Neurologist - A person who studies / specializes in the brain / neurons
Cardiologist - A person who studies / specializes in the heart.
Gastrologist - A person who studies the Gastrointestinal system.
Proctologist - 1.  A person who studies Proctology.  Proctology is a field in medicine dealing with diseases and disorders of the rectum, anus, colon and pelvic floor.   2.  A person who makes it their life to study and improve Proctors (Philip Morris?)

SCHENECTADY COUNTY
With $450K grant, Proctors comes full circle
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

“The county started us and it finished us,” said Proctors CEO Phillip Morris. The one-time grant closes out Proctors’ fundraising effort and its $30 million project, and it also covers the project’s final costs, Morris said. It comes from the county’s surplus. County Legislature Chairwoman Susan Savage, The circle is complete. Seven years ago, the Schenectady County Legislature gave Proctors $1 million to jump-start a project many hoped would revitalize the city’s decaying downtown. On Tuesday night, the Legislature gave Proctors D-Niskayuna, said Proctors asked for the money, another grant of $450,000 to close a project that and “we are happy the county is able to help them complete their project.”
   The county gave Proctors a $1 million grant in 2000 to help launch the project, which local offi - cials said is helping revitalize downtown. “This has been a community enterprise like no other I have ever seen, and it’s been an amazingly powerful one,” Morris said.
   Legislator Gary Hughes, D-Schenectady, said “we are only part of the way there. We need to build on the success of Proctors and develop diverse arts and entertainment” venues in the county.
   To help this occur, the Legislature Tuesday also amended 22-year-old legislation that places a tax on hotel and motel room occupancy. The county levies a 4 percent surcharge on overnight stays in hotels and motels, the so-called “bed tax.”
   The amendment provides Proctors with a guaranteed annual amount of $200,000 through 2022 and increases the pool of money available to support other arts organizations.
   Proctors received $175,000 in 2006, “our best year,” Morris said. It is expected to receive close to $200,000 this year, and more than $3 million over the terms of the agreement.
   County Finance Commissioner George Davidson said he projects the county will receive $340,000 this year in total bed tax receipts and approximately $350,000 next year. It received $325,000 in 2006.
   The 93-room Hampton Inn, which opened this year, is expected to boost bed tax receipts, as will general increases in room prices, Davidson said.
   County Attorney Chris Gardner said that when the bed tax legislation was adopted in 1985, Proctors received 80 percent of the total. Minority Leader Robert Farley, RNiskayuna, said the county Legislature enacted the bed tax specifically to aid Proctors, which was in such dire financial straits years ago that it might have been demolished. The Legislature modified the agreement several years ago, dropping Proctors’ take to 60 percent, Gardner said. “This would make it a flat $200,000 in lieu of the 60 percent,” he said. “We will now have more to expend for all of the arts, not just Proctors.”
   The county awarded $51,149 to 28 nonprofits this year and $37,500 to 22 organizations last year.
   Morris said members of Proctors’ board are happy with the new agreement. “We are locked in, it is a good arrangement,” he said. Proctors uses the bed tax receipts for general operations.
   When the Proctors’ project was announced in February 2003, the initial price tag was $22.5 million.[/(The project cost $30 million when finished, $7.5 million over budget) Morris said the project’s true cost, however, was “$26 million from the beginning,” which included projects that would be done if money became available.
   “We believed we could raise $22.5 million, so that was all we committed to,” Morris said. “After we received the federal historic credits, the board went ahead with the full plan.”
   Proctors also received grants of more than $9.5 million from the Metroplex Development Authority and from state and federal sources, in addition to more than $8 million raised from the public, Morris said.
   The final costs reflect increases in building materials and unforeseen expenses, such as the installing of power transformers and other electrical gear to power an entire city block, Morris said. ($7.5 million in unforseen expenses!!!!!  25% over budget!!!)
   “The original budget is four years old,” he said.
   The Proctors project involved reconstruction of the stage to accommodate major Broadway shows, installation of a 450-seat multipurpose Iwerks theater and redevelopment of the former Carl Co. building into retail and convention space.
   Originally a vaudeville theater, Proctors was built in 1927. It is listed on the state and federal Register of Historic Places.


Mr. Morris's salary is figured into Proctor's operating expenses.  How much does Mr. Morris collect for a salary??  That would be a good question for one of our wonderful reporters in one of our local papers to ask.  Does anybody see the amount of money this guy is sucking out of the taxpayers through his revitalization through the arts plan.  This guy came to Schenectady and sold our legislators a line of Sh#t, they bought it, now the county's future is in the hands of this Morris guy's plan to revitalize Schenectady..... And I'm pretty sure that if he succeeds or fails, he will still walk away with hundreds of thousands if not millions of tax dollars.  Mr. Morris is in a zero risk business venture.  If he had to come up with venture capital through private investors, he wouldn't get a dime......Why????? Because the investment he made wasn't a good investment.....His only hope was to convince idiot local politicians that it is worth giving Mr. Morris millions of dollars to make Proctors the "cultural becan" of Schenectady.....Crack houses are the cultural becans of Schenectady.  Not Proctors.  

I read in one of the articles Proctors turned a profit this year for the first time.  Why would they need taxpayer $$$ if they are profitable?   What happens if they become wildly successful and the funds are not needed?

