“Lefty” posted a comment to another post, stating that Obama’s “unity” thing is all a bunch of hooey, and that no one really appeals to the middle-of-the-road voter. This is what I posted in reply:

In my office I still keep a “McCain 2000″ cap and I have my “Raising McCain for Mass” pin from that time, too. I know you guys think I’m some screeching liberal, but I’m pretty middle-of-the-road.

I care about taxes being lowered, I care about public money being spent wisely and conservatively. I care that government be competent when spending that money and administering services.

I am aghast that the United States has sanctioned torture, appalled at the failures and poor planning and execution of the Iraq war, disgusted that it was premised on falsehoods, and shocked that we’ve dropped the ball in Afghanistan. I am worried that future action against Iran or Pakistan or North Korea or some other rogue state might be undertaken in a catastrophic, hasty way.

But on the other hand, I don’t like politicians who sermonize and try to impose their values on me. I am pro-choice, pro-gay-marriage, want there to be universal health care coverage for all people, want there to be a minimum wage that keeps pace with inflation, want schools to train kids to be able to compete in a global 21st century economy, and think that there are some things that are well worth a massive investment of public money for the greater good and big future payoff. I think people should be treated fairly and properly by government and by other people.

I am that swing voter, and I don’t have a problem voting across party lines if I like a candidate and what he/she stands for.

When I look at the political field, I see the guy I once volunteered for 8 long years ago, and he has succumbed to that fundamentalist Christian wing of the Republican Party that led me to quit. He stood up to Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell in 2000, and it was music to my ears to hear this maverick run against those idiots, rather than into their arms. I was first attracted to McCain when he said at a debate that his most influential political philosopher was Teddy Roosevelt. Everyone else on that stage said “Jesus Christ”.

But he’s not that guy anymore. In order to win in 2008, he had to embrace and run to that crazy wing of the party, and there’s no way I can support him for that. I can’t support teaching creationism in schools or shutting down sex ed or banning abortion or segregating gay people as degenerates.

On the other hand, Obama shares the ideals quite closely as I’ve set them forth above. He sees the America I see - one that is fair, inclusive, just, and strong.

So, I’m that middle-of-the-road guy, and I’m afraid that without big-time change, the petrification and further lazy bureacratization of Washington will continue apace. While I appreciate McCain’s appeal as an agent of earmark reform, he loses me on the social issues. Palin’s selection merely reinforced that for me, as she is even farther to the right than he is on the social issues.

Will Obama unite the nation? Maybe not, as you say. But at least he’s talking about it. McCain hasn’t bothered, and has instead further gone down the path of division and identity politics.

But thanks for reading, even though you think I’m a leftist with blinders on.

Check here to see Buffalo Geek’s comments that come from a similar place.

Jim Ostrowski is representing a large group of plaintiffs who are suing the state, state leadership, and several companies who have (or may) receive state economic development incentives. The defendants include Delphi, American Axle, IBM, and Bass Pro.

Ostrowski argues that this provision of the state constitution prohibits “corporate welfare”:

“The money of the state shall not be given or loaned to or in aid of any private corporation or association, or private undertaking; nor shall the credit of the state be given or loaned to or in aid of any individual, or public or private corporation or association, or private undertaking, but the foregoing provisions shall not apply to any fund or property now held or which may hereafter be held by the state for educational, mental health or mental retardation purposes.”

The Bass Pro example wouldn’t apply because there isn’t a loan or donation being given by the state (or any state-controlled entity) to Bass Pro. The incentive package has to do with tax reduction or elimination - not a handout. But other examples do involve outright grants from the Empire State Development Corporation to private firms to enable some form of expansion with corresponding pledges of job creation.

The Empire State Development Corporation, however, is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit despite the fact that it is the entity that makes the incentives.

By way of a guess, I’d suspect that the creation of the ESDC is the workaround this constitutional prohibition. By using the ESDC, it is not the “state” per se which is giving out the money, but a public benefit corporation (a.k.a. Authority). As we all know, Authorities in New York have been carved out and created in such a way as to best avoid public oversight and scrutiny, so the counterargument will most likely be that the ESDC is a legal creation, and it - not the state - hands out the pork.

