After months of hot air, horrible Mayor SOS and the all DEM rubber stamps voted to eliminate 14 fire fighters {including all 3 in trainee} while hiking record City property taxes another 5%! They refused to cut any pork nor get anything from Union College which has a record endowment. Della Salla, Allen and King all voted for the fire fighter cuts and raping of the City taxpayers. They are all finished in politics. Only Denise Brucker, who should run for Mayor next year, provided any fiscal leadership for the oppressed City sheeple.
Tone deaf to the thousands of residents that urged further cuts to slash DSIC, Department of Development, Deputy Mayor, Public Service Commissioner, City Free Vehicle Fleet, Cellphones 4 Everyone, City Pools and end the tax giveaways to greedy nonprofits/Downtown developers. This budget is a slap in the face to all City property owners. Watch your homeowners insurance explode because of these clueless DEM morons. Anyone who votes for ANY DEM in the City should have their head examined.
The very definition of insanity. Voting DEM and expecting fiscal competence. Then hoping to stop foreclosure proceedings for failure to pay rocketing DEM approved school/City taxes.
There will be 3,000 morons at the polls to vote the straight DEM line. Hopefully, 4,000 property owners will also show up. Once you stop throwing up run over to the polls. We must do better.
Stratton said that he wants Union to contribute something to the City now that Ellis pitched in 40K. How about this Mr. Stratton...you have millions of millions of taxpayer dollars invested in downtown Schenectady yet you receive NO TAXES on most of them!! You are draining the tax base and having homeowners pay more for your downtown wasteland.
What happened to taking away City vehicles and gas milage? What about the free cell phones, non resident City workers?! Take it all away - I would rather have a firefighter on the payroll than a rubber stamper. What a complete joke and no ones laughing.
Well it certainly appears that the city is now on 'life support! When a government needs and takes a handout from a non-profit.....then ya know you are in BIG TROUBLE!!!
Basically.......the city is now on welfare!!! And again the taxpayers are footing the bill!!
Everybody better run for cover, cause when the city explodes, and it will, there will be debris and sh!t flying everywhere!!
When a municipality gets a 'hand out' from a non-profit.........it's just not good folks!!
This year there is only one seat up for city council.....VOTE ZOLLINGER ROW F!!
Next year vote all the liberal socialists out! And abolish the metroplex through a referendum!
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
Mayor SOS is a joke. He's been talking about Union paying a PILOT for 7 years. NOTHING HAPPENS. Stop being such a total wimp and send them a bill for $500,000. Proctor's with its huge salary to Mercury Morris {for ruining a TV station and taking Key Bank permanently off City tax rolls} can easily afford to finally pay $500,000. After months of blathering about cuts these DEM morons can't even cut $2 million?
The $40,000 from Ellis Hospital is also a joke. A partial payment. The SFD is always over there. And the DEMS immediately waste the money on 2 pools. One pool in Hamilton Hill-that's it. Outrageous-think about returning to the private sector-lol. You must go now.
BT--the liberal socialists are the way to go! However, Pat Z deserves to win because SHE REALLY WANTS IT. When somebody has that much passion for the position, I like to see them win. Meanwhile tomorrow you will be changing your avatar. Paladino will be going back to "hell"--I mean Buffalo!
It will take decades to un-do the economic mess these liberal socialists have created! Schenectady county is spiraling downhill atan alarming rate! Voting them all out will take too much time, which is something the already overburden taxpayers can't afford.
The only thing the taxpayers CAN do in the short term, is to abolish the metroplex through a referendum in the next election cycle....11/2011. Cause if the reps take control of the local government, they will just want to bring in their 'friends and family' to reap the benefits of the beast, at the taxpayers expense.
ABOLISH THE METROPLEX AUTHORITY IN 2011.......AND SEND THEM ALL PACKING!!!
It only takes 5,000 credited signatures countywide!
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
SCHENECTADY -- Fourteen firefighters would lose their jobs and property taxes will go up 4.9 percent under the new 2011 budget approved by City Council Monday night.
City Council worked until the last minute to revise Mayor Brian U. Stratton's proposed $76.9 million spending plan, which originally called for eliminating 19 firefighter positions and a 4 percent tax rate increase to help close a $6 million budget gap. Fire Chief Robert Farstad had since clarified Stratton's numbers, saying the department has three trainees in the academy who would also lose their jobs.
