Quoted from senders

if they cant find anything to cut and no fees to increase then either

1. it's been a lie and the $$ is going somewhere and they are crooks

OR

2. they are inept and dont look to the future b**ch slap from the rating agencies and the fallout of the lack of state/fed funding and dumba$$ mandates

SHOW ME THE $$ TRAIL

Quoted from Madam X

Aren't these the same people who did not notice money included in the budget for illegal overtime?
That 2% tax cap nonsense was just to distract the stupid into believing they'd been provided with property tax relief. Works all the time, with some of the people.

Quoted Text

SCHENECTADY
Council adopts ’12 budget; average tax, fee spike $91
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com.

    The City Council unanimously approved acting Mayor Gary Mc-Carthy’s first budget Friday, making essentially no changes in the spending plan.
    It includes what Councilman Thomas Della Sala called “optimistic” revenue projections — including selling far more foreclosed houses than ever before and getting much more money for them than the city has gotten in the past.
    But Della Sala said other, more conservative revenue estimates balanced out the risks in the more optimistic numbers.
    He praised McCarthy for not including “a lot of silliness” and “fluff” in the budget, saying it was far better than the previous three years’ budgets. “This budget did not have a lot of gimmicks in it that we had to play hide ’n’ seek to fi nd,” Della Sala said.
    The council voted 7-0, with Mc-Carthy casting a vote even though he will also sign the budget as mayor.
    The plan will spend $79.2 million, up from $77.4 million this year. It includes a 1.89 percent tax increase — a rate of $13.33 per $1,000 of assessed property — and double-digit increases in fees for garbage collection, sewer and water.
    For a homeowner with the average house, assessed at $100,000, taxes would go up $24, to $1,333.
    Most property owners will also pay $24 more for garbage collection, $22.92 more for sewer and $20.64 more for water. That means the average homeowner would see a total increase of $91.56 next year.
    City Council members wanted to reduce the budget by at least $1 million, but said they found it was already cut to the bone. Last year’s layoffs left them with little wiggle room, they said — and the lack of workers has left the city so tight that council members briefl y considered hiring more employees for next year.
    The budget adds a number of new fees, but city offi cials have
not yet released details. ......................>>>>.........................>>>>..........................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01401&AppName=1

Quoted Text

Most property owners will also pay $24 more for garbage collection, $22.92 more for sewer and $20.64 more for water. That means the average homeowner would see a total increase of $91.56 next year.

Quoted Text

Sponsored by the Empire Center for New York State Policy

State and local government employees in New York collect taxpayer-guaranteed pension benefits that are far more generous than those available to most private-sector workers.

(Use the calculator at left to see just how generous those benefits can be.)

The cost of public pensions is about to blow through the roof, with financial consequences that could affect generations of New Yorkers to come. And it's not just pensions: state and local governments have promised over $200 billion in post-retirement health care -- but set aside no money to pay for it.

To learn more about the problem:
• Read the Empire Center report, “New York's Exploding Pension Costs.”
•Search the pension database of more than 340,000 retired state and local government employees at SeeThroughNY.net.
• Read “Iceberg Ahead, ” the Empire Center's study of unfunded government retiree healthcare obligations.
•Join our email list and keep up to date with the latest on this and other Empire Center reports and projects.
• E.J. McMahon discusses the report on YNN's Capital Tonight and with Joe Spector of Gannett News Service.
• Visit Public Sector Inc., the Manhattan Institute's website focusing on the national problem of burgeoning liabilities for government employee pensions and other compensation.

Quoted Text

There's a bitter irony in the voices of residents of Lago Agrio, or 'Sour Lake' in Spanish, when they mention the name of their northeast Ecuadorian hometown. Once a prosperous base for Amazonian drilling operations for sulfur-rich 'sour crude' petroleum, Lago Agrio is now the center of what amounts to an industrial cancer zone larger than the state of Rhode Island. Its population is surrounded by poisoned farmland and heavily polluted waterways and burdened with elevated rates of disease.

Now, the battle over responsibility for this region's current condition is at the center of an expensive and extensive legal struggle between Chevron, the giant multinational energy company, and Lago Agrio's persistent indigenous people. A U.S. Appeals Court decision last Monday in New York makes it more likely than ever that Chevron will be forced to make a massive payout to the people of the Ecuadorian Amazon.

While Ecuador is nearly 3,000 miles away from New York, the final outcome of this case could have an impact on the New York State pension fund. As Comptroller, I serve as trustee of New York's $146.9 billion Common Retirement Fund which holds nearly $780 million worth of Chevron stock. The Fund benefits when its portfolio companies remain profitable by pursuing responsible and sustainable business policies in the communities in which they operate. Chevron is no exception.

The allegations against Chevron are well known. Starting in the 1960s, Texaco, which was subsequently acquired by Chevron, disposed of nearly 16 billion gallons of hazardous waste in the most indiscriminate ways -- dumping pools of byproducts into unlined dirt pits, streams and rivers, thereby literally creating hundreds of real-life "sour lakes" of toxic effluent in the Amazon.

Since taking office as New York State Comptroller four years ago, I have asked Chevron's board of directors to settle this marathon litigation and spare the company's battered reputation any further damage. The board has chosen to ignore the wishes of the many investors and observers who supported my call.

