Democracy? In ALBANY!!??

Too bad this is in the New York Daily News and not in the BUFFALO News:

"Under the new rules, lawmakers must be in their seats and push a button marked 'yea' or 'nay' to have their votes recorded.

So it was that Assemblyman Sam Hoyt of Buffalo had a captive audience when he spoke against extending an extra 1% sales tax in Erie County, on the grounds that his cash-strapped city would see none of the revenue. In previous years, Hoyt's plea had reverberated in a half-empty chamber, and the bill sailed through on the strength of automatic 'yes' votes. But this time, his colleagues had to pay attention. And whaddya know? They listened. And pushed the nay button.

At one point, Hoyt says, there were 79 'no' votes, enough to defeat the bill - something that never happens on the Assembly floor. Silver and his deputies swung into action, twisted arms and managed to switch enough Democrats back to 'yes' to pass the tax extension by an unusually close vote of 79 to 67.

Still, it was bracing to see the backbenchers, who normally clop along contentedly in harness, take the bit in their teeth even for a few minutes. 'We did a reform that has the potential to rock the boat a little bit,' Hoyt says. 'All of a sudden, the rank and file matter.'

Maybe they will, maybe they won't. It depends on whether they have the courage to stand up for what they believe when they're called on to actually, physically cast a vote. "

And just to be clear: the vote was on the already existing "temporary" penny; not on the Giambra penny.

Domestic Propaganda

There's a reason that the Voice of America isn't broadcast domestically. It's been a given that it's at best bad form, and at worst Orwellian, for the government to propagandize to a domestic audience.

Domestic government propaganda was the province of fascists and communists. Democracies didn't do that sort of thing. Under totalitarian regimes, after all, there was no free press; all press was either wholly owned or wholly controlled by the country's propaganda ministry.

The VOA and Radio/TV Marti are controlled by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which is made up of dems and repubs, with the chairman being of the President's party. It is an autonomous and independent government agency. It is nominally under the watch of the State Department; the Sec of State is an ex officio member of the board.

The Bush Administration has pretty egregiously broken the longstanding ban on domestic propagandizing. It's yet another thing that the Right would have excoriated Clinton for, yet defends almost irrationally because it's Bush.

ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS: This conservative commentator (featured on Townhall.com), was paid $240,000 cash money via contract with the Federal Department of Education to promote "No Child Left Behind."

There's more: Click here to read the rest.

Byron Brown - what's he thinking?

Via NYCO's blog, we learn that the State Senate just doesn't get it. It doesn't get the idea that people are clamoring for reform; it doesn't get that the people are sick and tired of woefully dysfunctional government in Albany; it doesn't get the idea that a real democracy includes such radical ideas as "debate" and "persuasion."

The RINO Senate majority in Albany talked a big game about reform, but when it came down to it, they resorted to the same old, same old way of doing business.

Here are some choice quotes from Joe Bruno - who Doesn't Get It.:

Senate Republicans learned Monday just how painful opening the chamber's operations would be as they were scolded by Democrats for creating a reform package that minority members said won't cure legislative dysfunction.

Even though the package passed 33-24, with members voting almost entirely along party lines, the Republicans had to suffer through close to four hours of debate as Democrats alleged all manner of slights and unfairness.

*GASP* You mean the Republicans in the Senate actually had to SUFFER through DEBATE in their own legislative body? Perish the thought!

The Democrats put up eight amendments to the package; the Republicans who control the chamber shot them all down before they even made it to the floor for a full vote.

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, said, "Reform is in the eye of the beholder."

"We're talking about ... a process that works and has worked," Bruno said. "It doesn't necessarily suit every individual, but governing is governing."

Note to Czar Bruno: what you folks in Albany are doing is not called "governing."

So, we learn that the vote as strictly along party lines. The RINOs backed their fearful leader, while the Dems opposed the non-reform reform.
All the Dems...except one.

"Sen. Byron Brown, D-Buffalo, was the only Democrat to vote 'yes' on the Republicans' reform package.

'I didn't want anyone to think I'm not for reform,' said Brown, who is all-but-certain to run in the Buffalo mayor's race this year and can't afford to be labeled as anti-reform."

This should be splashed across the pages of the News, but won't be. This is pathetic. This is selling out. This is the sort of thing that breeds cynicism about government in general, and dysfunctional Albany in particular.

Senator Brown has thrown his lot in with a guy who thinks that running the Senate like a personal fiefdom is good, right and "governing." And to top it all off, he does it for the cheap political payoff of being able to say he voted for "reform". As if the voters in Buffalo are too dim-witted and impatient to find out that he didn't vote for Bruno's reform because it didn't go far enough.

