The Demokratz filed an eleventh hour objection to Pat's petitions...last Friday afternoon...just before deadline.
It appears that the dems are a bit threatened by Zollinger, huh?
If that weren't the case, they would have let it slide!!!
I'm sure Zollinger had all of her I's dotted and her T's crossed.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
What was the objection? That is crazy. She would be perfect for the job.
At this time it is only a general objection...they will have to file specifics by tomorrow in order to make it official. They will find nothing that would invalidate her petition...but they filed their general objection to preserve their right to challenge the petition...undoubtedly with the desperate hope of getting lucky, but that won't happen.
She should get the job just based on the fact that she cares that much. I don't agree with her on very many issues, but I would love to see her have the job BECAUSE SHE CARES AND HAS A PASSION FOR THIS. I should but I don't.
This objection puts the dem party in a bad light with the electorate. Going after an independent, regular citizen, with no party affiliation is ludicrous. Unless however, they view her as a major threat and don't want her on the other side of the rail to expose the corruption....perhaps?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
After taxpayers pumped over twenty million dollars into the city garage that most people call a “Taj Mahal,” the Mayor and the City Council wasted no time and in a heartbeat, kicked another two million dollars into it with borrowed money. Why? Because at the last committees meeting held on September 7th, Carl Olsen, “Commissioner” of General Services came to the meeting with his hand out. He said he needed more to have contaminated soil removed from the work site.
So where’s this money going to come from? The city is going to sell “serial bonds” on top of the approximately $51 million dollars that the city is already in debt for. Some of these bonds are short-term notes that have to be paid (or rolled over) within a year and others are long-term where the payments are extended over decades. A serial bond is a loan from investors and the taxpayers will pay the interest on it.
All municipalities in New York State have what is called a “Constitutional Tax Limit.” A Constitutional Tax Limit is equivalent to a line of credit, much like a credit card. The purpose of that law is to prevent a municipality from legally borrowing more money than the taxpayers can afford to pay back. The City of Schenectady commands one of the highest property tax burdens in the country. And in order to circumvent the State Constitution and because the current administration was close to “maxing out its credit card” approaching the borrowing limit, it instituted an additional tax for waste collection under the guise of a garbage “fee.”
“Fees” don’t count in the taxing limit of the constitution and that’s why they call it a fee. What does count is the value of all taxable property in the city, and a percentage of that which decides how much we can be taxed and how much we can borrow. The city’s ability to borrow money is exactly like securing a line of credit on your home; the more equity in your home, the more you can borrow against it. Now enter Patrick Mastro, Sole Assessor for the City of Schenectady and about to be rewarded for his accomplishments.
What Mr. Mastro did was essentially to increase the equity “in the house” owned by the city against which the city could borrow. How did he do that? He did that by reassessing all city properties and determining that most of them were undervalued. As a result of his work most taxpayers wound up with a higher tax bill. In the final analysis Mr. Mastro pumped up the total value of all taxable properties in the city from approximately one and a half billion dollars to nearly two and a half billion dollars. That was an increase of roughly 80%. What that did was to raise the city’s credit limit so that it can borrow more money while passing the burden onto the ever shrinking tax base.
Taxpayers are going into the 2011 City Operating Budget with nearly a $13 Million Dollar deficit and Mayor Stratton doesn’t want to cut spending, he wants to delay paying the school district. Carl Olsen states in a newspaper article that: “We knew that there was some contaminated soil,” Olsen said. “We had no idea of the amount of contaminated soil that existed.” And they couldn’t know that, Olsen said, until they started digging.” This is an outright lie as he would know – or at least he should have known - how deep to dig and how much area and thus the volume of the soil to be removed. So now the taxpayers have to absorb a two million dollar mistake.
And in an article published the day after the committees’ meetings state “Stratton also noted that the city will take advantage of its improved credit rating in any borrowing.” Well, if Mayor Stratton noted such a thing then he outright lied. Moody’s is to municipalities what Equifax is to individuals. Moody’s restructured its rating system and all municipalities in the United States were changed to reflect a “global” rating. Moody’s also published the reasons for the municipal ratings changes and it had nothing to do with the city’s financial standing. The city didn’t get an improved credit rating as Mayor Stratton claimed. All we got was a different label.
