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Changeisgood's Journal from 01/2009

01/06/09 09:21 - 17ºF - ID#47303Category: recently learnedDo we deserve what we get?

Please tell me Byran Brown is not running for Mayor again. Please tell me that Buffaloians cannot be so foolish as to reelect him...please...*much gnashing of teeth*

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james writes at 06:22:56 01/06/09 - Comment #44130

Change,

I will be working on something this primary. I don't know what yet, I am just a grunt.

changeisgood writes at 05:24:45 01/06/09 - Comment #44124

James. I am very impressed. The seminal rule of lying is providing lots of detail. Good work. In fact, what are YOU doing for the mayoral term?

joshua writes at 04:36:24 01/06/09 - Comment #44122

Goddammit my response got lost. But to summarize - no.

joshua writes at 04:31:06 01/06/09 - Comment #44121

(e:james) you know damn well that a 12-3 majority is going to get anything and everything they want, and they have the votes to easily override Collins anyway, as they did with our most recent budget calamity. As for their supposed infighting, in my view it has always been entirely parochial and is usually to do with assigning blame for why things have gone wrong. Unfortunately they cannot blame the GOP for the county's problems.

A budget is never a values based document... it is this approach, frankly, that has gotten NYS and California in the position they are in, which is that they have no money and are looking for more "streams of revenue." I don't think they thought of the irony of the "values-based document" line when discussing soda taxes, iTunes taxes, eradicating the cap on state gas taxes, increased property taxes, etc. etc. etc. You wouldn't do it with your own personal budget if survival was on the line, and neither would any of the legislators. If Erie County were a company it would have been dissolved long ago.

NYS and Erie County in particular have never been responsible with public money. If you as a trustee of public dollars insist on including items in the budget that have no way of being funded, other than to drive taxes and fees up continually as they are here, then you are insane and the voters who put these people in deserve what they get. What the hell are we going to do, run a deficit for 100 years straight because there is no tax base to fund all the stuff we'd love to do? Ok, so we've saved "essential and vital services" but people are fed up with the cost of living and the taxes and leave?

The idea of a budget being a "values-based document" has put our locality in the situation it is in. You do not create a budget by starting with what you'd like to do, without certainty, or at least a rational and realistic estimate in certain streams of revenue. Period. Erie Cty. is already complaining about loss of sales tax revenue because of the economy, and this is after they raised it due to previous alleged budget shortages. For these people, the problem is never the budget, but finding the funding needed to enact the budget. Hell, NYS will tell you that they cut their budget, but no they didn't - they merely slashed "intended spending." NYS's budget is actually still growing next year. This is why a "values-based" budget is only created by irresponsible people that should be removed from office. I don't see a lot of people thinking NYS or Erie Cty. has done a great job of budgeting and it would be absurd to give them credit for keeping and expanding services, when to do so requires more taxes and an expansion of the Buffalo diaspora.

So, a "values-based document" approach to budgeting is only useful if you have the means to actually go through with it. If you don't, then you create a dysfunctional government, will continually impose higher taxes and fees to enact that which you've promised, and people won't eat/live/shop/work here anymore. NYS is the first or second most expensive state to live in terms of taxation, on every level. Why the hell *should* people come to Buffalo when the government can't produce a responsible budget or encourage economic growth? Add the draconian house reassessments every other year, which is an imposition of increased taxes without a vote, and I wonder why people would come here at all. Altruism only gets you so far.

james writes at 03:43:12 01/06/09 - Comment #44110

rubber stamp county legislature?

The fighting that goes on in that body is amazing. And why shouldn't the budget be a values based document? When the Chris Collins wants to slash funding for services for the poorest members of the county but throw money at the richest, I say a values based document is pretty darn useful.

joshua writes at 03:35:54 01/06/09 - Comment #44109

But to answer your question C.I.G. - yes we do deserve what we get, which also includes, incidentally, a rubber stamp majority in our County Legislature that refers to the county budget as a "values based document."

joshua writes at 03:34:34 01/06/09 - Comment #44108

'Tis the season for Democratic scandals, so I was sort of hoping that we'd luck out and something would come to light about our dear Byron. I like Kevin Gaughan and have seen him many times in Wilson Farms, for some reason. Pop trivia regarding Mr. Gaughan (according to Wiki) - he was RFK Jr.'s roommate at Harvard. He might be one of the best educated people in Buffalo - undergrad at Harvard and graduate degrees from Georgetown and London School of Economics.

james writes at 02:52:44 01/06/09 - Comment #44104

wait, we just have this news coming in. Senator Hilary Clinton is resigning from the senate and withdrawing her name from the SOS nomination. She says she will run for mayor of Buffalo. "At least I am from the rust belt, unlike that silver spooned Browny." She said, noting current Buffalo mayor's birth place of Brooklyn, NY. "I mean, come on, did you see the Buffalo office I had? That place was a dump. It is time I moved offices into the art deco masterpiece across the street." Clinton then added "oh snap!".

changeisgood writes at 02:04:52 01/06/09 - Comment #44101

Arrg. Lie to me James, Lie To ME!

james writes at 11:10:02 01/06/09 - Comment #44095

Buffalo has never given a mayor less than two terms. Byron has spent the entirety of his term preparing himself for a second term or higher office. He will win.

Words: 29 -- Buffalo, NY

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