The 1st three candidates to pledge not to vote for any tax increases over the next 2 years are
Richard Cahill, Sr. for 5th Ward alderman in the City of Kingston,
Michael Sweeney for District 4 (Saugerties) Ulster County Legislature, and
Fred Wadnola for District 5 (Town of Ulster) Ulster County Legislature. Let's contact your
local candidates and add their names to this list.
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25 comments:
Richard Cahill Sr. is a fine man who can lead the NO TAX increase movement in the City of Kingston.
Mike Sweeney in Saugerties wrote Letters to Editors where he pledged NOT to vote for any tax increases if he is elected to the Ulster County Legislature in November.
Maybe if we can get enough candidates to pledge NO TAX increases in early September, we can influence Mike Hein and Jim Sottile to budget for zero tax increases when they release their budgets near the end of October of this year???
Sweeney's also pushing for a 10% cut in taxes for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers.
A tax cut? when was the last time we heard those words????
Ralph,
Thanks for spearheading this initiative. Our communities will be better for it.
Ralph, I couldn't think of a more moronic pledge! How can any local official make a one size fits all pledge considering the overwhelming mandates from the State and Federal Governments.
Instead of the stupid pledge you're asking these people to make, I'd rather here the specific proposals from these candidates as to how they would improve local government.
BTW Ralph why not lead by example and take less in your salary!
To 4:39 AM,
I strongly disagree with your use of the terms calling this pledge moronic or stupid. I call this pledge necessary, courageous and honorable. Our Kingston and Ulster taxes are already too high, so pledging no tax increases is the least we can ask of our candidates. In reality, the pledge should be to reduce the taxes. In a DAILY FREEMAN article on April 9, 2009, it states that......... KINGSTON IS TOPS IN PER-CAPITA TAXES..........Based on this fact, maybe you could rethink your position on this NO TAX INCREASE pledge.
Hey Ralph, I just heard Jeanette Provenzano and Alan Lomita on KCR tell you that there is no way that they could commit to a zero % budget increase! Thanks for getting us that information!
To: 5:55 AM,
Thanks for listening to me polling Jennette Provenzano and Alan Lomita on WGHQ Kingston Community Radio this morning. (I think my blog time stamp needs to be reset to the correct time this morning.)
I now have 3 Ulster County candidates who have said that they cannot pledge to
"not vote for any budget that increases taxes for the next 2 years".
Those 3 candidates are
Jennette Provenzano, Alan Lomita, and Gary Bishoff.
Maybe we can convince them to change their minds.
In order to not have tax increases in Kingston this year,there must be serious layoffs of city workers. The kingston fire dept. HAS to be downsized,there contract is hamstringing the taxpayers.Layoffs are occuring all over the country, why not here? City hall has some positions that are just not necessary any longer. Deputy registrar? Give me a break! That position truly needs to go or at least cut down to part time. Steve Finkles salary of 100k plus is outragious and has to be addressed. By the way why is Mike Schupp the DPW Chief ? They INCREASED this guys salary and he is NOT a resident of kingston he lives in Highland! What makes him so special or is it because he was Sottiles good buddy? If Sottile picked him, that in itself is pause for concern...
To 5:56AM,
Unfortunately, after voluntary retirements, layoffs will be the primary tool along with taxes to attempt to balance the budget. However, there are 2 other tools we must use. We must ask the Public Employee Unions to forgo raises and give back benefits or
our leaders should propose PRIVATIZING some of the county and city services such as highway, public work, parts of public safety, the jail operation. Our leaders could PRIVATIZE one operation first and then the other union leaders in the other departments will know that our leaders are SERIOUS about protecting our taxpayers, our young people and our beautiful area from OVERSPENDING AND OVERTAXATION.
Mr. Mitchell, it will cost the city dearly in legal fees if your proposed "tool" of privatization is put in play. There is contract language for city workers at least, that clearly states no privization of services. Layoffs is the safest and most effective and LEGAL tool to trim down budget. Council members along with Mayor need to cut positions that are not needed, Dog catcher, deputy registrar, deputy clerk,Economic dev.positions,maybe transfer station should be closed,xtra maintenance positions in DPW are not needed, closing firehouse. These are all good,viable,legally doable suggestions. We are 4 million dollars behind in city budget this year, there is no other way. And by the way, I agree with earlier posting,why WAS Mike Schupp given an increase in salary upon hiring? We cant afford to be doing that with Dept. Heads. Schupp is an ex city alderman and should never have been hired. He no longer lives in OUR community, let him get a job in Highland where he lives NOW! His behavior as an alderman was out of line and sneaky most of the time ,who needs this guy?
