B. they have more to gain by cooperating with the system. More backroom deals will be made, everything will go back to normal and money will continue to change hands, in other words, democracy as usual.
Of course, I’d be willing to bet that most New Yorkers would be happy to see our state government simply return to its status quo of corrupt backroom deal-making if it meant a return to some semblance of functionality. At least our municipalities would have those necessary ‘housekeeping bills’ passed and would get their damn money, right? What this essentially means is that all of us are just as in hoc to state legislative leadership for our own ‘member items’ as all those cowed little legislators. Still, I wouldn’t bet on a single incumbent being tossed out of office in November.
But will things ever go back to normal? Don’t count on it. If the Republican coup is allowed to stand and democrats recognize their leadership as legitimate, this would virtually guarantee that each election would be followed by endless backroom wrangling and scheming intended to sway the weak links of the majority party. If Republicans get away with this, they will do it again and again and again. Democrats need not worry, they will try to do it as well.
Sure there are reforms that if passed could force these creeps to have a real bad day. For example, if we adopted a system of impartially drawn legislative districts, it would mean real, competitive elections, and our legislators would actually have to pay attention to the voters. But this will never happen. We could also implement term limits, making it impossible for weasels like Espada and Skelos to ensconce themselves in office for as long as they are able to favorably gerrymander their districts. But this too, will never happen. Then of course, we could also do away with legislative member items, well, yeah right! Better yet, why don’t we just ask these guys to be honest and ethical and focus solely on the ‘people’s business’?
What this all boils down to is that here in New York we have a caste of political leaders who are so beyond accountability that they feel that they can do whatever they want, which is exactly what they’re doing. It should make you angry, but not too angry. After all, there’s nothing you can do about it. This is only a democracy.
If anyone has any better ideas, I’m all ears.
Stuck with Them
As Cobleskill developer Mark Nadeau apparently announced his mayoral candidacy last week via t-shirt, I began seriously wondering if it wasn’t time for Cobleskill to return to two-year terms of office. It’s not that Cobleskill has had an especially bad run of non-credible candidates over the past few years, it’s that Cobleskill actually votes for them. Then, once they reveal themselves to be, oh I don’t know, pathological liars bent on personal vendettas, the voters are stuck with them for four long years.
With Trustee Bob LaPietra, Cobleskill has essentially been saddled with an absentee slumlord, an admitted liar and a brazen lawbreaker whose word clearly can not be trusted. Did voters adequately consider these potential character flaws when they elected him trustee? Maybe not, or maybe they just gave the guy the benefit of the doubt. Either way, the voters now have no recourse but to put up with him until 2012 when he will again face the voters.
Part of me wants to simply sit back and enjoy these candidates for their entertainment value. However, there’s actually a lot of damage they can do. Just consider the fact that if three of five of the current trustees had their way, there wouldn’t even be a village left to speak of. As it is now, the village is dangerously close to being dissolved despite not having sufficiently studied the move, and despite the fact that the studies that have been done actually show that Cobleskill might be better off becoming a city. This November there will be a referendum on the village ballot on the question of dissolution, not incorporation as a city. Will voters fully appreciate the consequences of voting for this, or will they be told that they are merely voting for ‘consolidation and shared services’, everybody’s favorite new buzz words? If LaPietra’s demonstrated ability to lie to voters during a campaign is any indication, this will be an interesting election.
In his short time in office, LaPietra has attempted to gut the village Department of Planning, Environment and Codes and charges residents a $25 filing fee for codes complaints. This man seems to be out to single-handedly dismantle the village of Cobleskill, and if possible, to do so from his winter home in Punta Gorda, Florida. Because of their poor choices, Cobleskill’s voters may not have a chance in four years to correct themselves.
Assuming the village isn’t dissolved any time soon, voters ought to have an escape clause when they get stuck with maniacs like this. Each village official should serve only two year terms. I’m all for bringing additional voices to the table and choosing from a variety of bold and innovative ideas and characters. But for cryin’ out loud, can we please vet these candidates with a little more scrutiny, or barring that, at least have the option of voting them out after two years once they’ve shown us their true colors?
With Trustee Bob LaPietra, Cobleskill has essentially been saddled with an absentee slumlord, an admitted liar and a brazen lawbreaker whose word clearly can not be trusted. Did voters adequately consider these potential character flaws when they elected him trustee? Maybe not, or maybe they just gave the guy the benefit of the doubt. Either way, the voters now have no recourse but to put up with him until 2012 when he will again face the voters.
Part of me wants to simply sit back and enjoy these candidates for their entertainment value. However, there’s actually a lot of damage they can do. Just consider the fact that if three of five of the current trustees had their way, there wouldn’t even be a village left to speak of. As it is now, the village is dangerously close to being dissolved despite not having sufficiently studied the move, and despite the fact that the studies that have been done actually show that Cobleskill might be better off becoming a city. This November there will be a referendum on the village ballot on the question of dissolution, not incorporation as a city. Will voters fully appreciate the consequences of voting for this, or will they be told that they are merely voting for ‘consolidation and shared services’, everybody’s favorite new buzz words? If LaPietra’s demonstrated ability to lie to voters during a campaign is any indication, this will be an interesting election.
In his short time in office, LaPietra has attempted to gut the village Department of Planning, Environment and Codes and charges residents a $25 filing fee for codes complaints. This man seems to be out to single-handedly dismantle the village of Cobleskill, and if possible, to do so from his winter home in Punta Gorda, Florida. Because of their poor choices, Cobleskill’s voters may not have a chance in four years to correct themselves.
Assuming the village isn’t dissolved any time soon, voters ought to have an escape clause when they get stuck with maniacs like this. Each village official should serve only two year terms. I’m all for bringing additional voices to the table and choosing from a variety of bold and innovative ideas and characters. But for cryin’ out loud, can we please vet these candidates with a little more scrutiny, or barring that, at least have the option of voting them out after two years once they’ve shown us their true colors?
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
The List Goes On (and on)
The now-famous Schoharie County “stimulus wish-list” that has been circulated to state and federal representatives has been hailed as a coordinated, quick-thinking effort by our county’s leaders to get out in front of what could be a huge opportunity. However, it’s a shame that with all this energy and “quick thinking”, this quite extensive list was the best our county could come up with. Looking over the ambitious list of proposed projects, what I find most disheartening is the utter lack of vision shown by our county’s leadership. Instead of long-term, forward-thinking ideas that will foster vibrant and sustainable communities, this list is a one-stop funding shop for all of the absolute worst ideas that have been floating around Schoharie County for the past ten years, as well as some entirely new bad ideas.
The projects for which the county is requesting funding range from reckless speculative ploys to outrageous boondoggles to pie-in-the-sky pipe dreams. And those are the good ones! Then there’s the outright scandalous $90 million dollars being requested for three totally unwarranted I-88 exits. The notion that these new exits would stimulate job growth is doubtful at best. However, they would pad the wallets of the local highway developers (Lancaster) who will most likely get the contracts. Some of that money will trickle down to the workers but other than that there would be little upside.
But the real danger in proposing these interchanges is that if even one of them is funded, at $30 million a pop, and this takes away all that money for other needed projects it will be a colossal and tragic waste for this county.
At best, most of the projects reflect a wide-eyed belief that if only a new exit is built here, or a new water line here, or a gas line here that the skies will suddenly open up and jobs will rain down. All while the promise of Empire Zone-created jobs goes unfulfilled after over two years of waiting. Anyone who actually believes the county’s projected job creation figures, well, there’s a bridge on Podpadic Road for sale.
As usual, little thought is given to maintaining our downtowns as livable and functional communities. And this is the real opportunity associated with the stimulus bill, and it’s the one our leaders completely missed.
All of our commercial centers in Schoharie County are in need of facelifts, and this is nothing new. But where is the money for downtown streetscape improvements and façade rehabs? Where is the money to rehab the upper-level apartment units in Downtown Cobleskill’s business district? For that matter, where is the money to replace those damn windows in the Newberry Square building?
I know that its hard to restrain oneself when the government is giving away free money. Even those who regularly decry government pork are going hog wild. However, a list of bad projects that goes on and on (and on) is a bad strategy for capturing federal stimulus dollars. Even if there are good projects on the list, which there are, they are inevitably going to be overshadowed by all the bad ones. A far shorter list, with a few solid (and less costly) projects that are long overdue might have gone a lot further. In the end, it may be that our county’s leaders have actually screwed up something as simple as free money. Nice one, guys.
