National, City, County, and local views of the author that affect our city. These points of view hopefully inspire, and challege readers to engage with insight on the topics.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Journal:St. Lawrence County mayors and supervisors debate sales tax
It is time for Home Rule Legislation for a 1% increase in Sales Tax! We should still continue to cut and keep all cuts in place.
Home Rule Legislation would help the revenue problem in SLC. Now that virtually every administrator and legislator in the county says the 1% sales tax increase would solve our problem, why hasn't it been passed?
Oh Yeah. The state legislature has to pass it. So, if virtually every leader in our county has requested it, why don't we have the legislation we need?
After all, Addie Russell said LAST YEAR she could get it through the State Assembly. But, OUR OWN Patty Ritchey will not help us out. Even though she grew up here, was County Clerk, and we elected her over Darrell Aubertine, who was REALLY GOOD to Ogdensburg.
As former County Clerk, you'd think she would have some understanding of this problem. But, because she blindly followed the national Tea Party line, and signed Grover Norquist's tax pledge, she is no longer loyal to, or interested in, representing us.
The eye opener will be when those older folks in Heuvelton and Ogdensburg no longer get the county services they depend on. By then, Patty Could be on to bigger and better things in Washington, or more likely, thrown onto the Sarah Palin Bimbo trash pile, because they used her,and no longer need her.
Bruce did you get by second grade? What he says is a little long winded but very very true.. Read Bruce, get out in the real world, take a breath of fresh air and comprehend things as they are..... We need a sales tax increase.. Everyone knows it outside of Ritchie but she wont support it.. Homeowners and propertyowners cannot obsorb a twenty percent tax hike.. Everyone oppisition to this tax is that more costs for everyone.. Yup thats exactly the reason a tax on sales for everyone, rich poor, canadians, out of coutny residents helps share the burden..
Its simply about The Repbulican partys money being spent on reporters to write nice things about Patty.. Do it enough and she might hire you.. She has four on staff now.. Amy cant win but at least AMy attempted.. To remove a cancer like Ritchie from office would have been wonderful but its not going to happen this year.. In 2014 we will have another fun contest.. If Matt Doheny loses to Owens this year Doheny will in all likelyhood attempt to run for Senate thus allowing Ritchie to be used by the GOP to attempt to oust Owens.. Ownes will win this year on class and integrity alone.. He would beat Ritchie on brains only.... Johnson Newspapers have been a Republican vote forever.. Chuck Kelly and the advance were Donkey but thats now changed.. Dosnt matter who the canidate is if their republican Johnson will endorce.. Of course they endorce people like Addie Russell who is Donkey but running unopposed.. This keeps the image up..
If the county would call it a net even with the sales tax and give the revenue back to the property tax payers then that would be fine. To just raise revenue to give all the raises for ever and ever is not the answer. All the tough cuts will never be made and gov't will be business as usual. Will be interesting to see who has the guts to bring up cutting the sheriff dept road patrol. The safety card has been played for far too long and fiscal responsibility has to be the tone.
Why do we need these DMV offices in Ogdensburg, Massena, Gouverneur and in CAnton.. Close them let some help go and consolodate.. I can drive once every eight years to Canton other than that I can renew my registration by mail every two years. Rupp is just like Ritchie and spinning the need for these offices. Yah its convenient but not at the tune of 20 percent of my taxes. The real problem is each department head has built his own empire and convinces the legislators to leave them alone. What happens if NYC DMV start processing these plates themselves.. I,ll tell you.. Our revenue will stop, and we will be stuck with help the legislators wont lay off... Make some tough choices pleease....
ALSO.. Lets call Patty Ritchies offices and let her know its time to earn her living by representing us instead of some insider Washington based idiot like Grover Norquist. Hes no North Country resident and he dosnt feel the pain.. We do and its about time to tell her that... Me I,ll take my chances with voting for AMy Tresdider because she can do no less than Ritchie has...
Bad choice by the county legislators in not cutting some people from the road patrol but we have to live with it.. Now make them accountable this year.. Write some tickets make our roads safe again.. Give them a quota to fill like the State boys. As long as we fund a road patrol the state will continue to fill positions and assign them to areas that dont have the patrols.. We get to pay for someone eles law enforcement that way.. A good road patrol could pay for themselves easily with drug seizures, and confications and writting tickets for violations .
Note to the new city manager: Don't take a position on this or anything else for that matter until the City Council includes you in "the loop". The vehicle fiasco was a setup. The councilors ALWAYS communicate with each other before meeting so no one gets embarrassed (I.E. Morley saying Nick and Dan would not cooperate with his scheme of firing Sciorra for cause).
The message there is: Morley tried to get everyone on board before the meeting, but Nick and Dan decided to listen to legal counsel instead.