Carl Olsen tackled the issue in what could be described as a kindergarten teacher’s explanation to his class; with interjection from the mayor and the council president. “There was more contaminated soil than we anticipated,” he announced and therefore the extra monies were needed to haul it away. Who can argue with that logic? Dirty dirt equals more money to get rid of it. But again the problem is that no one, especially among those who should know, appears to know what is going on.
Not one sitting council member questioned Carl Olsen’s initial estimates for cost for the city’s new garage. That would’ve been my first question. They also didn’t question the timing of the legislation, how long they may have had it in their hands and what kind of time they had to review it. The city has long been known to spring legislation on the council members at the last minute. And not one of them was disturbed about the cost to the taxpayers in this city. With the mayor’s facilitation, seven rubber stamps were applied to this legislation. From all indications the council members weren’t even aware of this prior to the meeting yet they passed it with few questions asked and impractical answers given.
There are still a lot of questions in my own mind about this, and about the procedures supposedly underway in putting together the 2011 operating budget for the city. Our taxes will be going up, there’s no question about it. When the city holds back its payment to the school and the school has to borrow, our school taxes will go up. When the city finds that it has to plug a few holes with the water and sewer funds, it raises those fees. If there’s more need to grab more cash, they raise the fees and create new crimes to which they can fine us. And when Mayor Stratton allows his department heads, many of whom don’t even live in the city, to make drastic mistakes as in a two million dollar error, the council doesn’t question, they nod their heads in agreement and the spending continues.
Once elected, I will do everything in my power to stop the abuse of Schenectady Taxpayers.
We all know that a fee is nothing but a tax in disguise and we are at, if not over, the limit of the taxpayers ability to pay these taxes so why can't this city be taken to court to obtain relief for the taxpayer.
It is apparent that schenectady county's LIBERAL MAIN STREAM MEDIA is not covering Zollinger's run for city council!!! It is obvious that they DO NOT want her sitting on the other side of the rail.
There are people that don't understand how the gazette, supposedly schenectady's home town paper, is not covering a campaign of a life long resident who is running as a blank, on an independent line for city council. It's not like they don't know who she is!!!
The opposition and the liberal hometown media, will do anything they can to keep her low key to the electorate!! Well Schenectadians, this is your last chance for any kind of honesty, change and transparency in your city!!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Where is DVOR????? Always speaking on behalf of his party, but strangely silent on Pat's race.
Hey, DVOR, can you explain why your fellow dem refuses to debate Pat?
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
This is not as easy as it would seem. All of us can form our opinions and judgments of others yet it’s difficult to do that with one’s self. What are my intentions? What is my expected outcome? Why on earth am I doing this?
I have always been on the defensive for those who need to be defended and I best handle that by opening up my mouth. I’m not always right but I am seldom wrong when it comes to knowing that my and yours tax dollars are being thrown away and I can usually tell when someone is in trouble, because I’ve been there. These are the”life experiences” that politicians don’t even want to bring up, but that everyday people have to learn how to deal with.
Believe it or not, a lot of people never see their tax bills. They pay their taxes through their mortgages and the only adjustments come up once or twice a year. As good citizens we pay our taxes but not everyone is a good citizen. Council members have to remember that they work for us, which will always be at the top of my mind.
I like to think of myself as “regular” or “average” person and more than just being a pain in the ruling party’s neck. There are so many things that need to be said, and I’ve offered more potential solutions to government’s management of its affairs than I can count on both hands and feet. Yet no one seems to remember.
For a council member, the solution to the high cost of pensions is NOT to take the pension credit. Yet this council as well as my opponent is taking Fifteen Full Time Days of retirement credit every month for each year. That’s called pension padding and I think it’s criminal. The next thing is the fact that the city council sets its own salary. Wrong. No political body should be able to do that. And they can either take medical benefits or the insurance buyout which I consider to be an abuse of privilege just as I believe it is a privilege for anyone elected to serve the people, to actually serve the people.
Over the years I have pointed out that the taxpayers are suffering. I say this because of my own experiences of which many times I have suffered. How are we going to pay the ever rising tax bills, along with our mortgages, the electricity and gas bills and food? There are fewer jobs and people are making less this year than last, yet our city council members appear to be ignorant of that.