The projects for which the county is requesting funding range from reckless speculative ploys to outrageous boondoggles to pie-in-the-sky pipe dreams. And those are the good ones! Then there’s the outright scandalous $90 million dollars being requested for three totally unwarranted I-88 exits. The notion that these new exits would stimulate job growth is doubtful at best. However, they would pad the wallets of the local highway developers (Lancaster) who will most likely get the contracts. Some of that money will trickle down to the workers but other than that there would be little upside.
But the real danger in proposing these interchanges is that if even one of them is funded, at $30 million a pop, and this takes away all that money for other needed projects it will be a colossal and tragic waste for this county.
At best, most of the projects reflect a wide-eyed belief that if only a new exit is built here, or a new water line here, or a gas line here that the skies will suddenly open up and jobs will rain down. All while the promise of Empire Zone-created jobs goes unfulfilled after over two years of waiting. Anyone who actually believes the county’s projected job creation figures, well, there’s a bridge on Podpadic Road for sale.
As usual, little thought is given to maintaining our downtowns as livable and functional communities. And this is the real opportunity associated with the stimulus bill, and it’s the one our leaders completely missed.
All of our commercial centers in Schoharie County are in need of facelifts, and this is nothing new. But where is the money for downtown streetscape improvements and façade rehabs? Where is the money to rehab the upper-level apartment units in Downtown Cobleskill’s business district? For that matter, where is the money to replace those damn windows in the Newberry Square building?
I know that its hard to restrain oneself when the government is giving away free money. Even those who regularly decry government pork are going hog wild. However, a list of bad projects that goes on and on (and on) is a bad strategy for capturing federal stimulus dollars. Even if there are good projects on the list, which there are, they are inevitably going to be overshadowed by all the bad ones. A far shorter list, with a few solid (and less costly) projects that are long overdue might have gone a lot further. In the end, it may be that our county’s leaders have actually screwed up something as simple as free money. Nice one, guys.
Next Steps for Newberry Square?
The recent Schoharie County court decision overturning the Village of Cobleskill’s $20,000 fine against Newberry Square owner Henry Ioannou affirms what had long been apparent to anyone driving down Main Street over the past year: The village is completely powerless when it comes to getting this owner to step up and maintain this property.
That Judge Bartlett’s decision is legally questionable and probably ought to be appealed, is a moot point. I sincerely doubt that a different decision would have translated into a different outcome with regards to the plywood. This owner is a deadbeat and has obviously committed himself to not making any improvements to the property. And this is not an acceptable long-term solution for this community.
Last year there was talk of an investor buying the building and using Restore NY grant money to rehabilitate the upper levels. But that doesn’t seem to be an option. Apparently, there is new talk of another buyer, but don't hold your breath.
More than likely, the saga will go on, and the village will be stuck with a deadbeat owner who would rather pay a lawyer than a window installer. Which brings me to the question, if the village can’t find another buyer for the Newberry Square building, why don’t they just acquire the building themselves, through eminent domain, if necessary? For years, the village has been talking about moving its offices back downtown. Is there a more appropriate time and place for such a move?
As the private sector has failed to find a profitable use for the Newberry Square building, it falls on our local government to insure that this centerpiece of Cobleskill’s business district is returned to some productive use. The existence of village offices could insure a steady stream of customers into the building, making it’s several retail spaces, as well as those in neighboring buildings that much more attractive. The same could be said for rehabilitating the upper-level apartments, either as offices or residential units. As it stands now, Newberry Square's blight is pulling down the rest of that Main Street block and indeed Main Street itself.
Now that the courts have cut off the Village's legs with regards to remedying the current owner's mess, the Village has an obligation to look into more aggressive approaches. Moving Village Hall to Newberry Square could resolve many issues at once. At the very least, it's better than sitting around waiting for Henry Ioannou to call a window repairman.
That Judge Bartlett’s decision is legally questionable and probably ought to be appealed, is a moot point. I sincerely doubt that a different decision would have translated into a different outcome with regards to the plywood. This owner is a deadbeat and has obviously committed himself to not making any improvements to the property. And this is not an acceptable long-term solution for this community.
Last year there was talk of an investor buying the building and using Restore NY grant money to rehabilitate the upper levels. But that doesn’t seem to be an option. Apparently, there is new talk of another buyer, but don't hold your breath.
More than likely, the saga will go on, and the village will be stuck with a deadbeat owner who would rather pay a lawyer than a window installer. Which brings me to the question, if the village can’t find another buyer for the Newberry Square building, why don’t they just acquire the building themselves, through eminent domain, if necessary? For years, the village has been talking about moving its offices back downtown. Is there a more appropriate time and place for such a move?
As the private sector has failed to find a profitable use for the Newberry Square building, it falls on our local government to insure that this centerpiece of Cobleskill’s business district is returned to some productive use. The existence of village offices could insure a steady stream of customers into the building, making it’s several retail spaces, as well as those in neighboring buildings that much more attractive. The same could be said for rehabilitating the upper-level apartments, either as offices or residential units. As it stands now, Newberry Square's blight is pulling down the rest of that Main Street block and indeed Main Street itself.
Now that the courts have cut off the Village's legs with regards to remedying the current owner's mess, the Village has an obligation to look into more aggressive approaches. Moving Village Hall to Newberry Square could resolve many issues at once. At the very least, it's better than sitting around waiting for Henry Ioannou to call a window repairman.
Old Whine, New Bottles
Let’s not harbor any illusions about the recent passage of a compromise version of the so-called ‘bigger better bottle bill’. The only ‘green’ that Governor Paterson is interested in here is the $200 million+ in unclaimed bottle deposits that the bill will transfer into state coffers. Not that that in and of itself is necessarily a bad thing, given the financial crisis facing our state, and the fact that there is no conceivable reason why this money shouldn’t be used to help stave off budget cuts or tax hikes.The recently passed bill addresses several key aspects of New York’s deposit bottle recycling system. First and foremost, the bill places a 5-cent deposit on water bottles, i.e. the 12 oz. plastic containers that have been rapidly proliferating over the past ten years. Other provisions in the law include the transfer of 80% of unclaimed bottle deposits from the beverage industry to the state. The bill also increases the handling fee paid by the bottlers to stores and redemption centers from 2% to 3% and mandates New York State-specific UPC codes for ALL containers sold in the state to prevent out-of-state containers from being redeemed in New York (like in Seinfeld when Kramer and Newman tried to take a mail truck full of bottles to Michigan, where they pay out a ten cent redemption).
However, while the bill was heavily supported by environmental activists and public interest groups such as NYPIRG (New York Public Interest Research Group) as a way to increase recycling and keep plastic bottles out of landfills, the beverage industry has fought the bill tooth and nail, mainly because they were afraid of losing the hundreds of millions of dollars in unclaimed container deposits.
It now appears that this industry is planning a risky gambit to stir up old fears that the new law will cost consumers, cause people to lose their jobs, and that the new law simply won’t work. These are the same old complaints that the beverage industry has been using to kill the bottle bill for the past ten years. Not to mention the fact that these are the same scare tactics they used in the early 1980s when the current deposit-recycling system was put into place.
But the beverage giants are merely drawing attention away from the plain fact that they are the ones responsible for the problem of container disposal in the first place as they are producing the containers. Deposit-based recycling systems insure that the industry bears some responsibility for taking out its own trash. Otherwise, there is no incentive to look into more environmentally neutral packaging and bottling methods, as the costs of disposing of containers are subsidized by taxpayers and built into state and municipal property taxes in the form of curbside recycling programs, street cleaning services and procuring new landfill capacities.
Another complaint designed to gain sympathy pits the new recycling regime against the mom-and-pop grocers and convenience stores, who critics claim, simply lack the space to accommodate all the containers. But before you shed a tear for the small corner store owner, consider the fact that virtually no one redeems bottles and cans at small grocers and convenience stores. They take them back to supermarkets which have separate redemption rooms and reverse vending machines.
While these larger-scale grocers will likely experience an uptick in container redemption, the notion that they will be unable to accommodate the increase is absurd. And so it goes for the rest of the unfounded claims that the new law will drive up the costs of bottled water and break the backs of bottlers and distributors.