Anyway, you can bet ALL of the councilors knew how the vote on the city vehicles was going to go before the meeting. The fact they left out the city manager, and embarrassed him, clearly indicates Mr. Pinkerton had better keep his resume in order.
Pattie Ritchie and her Grover Norquist pledge are burying Ogdensburg, north country communities and our school systems. Just read the budget story in the journal today.
10:51 Do you think we really need a full time fire dept with 20 year retirement? Every other town has paid drivers and volunteer. Volunteer rescue, excuse me , paid rescue squad can cover all the emergency calls and bill insurance companies. These are the tough cuts that have to be made. Sure 1 % sales tax would be the quick fix, but another couple years would be the same gig. Stay tough Patty and make them live within their means.
There is no doubt that Patty is going to get reelected. Not because she does a good job but because she is well known. But taxs payeer need to start holding her accountable. Buy that I mean start representing the people in her district and doing her job. A little more work and less time in front of a camra.
Hey Guys!!!...The city is having trouble balancing it's budget, and guess who is grabbing the headlines saying they'll be tough, and not raise taxes? That's right. You guessed it. Morley and Ashley. The same two guys who "packed" the city council last December so they could fire Sciorra "with cause".
But wait. It gets better. They, the mayor, and then the rest of the council went against their own legal counsel, and fired Sciorra with cause. Then Sciorra sues, wins, and the taxpayers are out about $250,000!
Even better: The city had a balanced budget, and no tax increases under Sciorra's leadership!
There should be a taxpayers revolt in Ogdensburg this year.
If Morley and Ashley don't raise taxes, Ogdensburg's streets will fall apart. The fire department will disintegrate, leaving our homes to burn to ash if they catch fire. Our water will become contaminated because we won't have enough DPW staff to maintain our treatment plant. Our streetlights will burn out, leaving the city in darkness - which will be great for the scumbag criminals which have followed the prisons to Ogdensburg, because we won't be able to afford the police we rely on for public safety. Spending cuts are not the answer to our problems, not anymore. We need to raise taxes to a responsible level, and we need to do it in this budget. We've seen the result of the Morley/Ashley cut-cut-cut mentality, and it is chaos and ruin. Lower taxes do not attract business to the area, they turn our city into a cesspool of crime and decay.
True the city is a cesspool of decline , decay and demoralization on . Our young desert in troves after getting educated . WHY because short sighted decisions made in the name of job s screwed this city . Adding 2 prisons and a sexually violent predator facility SUNK ANY CHANCE this city ever had of being anything but a cesspool . Stupid politicians and scumbag camp followers of prisons and and the perv factory only serve to exacerbate and accelerate the decline and decay . The low lives OWN the streets and we are running rampant .
The ONLY answer is to MOVE out , things will NEVER get better in this hellhole
I somewhat agree that the prisons and perv palace led to the decline. Another factor has been the growth of Fort drum and money hungrey landlords of that area.. They sent rent sky high and with so many people recieving public assistnace on rent they had to move here.. Our landlords let the rent stay down to attriact the poor but failed to keep their places in good shape letting them rot in some cases, then letting them go for taxes and thus the city having to level them.. Our posing Senator Ritchie is mostly to blame for any tax increases that may happen.. She wont help with home rule so the sales tax has to be raised thus the property taxes will go up County wide and city wide thus rent will go up etc etc.. The people who want no sales tax are out of touch with reality.. We could have changed alot in the last election but the majority spoke.. You know the well off and the prison guards you mentioned dont want things changed.. Its the less fortunate that get hurt.. Mr Ashley has showed signs of being his own man and I want to give him credit for that, Mr. Morley I thought was his own man until election time last year when he turned on a man he promised to support.. Morley has a vendetta with Sciorra for years and turned into a blithering idiot to get him. Nelson needed a scapegoat to get reelected so he joined Morley ..Nelsons committees have to be thinned out with people who think independantly. Nelson has to be off the growth fund leadership. Nelson has to live within the city per the Charter and the rest of the council must force this or enforce the charter rules.. The growth of the greenbelt has to be put on a lower priority until some of the major infrastructure problems are taken care of and our neighborhoods become a thing of pride again.. This has to be done and soon and until then nothing changes.. NOTHING.
You are correct about the Ft Drum and scumbag absentee landlords who have ghettoized ogdensburg while our idiot politicians are on cruise control allowing this condition to exist . Our idiot politicians are so consumed with blowing smoke and making asses of themselves with public displays of their incompetence that this tired old decrepit hellhole is cooked and will be a ghost town soon very soon as those who can opt for better more progressive environs in which to live and spend both the financial and intellectual resources .
24 comments:
Home Rule Legislation would help the revenue problem in SLC. Now that virtually every administrator and legislator in the county says the 1% sales tax increase would solve our problem, why hasn't it been passed?
