Republicans want positions cut

[dan]

www.uticaod.com/homepage/x131782499/County-Republicans-want-positions-cut

"Following the Republican news conference Tuesday, board Democrats also announced a plan for improving the county’s fiscal standing: a special finance subcommittee made up of Hennessy, Larry Tanoury Jr., Frank Puma, Joseph Furgol and chaired by Kernan."

Good luck and go get 'em, Larry

[bobbbiez]

Well Larry, here's your chance to shine. ;D

We'll now see what you're made of.
Stay strong and be fair to all in your decisions.

Good luck in all your endeavors.

[Swimmy]

The Republicans' theory doesn't hold water. Cutting positions just to cut positions for the sake of saving money and for one fiscal year ONLY doesn't make sense.

Instead of researching why a certain position should be filled after it becomes vacant, the Republicans should be studying to see if they can make do without the position BEFORE it becomes vacant. For example, what happens if those 50 positions are vacant in DSS? Now we've all heard the justification for a 19% raise for DSS workers, i.e. oversized workload. Do the Republicans honestly believe that they would be "saving" any money?

Here is a way to save money:

• stop frivolous lawsuits
  
• force police departments to merge into the Sheriff's Department
  
• stop rubber stamping contracts for agencies that don't work, e.g. EDGE
  
• cut the number of legislators. if Onondaga county and other counties can manage a LARGER population with FEWER legislators, then so can Oneida
  
• cut useless and unnecessary positions, like half of picente's support staff
  
• have pay salaries reflect the same salary the rest of the country pays for. There is no need for a part-time pistol permit officer to make more than 15,000 a year. The job is PART-TIME and requires no special skill set other than the ability to read.

There are other possibilities, but I can't think of them all right now.

I hope Larry is able to come up with plenty for the idiots who try to shut him up. They'd be speechless and embarrassed.

[frankcor]

I'm all in favor of eliminating the unfilled positions because it may slow the growth of our insatiable county government.

Swimmy, removing the positions from the authorized job levels actually does save money. It prevents the County Executive from simply handing out jobs to friends and cronies in return for favors. If the jobs stay on the books, they'll eventually get filled, quietly and behind the scenes.

Eliminating the jobs forces the County Executive to request the legislature to add them again when he needs to dispense some political patronage.

It's greatly refreshing to hear both the majority and minority leaders talking about evaluating the effectiveness of county programs. I hope Larry and the others are able to come up with ways of quantifying what programs are giving us the most bang for the buck.

I believe consolidation of police agencies will save money for town and village taxpayers but not county taxpayers unless we eliminate the deputies road patrol and transition that responsibility to the State Police.

[clarencebunsen]

A regularly scheduled review of all jobs is probably the most efficient method for any organization but it won't happen in most cases. Telling people that they have been judged unnecessary is too hard on the person giving the judgement and the person receiving it.

It is a lot more likely that a position will be considered for elimination if it is vacant.

[frankcor]

Clarence, the comfort level of county employees or their supervisors doesn't quite make my list of things about which I care.

Despite Picente's attempts to the contrary, full employment in Oneida County cannot be achieved by county government.

[tanouryjr]

Sorry I'm a little late to this topic but I'll throw my two cents in.

This is too little too late from the Republicans. It's nothing more than a political gimmick. Back in March I called for a hiring and salary freeze, it fell on deaf ears. During the budget process, when it really mattered, we (the Democrats) called for the legislature to eliminate all vacant positions in order to save the taxpayers over $2 million. However, the budget was passed without that. Now, only a couple weeks later, the Republicans want us to believe that they are the fiscal watchdogs? They have had decades to fix the problems.

Furthermore, they elected Dave Wood as their new leader. This was supposed to be an attempt at bringing the Republican Party a "new face?" Dave Wood was elected in 1979 (the year I was born). The property tax levy has increased over 150% since his election. He has NEVER voted no to a budget or tax increase during his 30 years in office.

The fact is, they have clearly failed the county and are now being held accountable. They don't know how to respond and can't handle the fact of their voting records. And I'll be the first to say that there are Democrats that have similar voting records. So what's my answer? It can't get any worse, so we need to get new people involved that aren't part of the political culture. Democrat, Republican, Independent, etc...We need NEW people. No more musical chairs and politricks.

[frankcor]

TanouryJr, we're looking to you to make sure the legislative leadership lives up to their words. I pray that it's not just words again.

[tanouryjr]

I agree with you, Frank. I sure hope we can finally see the entire board have an epiphany and realize that we can't keep doing things the same old way.

I was just going over the the numbers of my voting record for the 2008 session. With all but Tuesday's final meeting of the year in, here are the numbers:

I have voted "NO" to $16,379,980 in spending. That does not include no votes in committee, no votes to changes in policy or laws, no votes to changes in Empire Zones, no votes to appointments to committees and boards, etc. That is simply 26 separate "Nays" to spending measures, including bonding. I haven't even figured last meeting in yet, in which I voted no to bonding for a new athletic field house at MVCC. Many HUGE colleges across the country have had to cut back on capital projects but we still went ahead.