This legislation is an important update to a valued recycling program that recognizes the changes that have taken place in consumer trends and is in fact long overdue. Hopefully, lawmakers will keep this new bill on track to become effective on June 1st and understand that the fear tactics are nothing but a desperate end game by the beverage industry to cling to millions of dollars in unclaimed deposits.
Dead-Ender
The New York State Assembly’s Republican conference recently held another panel on how to stop the ‘brain drain’ as part of its “RemaiNY” initiative. This time, the events were held on Long Island, but previous forums were held in Upstate, which would seem more appropriate given the exodus of recent college grads from Upstate’s communities. In any case, over the past twenty years much has been made of the so-called ‘brain drain’.
But the issue always seems to be framed as if it were the responsibility of Upstate NY’s communities to adapt themselves to the needs of the young, ambitious and college-educated, when perhaps it should be the other way around. I look at everything that Upstate New York has to offer: a moderate climate, some of the most beautiful natural landscapes in the world, an extremely low cost of living, and some of the nations’ oldest and richest historical communities. I then have to wonder what it is exactly that the people leaving in droves are hoping to find.
Well you can get your answer by looking at the places these people are leaving for, i.e. New York City, Boston and Chicago metro regions. What do these places have that we don’t, besides heavy suburban sprawl, traffic-choked highways and gentrifying (read: unaffordable) inner city neighborhoods? Well, contrary to conventional wisdom, it’s not a lack of jobs that drives these people away from Upper New York, it’s a lack of jobs that pay a ton of money to fuel an obsession with status and material acquisition that has become the standard of the American way of life.
A person can easily live in a city like Amsterdam or Utica on minimum wage (maybe with a little help in the form of food stamps, WIC and Medicaid). But what, that’s not good enough?
That these people don’t want to live in MY Upstate NY is not something I consider a problem and I don’t believe that we should waste one second thinking about how to keep these people in this state. Let them go off and join their rat race. Good riddance!
But the issue always seems to be framed as if it were the responsibility of Upstate NY’s communities to adapt themselves to the needs of the young, ambitious and college-educated, when perhaps it should be the other way around. I look at everything that Upstate New York has to offer: a moderate climate, some of the most beautiful natural landscapes in the world, an extremely low cost of living, and some of the nations’ oldest and richest historical communities. I then have to wonder what it is exactly that the people leaving in droves are hoping to find.
Well you can get your answer by looking at the places these people are leaving for, i.e. New York City, Boston and Chicago metro regions. What do these places have that we don’t, besides heavy suburban sprawl, traffic-choked highways and gentrifying (read: unaffordable) inner city neighborhoods? Well, contrary to conventional wisdom, it’s not a lack of jobs that drives these people away from Upper New York, it’s a lack of jobs that pay a ton of money to fuel an obsession with status and material acquisition that has become the standard of the American way of life.
A person can easily live in a city like Amsterdam or Utica on minimum wage (maybe with a little help in the form of food stamps, WIC and Medicaid). But what, that’s not good enough?
That these people don’t want to live in MY Upstate NY is not something I consider a problem and I don’t believe that we should waste one second thinking about how to keep these people in this state. Let them go off and join their rat race. Good riddance!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
The Times-Journal Misses Mayor Sellers
About halfway through the Times-Journal’s ridiculous editorial entitled “In Absentia” I realized it was going to be one of those annoying editorials that made me want to call up Jim Poole just to tell him to shut the hell up. If you want to take a public official to task for not showing up at Board meetings and not responding to citizen’s calls, I can understand that. But in this case, the Times-Journal goes way overboard. In the editorial, Mayor Sellers is criticized not for his poor attendance at Village meetings, but at, get this, memorial day ceremonies! He is also skewered for not showing up regularly enough at the annual meetings of Cobleskill Partnership Incorporated, a voluntary organization of which Mr. Sellers is a committee member.Why Mr. Sellers’ attendance is so absolutely crucial and essential at these annual CPI meetings? Oh yes, according to the Times-Journal it was an “opportunity to schmooze with local entrepreneurs”. Hey, good schmoozing opportunities don’t come along every day.
Sellers is also criticized for not being involved with the “remodeling” of the corner of Main and Division St. But if I remember correctly, there were plenty of people who “had a hand” in the project already. I seem to remember seeing all their faces in the obligatory Times-Journal photo-op a few weeks ago. Another missed schmoozing opportunity, I guess. If anyone can think of any more events in the village that the Mayor has missed please contact Mr. Poole at once.
Then the editorial informs us that Mr. Sellers is on vacation in Peru, a revelation most likely greeted with the loudest collective ‘who gives a shit?’ in recent memory. I am still scratching my head trying to figure out exactly how this constitutes news. I know that the Times-Journal loves to bash Sellers as the “no-show mayor” and I know that its hard to stray from the established talking point, but this is grasping at straws.
If anyone reading this has any contact with Sellers, be sure and remind him to send Jim Poole a postcard from Machu Picchu.
LaPietra’s Intolerable Acts
One wonders if getting slammed with a $25 dollar fee for complaining that your slumlord won’t fix the furnace is what the Boston colonists had in mind when they dumped all that tea into the harbor. Probably not, but that’s okay. We’ll just add irony to the list of things Village Trustee Bob LaPietra, who ran on his own ‘Tea Party’ line, doesn’t quite get.
At February’s first Village Board meeting, Cobleskill’s most patriotic slumlord attempted to strike a blow for deadbeat property owners everywhere when he introduced a motion to charge village residents a $25 dollar fee for reporting codes violations. Shameless, I know. But if that wasn’t bad enough he also made a motion to Nelli Mooney, head of the Department of Planning, Environment and Codes with two part-timers. If passed, these two measures would have discouraged cash-strapped tenants from filing complaints and removed an experienced village employee, effectively dismantling the codes office in the process. The message to village employees would have been simple: if you do your job by protecting village residents from people like me, I’ll have your job.
Though Trustee Mark Galasso supported LaPietra’s measures, they were blocked by the other three members of the Village Board (Linda Holmes, Sandy MacKay and Mayor Michael Sellers).
LaPietra’s abuse of power was so blatant that even the Times-Journal, which is usually supportive of LaPietra, had to take a step back and wonder what the hell this guy was thinking. They correctly point to LaPietra’s long and sordid history of flouting local zoning ordinances and building codes. As recently as several months ago, LaPietra was ordered by a state court to remove residents from the upper floor of a commercial building that was out of compliance with both the local zoning ordinance and the state building code.
The Times-Journal said LaPietra’s proposals “raised alarm bells”, and that’s reassuring. However, the editorial extended LaPietra little more than a slap on the wrist for his naked attempt to gut the codes office. They also completely failed to hold Trustee Mark Galasso accountable for his support of that attempt. This raises the question, far more urgent and critical than the Times-Journal’s “alarm bells”, of whether or not LaPietra and Galasso will be held accountable at all. LaPietra casually violates the law and then goes after the jobs of the people who attempted to stop him. Meanwhile, Mark Galasso, whose Daddy handed him a multi-million dollar highway construction company, wants to charge Schoharie County’s working poor $25 to file a complaint against their slumlord. It’s obvious that these two men have no shame. Jim Poole's ears are ringing, but where's the outrage?
Were I LaPietra or Galasso I would seriously consider holding off on the whole American Revolution theme as now would probably not be a good time for them to remind people of that whole tarring and feathering thing we used to do.
At February’s first Village Board meeting, Cobleskill’s most patriotic slumlord attempted to strike a blow for deadbeat property owners everywhere when he introduced a motion to charge village residents a $25 dollar fee for reporting codes violations. Shameless, I know. But if that wasn’t bad enough he also made a motion to Nelli Mooney, head of the Department of Planning, Environment and Codes with two part-timers. If passed, these two measures would have discouraged cash-strapped tenants from filing complaints and removed an experienced village employee, effectively dismantling the codes office in the process. The message to village employees would have been simple: if you do your job by protecting village residents from people like me, I’ll have your job.
Though Trustee Mark Galasso supported LaPietra’s measures, they were blocked by the other three members of the Village Board (Linda Holmes, Sandy MacKay and Mayor Michael Sellers).
