Petitions in the Rain

I’ve been collecting signatures today for my campaign for County Legislature, (as well as for my fellow candidates). It’s something I thoroughly enjoy: good exercise and the opportunity to meet some great folks.

Except when it pours rain.

I was doing my best to ignore those grey clouds a little while ago. However, they didn’t ignore me. Down came the soaking rain. Since I was canvassing my neighborhood, I opted to wait out the rain at home.

When I opened the door, my wife looked at me quizzically. I stood in the doorway with water dripping off my head. With an amused smile on her face, she asked, “Is it raining again?”

I answered nonchalantly. “Nope. Just fell into a swimming pool.”

Looks like there might be a break in the precipitation. Time to clip the pedometer onto the ol’ belt and head out with some more petitions…

The Politics of Ice Cream – the Sequel

Last summer I wrote a post about the successful return of the ice cream truck to Niskayuna, NY. That left only one community near my home which bans the treat-filled trucks. Actually, it is my hometown of Rotterdam, NY with the ban on ice cream trucks.

It looks like Rotterdam could follow Nisky’s lead. I received this comment from “Joe” to my previous post last night:

Just an update my son Michael approached the town of Rotterdam 6/22 with a petition to bring ice cream trucks back to rotterdam. The town supervisor seemed to embrace the idea. Hoping to get a resolution voted on by the next town meeting will keep you all posted

I opened my copy of the Daily Gazette this morning and read this:

An 8-year-old boy’s appeal to the Town Board may prompt Rotterdam to end a decades’ long ban on ice cream truck vendors.

Michael Pierce turned in a petition with 50 signatures during yesterday’s town board meeting. (Good for him! I can attest that it takes a fair amount of work to collect that many signatures.)

Sounds like it’ll be up for public comment at next month’s board meeting. More ice cream and politics down the road! Stay tuned for the yummy updates.

Private Employees, Public Pensions and the Taxpayer

Here’s one to make your head spin. I hope I do the topic justice.

Sunday’s front-page story on the Times Union caught my eye. (It’s now available online.) The headline:

You pay for it: Tax dollars help cover pensions for private lobbying

Note to newspaper editors: putting “you pay for it” in the headline makes it more likely that I will read it. And this story, like so many others also increases my blood pressure. If you’ve got the time, I encourage you to read the whole story.

The TU reports that a number of private non-profits partake in the state’s public retirement system. Yeah… taxpayer funded pensions. It’s all perfectly legal, approved by the State Legislature decades ago. Groups such as the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA) and the New York Association of Counties (NYSAC) receive this publicly-funded benefit.

Did I mention that these group actively lobby the State Legislature? I’m starting to get twinges of “conflict of interest.”

Furthermore, many of their employees are paid quite well. Some receive solid six-figure salaries. No biggie, right? Sure, until I read this buried near the end of the TU story:

The leaders of the non-state agency groups, who can get raises without approval by the Legislature, may end up with pensions that well exceed what lawmakers, state commissioners, judges or governors will get in retirement. The payouts for everyone in the pension system are based on the top three years of compensation.

I cringed.

It gets better. These organizations are largely funded through dues paid by towns, counties, etc. Wait, make that taxpayers. But don’t worry, because they are looking out for the best interests of those government entities.

Also found out they provide periodic training. Again from the TU story:

Nick Caimano, a former member of the Warren County Board of Supervisors and, before that, a Queensbury town councilman, said he attended training sessions organized by the municipal associations and found them to be of little value. “If both those associations ceased to exist tomorrow, the only thing that would happen is that our local governments would have more money.”

And that makes me wonder about how this works in Schenectady County where I am running for County Legislature. After perusing the county’s nearly $300 million 2011 budget, (a great cure for insomnia, by the way), I discovered this line item:

Municipal Association Dues

This appropriation covers the cost of dues in various associations not specifically related to any one department.

The amount of this specific appropriation is $13,469. I’m guessing that it’s a portion of the dues paid to have groups like NYSAC “lobby” for the county.