But it’ll be interesting to see what happens. Also, as far as I’m aware, the Wendt Foundation is not funding this lawsuit.

The New York Post publishes an op-ed piece by the Manhattan Institute’s EJ McMahon. New York’s decline is Nelson Rockefeller’s fault. Discuss.

Via Capitol Confidential, comes this video of a news conference that Governor David Paterson held yesterday with Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi and various taxpayer activists.

The Suozzi Commission recently concluded that, among other things, a property/school tax cap is necessary to help ease New Yorkers’ local tax burden, which is significantly higher than the national average. Although opposed vehemently by exactly whom you’d expect, the vast majority of New Yorkers support it. Suozzi reminded Paterson of that fact in a humorous fashion as the two of them essentially declared political war on opponents.

The political fad this week seems to be a gas tax holiday. Politicians with ambitions as lofty as President and as lowly as county legislature are proposing that just about every federal, state, and county tax on gasoline be abrogated because, evidently, we are entitled to tax-free, cheap gasoline. Never mind that taxes on gasoline pay for things like road maintenance.

Aren’t you somewhat tired of politicians treating you as a stupid, sound-bite consuming clown? Because that’s what this does. Gas may be ridiculously expensive right now, but there are so many causes of that, none of which get addressed by this politics-as-usual, quick-fix pander which, according to Paul Krugman wouldn’t necessarily solve the problem:

Why doesn’t cutting the gas tax this summer make sense? It’s Econ 101 tax incidence theory: if the supply of a good is more or less unresponsive to the price, the price to consumers will always rise until the quantity demanded falls to match the quantity supplied. Cut taxes, and all that happens is that the pretax price rises by the same amount. The McCain gas tax plan is a giveaway to oil companies, disguised as a gift to consumers.

Is the supply of gasoline really fixed? For this coming summer, it is. Refineries normally run flat out in the summer, the season of peak driving. Any elasticity in the supply comes earlier in the year, when refiners decide how much to put in inventories. The McCain/Clinton gas tax proposal comes too late for that. So it’s Econ 101: the tax cut really goes to the oil companies.

The Clinton twist is that she proposes paying for the revenue loss with an excess profits tax on oil companies. In one pocket, out the other. So it’s pointless, not evil. But it is pointless, and disappointing.

In fact, there’s not one economist who thinks this is a great idea. (I’m sure there’s one out there. Maybe two. But they’re the Dr. Nick Rivieras of economics.) If you drop the price, demand will rise, and the prices will go up and the oil companies’ already swollen profits will swell further. Yay! In addition to all that, budgets already factor in gas tax revenue, and at least on the local and state level would need to be made up somewhere.

The idea of a gas tax cap in New York - where it runs on a sliding scale - makes some sense, to prevent windfalls when gas prices soar. But abolition is downright silly.

Do we really want to screw with the economy on the fly like this? If we want to abolish the gas tax, wouldn’t it be better to do it as part of the annual budget process, rather than pandering to voters during an election cycle?

As much as we bitch and moan about the perks offered to the members of public sector unions (comp time, generous vacation and benefits packages), often overlooked are the perks offered to electeds.

Much was made back in the day about Joel Giambra’s massive SUV with driver.

But what of Tom Reynolds’ Mountaineer? What of Louise Slaughter’s Buick Lucerne or Brian Higgins’ Ford Exploder?

The News detailed that taxpayers pay $500 per month for the Mountaineer, $411 per month for the Explorer, and a mind-boggling $808 per month for Slaughter’s Buick.

At least you can hand it to the local delegation for buying American.

Down in the City…

Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, D-Queens, leases a Lexus for $998 a month; Rep. Charles Rangel takes a 2004 Cadillac DeVille for $778 a month; Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Middletown, leases a BMW 530i for $500 a month and a Nissan Altima for his chief of staff for $200 a month.

The vehicles are supposed to be for official business only. But it’s difficult to determine if members indeed use their vehicles only for job-related duties.

Most likely, Slaughter’s lease costs $808 because her district is about 80 miles long and the lease probably incorporates a high mileage allowance - more than the standard 12k per year.

But why on Earth should taxpayers be paying for a Lexus or a Cadillac or a 5-series? Why can’t these people just use their own personal vehicles, and get reimbursed for the mileage like most of us? If we expect public sector unions to sacrifice, how about showing them how it’s done, for God’s sake?