LaPietra’s abuse of power was so blatant that even the Times-Journal, which is usually supportive of LaPietra, had to take a step back and wonder what the hell this guy was thinking. They correctly point to LaPietra’s long and sordid history of flouting local zoning ordinances and building codes. As recently as several months ago, LaPietra was ordered by a state court to remove residents from the upper floor of a commercial building that was out of compliance with both the local zoning ordinance and the state building code.
The Times-Journal said LaPietra’s proposals “raised alarm bells”, and that’s reassuring. However, the editorial extended LaPietra little more than a slap on the wrist for his naked attempt to gut the codes office. They also completely failed to hold Trustee Mark Galasso accountable for his support of that attempt. This raises the question, far more urgent and critical than the Times-Journal’s “alarm bells”, of whether or not LaPietra and Galasso will be held accountable at all. LaPietra casually violates the law and then goes after the jobs of the people who attempted to stop him. Meanwhile, Mark Galasso, whose Daddy handed him a multi-million dollar highway construction company, wants to charge Schoharie County’s working poor $25 to file a complaint against their slumlord. It’s obvious that these two men have no shame. Jim Poole's ears are ringing, but where's the outrage?
Were I LaPietra or Galasso I would seriously consider holding off on the whole American Revolution theme as now would probably not be a good time for them to remind people of that whole tarring and feathering thing we used to do.
Experience and Issues Matter in Richmondville, Finally
While Reunion Power has been busy measuring the wind speeds up on Warnerville Hill, there has been more than enough hot air blowing around Richmondville Town Board meetings to power most of the Eastern seaboard. I’m sure most of you have seen them, if not live and in person than surely on Schopeg. Every month the same cast of characters shows up in force to point their fingers and stomp their feet.
However, Richmondville residents accustomed to getting what they want via temper tantrum were surely quite displeased when former supervisor Betsy Bernocco was appointed to the Town Board to fill out the term of Larry Zaba. Could Bernocco’s appointment be a sign that Richmondville’s elected officials are finally growing a pair? Could this mean that they are finally realizing that the angry NIMBY’s who stalk Town Board meetings are not representative of the town as a whole?
I sure hope so, because it’s about time this community sobered up when it comes to wind power. For over two years the discussion has been dominated by a small but vocal group bitterly opposed to wind power who have infected every aspect of the process with unfounded fear and hysteria. Last Fall, the Town Board inexplicably voted to adopt an onerously high wind turbine setback of 1500 feet, a figure arguably adopted only to placate Reunion Power’s critics, often the loudest and rudest voices in the room. God only knows what kind of lop-sided and biased information the committee used to determine those setback recommendations. Schoharie Valley Watch themselves have criticized the supposed secrecy of the setback committee. I too, would like there to be an open process and I would like to know just how the committee came up with a setback figure of 1500 feet when dozens of nearby communities with comparable population densities and topographies have adopted considerably lower setbacks.
While Bernocco’s appointment has been criticized by the usual chronic complainers, her experience and long record of service to the town and village of Richmondville make her an asset to the Town Board. As the Town attempts to move forward on the wind law and dozens of other issues objectively and intelligently it is crucial that they act as representatives for all town residents, not just the handful of loudmouths who show up at Board meetings every month to bitch and moan.
However, Richmondville residents accustomed to getting what they want via temper tantrum were surely quite displeased when former supervisor Betsy Bernocco was appointed to the Town Board to fill out the term of Larry Zaba. Could Bernocco’s appointment be a sign that Richmondville’s elected officials are finally growing a pair? Could this mean that they are finally realizing that the angry NIMBY’s who stalk Town Board meetings are not representative of the town as a whole?
I sure hope so, because it’s about time this community sobered up when it comes to wind power. For over two years the discussion has been dominated by a small but vocal group bitterly opposed to wind power who have infected every aspect of the process with unfounded fear and hysteria. Last Fall, the Town Board inexplicably voted to adopt an onerously high wind turbine setback of 1500 feet, a figure arguably adopted only to placate Reunion Power’s critics, often the loudest and rudest voices in the room. God only knows what kind of lop-sided and biased information the committee used to determine those setback recommendations. Schoharie Valley Watch themselves have criticized the supposed secrecy of the setback committee. I too, would like there to be an open process and I would like to know just how the committee came up with a setback figure of 1500 feet when dozens of nearby communities with comparable population densities and topographies have adopted considerably lower setbacks.
While Bernocco’s appointment has been criticized by the usual chronic complainers, her experience and long record of service to the town and village of Richmondville make her an asset to the Town Board. As the Town attempts to move forward on the wind law and dozens of other issues objectively and intelligently it is crucial that they act as representatives for all town residents, not just the handful of loudmouths who show up at Board meetings every month to bitch and moan.
PAYT a mixed bag
Pay-as-you-throw garbage collection is back on the table in the Village of Cobleskill as trustees grapple with the rising costs of trash removal. While the temptation to save costs by removing trash collection from the Village budget is a powerful incentive, the new system being proposed could have village residents throwing away their money more than anything else.
Initially, PAYT emerged as a brainchild of the libertarian far right as a way to rationalize waste disposal by individualizing costs and benefits. In a twist of irony, the idea was later adopted by some environmentalists who believe that PAYT incentivizes recycling and reduces waste streams. Ithaca, NY of all places uses PAYT for trash removal, precisely because it has been so successfully re-packaged as a green reform.
However, the other side to PAYT is that the system radically shifts the burden of paying for trash removal from a somewhat more progressive system where the costs are built in to your property tax bill to a far more regressive system where the poorest of the poor pay the same rates as the richest of the rich. This regressive system can be compounded for poor households that happen to be larger in size and who will therefore tend to generate more waste. The bottom line is that under PAYT, the poor pay more for trash removal as their fees constitute a higher portion of their household income.
Admittedly, PAYT is a system that has generated a considerable amount of “curb appeal” as an innovative way to privatize a costly municipal service AND at the same increase recycling. However, PAYT often makes trash removal unnecessarily complicated, encourages illegal dumping and regressively shifts the burden of trash removal costs to the poor. With these obvious positives and negatives, PAYT is clearly a mixed bag. Any municipality interested in adopting a PAYT system should look carefully at these positives and negatives and weigh them against each other. In Cobleskill, that doesn’t appear to be happening. Instead, village trustees seem to be looking to pawn off an expensive service on village residents with little regard for the economic impact it will have.
Initially, PAYT emerged as a brainchild of the libertarian far right as a way to rationalize waste disposal by individualizing costs and benefits. In a twist of irony, the idea was later adopted by some environmentalists who believe that PAYT incentivizes recycling and reduces waste streams. Ithaca, NY of all places uses PAYT for trash removal, precisely because it has been so successfully re-packaged as a green reform.
However, the other side to PAYT is that the system radically shifts the burden of paying for trash removal from a somewhat more progressive system where the costs are built in to your property tax bill to a far more regressive system where the poorest of the poor pay the same rates as the richest of the rich. This regressive system can be compounded for poor households that happen to be larger in size and who will therefore tend to generate more waste. The bottom line is that under PAYT, the poor pay more for trash removal as their fees constitute a higher portion of their household income.
Admittedly, PAYT is a system that has generated a considerable amount of “curb appeal” as an innovative way to privatize a costly municipal service AND at the same increase recycling. However, PAYT often makes trash removal unnecessarily complicated, encourages illegal dumping and regressively shifts the burden of trash removal costs to the poor. With these obvious positives and negatives, PAYT is clearly a mixed bag. Any municipality interested in adopting a PAYT system should look carefully at these positives and negatives and weigh them against each other. In Cobleskill, that doesn’t appear to be happening. Instead, village trustees seem to be looking to pawn off an expensive service on village residents with little regard for the economic impact it will have.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Porkers!
When not actually in government, Republicans like to blast away at the reckless spending of big government liberals who, as the old saying goes, will spend taxpayers money like drunken sailors. But when in government, and/or when in a position to benefit, Republicans can spend like the best of them. In Schoharie County, Obama’s stimulus package has local Republicans lining up with their hands out like kids in a candy store, or should I say pork store.In fact, if you listen closely you can already here Schoharie County’s fattest piggies lined up at the trough squealing for treats. Schoharie County’s Board of Supervisors settled on a list of 17 projects costing over $153 million dollars. Make no mistake, Schoharie County is in desperate need of a few hundred million dollars or so of stimulus money. But many of the proposed projects leave me scratching my head as expensive and for the most part unnecessary, and worst of all, they take away resources from more worthy projects.