I have only wanted the best for our city, just like everyone else. However, when tough decisions need to be made regarding finances, whether in our households, for our schools and even for our city, I have no problem making them. If it means that every city employee has to take a pay cut, then it’s taken. If it means not allowing Carl Olsen to create new jobs, then we don’t create new jobs. If city employees have to give up vehicles, they have to give them up.
Those are only a few items where this city can take realistic measures to ease the burden on the taxpayers. And I would be more than happy to lead that charge.
Election Day is approaching fast! October 17, 2010
Hi everyone. As I stated in the title, Election Day is coming up very quickly. Last week I attended two neighborhood association meetings and the City Council Meeting held on Tuesday, October 12th.
The city council meeting was very tough to go to, in fact there were several regular attendees who did not show. Why? I don’t know why, maybe it was because of the rally put on by the firefighters that day. A rally to coincide with the meeting. There were a couple of hundred people there, and by the time I got up to speak, I was very angry.
Not one resident should be pleading with our city council for firefigher jobs. We need that protection, especially if we expect to bring our city back up from the ditch. We need our firefighters and our SNAP code enforcers. We need our city to be safe.
By the time I was called to the podium, I was angry. Angry that our city was telling us to “take a tax AND lose your protection.” We are the highest TAXED municipality in upstate New York, and they want more?
This is my statement to the city council on Tuesday, October 12, 2010.
This budget is criminal and this city council is disgraceful. The curb tax is a swindle and for too long, this council and the Stratton administration have been sucking the blood out of every taxpayer in this city.
This curb tax is a coward’s way out! This city council doesn’t want to do the right thing so you stick it to us!
The mayor gives us a Power Point fantasy show telling us how bad it could be. It’s already bad. We’ve had enough of the excuses! Enough of the lame brain ideas coming from this council! We’ve had enough of this city council just sitting there collecting your paychecks and giving us the shaft!
Mayor Stratton is quoted recently saying, “There’s not a whole lot of choice here beyond raising taxes through the roof.”
You‘ve already raised our taxes through the roof. In six short years – under this city council and the Stratton Administration – you’ve raised the budget 42%. This council has raised parking fees, permit fees, water fees, sewer fees and created the garbage tax. Now you want to stomp us harder into the ground!
I videotaped that first budget meeting and I was astonished at what I heard.
Mr. Erikson wants to save the taxpayers THE GRAND TOTAL OF five thousand dollars by not taking a grant for the golf course. Hello? Five grand doesn’t even pay half of a family medical package that every member of this city council gets.
And this city council and that finance commissioner can sit around and joke with the Mayor saying that you’re doing nothing illegal? I heard that and I was appalled. I was appalled at this city council’s and this Mayor’s arrogant attitude toward all of us who pay your salaries.
This curb tax is going to kill us and we’re already half dead. Not one council member thinks about the seniors, who have to lower their heat to 60 degrees just to pay their bills. It’s called “fixed incomes” a concept obviously no one here knows about! Now seniors, veterans and everyone struggling to stay in their houses have to pay a curb tax! You say that it will be around $2.50 a foot? I heard from very good sources that it’s going to be close to nine dollars a foot!
There are people working two and three jobs just to make ends meet. Not in Schenectady mind you because we don’t have jobs here.
The time has come for you the council, the mayor, every department head and every city employee to take a good look at yourselves and what you’ve done to trash the taxpayers.
It’s time for all of you to step up to the plate and give back to us. Mr. Erikson wants to save us five grand? I say that a ten percent across the board Pay-cut for every city employee will save us over three and a half million dollars.
Knock off the health insurance you give yourselves and save us another hundred and fifty grand! We don’t need a Public Safety Commissioner, we don’t want city employees taking home over 35 cars anymore and the mayor doesn’t need one either. Get rid of them. Get rid of the cell phones. The mayor should not be texting while he is participating at a Council Meeting, anyway.
Better yet, all of you resign, especially Mr. McCarthy, the mayor and Sharon Jordan, and give us a financial control board. They couldn’t be any worse for us, than you’ve already been.
Logged