Do these organizations provide a good service to the public? At this point, I’m not convinced. But I certainly want to know if we’re getting any bang for our buck, especially at the county level.

After all, whether it’s dues or pensions, we are paying for it.

6/22/11, 2 AM update: this post is also published on my campaign blog.

GM and the Tax Bludgeon

As if I needed another reason to be unhappy with General Motors…

I recently came across a story on CNN Money which reports that the CEO of GM, Dan Akerson, supports a buck-a-gallon increase in gasoline taxes.

Well, of course he does. It would help push up gas prices thereby increasing sales of vehicles with higher fuel efficiencies. Vehicles like the Chevy Cruze or Volt, perhaps? Like too many companies, especially many of the larger ones, competition does not come down to innovative products. Instead, it comes down to innovative lobbying. And that’s a shame.

One part of CNN’s story jumped off the page:

Akerson said that a higher gas tax, including an immediate 50-cent-a-gallon increase to take advantage of recent declines in gas prices, would probably make some of his Republican friends “puke.”

Sorry, Mr. Akerson. It’s not just the Republicans who would be unhappy. Try talking to the average person who would face higher prices for groceries, for commuting, for… well, just about everything.

General Motors, here’s a suggestion. Spend that lobbying money on the design and manufacture of an affordable and reliable car that gets excellent mileage. I might just buy one. No increase in the gas tax necessary.

No, wait. I won’t buy one. But somebody else just might.

A visit to ponder

Day 1 on the formal campaign trail was hot and humid. But it was very successful. I met some great folks. I collected a fair number of signatures. Now, I’ve heard from a number of political experts that you shouldn’t spend a whole lot of time chatting with folks while collecting signatures for petitions. The focus needs to be on collecting enough signatures to get on the ballot.

Generally, that’s true. I try to keep the conversations short and to the point.

However, there is one visit that took a bit longer. I knocked on a door, and it was answered by an older gentleman. Let’s call him “Joe,” (not his real name). Joe was a military veteran. He lived alone because his wife had recently passed away.

It was clear that Joe is still grieving. He and his late wife had enjoyed nearly 50 years of marriage. My heart ached when he showed me their wedding picture hanging on the wall. His voice never cracked. No tears could be seen in his eyes. But his love for his wife came through loud and clear.

Joe has no children and no family living nearby. It was apparent that he has some health issues and struggles with some of the routine home maintenance. I was worried. Some of those worries were relieved when he mentioned that his neighbors look in on him.

I asked if there was something I could do for him. It seemed that he was content just to have someone to engage in conversation.

Still, I’m concerned about him. I’m not entirely sure what more I can do for him. At a minimum, I hope to find time to just chat with him. In the meantime, “Joe” will be in my thoughts and prayers.

It’s a visit that I will ponder.

Lace Up the Sneakers

It’s time. Time to lace up the shoes. Time to grab a clipboard and pen. Time to take petitions and start knocking on doors.

This is the part of my campaign that I’ve been looking forward to. While many people cringe at the thought of knocking on doors to collect signatures, I’m eager for it to start. In the past two years, I’ve collected signatures to help a number of candidates get their names on the ballot. In the process, I’ve enjoyed meeting all sorts of people.

This year, I get to participate as a candidate myself. But I don’t expect to be alone in my travels across the district. My two boys will be tagging along on occasion. (We even plan on creating a sign to attach to the stroller.) Of course, there will be other candidates, committee members, and volunteers helping out across the county. To all of those who will help collect signatures for my campaign, I thank you in advance.

Time to load up the car. Time to drive a little, walk a lot. By the way, the car just turned over 195,500 miles today. Will I hit 200,000 by November? Might have to get a pedometer, too. It’d be interesting to see how many steps there really are in a political campaign.

It’s time!

Note: this post will also be published on my campaign blog.

Albany County: At it Again

Even though I’m running for Schenectady County Legislature, I find myself keeping an eye on the Albany County Legislature. They’re notorious for bringing intrusive legislation to Albany County. I also worry about their ideas creeping across county lines.