For example, the county proposes to spend $90 million on three new I-88 exits, one for the proposed water park by Howe Caverns, one for Guilford Mills in Cobleskill and another for Schoharie. Not only is this is a colossal and unjustified waste of money, but the fat highway contracts will be manna from Heaven for the Galasso's. Here’s an idea, why don’t they just put in a separate exit ramp leading straight to the home of the Galasso’s so they can just drive right up and drop the money off by the truck load?
The pork list just goes on. The Board is proposing replacing a small bridge on Podpadic Road in order to access a proposed industrial site. Pay attention because this one’s a gem. Mill Services, who already have a factory in the Village of Cobleskill are being courted by Town of Richmondville officials, including Planning Board Chair Harold Loder, who incidentally, owns the piece of land that the bridge replacement would provide access to. Let me get this straight. We waste millions of dollars in federal money for a new bridge for Podpadic Road and the Village of Cobleskill gets another empty factory, all so Harold Loder gets a buyer for his land. And to think, these people probably didn't even vote for Obama!
Then there’s $11.8 million dollars for water and sewer extensions out to Shad Point, and everything in between. Interesting strategy by local developers. Tell the water hoarders in the Village of Cobleskill that they’re costing the county nearly 12 million dollars in federal aid by not playing along.
Of course, buried in all this pork there are some worthy projects like the $25.8 million dollars for broadband service, a truly critical piece of the infrastructure puzzle. There’s a modest $3 million dollars in there for SUNY Cobleskill which will be used in the development of a waste-to-energy project. More projects along these lines could push us further toward developing a green energy/technology economy that has the best chance of creating new opportunities for Upstate NY.
Another critical but overlooked piece of the puzzle is sustainable development. Amidst all of this pork for new highway projects and moving factories across town, there is little talk of projects that will help to revitalize our downtowns and promote sustainable development. There needs to be more of a focus on projects like the Newberry Square building rehab and the Cobleskill Creek Trail. New sidewalks and facades for all the Downtown business districts in the region would not only provide temporary construction jobs and provide the facelift our business districts will need to thrive in coming decades but it could be done at a fraction of the cost of Schoharie County’s three new proposed highway exits. The current and temporary reduction in fuel costs has made a lot of us forget just how obsolete our automobile-dominated society is becoming. We need to start rebuilding compact, high-density communities sooner rather than later. We need to start by rehabilitating the vacant spaces in our downtown business districts and working on our bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in the county, which is currently non-existent.
More federal aid for wind farms could also be a windfall for the area if federal aid stipulated more robust PILOT payments for local communities. This could help to reduce local resistance as communities realized they had more to gain than to lose by working with wind power developers.
Right now is a critical time for America and particularly the depressed economy of Upstate NY. With the Federal Government eager to throw hundreds of billions of dollars at the problem, it is imperative that we as citizens insure that this money is used wisely to build a sustainable future and not to pad the wallets of the porkers who run this county. After all, a trillion dollars is a terrible thing to waste.
How Wal-Mart Short-Changes Communities
Wal-Mart’s recent attempt to shake down the Town of Cobleskill by demanding a reduction in its property assessment shouldn’t come as a surprise; it’s standard operating procedure for the retail giant. As the country slides deeper and deeper into recession, Wal-Mart counts on the fact that cash-strapped communities like Cobleskill won’t have the resources to fight back when they demand concessions on their property assessments, even when the local assessment is correct.For a company that has become infamous for playing hardball with its vendors and with many of its employees, the thousands of municipalities in which Wal-Mart’s operate should not be surprised when they begin to receive similar treatment from the company. Even still, for many of the communities who don’t come out ahead in their dealings with the company, the consequences can be devastating. Many of these communities welcome Wal-Mart’s and similar big box retailers with open arms, precisely because these companies promise significant sales and property tax revenues. Communities see these developments as a way to increase economic development and help defray the increasing costs of providing services.
In the final tally however, most of these communities find themselves short-changed by such big box retailers. Stores like Wal-Mart almost immediately drain business away from local merchants rapidly transforming downtown business districts into ghost towns. Meanwhile, rather than helping to lessen the costs of providing services through additional tax revenues, Wal-Mart and other big box retailers consume far more resources than other businesses. However, for many communities the coup de grace comes when a company like Wal-Mart decides to further cut its own costs by challenging its local property assessment to the tune of millions of dollars. Needless to say, this can come as a major blow to small towns who after having hosted a Wal-Mart for several years usually have lost businesses who do pay their taxes and will continue having to provide expensive services to the local Wal-Mart.
However, it may be at the local level where communities stand the best chance at beating back these hardball tactics. Local governments need to be counseled by state agencies and non-profits on how to defend their assessments against challenges by companies like Wal-Mart. Defending assessments can be a costly and time-consuming battle for local assessors. However, if they have done their homework, and the assessments are correct, they should hold up in state proceedings.
Obviously, state real property services agencies, such as New York’s Office of Real Property Services have a vested interest in preventing companies like Wal-Mart from in essence gaming the system by intimidating small communities with a barrage of legal threats. The less that companies like Wal-Mart pay in local property taxes, the more the states have to pick up in financial aid to municipalities.
Another way for local communities to get what it they are owed from Wal-Mart is to support union organizing efforts. If the Employee Free Choice Act (AKA card check) becomes law, and most likely it will, Wal-Mart employees will be able to bring in a union like the Union of Food and Commercial Workers simply by having a majority of employees sign union cards.
This could be an invaluable tool for insuring that Wal-Mart’s largely poor, rural and female workforce earns a living wage and has access to decent benefits. It would also insure that more money stays in our communities as opposed to being sent down to Bentonville, Arkansas to enlarge the already obscene family fortunes of the Waltons.
With companies like Wal-Mart playing hardball with us, it makes little sense for members of the community, including local government to simply roll over. There are things that we can do, and must do, to play hardball right back at these corporate pirates. The first step is to realize that they are not our friends.
The Forces Behind Consolidation
Apparently, the town/village consolidation study conducted by the Center for Governmental Research was intended as the local equivalent of a show trial in support of dissolving the village. It was to provide supporters of dissolution with a heavy stack of papers confirming the many presumed benefits of eliminating the Village of Cobleskill. That the study actually failed to provide any solid, compelling arguments for dissolution, and actually recommended becoming a city, seems to matter very little, if at all, to a majority of the Village Board who have chosen to selectively interpret the study and, with blinders firmly in place, feverishly rush toward dissolution of the village, as it always intended to in the first place.
To those of us who have followed village affairs closely over the past three years and have watched numerous developers unsuccessfully request village water service for projects located outside the village, it is obvious that this is the real impetus behind the push for consolidation. Village officials may attempt to throw sand in your eyes by telling you consolidation will save money and increase efficiency. But this is not true and THEY KNOW IT! The truth is, this attempt to consolidate the village into the town is essentially a smash-and-grab operation to plunder the village’s water and sewer services in order to fuel growth benefitting only a handful of developers.
Additionally, the move would consolidate all local planning and zoning functions in the hands of Republican-appointed members of the town planning board and zoning board of appeals. These people will be tripping over each other to accommodate companies like Lowes and the Shad Point mystery manufacturer. Dreams of a rebirth of Main Street would be just as shattered as the windows of the Newberry Square building.
The move to dissolve is currently being led by a three-person majority on the Board of Trustees consisting of ultra-conservative developer Mark Galasso, indicted felon Robert LaPietra (recently elected despite pending felony charges) and curiously enough Mayor Mike Sellers, a member of the Green Party who used to think that this community mattered.
When it comes to this issue, the Board of Trustees is operating in an ethical black hole. Both Mark Galasso and Bob LaPietra stand to benefit personally if the Village is dissolved. Almost two years ago Galasso requested that water service from the Warnerville Water District be extended to his company Lancaster Development, but that request was denied by the Village Board of Trustees. Does anyone here seriously think Roger Cohn and the Republicans on the Town Board will say no to Galasso or, for that matter, go out of their way to reconstitute the Village’s tighter planning and code enforcement regime? The latter of course being a prime source of Bob LaPietra’s headaches with regards to his illegally rented apartments.