The salary for rank-and-file members of the House and Senate is $169,300 this year. Taxpayers subsidize meals at their cafeterias, haircuts and memberships at their special fitness clubs. They can zip into free parking spots near the terminals at Washington’s airports.

Some federal representatives probably know the shock of paying for their own gas these days. Higgins says he fills his wife’s minivan and the personal auto he drives when in Washington.

Their salary is ample. Their perks are legendary. If a Congressperson wants to buy a gas guzzling SUV, then by all means, go for it.

On your own dime. And pay for your own gas, too.

I don’t mind subsidizing food stamps for the poor, and I don’t mind subsidizing health care for the needy.

I do mind subsidizing dumb vehicle choices for well-to-do, privileged members of Congress.

Yesterday, the board of the New York State Thruway Authority - a quasi-governmental entity with little or no oversight by politicians over the money it collects and spend - voted to raise tolls 5% next year, and 5% the year after. This follows a 10% hike earlier this year, and is compounded by a diminution in the savings you get by using EZ-Pass.

From the Buffalo News:

The toll increase encountered vehement opposition from freight haulers and commuters during a series of statewide public hearings earlier this year. State Comptroller Thomas P. Di- Napoli issued a report saying the toll hikes were unnecessary. And it prompted Assemblyman Mark J. F. Schroeder, D-Buffalo, to call for abolishment of the Thruway Authority.

About $1 billion of “off-Thruway” costs, such as running the state canal system, and the need to repair much of the road’s half-century- old infrastructure has forced the authority to enact another round of toll hikes, Thruway Authority Executive Director Michael R. Fleischer said Friday.

It wouldn’t be so bad if there wasn’t so much waste at the Thruway Authority; if it hadn’t been used as a dumping ground for borrowing and spending by the state so that it could be kept off the regular Albany books. It wouldn’t be so bad if so much of the toll revenue didn’t go simply to administering itself. It wouldn’t be so bad if the roadway was actually well-maintained throughout. Have you ever crossed the Pennsylvania border on the I-90? The New York side, for which you pay, is like a washboard. The Pennsylvania side is smooth as silk. And toll-free.

He also said the DiNapoli audit underestimated federal aid by a minimum of $125 million for a five-year budget period, though Fleischer said New York State took no steps to obtain federal aid in its latest budget.

Nevertheless, Schroeder said he has joined State Sen. George D. Maziarz, RNewfane, in sponsoring a bill that would abolish the authority and transfer the Thruway to the state highway system.

“We elect leaders to administer these vital functions of government,” Schroeder said outside his office in South Buffalo. “They shouldn’t be in the hands of some pseudo-governmental board of political appointees who answer to no one.”

Schroeder said Thruway Authority spending is indicative of the explosion of authorities in New York, which he estimated at 640. He said they have contributed $81.5 billion worth of debt to state government, with the Thruway Authority alone in debt for $2.4 billion.

“This out-of-control borrowing is irresponsible,” he said.

Trucking officials say the new toll hikes, combined with higher gasoline prices, will only increase the cost of all delivered goods.

“Unfortunately, the timing right now could not be worse,” said Kendra Adams, spokeswoman for the New York State Motor Truck Association. “With the economy faltering and high diesel costs, any additional costs the industry incurs has to be passed on.”

That, she said, will result in higher costs for staples like food and clothing.

That’s the thing that all the anti-car forces tend to ignore. While it’s easy as pie to mock commuters and people who must or enjoy driving long-distance, trucks use that roadway, too. The same trucks that now pay $4.30 / gallon for diesel fuel will now pay higher tolls to bring things like hemp and soy milk to the local cooperative market. These things affect the whole of society whether you like it or not. Priuses don’t deliver freight.

Kudos to Schroeder and Maziarz for at least raising the issue of state authorities being so out-of-control that their abolition or reformation is needed. Something drastic has to change, and the state needs to fundamentally change how it does business.

As with most things coming out of Albany, insult is added to injury:

Adams acknowledged the Thruway remains the road of choice for New York truckers, and as one of the safest and best maintained highways in America, the industry has no problem paying its fair share.