Their latest brilliant idea is a proposal that would ban the sale of tobacco products in Albany County pharmacies. The logic for this is pharmacies are supposed to be institutions focused on health. A pharmacy is no place for the evils of tobacco that threaten to destroy our society.

Never mind that many pharmacies are in grocery stores, or that they sell a whole boatload of items that aren’t terribly healthy.

Furthermore, I didn’t realize that people went to the pharmacy counter for their nicotine fix.

It gets better. Just read this definition of “pharmacy” from the proposed law:

“Pharmacy”, for the purposes of this Local Law shall mean any place in which drugs, prescriptions or poisons are possessed for the purpose of compounding, preserving, dispensing or retailing, or in which drugs, prescriptions or poisons are compounded, preserved, dispensed or retailed, or in which such drugs, prescriptions or poisons are by advertising or otherwise offered for sale at retail as defined by and pursuant to New York Education Law – §6802.

Gee, what did I do with that prescription for my asthma poison? With a definition like that, I think cigarettes sound like a downright healthy choice.

Seriously, it would be a terrible precedent. If county representatives don’t like a particular product, they can create excuses to ban its sale at particular locations. Then make the law’s definitions so broad that it could effectively ban the sale of that product anywhere in the county. Voila! Problem solved. Evil purged from the county!

The way I read it, any business selling over-the-counter medicine might also be subject to the ban on tobacco sales. Like so many local laws, it’s poorly written. I’m not certain, but couldn’t this law apply to local gas stations, convenience stores, and retail outlets without a pharmacy if they so much as have an aspirin for sale?

Now, I don’t smoke. I teach my children that smoking is bad. I don’t need a group of legislators to do that for me. I think I’ll stick to an old phrase that’s tried and true. I’ll “just say no” to cigarettes and to bad legislation.

A little publicity…

It’s buried fairly deep, but I did get a mention in a Marv Cermak story on the Times Union’s website. You have to click to find the mention on the second page:

Word has it party leaders [county Republicans] are considering endorsing Wade Abbott and Chris Tomaselli [as candidates for county legislature]. Abbott was one of the prime movers in the origination of the Tea Party movement in the Capital Region.

Certainly, I would be very grateful to receive the Republican endorsement. And I will strongly support Chris Tomaselli for whatever office he chooses to run. Chris is a good guy, just the candidate we need in local government.

The rest of the article provides interesting insight into local politics, too.

5/17/11, 11:00 PM update:

Looks like Chris will be sticking with his run for Rotterdam Town Board according to his Facebook page. I would certainly welcome him as a running mate for the county legislature positions, but I know he will do a lot of good in Rotterdam when elected to town board. He’s certainly got my support!

Not to bore you…

I’m watching video from this month’s Schenectady County Legislature meeting.

Riveting stuff. Really. Nothing like an overabundance of legalese to kill any desire to write.

All sarcasm aside, the subjects being discussed are very important, but it is cutting into my writing time tonight.

I won’t bore you with the details. Not yet, anyway.

Crunchin’ the Taxing Numbers

Ahhh, property taxes.

I’m not surprised by the latest report by the Empire Center for New York State Policy. Turns out that Schenectady County has property tax rates significantly higher than the average for the Capital District. A number of communities in the county are higher than the state average.

It’s just another indication of the fiscal crisis in Schenectady County.

If you happen to drive into my hometown of Rotterdam, you might just notice a sign that says “Welcome to…. ROTTERDAM a nice place to live.” Yes, sometimes the phrase seems a bit underwhelming. But it is a statement that has grown on me. I do live in a wonderful town. I am running for county legislature because it is a nice place to live. So is Princetown. So is Duanesburg.

But I find myself coming back to these tax rates. If they continue, more and more families will not be able to raise their children in the county.

And that’s why I’m running: to help make Schenectady County an affordable and safe place for families to raise their children!

I’ll continue crunching the numbers. More on this topic down the road…