But behind Galasso and LaPietra there is a handful of developers and bought politicians who want to get the village’s water flowing so that they can rev up development throughout the eastern half of the town.
Frankly, it would only be appropriate for Galasso to recuse himself from voting for consolidation given that his company, Lancaster Development, stands to benefit directly.
I would also like to know why Mayor Sellers is going along with this scheme which will only lead to unchecked development (read: sprawl) in the town causing Downtown Cobleskill to dry up that much faster. As a member of the Green Party you might think Sellers would want to encourage smart growth and sound development practices and stand up to blatant corruption and conflicts of interest in local government.
If Mayor Sellers doesn’t wake up to the brazen corruption underlying this consolidation scheme and distance himself from Galasso and LaPietra, village residents may wake up one morning to find that their community has been broken into and picked clean by thieves in the night.
To those of us who have followed village affairs closely over the past three years and have watched numerous developers unsuccessfully request village water service for projects located outside the village, it is obvious that this is the real impetus behind the push for consolidation. Village officials may attempt to throw sand in your eyes by telling you consolidation will save money and increase efficiency. But this is not true and THEY KNOW IT! The truth is, this attempt to consolidate the village into the town is essentially a smash-and-grab operation to plunder the village’s water and sewer services in order to fuel growth benefitting only a handful of developers.
Additionally, the move would consolidate all local planning and zoning functions in the hands of Republican-appointed members of the town planning board and zoning board of appeals. These people will be tripping over each other to accommodate companies like Lowes and the Shad Point mystery manufacturer. Dreams of a rebirth of Main Street would be just as shattered as the windows of the Newberry Square building.
The move to dissolve is currently being led by a three-person majority on the Board of Trustees consisting of ultra-conservative developer Mark Galasso, indicted felon Robert LaPietra (recently elected despite pending felony charges) and curiously enough Mayor Mike Sellers, a member of the Green Party who used to think that this community mattered.
When it comes to this issue, the Board of Trustees is operating in an ethical black hole. Both Mark Galasso and Bob LaPietra stand to benefit personally if the Village is dissolved. Almost two years ago Galasso requested that water service from the Warnerville Water District be extended to his company Lancaster Development, but that request was denied by the Village Board of Trustees. Does anyone here seriously think Roger Cohn and the Republicans on the Town Board will say no to Galasso or, for that matter, go out of their way to reconstitute the Village’s tighter planning and code enforcement regime? The latter of course being a prime source of Bob LaPietra’s headaches with regards to his illegally rented apartments.
But behind Galasso and LaPietra there is a handful of developers and bought politicians who want to get the village’s water flowing so that they can rev up development throughout the eastern half of the town.
Frankly, it would only be appropriate for Galasso to recuse himself from voting for consolidation given that his company, Lancaster Development, stands to benefit directly.
I would also like to know why Mayor Sellers is going along with this scheme which will only lead to unchecked development (read: sprawl) in the town causing Downtown Cobleskill to dry up that much faster. As a member of the Green Party you might think Sellers would want to encourage smart growth and sound development practices and stand up to blatant corruption and conflicts of interest in local government.
If Mayor Sellers doesn’t wake up to the brazen corruption underlying this consolidation scheme and distance himself from Galasso and LaPietra, village residents may wake up one morning to find that their community has been broken into and picked clean by thieves in the night.
Taking a Wait and See Approach to Gillibrand
Governor Paterson’s appointment of Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to Clinton’s vacant U.S. Senate seat has some members of the Democratic Party’s left wing crying foul. While I agree that some of her votes, particularly on immigration and gun control are quite revolting, I have to recommend that progressives take a wait-and-see approach to Gillibrand before they go gunning for her.Most of Gillibrand’s detractors are progressive democrats who understandably feel that that her positions are too far to the right and thus out of step with the positions of most New York democrats. To be sure, her record does leave a lot to be desired. She is a member of the Blue Dog Democrat coalition and received an A rating from the National Rifle Association and voted to support funding for a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and to penalize sanctuary cities, as well as for a host of other nasty anti-immigrant legislation. Long Island Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, who is known for her one-issue advocacy of gun control has already announced that she will challenge Gillibrand in a primary in 2010.
It certainly isn’t my intention to make light of these awful positions (and there are more to be sure). And I definitely don’t want to suggest that coming from a Republican-leaning district gives her a pass for these votes. However, there is reason to believe that she will begin jettisoning some of her more unsavory Blue Dog positions now that she no longer has to pander to the Deliverance-vote in places like Essex and Delaware Counties (by the way, I can say that because I’m from Schoharie County). Already, according to the Empire State Pride Agenda, Gillibrand is coming around on the gay marriage issue, assuring the group that she now supports marriage equality.
Furthermore, many of the liberal democrats who are griping about Gillibrand are completely ignoring her strong support for working families. Not only does she support the Employee Free Choice Act (which would allow unionization through card check) but she was a co-sponsor of the legislation.
For Upstate New Yorkers, this choice is potentially very good news. Gillibrand will be in a position to bring millions of economic stimulus dollars to Upstate’s desperate communities. And while she does not have as progressive a voting record as say fellow Hudson Valley Congressman Maurice Hinchey, she has two years to show downstate democrats that she is not as conservative as they think, something she will have to do in order to head off a major primary challenge from a more liberal democrat.
Meanwhile, other democrats have more pragmatic reasons for questioning Gillibrand’s appointment, namely the fact that a special election to fill Gillibrand’s seat would likely result in a Republican pick-up.
In fact, Republicans ought to be lining up to meet New York Governor David Paterson and shake his hand. By plucking Kirsten Gillibrand out of the House and appointing her to Hillary Clinton’s vacant Senate seat, he has given Republicans their first glimmer of hope of taking back some of the hard-won Democratic seats in the House of Representatives.
The 20th District is perhaps one of the most culturally conservative in Upstate NY. It stretches from the Adirondack mountains in the north to Poughkeepsie in the south and leaves out virtually all of the Democratic zip codes in between, and yes, there are a few of them. In 2006, newcomer Kirsten Gillibrand barely squeaked by against the scandal-plagued incumbent Republican John Sweeney. At the time, Sweeney was under investigation for domestic abuse. Hard to say if this behavior is considered a positive or a negative in such a district. Despite this district’s leanings, it twice sent Gillibrand to Congress. Is there another democrat who can win in the 20th? Maybe, but not in the next two months.
In the past election cycle, Gillibrand spent nearly $5 million dollars (a lot for a congressional seat) holding the seat against powerful Republican challenger Sandy Treadwell in one of the most hotly contested races in the country. Despite all the hard work by Democrats, Governor Paterson has virtually given this seat back to the Republicans. With a line of potential replacements that stretched out the door, the Republicans settled on Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco, one of Upstate NY’s most powerful and well-known Republicans behind the disgraced Joe Bruno. The Democrats had to pick someone from a pathetic list of nobodies, settling on investor Scott Murphy. Murphy was an easy choice for Democratic Party chairs: he is wealthy and can self-finance his campaign, which is a good thing, because the Democratic Party would be criminally stupid to waste a dime on this race.
In the end, one can only look at the upcoming special election with bemusement. If the blue collar voters of this district want a Republican who is going to vote against union rights, healthcare and economic stimulus funding while feeding them the same stale old platitudes about the free market then let them have Tedisco. Better to have a Republican who will hold the line on gay marriage then a Democrat who can bring money into the district, right?
While Gillibrand would not have been my first choice, she is by turns more qualified and engaged than Caroline Kennedy. That we finally have an Upstate democrat at the top of New York’s political food chain is also something to be thankful for. While other democrats react to this news with reckless pessimism, I believe some cautious optimism is in order. While I would have preferred to keep Gillibrand in the 20th District, keeping the seat in the democratic column, her ascendency may mean that Upstate NY finally has a real voice in Washington.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Not So Sweet on Caroline
The appointment of Caroline Kennedy to the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Hillary Clinton has become an unfortunate fait accompli for New Yorkers, and especially New York’s democrats who are about to get a Senator whose sole qualification for the job is a surname. Don’t get me wrong, American history is full of famous political dynasties. Even in today’s U.S. Senate, names like Bayh, Casey, Clinton, Kennedy, Murkowski and Udall stand out as a testament to America’s deep and abiding love of nepotism.