Oh Yeah. The state legislature has to pass it. So, if virtually every leader in our county has requested it, why don't we have the legislation we need?
After all, Addie Russell said LAST YEAR she could get it through the State Assembly. But, OUR OWN Patty Ritchey will not help us out. Even though she grew up here, was County Clerk, and we elected her over Darrell Aubertine, who was REALLY GOOD to Ogdensburg.
As former County Clerk, you'd think she would have some understanding of this problem. But, because she blindly followed the national Tea Party line, and signed Grover Norquist's tax pledge, she is no longer loyal to, or interested in, representing us.
The eye opener will be when those older folks in Heuvelton and Ogdensburg no longer get the county services they depend on. By then, Patty Could be on to bigger and better things in Washington, or more likely, thrown onto the Sarah Palin Bimbo trash pile, because they used her,and no longer need her.
anon 8:08! Your an idiot!!!!
What an imagination!!!
Bruce did you get by second grade? What he says is a little long winded but very very true.. Read Bruce, get out in the real world, take a breath of fresh air and comprehend things as they are.....
We need a sales tax increase.. Everyone knows it outside of Ritchie but she wont support it.. Homeowners and propertyowners cannot obsorb a twenty percent tax hike.. Everyone oppisition to this tax is that more costs for everyone.. Yup thats exactly the reason a tax on sales for everyone, rich poor, canadians, out of coutny residents helps share the burden..
So no one wants to talk about the cheap hit-piece published by The Journal against Amy Tressider yesterday?
Its simply about The Repbulican partys money being spent on reporters to write nice things about Patty.. Do it enough and she might hire you.. She has four on staff now..
Amy cant win but at least AMy attempted.. To remove a cancer like Ritchie from office would have been wonderful but its not going to happen this year.. In 2014 we will have another fun contest.. If Matt Doheny loses to Owens this year Doheny will in all likelyhood attempt to run for Senate thus allowing Ritchie to be used by the GOP to attempt to oust Owens..
Ownes will win this year on class and integrity alone.. He would beat Ritchie on brains only....
Johnson Newspapers have been a Republican vote forever.. Chuck Kelly and the advance were Donkey but thats now changed.. Dosnt matter who the canidate is if their republican Johnson will endorce.. Of course they endorce people like Addie Russell who is Donkey but running unopposed.. This keeps the image up..
If the county would call it a net even with the sales tax and give the revenue back to the property tax payers then that would be fine. To just raise revenue to give all the raises for ever and ever is not the answer. All the tough cuts will never be made and gov't will be business as usual. Will be interesting to see who has the guts to bring up cutting the sheriff dept road patrol. The safety card has been played for far too long and fiscal responsibility has to be the tone.
The answer is to cut staff period that is where the majority of the budget is spent .
Why do we need these DMV offices in Ogdensburg, Massena, Gouverneur and in CAnton.. Close them let some help go and consolodate..
I can drive once every eight years to Canton other than that I can renew my registration by mail every two years.
Rupp is just like Ritchie and spinning the need for these offices. Yah its convenient but not at the tune of 20 percent of my taxes.
The real problem is each department head has built his own empire and convinces the legislators to leave them alone. What happens if NYC DMV start processing these plates themselves.. I,ll tell you.. Our revenue will stop, and we will be stuck with help the legislators wont lay off... Make some tough choices pleease....
ALSO.. Lets call Patty Ritchies offices and let her know its time to earn her living by representing us instead of some insider Washington based idiot like Grover Norquist. Hes no North Country resident and he dosnt feel the pain.. We do and its about time to tell her that... Me I,ll take my chances with voting for AMy Tresdider because she can do no less than Ritchie has...
This story isn't even by The Journal - it is by the Watertown Daily Times.
Bad choice by the county legislators in not cutting some people from the road patrol but we have to live with it.. Now make them accountable this year.. Write some tickets make our roads safe again.. Give them a quota to fill like the State boys. As long as we fund a road patrol the state will continue to fill positions and assign them to areas that dont have the patrols.. We get to pay for someone eles law enforcement that way..
A good road patrol could pay for themselves easily with drug seizures, and confications and writting tickets for violations .
Note to the new city manager: Don't take a position on this or anything else for that matter until the City Council includes you in "the loop". The vehicle fiasco was a setup. The councilors ALWAYS communicate with each other before meeting so no one gets embarrassed (I.E. Morley saying Nick and Dan would not cooperate with his scheme of firing Sciorra for cause).
The message there is: Morley tried to get everyone on board before the meeting, but Nick and Dan decided to listen to legal counsel instead.
Anyway, you can bet ALL of the councilors knew how the vote on the city vehicles was going to go before the meeting. The fact they left out the city manager, and embarrassed him, clearly indicates Mr. Pinkerton had better keep his resume in order.