However, the $16.4 million that I voted against would have equated to a 29.8% property tax DECREASE. By the way, I also voted no to the budget with a 5.1% INCREASE.

Sorry for the self indulging rant, but it seems the only ones listening are you all on here. I'll keep you updated on the Finance Committee's progress. I hope to come out with some bold new initiatives for fixing the county's fiscal condition. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to email me them and I will submit them to the committee.

Check out this editorial from Tom Suozzi and let me know what you all think:

www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/01/01/2009-01-01_want_a_fast_stimulus_have_feds_pick_up_m.html

[Ralph]

It's funny. Over the course of the last thirty years I have seen the population of the state/county/city drop dramatically, and by the same token seen the staffing of those very same governmental bodies increase dramatically as well.
And I also notice that some services have ceased, dwindled or otherwise been narrowed.

So with the population getting smaller, government getting bigger (and offering us less for more) and those left paying more than ever before..........

......no one down there can figure out we need to call it a day?

I don't know Larry, I am almost sad to see you lowering yourself by associating with these folks.

How 'bout instead of me paying my County taxes this year, I scarf up some basic elementary math primer books on eBay and have them delivered down to the County Bldg.?



Nawwwww..........
Probably can't read either.

[tanouryjr]

Well, Ralph, if I don't do it then who will? The political machine actually encourages apathy because that's how they control everything. They don't want any honest people getting involved. Maybe it is my calling. All I can say is I will NEVER "lower myself" to their level. I represent YOU and only YOU (well, and everyone else in the 25th district, lol).

[frankcor]

Jan 2, 2009 1:22:39 GMT -5 @tanouryjr said:

Many HUGE colleges across the country have had to cut back on capital projects but we still went ahead.

That's because large universities and colleges are ACCOUNTABLE to boards of directors and endowment fund trustees. They can't assume they have a blank check for every wonderful program and project that comes before them.

As long as county taxpayers refuse to hold our legislators accountable by voting the bums out, wreckless spending will go on unabated.

With regards to Souzi's proposal for a $50-billion dollar bailout for Medicaid, it avoids the most logical solution -- namely, give the taxpayers a $50-billion tax holiday instead. I just don't see the sense in confiscating $60-billion dollars from local taxpayers, hauling it down to Washington DC where the bureaucracy wastes and consumes about $10-billion of it and then giving the remainder back to the states. It makes a whole lot more sense to just let the states take care of the problem directly as they chose to do so.

BTW, Thanks for asking for our opinion -- my legislator has never asked me for my opinion in all the years he has been feeding at the public trough.

[dgriffin]

Souzi's article states: "For a modest investment of $50 billion, our new President could deliver real and immediate relief to state and local governments, and ultimately our taxpayers. The benefits would be distributed equally to every state, and we would take a big step toward achieving his vision of a comprehensive health care."

Oh, for God's sake! That's all we need is to throw more money around.
Oh dear, what does it matter. I do believe we are all owned by the Chinese, anyway.
How do you say "gimme" in Cantonese?

And I wasn't planning to have any more children, anyway.

And I also wasn't planning to stare down a tank in a public square.


廁所喺邊度呀？ chisó hai bīndouh a?

(Where's the toilet?)


From Useful Cantonese Phrases:
www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/cantonese.php



Why don't we just go directly to 1984? We have no local control to speak of ... not really. We have the technology to be governed directly from Washington, as if we weren't already. Let's get rid of state, county, city, town and village governments and save a whole lot of money. THAT would loosen so much money that America would regain world economic domination in two weeks flat.

[Swimmy]

Jan 1, 2009 23:42:02 GMT -5 @tanouryjr said:

o we need to get new people involved that aren't part of the political culture. Democrat, Republican, Independent, etc...We need NEW people. No more musical chairs and politricks.

The problem is that you need to be "connected" to get elected.

[concerned]

While everyone is arguing over how to save this area from future decay I am worried about one thing. I went to fill my prescription for my Pulmicort Inhaler for COPD and another lung problem and was shocked that my Medicare Part D priscription plan not only took the drug off its formulary but will only fill a prescription once in a lifetime. The drug costs $140.00 that I could never afford. Called my doctor to see if she could override the Priscription Drug Plan decision and apparently they won't. What they cover on there list I can't take because of drug interactions. Imagine that. i keep calling the 1-800 number for customer service and the phone is constantly keeping me on hold---the music is smoothing! The crazy thing about this is that the State pays for my Prescription Plan. Oh well I guess this is what Obama meant when he said things will get worse before they get better.

I also received a letter Sat. that the generic form of my sleeping medication that costs $208.00 will also not be covered by them any more. This is the only drug that worked for me because of severe anxiety. If I can't sleep I can't imagine what will happen. I'll probably go mad! Well at least they are still covering my blood pressure medications---after all this I'll probably need more. I've always been a kind, considerate, helping person. Oh, well I guess this is our great government at work.