However, in most cases, these office seekers actually work their way up the ladder before going for the big seats and are usually careful not to offend voters with their presumptuousness. Caroline Kennedy on the other hand, has zero political experience but so much hubris I doubt her head would fit under the Capitol dome. Without ever having served in public office or having done much at all on the public stage, Kennedy now expects, almost as a matter of entitlement to be handed a U.S. Senate seat, as if they were hereditary titles reserved for America’s political royalty.
This should bother democrats, especially after having laughed Sarah Palin off the national stage (and rightfully so) for not having sufficient experience. I would say Caroline Kennedy is in the same league as Palin, but that would be giving credit where credit isn’t due, I’m afraid. And let us not forget that we have just suffered through eight long years of incompetent administration by a patently unfit product of nepotism. One would think that Democrats especially would be tired of seeing the wrong people pushed up the political ladder for the wrong reasons.
Instead, Democrats seem unphased that Caroline Kennedy is about to be anointed Senator, largely as payback for her and her Uncle Teddy’s early support for Barack Obama. That the most unsavory kind of horse-trading and influence peddling went on behind the scenes to help elect the candidate of “change” and “hope” doesn’t leave me feeling too optimistic that the next four years will bring much of either.
The real losers in all of this are the countless New York democrats who are far more deserving of this Senate seat than Caroline Kennedy. New York is full of creative, bright, innovative political talent slogging it out in the real world trying to find solutions to the problems that plague this state. It is a slap in the face to them and a loss to us that they should be brushed aside because Caroline Kennedy woke up and decided she wanted to be a U.S. Senator.
It also wouldn’t hurt to bring some balance to the state by appointing an Upstate democrat to the seat. Think about it, all the top political positions in New York are currently held by Downstaters: Paterson, Smith, Silver, Skelos, Cuomo, DiNapoli, and our Senior Senator Charles Schumer. All of these guys are either from New York City or Long Island.
If ever there was a devastated region in desperate need of a voice it is Upstate NY. Why not put in somebody like Rochester’s congresswoman Louise McIntosh Slaughter, a progressive Democrat who has spent over 20 years in Congress as an advocate for labor, the environment, civil rights, women’s rights and economic justice? The same can be said for Representative Maurice Hinchey of Saugerties, who would be my second choice.
Since Upstate NY’s metropolitan regions have been hit hardest by global economic shifts over the past 30 years, cities like Buffalo, Rochester and Binghamton ought to be tapped as political farm teams for people who know Upstate’s problems and have thought long and hard about how to begin addressing them. Buffalo’s Byron Brown and Binghamton’s Matt Ryan are two examples of progressive Democratic mayors who have tried innovative approaches to solve their cities’ ongoing economic problems.
This is the real tragedy behind Caroline Kennedy’s likely appointment: The loss to our state of a voice who has the experience, the understanding and the will to make a difference where it matters most.
In the coming years, we are going to desperately need leaders who understand the problems that face our communities and, more importantly, understand what is needed to tackle them. It is for this reason that our state and our country simply can not afford to indulge the Park Avenue socialite who wants to play Senator.
However, in most cases, these office seekers actually work their way up the ladder before going for the big seats and are usually careful not to offend voters with their presumptuousness. Caroline Kennedy on the other hand, has zero political experience but so much hubris I doubt her head would fit under the Capitol dome. Without ever having served in public office or having done much at all on the public stage, Kennedy now expects, almost as a matter of entitlement to be handed a U.S. Senate seat, as if they were hereditary titles reserved for America’s political royalty.
This should bother democrats, especially after having laughed Sarah Palin off the national stage (and rightfully so) for not having sufficient experience. I would say Caroline Kennedy is in the same league as Palin, but that would be giving credit where credit isn’t due, I’m afraid. And let us not forget that we have just suffered through eight long years of incompetent administration by a patently unfit product of nepotism. One would think that Democrats especially would be tired of seeing the wrong people pushed up the political ladder for the wrong reasons.
Instead, Democrats seem unphased that Caroline Kennedy is about to be anointed Senator, largely as payback for her and her Uncle Teddy’s early support for Barack Obama. That the most unsavory kind of horse-trading and influence peddling went on behind the scenes to help elect the candidate of “change” and “hope” doesn’t leave me feeling too optimistic that the next four years will bring much of either.
The real losers in all of this are the countless New York democrats who are far more deserving of this Senate seat than Caroline Kennedy. New York is full of creative, bright, innovative political talent slogging it out in the real world trying to find solutions to the problems that plague this state. It is a slap in the face to them and a loss to us that they should be brushed aside because Caroline Kennedy woke up and decided she wanted to be a U.S. Senator.
It also wouldn’t hurt to bring some balance to the state by appointing an Upstate democrat to the seat. Think about it, all the top political positions in New York are currently held by Downstaters: Paterson, Smith, Silver, Skelos, Cuomo, DiNapoli, and our Senior Senator Charles Schumer. All of these guys are either from New York City or Long Island.
If ever there was a devastated region in desperate need of a voice it is Upstate NY. Why not put in somebody like Rochester’s congresswoman Louise McIntosh Slaughter, a progressive Democrat who has spent over 20 years in Congress as an advocate for labor, the environment, civil rights, women’s rights and economic justice? The same can be said for Representative Maurice Hinchey of Saugerties, who would be my second choice.
Since Upstate NY’s metropolitan regions have been hit hardest by global economic shifts over the past 30 years, cities like Buffalo, Rochester and Binghamton ought to be tapped as political farm teams for people who know Upstate’s problems and have thought long and hard about how to begin addressing them. Buffalo’s Byron Brown and Binghamton’s Matt Ryan are two examples of progressive Democratic mayors who have tried innovative approaches to solve their cities’ ongoing economic problems.
This is the real tragedy behind Caroline Kennedy’s likely appointment: The loss to our state of a voice who has the experience, the understanding and the will to make a difference where it matters most.
In the coming years, we are going to desperately need leaders who understand the problems that face our communities and, more importantly, understand what is needed to tackle them. It is for this reason that our state and our country simply can not afford to indulge the Park Avenue socialite who wants to play Senator.
Government Positions in Village of Cobleskill to Bring New Residents to Area
Whoever said Schoharie County did not have the economic base to attract residents from outside the region, obviously hasn’t met Bob LaPietra. LaPietra is a part-time resident of Morris, NY and Punta Gorda, Florida. Yet due to a recent job offering he received from the voters of the Village of Cobleskill, LaPietra may soon become a full-time County and Village resident.
All too often, you hear about people packing up and leaving small towns like Cobleskill. It is a rare occasion indeed when you hear about people actually moving in to take jobs. But that is just what Bob LaPietra is doing. Although his dubious residency may have brought him a few legal headaches since allegedly filing false petitions to place his name on the ballot, he remains optimistic about all the possibilities that this new job will offer him.
While some in the Village have sought to prevent Mr. LaPietra from assuming office, due to the questions surrounding his legal residency, Village officials and Schoharie County officials should be looking at this as a potential growth opportunity. Many more jobs in the public sector could be created as a way to bring new people into the area and rejuvenate the local economic base.
In the spirit of the times, I have decided to put my name in the running for Cobleskill Mayor in 2009. That I am legally a resident of the Town of Richmondville shouldn’t really matter. Perhaps I’ll simply squat in the Newberry Square building or rent out a dog kennel at K-9 Cosmetician (Bob LaPietra owns the building) while obtaining the necessary signatures. If anyone has a problem, I’ll just tell ‘em to come on over and sniff my bed linens.
All too often, you hear about people packing up and leaving small towns like Cobleskill. It is a rare occasion indeed when you hear about people actually moving in to take jobs. But that is just what Bob LaPietra is doing. Although his dubious residency may have brought him a few legal headaches since allegedly filing false petitions to place his name on the ballot, he remains optimistic about all the possibilities that this new job will offer him.
While some in the Village have sought to prevent Mr. LaPietra from assuming office, due to the questions surrounding his legal residency, Village officials and Schoharie County officials should be looking at this as a potential growth opportunity. Many more jobs in the public sector could be created as a way to bring new people into the area and rejuvenate the local economic base.
