Saugerties Schools Alert - Abolish Guaranteed Pensions & Step Increases

Although all of NY State's school districts are feeling a lot of financial pain now due to state laws which favor teacher's unions heavily over taxpayers. It appears that the Saugerties School District is feeling the most pain of any district in the Hudson Valley.  I urge Saugerties residents to do more than just complain at school board meetings.  Saugerties residents have to contact your NY State representatives (Cahill, Lopez, etc.) and Gov.Cuomo's office and demand the end of the Tri-borough Amendment, which allows teacher union contracts with automatic pay step increases to stay in place after they are expired and to replace costly defined payment pensions with teacher contribution 401k pensions like the rest of us have in private industry.

NY State is giving union contractors favoritism - Costs are going up!

According to The Torch (http://www.nytorch.com/ June 2, 2011) blog, there is continued union favoritism on individual contract bidding.  This may be how Gov. Cuomo is getting Silver's wing of the Assembly to agree to the Property Tax Cap.  If this is true, NYS residents are gaining on the Property Tax Cap, but losing with the "required" union contracts and "prevailing wage and rules".  In addition, Gov.Cuomo does not take live questions from taxpayers on Talk radio.  We taxpayers cannot ask him about this union favoritism.  He is insulated from public interaction. If anyone knows of any venue where taxpayers can interact with Governor Cuomo, please reply here.

Retain Young Adults - Remove Union Control of our NY State Economy

The Governor could be showing better leadership on our No.1 Priority -- The retention of our young adults by removing union control of our economy. A recent Marist Poll of NY State young adults shows that over 30 per cent of our young adults plan on leaving NY State soon due to the lack of jobs.  NY State is last or close to last in Economic freedom.  To me ethics reform should come after a battle royal on elimination of the Tri-borough Amendment, 2% tax cap, making NY State a right to work state like New Hampshire, moving school board voting to November, and others.  Let's face it, our young people will continue to leave our state until the above reforms are enacted.

Vote NO on School Budgets and Stop Forcing our Children Out of State

This is a sincere message to the parents of our Ulster County School districts.  Our Ulster County high school and college graduates are leaving NY State in droves.  Where are they going?  They are going to Right-to-Work states where unions and laws that favor unions do not control the school districts.  Where are examples of Right-to-Work states?  South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Texas and about 23 others including soon to be a Right-to-Work state - New Hampshire.  Large numbers of new jobs will never come back to NY State until we become a Right-to-Work state.  What should we do to send a clear message to Albany that we know how to stop our children from leaving NY State for Right-to-Work states?  Vote NO on every school budget until Albany gets the message!  If you vote yes, you are continuing the Sham which forces our children to leave the state.

Support Our Young Adults ------ Golden Hill (Private Ownership)

Keeping Golden Hill in Public Hands (owned by Ulster County) is a disaster for our Young Adults. Since it is well-known that Ulster County's subsidy will have to grow every year into the future, our young adults will be burdened with ever-increasing tax bills. The result will be that our young adults will continue to leave Ulster County. Look around. Why are there so few young adults settling here? High taxes. Please do not do anything that prevents our young adults from settling in Ulster County. In this age of tight money, Ulster County has to choose between a Young Adult Economy or ever increasing taxes.

Kingston School Taxpayers - Vote NO on the School Budget on Tues.May 17th

To all local taxpayers, a 4.9% tax increase is too much.  Any tax increase is too much.  Remember, if we increase school taxes 5% every year, in 10 years, our tax bills would have gone up 50%.  To bring jobs to Ulster County, we need tax decreases or at least Zero Tax increase.  It is very important for the taxpayers to send a message on Tuesday, May 17 by voting NO on the Kingston School Budget.

Lack of Courage and Responsibility -- Kingston School Taxes Up 4.9% -

IRRESPONSIBLE - How can the 9 Members of the Kingston School Board Continue to Participate in this Farce called NYS school budgeting?  Can someone on the board speak out and appeal for help from the voters of NYS?  Over the past 50 years, the unions and the politicians that they have backed them, have rigged the public school system laws in the union's favor.  Is there anyone on the Kingston School Board who has enough courage to say the teacher unions are running the show?  (ie. Triborough Amendment which says the old contract with step increases stays in effect while negotiating new contract.). Public Schools in NYS are going off the cliff.  The Titanic is sinking. The school board members' silence is deafening.