Quoted from 47

I read in one of the articles Proctors turned a profit this year for the first time.  Why would they need taxpayer $$$ if they are profitable?   What happens if they become wildly successful and the funds are not needed?

We would have to see who is on what board, elected seat, where they draw a paycheck/gratuity etc......when they become successful the homeless and street folks will have jobs as extras on the sets........

Quoted from bumblethru

How do you come up with that analogy?

Suburbia is where you live....there are no sustainable jobs in suburbia to pay a mortgage, you have to climb into the car to get anywhere, you better like the Harper Valley PTA, there is no college, no museum, no 'clubs'(except for the Elks or other lodges),no window shopping, no diversity(unless you mow your lawn in the wrong direction),,,,

suburbia is the same all the time, it cost alot of $$ to live there with little tax relief from diversity of businesses and commerce,,,and this is where we got stuck,,,,,NOW is the time for fixing up, laying infrastructure, planning and community......

Exaclly BK.

Proctors is being made too much of. And Proctors should be able to support itself. There is too much money being wasted on Proctors.

$ is not wasted on it....their piece of the pie is just very large......

........as the gangs/criminals take over the streets in the rest of the city(and county) so the acting troops,musicians, artists take over downtown(2-3blocks)....

.......one is funded one way and one is funded the other(we can all make our own assumption as to what is right and wrong here).....

.......SCCC music dept is being 'bullied' by the county just like the residents in the rest of the city/county are being bullied by the gangs and crime and taxes......

Good analogy sender!! I guess they are all in the same, huh?

http://www.dailygazette.com

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Proctors is a not for profit organization.  It is supported by private contributions and taxes. So it will be interesting to see how many more years, Proctors will need millions to stay afloat. And I would like to know how much Philip Morris, the CEO of Proctors, pulls in for his salary.

What ever Mr.Golub and the others on the Proctors Board of Directors deem appropriate......

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

SCHENECTADY
Fans jam brighter, bigger Proctors
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

   Philip Morris smiled broadly at the crowd of hundreds gathered by the band, Mass Ensemble, as their new-age sound boomed through the Wright Family Atrium.
   Swaying in time with the quartet’s uplifting beats, Proctors’ chief executive officer could hardly contain his elation as the curtains fi nally lifted to reveal the theater’s $30 million expansion and renovation. Thousands of eager fans and curious visitors roamed the new-look Proctors during an open house Sunday, bringing a turnout that greatly impressed Morris.
   “It’s a resounding success,” he said of the showing. “It’s a homecoming for Schenectady,”
   The theater left just about every available space open to the public, allowing visitors to get a candid look a the massive changes that have transformed the theater over the past five years. Two 3-D films were shown at the new 434-seat multipurpose theater, with each showing filled to capacity.
   In both the atrium and outside of the theater, the California-based Mass Ensemble constructed an “earth harp,” which consisted of 10 long cables strung hundreds of feet in the air. With rosined hands, band member Andrea Brooks enthusiastically stroked the instrument’s strings, producing a deep, cello-like sound that resonated throughout the theater.
   Visitors also were treated to tours of Proctors’ expanded back stage area and state-of-the-art theater lighting at the former vaudeville theater. But taking center stage for visitors was the jubilant music Al Moser played on “Goldie,” Proctors’ antique theater organ and one of about 200 that remain worldwide.
   Roof leaks that damaged the organ’s pipes silenced Goldie on four separate occasions during the renovation. In 2006, volunteers repaired the damaged parts and even improved the organ a bit by refurbishing its dated blower.
   “This was the kind of work that eventually would have happened anyway,” explained Frank Hacket, chairman of the American Theater Organ Society’s Hudson-Mohawk chapter.
   On the second floor of the former Carl Company building, Amy Burhmaster burst into one of the newly finished celebrity dressing rooms with awestruck eyes. The 10-yearold Glenville resident took a seat and gazed into one of the lighted mirrors.
   “Wow, this is cool,” she proclaimed.
   Her mother, Leslie Burhmaster, contained her enthusiasm, but said she was equally impressed by the changes. She was pleased to get glimpse at the Proctors inner workings with her daughter, who aspires to one day perform in theater.
   “We’ve been to a lot of shows here, but we’ve never been back stage before,” she said. “It’s really nice.”
   Joan Thuotte of Rotterdam was astounded by the changes made at Proctors. As a young girl growing up in Schenectady, she recalled coming to the former Carl Company Store, a space now occupied by the multipurpose theater and Proctors’ new box offi ce.
   “It’s fantastic to have new things in our city,” she said of the expanded theater. “The city of Schenectady needs uplifting things

MEREDITH L. KAISER/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER
Caitlyn Tymula, 8, of Niskayuna hangs a butterfly she made out of craft materials from the mock rainforest at Proctors in Schenectady Sunday with the help of her aunt, Anne Halnon, left, of Schenectady, during the open house. Children made bugs during the build-a-bug workshop, using pipe cleaners, pom-poms, glitter pens and other materials.

Maybe Proctors can find a way to cut their spending by 9.7%.

Phillip Morris' Times Union Blog (CEO Proctors):

http://blogs.timesunion.com/morriscode/