“But the majority of new toll revenues will be diverted to the canal,” she said. “That makes it that much more difficult to accept.”

It’s because of the Erie Canal? Hell, the Thruway at least serves an economic purpose. While it will cost you north of $12.00 to drive from Williamsville to Albany, if you take a boat through the canal, it will cost you $5.00 - 20.00 per day (depending on vessel size), and the toll is only paid if you pass through a lock or lift bridge. A ten-day pass is between $12.50 - 50.00 (again, depending on vessel size).

If the Canal is so deep in the hole, why not - I don’t know - raise tolls and fees on boaters?

New York State. It’s like a panhandler that won’t go away.

Next week I have a particularly busy schedule, and this week I’m preparing for it, so posting will be light from me. Buffalo Geek will fill in over the next three weeks with content that snarky and fresh as a daisy, and if you’d like to contribute throw me a line, and I’ll see what I can do.

Seriously, I’m too busy even to ask people directly.

Anyhow, in the meantime, consider this for today:

1. Andrew Galarneau names Vizzi’s in Kenmore as the home of the best burger in WNY. The talk of the town right now is the deep-fried Parkside Burger, described thusly:

If nothing else, the Parkside Burger, at Parkside Burgers and Fries, had already provided grounds for legal action. You know what happens when you take a whole cheeseburger — patty, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, bun — dip it in batter and deep-fry that sucker?

You get a burger that comes with a side of self-loathing. It was crunchy from the batter, but juicy in a bad way, from fryer oil that soaked into the bun. We ate half, then slipped out the door.

2. I have largely stayed out of the Jayvonna Kinkannon/Michelle Stiles story, but it’s morphed into more than just a ham-handed overreaction to a student’s question. Now, it’s a story of imperial arrogance, nepotism, favoritism, theft, cheating, and other nouns that pop into one’s mind when one thinks of people given just enough power to be assholes.

3. In pledging to run Erie County like a business, Chris Collins has carried on the business-and-governmental tradition of fudging the numbers. When he says shutting down county cellphones will save “nearly $150,000″, he really means just-over-$142,000. Hey, Nancy Naples said there was no deficit just a month or two before the county declared a multimillion dollar deficit.

Channel 4 had the story of a woman who works for the county, but whose pay and cellphone are reimbursed by the federal government. She used the cellphone to keep in direct contact with about 100 new mothers as a lactation consultant. Cellphone gone, and this woman can’t fulfill her duty and obligation to her clients.

Also, Collins is targeting something called “beeper pay”, where county workers who agree to be on 24-hour call (and back in the 80s they did so via beepers) get an extra $35 in their paycheck per week. He wants to abolish that because he’s taking away their beepers. What gets lost in translation here is that it’s not the carrying of the beeper that triggers the extra money, it’s the on-call status. The union will grieve, and Collins will lose this particular, specious argument. Then, he’ll have to pay back-”beeper pay” and pay for the cost of the grievance arbitration. Savings? Diminished.

I’m all for saving money and abolishing crap we don’t need, but can’t someone make sure we’re not throwing the baby out with the bathwater? Can Collins be a bit more clear on the savings? Does everything have to be a butting of heads with the union? That strategy might not turn out quite as well as Collins hopes.

4. The Sabres as political candidate.

Esmonde writes about Governor Paterson’s recent trip to Buffalo. It’s interesting that Paterson now quips about being on the “we need cuts” side of the budget process after so many years of being on the “over my dead body” side, and concludes:

“We are going to have to truncate some of our support [for Buffalo],” Paterson said. “[The mayor] and I talked about some revenue-raisers for Buffalo . . . to decrease the necessity of the state [aid].”

It means another kneecapping to a hurting region. It means more pain for the chronically afflicted.

Although this particular horse has been dead for many years, it could use one more smack with a two-by-four:

The best revenue-raiser would be to halt the unfunded mandates, lower taxes and fees everywhere, and make the region far more economically attractive than it is now.

See? How simple is that.

*Buffalopundit and WNYMedia do not condone the beating of horses, dead or alive.

Posted By BuffaloGeek 

Each and every day during the last year, thirteen people have decided to pack their bags and leave Erie County.