To 11:06AM,
Thanks for the info.about Privatization in the City union contracts. I will check if there is a legal way around this. However, our county and city leaders should NOT INCLUDE the exclusion of PRIVATIZATION in future contracts. Also, if we layoff people this year what are we going to do next year when the PENSION TSUNAMI hits Kingston and Ulster County. My point is that we have to restructure City and County services NOW and in the FUTURE via a combination of Paid / Volunteer Fire Dept. and Privatization of some Public Safety, Public Works and Recreation. In other words, if we simply layoff this year, next year, etc., there will no longer be any City and County services.
5:56 You hit the nail on the head. Layoffs are coming and the fire department has got to do there fair share. Finkle has got to go. Two people to handle death and birth certificate's. Kingston's population is declining, and doesn't the County have a department that can handle that. Cut one to part time, the dog catcher also.
Doesn't the City charter state that department heads live in the City or at least within a 10 mile radius? Is he taking the city vehicle home with him every night?
We give him more money and he can't even drive his own vehicle to work. More of Sottile's buddies taking the tax payer for a ride.
Is Mike Schupp,Dpw Head taking truck home? He lives all the way in Highland!! Are we paying for this guys gas fee to ride to and from Highland to work??? IT is totally unexpected from an ex alderman,oops did I just say that? What ELSE do you expect from these guys any way! I understand hes "observing",pehaps he needs to be observed as well... Why did he get a raise?
In the event you missed it, Provenzano also got "hot under her collar" there for a few moments. You must have pushed the wrong button asking if they would vote no on any more tax increases. It is not a decent way for a public official to conduct themselves. However, before the end of the show, Provenzano did apologize for the outburst but why bother? These talk shows are for listening to the views of the public, not for debate. Thank goodness we don't have to hear from any more politician hosts until after the elections.
Maybe Schupp can carpool with the policeman who lives in Highland also.
I would like to remind our current incumbent representatives running for re-election or those that are running for the same positions in this Novembers election of the wisdom and truths that one of our countries founding father left for each of them and we as voters to consider ...
"To preserve [the] independence [of the people,] we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses, and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account, but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers."
-Thomas Jefferson
Bottom Line: Government at all level taxes everything and it is still not enough.
Before election day use your incumbent elective representative past actions and voting record as a yard-stick for well they measure up to the common sense penned by by Jefferson. For candidate challengers ask what their tax position are. Don't rely on this blog of newspapers for the answers .. personally ask the candidates themselves.
Each one of use have a simple choice on election day ... We can choice "to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses" while our families are deprived of the basics or we can elect representative that pledge to hold the line and to make hard choice necessary to reduce spending or to eliminate programs and staff that are ineffective and unfordable.
It's time to hold our elected governmental "mismanagers to account". Don't be a "Sheeple"; challenge your chosen candidate to publicly state their tax position so you can make an "informed" choice this November, least we all continue to be enslaved by governmental tax burden at the expense of our families.
Post the negative comments too if you want people to take you seriously. You can't have a one way discussion, no one will read it.
I want to hear from these 3 geniuses exactly where and how they plan on achieving this sublime goal of theirs! Put it on paper, empty words mean nothing.
Honestly, Dick Cahill? Mike Sweeny? Fred Wadnola? Three of the most powerful men in politics LOL! You will have to do a LOT better than that if you plan on having any kind of impact.
hey 3:29... obviously other counties manage to cut expenditures and/or increase revenues. Politicians have forgotten how to do either, it seems, at least in ulster county.
I say give them a chance--they certainly can't be worse than the rubber stamps we have in county and local offices now.
Heck, maybe they'll find some ways to cut spending and by showing an out of area business that the taxes are getting better, maybe that business will relocate here- which will help to increase revenues.
Rubber stamping seems to not be working.
4:18,
What do you think increasing revenues is? It is a tax increase knucklehead. No solutions, only empty words. 3:29 is right. Put up or shut up! Realistic, attainable cuts. Let's hear 'em.
How about we make some cuts to the extreme salaries we pay our county employees?
More than 12 people make over $100,000. More than 30 people make over $75,000.
I think they can skip their raises like the rest of us for awhile.
I want to know if the no tax pledge also includes no new fees such as DMV or charges for plastic bags at the supermarket.
To 12:03 AM,
Strictly speaking, the No Tax Increase pledge should include no increase in DMV or plastic bag fees.
charge all public employees the same yearly premiums on their health care. not $200 a month for employees hired after a certain date and those before that date only pay $40 a month the tax payers have to pick up the difference. charge all employees a deductible $200 to $500 depending on how much could be saved. this would stop them running to the hospital or Dr. for every little problem along with higher co-pays, which now are $15 or $20 a visit. look at those proposals and they still are better then any body else. this goes for union and non union employees.if the legislators are serious about making cuts then they should be the first to step up to the plate and eliminate health care benefits to all past and present county legislators, due that it is a part time job and most if not all already have coverage through a full time job or medicare.no raises for legislators until county is in fiscal shape to due so.it should be a privilege and honor to make the laws for the people of ulster county with out needing a life time of benefits paid by the tax payer.
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