Waterfront Update

The NFTA says that it's officially selected the massive Lakefront Devlopment Group's proposal as its preferred project, and has authorized the NFTA to negotiate a Memorandum of Intent.

As I've posted before, I think that the NFTA is making a mistake by going with this massive project that is heavily laden with public money, and which might do more harm than good to downtown itself.

What's even more glaring is that nowhere in the NFTA's press release (or on its website, for that matter), is there any indication that plans are afoot to extend Metro Rail to whatever new project goes up on the Outer Waterfront.

Let me be blunt - any project for the Outer Harbor that is completely reliant on car and bus traffic, and does not include a Metro Rail extension, is doomed to failure. It just is.

If I lived in that new community and commuted to downtown, I don't want to have to DRIVE and jockey for parking downtown (or, much less, pay for a monthly spot).

And since the NFTA is taking the lead on this, you'd think that our local mass transit authority would recognize the desireability and importance of extending our Metro Rail to the Outer Harbor. Instead, we get nary a peep.

I hope I'm wrong, and I hope that the NFTA and the developers know exactly what they're doing. But I'm afraid they're trying to build a horrible mix of Amherst and the Toronto Waterfront downtown. In other words - they want all the massive, towering construction of the Toronto Waterfront with all the suburban sprawl and generic feel of Amherst. (Amherst - the town without a downtown).

What I'm afraid of is that the Outer Harbor will become like the Inner Harbor/Erie Basin Marina: an insulated and insular cluster of high-priced condos with no neighborhood whatsoever.

They call it Waterfront Village. When's the last time you saw a village without so much as a coffee shop or convenience store?

RED BUDGET/ALERT

Joel Giambra's bluff has been called.

The only losers will be the people and workers of Erie County. And perhaps the region's credibility and marketability. No big whoop on the 16th floor of the Rath Building, I suppose.

Even though we all thought the EC Budget mess was behind us as of December 8th, think again. For reasons that I'm too busy to discover, yet another vote was taken earlier today on the penny sales tax increase.

It's a home rule petition to Albany, which wanted 10 votes - a supermajority - requesting the sales tax increase. Back on December 8th, 10 legislators voted for the penny sales tax increase (making Erie County's regressive sales tax the second-highest in the USA).

DiBenedetti and newcomer Tim Kennedy were the two legislators who changed the vote. (Kennedy replaced Schroeder, who voted for the penny).

So, the County is $109 million in the hole. Bye, bye libraries. Bye, bye plowing. Bye, bye quality of life things.

And don't let Giambra (a RINO if ever I saw one) fool you into thinking this is all about Medicaid. It's mostly about Medicaid, but a lot of it is Giambra's overreaching and mismanagement.

And by the way - DiBenedetti and Kennedy both said that they'd reconsider their votes if Giambra agreed to cut some patronage and perks. THAT Giambra's not willing to do. He's willing to let the whole county go to hell before he'll permit the Getz family to lose their myriad county jobs.

Remember:

GIAMBRA TOOK AWAY YOUR LIBRARIES AND FIRED 3000 PEOPLE SO THAT VICTOR GETZ AND OTHER PATRONAGE HACKS SUCKING AT THE PUBLIC'S TEAT CAN KEEP THEIRS. DISGUSTING.

The elevator to the moon

The elevator-to-the-moon plan for the city's waterfront, as proposed by the Lakefront Devlopment Group, gets a well-deserved smack in today's Buffalo News.

A 3,500-room convention hotel. The largest hotel in Erie County now has fewer than 500 rooms. The proposed behemoth will be about 10 times larger than the Marriott, Hyatt, Adam's Mark or Sheraton. Pray tell: Who is going to stay here? What effect will the glut of rooms have on the existing market?

A 300,000-square-foot convention center. Yes, our existing center is outdated and too small (110,000 square feet). But funding 300,000 square feet of convention space requires many more conventioneers than we are likely to attract. Consider that conventions live and die on attendance; more attendees equal more revenue for the sponsoring organization

Click the link: the author goes on to explain why Buffalo has a hard time booking conventions.

500,000-square-foot "festival pavilion." Can you say Millennium Dome? London's boondoggle, built to celebrate the year 2000, is already being dismantled due to lack of funds for upkeep and lack of ideas for its possible use. How often will Buffalo's "festival pavilion" (the size of 10 football fields) be used? How much will it cost to build? Who will pay for the upkeep?

200,000 square feet of Class A office space. If this is not tax-subsidized, fine and dandy. If it is, then why would we undermine downtown development, especially now that downtown is once again beginning to register a pulse?

I don't know what the 215,000-square-foot sports center is, but do we need it? We couldn't figure out what to do with Memorial Auditorium, but we need this? The Pepsi Center in Amherst loses money. How will this center make it?