“People need to bear in mind that these are estimates built upon estimates,” said Kathryn A. Foster, director of the Regional Institute at the University at Buffalo.

Still, the figures released Wednesday by the Census Bureau are the latest signs that upstate New York communities haven’t been able to stanch their population declines.

While I agree that these are estimated numbers and they can be quibbled with, the general growth trend in WNY is irrefutably negative. Perhaps the strategy of leaning on our “built environment”, “cultural tourism”, and “sense of place” should be replaced with a strategy of “lowering taxes”, “government reform”, and “job growth”.

Just sayin’.

It would appear that boomtowns lean on those tenets of growth, perhaps we could learn a thing or two. I’d like to see a mashup of the map of population growth trends coupled with a map of individual and corporate tax rates. I think we’d see a pretty solid corollary that demonstrates lower taxes = growth. Why do I feel like I am always restating the obvious?

When I first moved to Buffalo, it was often jokingly said that the rarest bird in these parts was the building crane.

According to this information, to which Geek has linked, those cranes - like hundreds of thousands of human Buffalonians - appear to have migrated south.

In his piece, Geek refers to Charlotte, NC as being the “Shelbyville” to Buffalo’s “Springfield”, which is a cute analogy that reminded me instantly of the classic Simpsons episode “Marge vs. the Monorail”. Written by Conan O’Brien for the Simpsons’ fourth season, it’s easily among the top five episodes in that show’s 18-season history. Think about all of the silver bullet fixes for Buffalo and Erie County that have been proposed just in the last 7 years. Key line:

The name’s Lanley. Lyle Lanley. And I come before you good people tonight with an idea. Probably the greatest… Aw, it’s not for you. It’s more of a Shelbyville idea.

He then proceeds to sell the people of Springfield into buying a monorail system for $3 million by singing a song and claiming that monorails he’s sold to :

Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook, and by gum, it put them on the map!

Geek concludes:

In case people are wondering, that is what a renaissance looks like. Also, I’d like to note how Charlotte has identified the primary means with which to attract young professionals to their city, jobs. Not much talk of museums, sense of place, or massive amounts of state funding. They keep the taxes low, attract business, and the people follow. Not really a revolutionary idea, but one that we might be able to learn a thing or two from up here in Springfield, err, I mean Buffalo.

There is nothing wrong with having nice looking buildings, museums, cool restaurants, and kitschy tchotchke shops; they are absolutely a value added bonus for people looking for a place to live. However, they are not a primary means to create economic development. The jobs need to be here in order for those things to be a real differentiator.

Again: we hear of 5% increases in the state budget in a year of economic turmoil, while people and business continue to flee. We’re competing not only with places that are nearby and more business-friendly, but we’re also competing, at this point, with places like Bangalore for call center jobs.

What can we do - what kind of movement can be started - to convince Albany, and people across the state, that New York State outside the five boroughs is never going to see significant growth in population and economic activity until it lowers taxes, lowers spending, and otherwise gets competitive with its neighbors. Maybe a march on Albany by a million taxpayers from across the state.

Erie County Executive Chris Collins has done a few things lately that I like.

First of all, he is adding something called “scrutiny” to requests for Erie County IDA tax breaks and incentives. Witness the example of Martin’s Fantasy Island. Not that I have anything against this family-friendly WNY institution, but does it really need an $87,000 tax break to help buy new rides that it’s already promoting?

Collins basically said, not if they’re not creating any jobs with the tax break, they don’t. And he’s right.

Secondly, Collins halted a decision that Giambra made to auction off older County office furniture and electronics and buy new stuff. Instead, Collins is going to keep the older stuff around and use that first, before buying anything new. Productivity might plummet if a county employee is forced to, e.g., use a computer with a pre-Pentium computer, but that’s not what’s at issue here. Fax machines, printers, phones, computers, monitors, and furniture can all be brought back into service if functioning.

He’s freezing spending on travel and office supplies; looking at staggering employees hours, so there’s no automatic overtime; and asking county employees to take county cars out of town, instead of putting in for mileage on their own vehicles.

Little things like this add up, and they represent a sea change in the way that the County looks at costs. These are simple, relatively non-controversial ways to save hundreds of thousands of our dollars. And we haven’t even implemented Six Sigma yet.