In February of this year, however, an Ecuadorian court found Chevron liable for nearly $18 billion in compensatory and punitive damages. That's about one dollar for each gallon of poisonous waste the company is alleged to have dumped.

Chevron may have ended the careless disposal programs identified by plaintiffs in the case, but the damage from decades of uncontrolled pollution is still being felt in the area today and is the basis for the significant judgment against the company. To prevent these types of risks from ever happening again, I have asked Chevron to appoint an independent director to its Board with significant environmental expertise. The advice of an environmentally competent professional who will guide the formation and adoption of future policies would be invaluable.

There's also a broader lesson to learn from Lago Agrio's story. Gulf coast residents are still grappling with the long-term environmental and economic effects of last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The conclusion to draw from Chevron's case in Ecuador, and BP's $20 billion fund to compensate those victimized by the Deepwater Horizon disaster, could not be more clear: short term profits at the expense of environmental protection and human rights often cost companies more in the long term.

It's time for the energy industry to start afresh with a new approach to environmental responsibility and risk management, both domestically and internationally. Chevron must do what's right for its investors, and its future viability, by negotiating a fair settlement that restores the company's reputation. Chevron, its shareholders and the general public have not and will not benefit from a never-ending courtroom drama.

Thomas P. DiNapoli is the New York State Comptroller and trustee for the $146.9 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund, which provides benefits for more than 1 million public workers, retirees and their beneficiaries.

Quoted Text

August 11, 2010 11:43 AM4 comments.

Tom DiNapoli: GOP Rival's Pension Fund Plan Could Cost Taxpayers Billions

BY Ken Lovett





Harry Wilson
.
State Controller Thomas DiNapoli says Harry Wilson’s call to lower the state pension fund’s anticipated return on investment could cost taxpayers an additional $10.5 billion.

Wilson has been critical of DiNapoli's projection of an 8% rate of return on pension fund investments, saying the state hasn’t seen returns that good in more than a decade.

He says the actual projected number should be 5% or 6%, the same figure corporate America uses.

DiNapoli spokesman Dennis Tompkins says under the controller’s estimate, local governments will be on the hook for $3.6 billion in payments this year.

Lowering the anticipated rate of return to the 5% Wilson is pushing would increase that cost to $14.1 billion, he said.

Broken down, the contribution rates for the Employment Retirement System would more than quadruple while the rate for the Police and Fire Retirement system outside New York would increase by fivefold, Tompkins said.

“The out-year costs would grow exponentially,” Tompkins said, questioning how Wilson would plug the hole.

DiNapoli campaign spokesman Eric Sumberg called Wilson’s plan “a $10 billion tax increase for New York families.”

“It makes you wonder what he stands for besides helping his fellow Wall Street millionaires get even more rich,” Sumberg said. “His plan would drive up property taxes for households outside of New York City nearly $2,500 thi syear alone.”

“New Yorkers can’t afford the Wilson Tax, and they can’t afford ‘Wall Street Harry Wilson,’” Sumberg added.

Wilson has been ripping what he calls the “DiNapoli Tax”, which is a plan in the new budget to allow governments to delay payments to the pension fund for several years and then have them pay it back with interest down the road.

Told of DiNapoli’s office latest figures, Wilson accused the controller of “papering over” an existing problem that ultimately will cost taxpayers more.

“Changing the... rate doesn’t increase our pension liability,” Wilson said. “It only affects the extent you can hide them.”

He doesn’t deny that lowering the anticipated rate of return could cost governments more in the short-term, though he refused to buy into DiNapoli’s $10.5 billion figure.

“Local governments will be paying more money if we leave it at 8% and show poor returns as we have under DiNapoli,” one Wilson aide said. “The liability exists and with any deficit need, you need to address it somehow.”

Wilson and his aides said he wouldn’t recommend lowering the anticipated rate of return “until we work on reforms with the Legislature that will plug the gap”without the need for tax increases.

“Be honest about the size of the problem, decide on the right approach and then decide with the Legislature how to fill it,” Wilson said.

“They’re papering the hole with a phony accounting treatment,” he said of DiNapoli's office. “Be honest with the assessment and step away from this massive ponzi scheme.”

He suggests a 401K plan for new public employees, which he said would help “stop the bleeding.”

He also says DiNapoli relies on too many risky investments.

DiNapoli aides shot back that they are not “day traders," but long-term investors looking for the best performance.

Tompkins also accused Wilson of using “inaccurate and exaggerated” information to criticize DiNapoli’s “rate mitigation plan.”

.

Quoted Text

But the total cost of the corruption is hard to quantify.

For instance, it’s virtually impossible to tell whether the corruption led to qualitatively worse investments than occurred in more transparent systems in other states. That’s because the corruption centered around a notoriously opaque part of the business world, called private equity, where companies have virtually no public reporting requirements and investments are expected to take up to ten years to pay off.

The investigation continues into other firms and individuals suspected of involvement in the bribery scheme.

Quoted Text

The budget adds a number of new fees, but city officials have
not yet released details.

Quoted from bumblethru

If Gary McCarthy gets elected and continues down this pathetic road, there will be NO ONE left to foot the bill EXCEPT the businesses. And when that happens, which isn't too far off in the future....the businesses will also flee SCUM-nectady! It's just a matter of time folks!