The author likes the Norstar development proposal. I like the WestEnd proposal. Either one is doable. The escalator-to-the-moon proposal isn't.

Wonderful Thread

The Cyburbia Forums bulletin board has some awe-inspiring views of Buffalo architecture. Go take a look & feel proud.

Feeding at the public trough

What do you do your first month of feeding on the public trough?

Why, go on vacation, of course!

"When Mayor Anthony M. Masiello swore in his 'Team Fire' in December, he outlined the daunting challenges the new leaders face as they begin overhauling fire services.

A short time later, two new deputy commissioners who started their $89,372 jobs the first week in December took actions that didn't go unnoticed by some firefighters.

They went on vacation.

David C. James and J. Gregory Love were only following city policy, officials insisted. An obscure provision allows noncivil service employees appointed by Buffalo's elected officials to take up to two weeks' vacation during the calendar year in which they're hired. As a result, James and Love were each entitled to 10 days' vacation in 2004, even though they were only on the payroll for a month. James said he took six days of vacation last month. Love took five. They decided to take some of their allotted time after an administrator called to tell them about the standard practice. 'We wouldn't have taken any time if we hadn't received that phone call,' said Love, a former fire administrator in Detroit who has become Buffalo's deputy commissioner for field operations.

'There's nothing wrong with it,' said Employee Relations Director Louis R. Giardina. 'That has been our policy.' "

Maybe, Mr. Giardina, it's time to change the policy.

Extension of Route 219

Looks like Buffalonians and Torontonians(?) will soon have a quicker way to reach Ellicottville and points further South.

The State DOT wants to start extending the 219 southwards.

State of the State - Do it.

Pataki delivered his 11th State of the State today in Albany. Newsday has the full text.

Thus spake Nero:

"I introduced a new philosophy that day - I asked you to join me in seeking not just incremental change, but rather 'bold, sweeping fundamental change:' change to improve the lives of all New Yorkers.

Now, a decade later, I hope you'll indulge me as I reflect on what we've achieved together, and more importantly, outline the steps we must take today to build on that great achievement."

Easily the first third of the address has to do with the decrease in the crime rate in NY. Then 9/11 predictibly comes up.

You have to scroll down a ways to get to the first real mention of Upstate, and then it's lauding businesses who are locating outside of NYC, but in NYS. Yay.

It takes a while, but eventually he calls for medicaid relief/reform, and the following seven items:

1. Reform our state's lobbying laws.

2. Impose a ban on all gifts from lobbyists.

3. Bold reforms and improvements at our public authorities.

4. A new Executive Order establishing a new, broadly inclusive Commission on Public Authority Reform to explore new ways to continue promoting greater openness and accountability at all public authorities, whether at the state or local level.

5. Move aggressively forward with the elimination or consolidation of hundreds of commissions, task forces, boards and authorities that have been established over the course of many decades.

6. A new commitment in both houses to make internal reforms… to give members a greater voice, to improve the day-to-day operations of the Legislature, and to help strengthen public confidence in our government.

7. Topple the most notorious symbol of Albany's dysfunction…enact a real budget reform bill that opens up the process, empowers individual legislators and ensures balanced and on-time budgets.

So, do it. If anything, it's not ambitious enough.

The Gentleman from South Buffalo

Mr. Higgins goes to Washington.:

I wish him luck. As a freshman Dem in the House, he's gonna need it. But let me tell you something - he got things done in the notoriously corrupt NYS Assembly. That says a lot about the guy, AFAIC.

Higgins is seeking an appointment to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which directs billions in construction money to localities. Quinn and his predecessor, Henry J. Nowak, a Democrat, both served on that panel, and Higgins sees a seat there as a key to funding to fix Buffalo's highways and reviving its waterfront.

But if a vacancy opens up on the House Appropriations Committee - which allocates most federal dollars outside of Social Security and other entitlements - Higgins plans to try to move to that all-powerful panel.

'It's a reflection of the needs of the area,' Higgins said. 'I want to be a leader in Western New York,' he added, saying he will focus on local funding issues rather than bigger-picture national politics.

As I've said before, NYS is a net contributor of Federal taxes, while almost every single Bush-votin', tax-hatin' red state is a net recipient

I certainly hope that, since there's federal money being thrown around, we get our fair share. I'm not in the mood to subsidize the states that are living off our cash-money.

Outer Harbor Meeting

Meeting will focus on Outer Harbor plans- Business First of Buffalo

An open session for residents to discuss various proposals to develop Buffalo's Outer harbor will be held Tuesday evening.

The meeting, sponsored by the Friends of the Buffalo Niagara Rivers, will be held from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m., at the Olmsted Vision Center, 1170 Main St., Buffalo.

The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority is overseeing development of 120-acres along the waterfront and the public comment period on the various proposals ends Jan. 10.