In the spirit of the times, I have decided to put my name in the running for Cobleskill Mayor in 2009. That I am legally a resident of the Town of Richmondville shouldn’t really matter. Perhaps I’ll simply squat in the Newberry Square building or rent out a dog kennel at K-9 Cosmetician (Bob LaPietra owns the building) while obtaining the necessary signatures. If anyone has a problem, I’ll just tell ‘em to come on over and sniff my bed linens.
Respect Voters Wishes, No Matter How Dumb
As much as I lament the election results that put Bob LaPietra on the Cobleskill Village Board of Trustees, attempting to enjoin LaPietra from assuming office, as the existing Board members tried, was a foolish maneuver. For the time being, we must accept that the people have spoken (however foolishly) and as a result LaPietra’s service on the Board of Trustees ought to begin when scheduled and continue uninterrupted until the criminal charges against him are proven in a court of law or until he loses an election.
But village officials, including all five current members of the Board of Trustees and Village Attorney Meredith Savitt, claim that if Bob LaPietra is convicted of the numerous felony counts he has been charged with, it will threaten the validity of Board actions undertaken while he was a member. Yes this reasoning seems to reverse the concept of being held innocent until proven guilty. However, it actually is a semi-legitimate reason for keeping LaPietra off the board, in case you think its purely politics.
Having said that, however, the voters of Cobleskill must bear some accountability for electing the man fully knowing what he’s been charged with. I can understand the appeal of laPietra to the average voter. Surely it must have been very psychologically satisfying pulling the lever for LaPietra. Village morale has been low for a long time and any new blood was viewed as a good thing.
LaPietra also very likely benefited from the widespread perception that he was being railroaded for his vocal criticism of Village Board members. The Times-Journal only fueled the fire when it editorialized that the charges against LaPietra were in part attributable to his “lightning rod personality”.
It is understandable that voters want to stand up for the underdog. However, when voters elect a man indicted on over a dozen felony counts, they must bear the responsibility for what happens when and if he is convicted. For that reason, current trustees have no business attempting to spare the village any inconvenience or embarrassment that might arise from LaPietra’s being convicted of the charges against him. He is the now the Village’s cross to bear.
I do hope Cobleskill residents enjoy the press coverage they’re going to get if and when LaPietra is convicted and must be removed from office. I’m sure it will be quite a story on the nightly news. I know I’ll get a kick out of it.
But village officials, including all five current members of the Board of Trustees and Village Attorney Meredith Savitt, claim that if Bob LaPietra is convicted of the numerous felony counts he has been charged with, it will threaten the validity of Board actions undertaken while he was a member. Yes this reasoning seems to reverse the concept of being held innocent until proven guilty. However, it actually is a semi-legitimate reason for keeping LaPietra off the board, in case you think its purely politics.
Having said that, however, the voters of Cobleskill must bear some accountability for electing the man fully knowing what he’s been charged with. I can understand the appeal of laPietra to the average voter. Surely it must have been very psychologically satisfying pulling the lever for LaPietra. Village morale has been low for a long time and any new blood was viewed as a good thing.
LaPietra also very likely benefited from the widespread perception that he was being railroaded for his vocal criticism of Village Board members. The Times-Journal only fueled the fire when it editorialized that the charges against LaPietra were in part attributable to his “lightning rod personality”.
It is understandable that voters want to stand up for the underdog. However, when voters elect a man indicted on over a dozen felony counts, they must bear the responsibility for what happens when and if he is convicted. For that reason, current trustees have no business attempting to spare the village any inconvenience or embarrassment that might arise from LaPietra’s being convicted of the charges against him. He is the now the Village’s cross to bear.
I do hope Cobleskill residents enjoy the press coverage they’re going to get if and when LaPietra is convicted and must be removed from office. I’m sure it will be quite a story on the nightly news. I know I’ll get a kick out of it.
Zoning Out
There are two ways to respond to Governor Paterson’s new cost-benefit requirements for the Empire Zone program. One would be to point out that the Governor is simply cutting funding for economic development under the guise of making the program more efficient and how this will be a tragic loss to Upstate’s struggling economies. Another way to respond, and this would be a lot easier, would be to simply not worry about it, because, at least for Schoharie County anyway, the Empire Zone program has been a big waste of time that has brought nothing but false hopes and some extra paper work.
Statewide, the Empire Zone program has been a mixed bag. It has undoubtedly helped to plug some of the holes on the sinking Titanic that is Upstate NY’s economy. On the other hand, it has also used taxpayers money to lure businesses to communities even though, in many cases, they would have located there anyway.
However, in Schoharie County, the program’s impact has been minimal at best. Sure there has been talk of various projects: a mystery manufacturer in shad point, a water park at Howe Caverns, and a multi-million dollar renovation of Sharon Springs’ old hotels. Some of this might eventually come to fruition, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.
One of the few success stories is along Route 7 near the high school where the Town of Richmondville seems to be on the verge of poaching two companies (Maranatha Fitness and Mill Services) from nearby Cobleskill.
Why has Schoharie County not benefitted from its Empire Zones? In part, this is probably because Empire Zone benefits represent a drop in the bucket compared to the incentives that businesses have for leaving Upstate NY, which are many. Another reason is that local officials didn’t do a very good job at determining which land to include in the zones. Empire Zone benefits are a finite resource and are meant for targeted areas. However, in some cases, the Empire Zone-designated areas in Schoharie County included huge swaths of land owned by people with absolutely no interest in selling to developers. $100,000 in zone capital credits for community development projects can be a very beneficial tool for communities. However, Joe the farmer probably isn’t going to have much use for them, especially if he has absolutely no intentions of selling his land.
Perhaps it is time to realize that the Empire Zone is not the best way to solve our state’s economic development problems. All it does is pit communities against each other. In the end, instead of leading to net gains for the state it is likely to lead to net losses as these communities give up more and more concessions to attract companies. In the end, it is a race to the bottom.
This state of affairs can not be laid entirely at the doorstep of the Empire Zone program, although it has arguably exacerbated the problem. The best hope Upstate NY’s communities have right now is making bold and dramatic investments in our infrastructure. This is the only way we can hope to compete with the cheaper labor and weak regulatory environments found in other regions and other countries. A national trade policy that stops making it so easy for American companies to move overseas wouldn’t hurt either.
Statewide, the Empire Zone program has been a mixed bag. It has undoubtedly helped to plug some of the holes on the sinking Titanic that is Upstate NY’s economy. On the other hand, it has also used taxpayers money to lure businesses to communities even though, in many cases, they would have located there anyway.
However, in Schoharie County, the program’s impact has been minimal at best. Sure there has been talk of various projects: a mystery manufacturer in shad point, a water park at Howe Caverns, and a multi-million dollar renovation of Sharon Springs’ old hotels. Some of this might eventually come to fruition, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.
One of the few success stories is along Route 7 near the high school where the Town of Richmondville seems to be on the verge of poaching two companies (Maranatha Fitness and Mill Services) from nearby Cobleskill.
Why has Schoharie County not benefitted from its Empire Zones? In part, this is probably because Empire Zone benefits represent a drop in the bucket compared to the incentives that businesses have for leaving Upstate NY, which are many. Another reason is that local officials didn’t do a very good job at determining which land to include in the zones. Empire Zone benefits are a finite resource and are meant for targeted areas. However, in some cases, the Empire Zone-designated areas in Schoharie County included huge swaths of land owned by people with absolutely no interest in selling to developers. $100,000 in zone capital credits for community development projects can be a very beneficial tool for communities. However, Joe the farmer probably isn’t going to have much use for them, especially if he has absolutely no intentions of selling his land.
Perhaps it is time to realize that the Empire Zone is not the best way to solve our state’s economic development problems. All it does is pit communities against each other. In the end, instead of leading to net gains for the state it is likely to lead to net losses as these communities give up more and more concessions to attract companies. In the end, it is a race to the bottom.
This state of affairs can not be laid entirely at the doorstep of the Empire Zone program, although it has arguably exacerbated the problem. The best hope Upstate NY’s communities have right now is making bold and dramatic investments in our infrastructure. This is the only way we can hope to compete with the cheaper labor and weak regulatory environments found in other regions and other countries. A national trade policy that stops making it so easy for American companies to move overseas wouldn’t hurt either.
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About Me
- Sean Thomas
- Sean is a eclectic sage who lives on an ashram in the Town of Richmondville, NY. He has a constant need for love bombing