The council voted 5 to 2 Monday to approve a new $77 million budget, which restores eight firefighter positions, raises the city's garbage fee by $21 a year to restore parks and property maintenance cuts, and has Ellis Medicine kicking in $40,000 to keep Quakenbush and Front Street pools open.
City Council said they also saved a firehouse from being closed. But Farstad said outside the meeting he wasn't sure if he could promise that with the remaining layoffs, which he said would still gut his shifts by about 20 percent.
However, firefighter jobs could still be saved because the union's Local 28 is currently negotiating with the city about possible savings to rescue their co-workers' jobs. Local 28 president David Orr, who attended the City Council meeting Monday night with about 20 other firefighters in tow, said the negotiations are continuing but he could not provide details. The firefighters contract expired almost a year ago.
Stratton announced the Ellis gift at Monday night's meeting, part of his renewed effort to get the city's largest non-profits to pay something for the fire and police services they receive. Stratton initially proposed a curb fee that would have spread a tax increase not only among residential property owners but non-profits as well. But he told City Council last month he had to scrap the plan, because it couldn't come close to bringing in an estimated $1.4 million the city needed. Stratton said he continues to appeal to Union College to pay something, too.
It's unclear if Ellis earmarked the money specifically for the pools or if the city did that.
City Councilman Carl Erikson said he voted "no" on the budget because he thinks some city departments could consolidate services to save money, and that there are still too many unknowns with spending. In addition to the firefighter union negotiations, five different companies are currently bidding to purchase Schenectady's tax liens. City officials hope they can get back more than the 77 percent return they budgeted for -- which could also mean some cuts would be reinstated.
City officials could change the budget before tax bills are due Dec. 15. Denise Brucker was the other City Council person who voted against the spending plan, saying she wasn't comfortable with the firefighter cuts.
Stratton's proposed budget also called for cutting all parks maintenance staff, which would have essentially closed the parks. But City Council agreed with Commissioner of General Services Carl Olsen's proposal to raise the garbage fee to cover the cuts, the hike bringing in another $400,000.
The owner of a home assessed at $150,000 will pay an estimated $93 more under the 2011 budget.
In brighter news, the architectural firm that purchased 325 State Street downtown came before City Council for another item on the agenda Monday night and said the famed restaurant Mexican Radio will open up in that building by around fall next year.
Lauren Stanforth can be reached at 454-5697 or lstanforth@timesunion.com.
Tax exemptions for large businesses are very common. For instance, the Target in Niskayuna will receive a tax break for 10 years. Price Choppers are the same. Fortunately for the taxpayers, the tax exemption for the Altamont Ave Price Chopper location ends in 2010.
But in the City of Schenectady, we're not talking about businesses which will employ hundreds of people, you're looking at a handful of waitressing and counter help employment positions. The tax breaks the downtown businesses receive are crippling taxpayers. The biggest thief is Marcellas. They simply moved a business from Crane Street where they PAID TAXES to a new building on Broadway, tax free and without expanding their work force?! WTF?
Schenectady will be going bankrupt soon, it's inevitable. The middle class cannot support anymore tax exempt Proctors, restaurants, hotels or cafes. Metroplex has pissed away the County money and the City of Schenectady needs more than papertowels to wipe up this mess.
The City with Metrograft morons has imploded all neighborhood business districts. Who could blame Mt Pleasant bakery for taking the money and tax breaks? Follow the money trail Downtown. No jobs, no increase in sales tax revenues but pretty facades!
If you got Metrograft on the ballot it would probably pass. The morons that read the Gazetto cheerleading still outnumber us at the ballot box. But the gap is narrowing. Bravo for Pat Z in taking the first step towards a full opposition slate. What's happening to the fire fighters has awoken the people. Next year a majority of City Council seats and Mayor will be up. Doubt if many of these current DEM morons will even seek re-election. They are clueless on how to fix the massive fiscal mess they created.
After months of hot air, horrible Mayor SOS and the all DEM rubber stamps voted to eliminate 14 fire fighters {including all 3 in trainee} while hiking record City property taxes another 5%! They refused to cut any pork nor get anything from Union College which has a record endowment. Della Salla, Allen and King all voted for the fire fighter cuts and raping of the City taxpayers. They are all finished in politics. Only Denise Brucker, who should run for Mayor next year, provided any fiscal leadership for the oppressed City sheeple.
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