By Jim Willis on May 20, 2008 in City Council, Government & Politics, Mayor Matt Ryan, Taxes & Spending | 5 Comments
Mayor Matt Ryan and the Citizen Action Council (formerly known as the Binghamton City Council) are backpedaling, at least for appearances, on their scheme to raise property taxes of city landlords by 80%. The landlords are not taking it sitting down–good for them! Yesterday, a group of 25 landlords got in the good mayor’s face [...]
By Jim Willis on May 19, 2008 in Education, Government & Politics, Taxes & Spending | 4 Comments
One of the biggest threats to the economic future of our state and our country are teachers’ unions. Let’s just be honest about this, shall we? The unions are responsible for continually draining money out of your pockets. Some of that money goes to teachers, and I certainly don’t begrudge them a pay increase here [...]
By Jim Willis on May 19, 2008 in Business, Energy, Government & Politics | 1 Comment
Iberdrola is a Spanish company looking to buy out Energy East, parent of New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG), our local electric monopoly. I’ve written about my opposition to this purchase before:
NYSEG Covers Up Alternative Bids in Favor of Spanish Company Takeover
Sale of NYSEG to Spanish Company Iberdrola Hits Big Roadblock
NYSEG Selling Out to [...]
By Jim Willis on May 16, 2008 in Education, Memories | 0 Comments
One of the most underrated collegiate “sports” is debating. It is athletics of the mind. Many years ago for a brief period I participated in my college’s debate team. Debating teaches you to think fast, analyze the opposing viewpoint, and put yourself in the other guy’s shoes. It should be a required part of every [...]
By Jim Willis on May 16, 2008 in Business, Environment, Marcellus Shale, Why Binghamton? | 4 Comments
In the early and mid-20th century, Broome County, NY was a boom town. Some 20,000 people worked for Endicott-Johnson Shoe Company. By the mid-20th century, another 20,000 worked at what had been a little startup founded in Endicott in 1888, originally known as the Tabulating Machine Company, later renamed IBM. Yes, IBM was started here! [...]
By Jim Willis on May 15, 2008 in Education | 0 Comments
As I’ve written about before, Chenango Valley School District taxpayers are facing a $3M shortfall in the budget due to miscalculations by the administration of that district. Next Tuesday, the voters and taxpayers of CV head to the polls to vote on a school budget that will go up 14.44% due in part to the [...]
By Jim Willis on May 15, 2008 in Personal | 8 Comments
No doubt readers and followers of this blog will assume by the title that I’m referring to local or state politicians. While that may be true (they’re skunks!), I’m taking a slight detour today and talking about something personal–our dog Chico. Last night our 5 1/2 pound Chihuahua–who thinks he’s a 120 pound German Sheppard–went [...]