Pattie Ritchie and her Grover Norquist pledge are burying Ogdensburg, north country communities and our school systems. Just read the budget story in the journal today.
10:51 Do you think we really need a full time fire dept with 20 year retirement? Every other town has paid drivers and volunteer. Volunteer rescue, excuse me , paid rescue squad can cover all the emergency calls and bill insurance companies. These are the tough cuts that have to be made. Sure 1 % sales tax would be the quick fix, but another couple years would be the same gig. Stay tough Patty and make them live within their means.
Republicans will be playing this 'no tax' fiddle while America burns.
There is no doubt that Patty is going to get reelected. Not because she does a good job but because she is well known. But taxs payeer need to start holding her accountable. Buy that I mean start representing the people in her district and doing her job. A little more work and less time in front of a camra.
Hey Guys!!!...The city is having trouble balancing it's budget, and guess who is grabbing the headlines saying they'll be tough, and not raise taxes? That's right. You guessed it. Morley and Ashley. The same two guys who "packed" the city council last December so they could fire Sciorra "with cause".
But wait. It gets better. They, the mayor, and then the rest of the council went against their own legal counsel, and fired Sciorra with cause. Then Sciorra sues, wins, and the taxpayers are out about $250,000!
Even better: The city had a balanced budget, and no tax increases under Sciorra's leadership!
There should be a taxpayers revolt in Ogdensburg this year.
If Morley and Ashley don't raise taxes, Ogdensburg's streets will fall apart. The fire department will disintegrate, leaving our homes to burn to ash if they catch fire. Our water will become contaminated because we won't have enough DPW staff to maintain our treatment plant. Our streetlights will burn out, leaving the city in darkness - which will be great for the scumbag criminals which have followed the prisons to Ogdensburg, because we won't be able to afford the police we rely on for public safety. Spending cuts are not the answer to our problems, not anymore. We need to raise taxes to a responsible level, and we need to do it in this budget. We've seen the result of the Morley/Ashley cut-cut-cut mentality, and it is chaos and ruin. Lower taxes do not attract business to the area, they turn our city into a cesspool of crime and decay.
True the city is a cesspool of decline , decay and demoralization on . Our young desert in troves after getting educated . WHY because short sighted decisions made in the name of job s screwed this city . Adding 2 prisons and a sexually violent predator facility SUNK ANY CHANCE this city ever had of being anything but a cesspool . Stupid politicians and scumbag camp followers of prisons and and the perv factory only serve to exacerbate and accelerate the decline and decay . The low lives OWN the streets and we are running rampant .
The ONLY answer is to MOVE out , things will NEVER get better in this hellhole
I somewhat agree that the prisons and perv palace led to the decline. Another factor has been the growth of Fort drum and money hungrey landlords of that area.. They sent rent sky high and with so many people recieving public assistnace on rent they had to move here.. Our landlords let the rent stay down to attriact the poor but failed to keep their places in good shape letting them rot in some cases, then letting them go for taxes and thus the city having to level them.. Our posing Senator Ritchie is mostly to blame for any tax increases that may happen.. She wont help with home rule so the sales tax has to be raised thus the property taxes will go up County wide and city wide thus rent will go up etc etc.. The people who want no sales tax are out of touch with reality.. We could have changed alot in the last election but the majority spoke.. You know the well off and the prison guards you mentioned dont want things changed.. Its the less fortunate that get hurt..
Mr Ashley has showed signs of being his own man and I want to give him credit for that, Mr. Morley I thought was his own man until election time last year when he turned on a man he promised to support.. Morley has a vendetta with Sciorra for years and turned into a blithering idiot to get him. Nelson needed a scapegoat to get reelected so he joined Morley ..Nelsons committees have to be thinned out with people who think independantly. Nelson has to be off the growth fund leadership. Nelson has to live within the city per the Charter and the rest of the council must force this or enforce the charter rules.. The growth of the greenbelt has to be put on a lower priority until some of the major infrastructure problems are taken care of and our neighborhoods become a thing of pride again.. This has to be done and soon and until then nothing changes.. NOTHING.
You are correct about the Ft Drum and scumbag absentee landlords who have ghettoized ogdensburg while our idiot politicians are on cruise control allowing this condition to exist . Our idiot politicians are so consumed with blowing smoke and making asses of themselves with public displays of their incompetence that this tired old decrepit hellhole is cooked and will be a ghost town soon very soon as those who can opt for better more progressive environs in which to live and spend both the financial and intellectual resources .
Paying taxes is for suckers anyway:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-29/romney-avoids-taxes-via-loophole-cutting-mormon-donations.html
Just think, in 36 hours the U.S. might have elected a president who wears magical underwear and believes God lives some place near Planet Kolob.
Let's hope so. The present one is a disaster.
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