Schenectady has no money, and McCarthy has no clothes
I wholeheartedly agree with your April 18 editorial, “Is Schenectady broke, or what?” When the Alliance Party started almost three years ago, the first major issue we identified was budget transparency. Schenectady has been hampered for years by poor financial planning, lack of foresight when passing annual budgets, and mismanagement of funds. This issue resonated with voters, yet the 2012 budget was passed with various sleights of hand, as usual. For example, the city knew that it was liable for the $1 million owed to Schenectady County for back taxes, yet failed (perhaps due to poor legal advice) to include it in the budget. Having now paid the bill, we have so little cash on hand that we’ve had to borrow money to pay for scheduled work on Erie Boulevard. During the 2011 campaign, we repeatedly called, first for Mayor Stratton and then for Acting Mayor McCarthy, to provide a clear picture on where Schenectady stood with its budget. We have yet to see this information presented to the public. Instead, we are treated to a series of news stories on how the city is saving a few bucks (e.g., $37,000 on reduced additives to sewage sludge) and spending more than anticipated (e.g., $70,000 on attorney fees to foreclose properties). An April 12 article [“Schenectady saving $30,000 monthly by running own sewer plant”] on the sewage treatment plant mentioned cost savings that add up to $603,000, far less than the $1 million in savings anticipated each year by Mayor McCarthy, and the issue of increased pension costs from hiring the new city sewer workers has yet to be addressed. How does this add up? No one really knows, and that is why the Alliance Party call for budget transparency is so urgent. Schenectady is not alone in facing escalating costs of doing business (health insurance and pension costs, in particular) but we have to understand where we are now, in order to plan for the future. Like any other business, the city should report on a regular basis the status of its budget, with insight into future expectations of income and liabilities. Otherwise, and perhaps even so, we appear to be heading toward a financial cliff.
BETSY HENRY Schenectady The writer was one of the Alliance Party’s original members.
The City is already over a cliff and in free fall. The DEMS have $75,000 in the bank, the roads and sewers are falling apart and they vote to BOND ONE MILLION to narrow Erie Boulevard because there are no businesses left. Everyone who looked at his first joke budget saw McCarthy had no clue, he was making up false assumptions and that the City budget did not balance.
All the DEMS do is dig deeper borrowing and bonding. Then they wonder why no one in their right mind will purchase property. Even for one dollar. Roger Hull was too smart. Schenectady peeps don't want a brilliant award winning administrator. They prefer a proven taxer/insane borrower. The problem is not transparency. It's lack of will to cut bloated budget lines and fire incompetent City Hall lifers.
Agree......the city is already over their financial cliff!!! The liberal crazies have just about bankrupt the city!! While nero was fiddling.......aka.....while METROPLEX/GILLEN was raking in the dough.............
The city better file for bankruptcy now!!! Folks are walking away from their homes, crime is out of control, no money left for infrastructure, a failing school system.......and the folks that are buying homes from the 'key bank fiasco' are mostly 'risky' loans.
Nothing is real in schenectady!! Well, except for the drug dealers, addicts and gangs!!!
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
Here's what real in the City-pit bulls, gangs, crime, fossil DEMS. The DEM morons have totally bankrupted the City. Borrowing everything from garages, to Erie narrowing, to s*** plants. Another example of the total failure of Metrograft to stabilize any property values. No one is moving to the City to be next to Fat Morris' Proctor's? How about Fat Morris' coffeehouse? And even worse a Proctor's employee is elected to City Council over a brilliant woman who started a high tech company. The voters had a chance in 2011 to sweep out the DEM morons. By 2013 it might be too late.
PAOLINO NAPOLEON IS A GENIUS. ALL OF HIS APPOINTMENTS TOO.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
At least he was smart enough to bail on McCarthy. More than the other dead enders can say. They are too stunad to file bankruptcy. They prefer to keep sucking the blood out of the taxpayers like the vampires they are. BTW, love the "headed" for bankruptcy. City finances have been in free fall for years.
This is all "evidence" of DV's claim that a renaissance is occcurring in the city!
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.
Logged
The City is already over a cliff and in free fall. The DEMS have $75,000 in the bank, the roads and sewers are falling apart and they vote to BOND ONE MILLION to narrow Erie Boulevard because there are no businesses left. Everyone who looked at his first joke budget saw McCarthy had no clue, he was making up false assumptions and that the City budget did not balance. 
At least he was smart enough to bail on McCarthy. More than the other dead enders can say. They are too stunad to file bankruptcy. They prefer to keep sucking the blood out of the taxpayers like the vampires they are. BTW, love the "headed" for bankruptcy. City finances have been in free fall for years. 
