I call the sewage plant Exhibit A in why government consolidation does not work. Weekly we hear the bleating of local politicians (in particular Barbara Fiala, County Executive) about the wonders of consolidating governments and services. Bunkum. I’ve written about this before, but thought it would be a good time to revisit the topic in light of the fact the local socialist Democrats are about to re-elect Fiala to another four years. What a shame.

But back to sewage as our topic. It certainly seems to make sense to share services like sewage so only one (or maybe two) plants, which are expensive to construct and maintain, are built. Makes sense to me! Except when politicians get involved. This plant was built in 1965 and is 55% owned by the City of Binghamton, and 45% owned by the neighboring Village of Johnson City. The plant serves not only those two municipalities, but also eight others in the county. There’s a lot of…waste…that flows through the plant.

When the plant was built, the politicians decided that both Binghamton and J.C. would each appoint three members to a six-member board. The board has complete power to control spending, hiring and daily operations at the plant. Such brillance! We not only see this kind of abdication of responsibility locally, it’s through every layer of government. Let the “experts” run it and make the decisions. Throw away your constitutional authority by giving it to someone else and let them make the decisions–because it’s “too hard to run it unless you’re an expert”. Bunkum. Meanwhile, the taxpayers are hosed and we can’t do anything about it. You can vote politicians out of office every few years. Not so with the board of the sewage plant. They are insulated from accountability for the decisions they make.

Yesterday the Johnson City Board of Trustees voted not to accept the sewage board’s latest budget. Each year for 43 years they have voted to accept it, which is largely ceremonial. Until now. So what happens, you may ask? Nothing. The sewage board still holds the power to raise the rates and they will. Which means J.C. rate payers will see about a 58.5% jump in their sewage bills, along with similar jumps in Binghamton and the other affected municipalities. Talk about adding insult to injury! Mayor Matt Ryan just raised water rates 43%. And now this! Hold on to your wallets Binghamtonians. The good Mayor Ryan and his merry band of socialists will be knocking on your door soon to relieve you of ALL your money.

My take on this “mess” and how I would handle it if I were Mayor Harry Lewis from J.C.: Immediately fire the three members of the sewage board that J.C. appoints. There must be some provision to replace members of the board. You must get the current members out–now. And replace them with citizens who are not happy with the way things are being run at the plant. Second, sue the state and federal government over their unfunded and unfair regulations. If they are requiring obscenely strict new rules, you need to challenge them and tie it up in court to prevent it from busting this year’s budget. Third, work with Binghamton (if you can–they’re such dolts in Binghamton City government it will be a difficult task) to rewrite the agreement for governing the plant to make it more responsive to the rate payers (i.e. taxpayers).

One thing’s for sure: Status quo at the sewage plant is not an option. We must get a handle on it now to prevent this from happening again. Let this sad tale of sewage be a lesson to everyone on the folly of government consolidation.

Technorati Tags: Binghamton, Johnson City, sewage plant, government consolidation, municipal consolidation, Broome County, Mayor Harry Lewis, Mayor Matt Ryan

Broome County’s portion of the tobacco booty is $17 million. Some in the County Legislature wanted to spend the money in building a new communications building for Broome Community College to enhance the college’s budding communications program. I thought from the beginning building a new communications building was a much better use of the money–but no matter. The decision is now made.

The current holdup on renovations for the Harvey Building has to do with Ms. Fiala wanting to award 90% of the work to her labor union buddies. Political patronage is a great thing, eh? She no doubt has an eye on stocking her re-election campaign war chest. She’s being challenged in court by local contractors disputing the high union labor requirement.

Below was my response on the “story chat” for the P&SB article. I was feeling charitable, hence my complimentary tone.

I wouldn’t classify County Executive Barbara Fiala as a complete and utter disaster (like Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan), but she’s certainly fiscally irresponsible. How about a commitment, Ms. Fiala, to freeze property tax increases for the next two years, as a starting place. Can you at least do that?

And how about showing leadership on the 800 pound gorilla of Medicaid spending? By my calculations, 80% of the property taxes we pay to the county fund the budget item called “Social Services”–the lion’s share of which is Medicaid ($34 million for Medicaid in the 2008 budget). THIS MUST STOP. How about suing New York State to allow Broome County to offer fewer Medicaid benefits instead of the “Cadillac version” offered now?

What we desperately need, Ms. Fiala, is leadership. Please stop attacking the Republican Sheriff and complaining that municipalities get to keep a full 50 percent of sales tax revenue, and start showing leadership on the issue of spending and taxes. If you do, both Republicans and Democrats will support you come re-election time.

http://rssbinghamton.com/analysis-of-proposed-2008-broome-county-budget/
http://rssbinghamton.com/the-high-cost-of-doing-business-in-new-york-and-medicaid/

Technorati Tags: Binghamton, Broome County, Barbara Fiala, George Harvey Justice Building, Broome Community College, tobacco settlement money, Medicaid

First, let’s set the record straight. For years, Sheriff Harder has gone hat-in-hand to the County Executive and County Legislature telling them he needed more manpower for the jail. And for years they have denied him. Since he operates a public institution that is regulated by strict state laws mandating how many officers must be on hand to run the place, he had no option but to use overtime. And a lot of it. The yearly budget has allowed some overtime, but often he would run over–way over the alloted budget. Fiala has been using this issue to try and smear Harder, I’m assuming because she’s a Democrat and he’s a Republican.

Harder finally had enough. He called in the big dogs (Commission of Corrections), and they have the full weight of New York State behind them. Apparently they can make Broome County hire these officers over an 18-month period to correct the situation. I’m a little concerned when the New York State comes in and orders us around, especially when they mandate we spend money, but if I were in Dave Harder’s shoes, I would have done the same thing. He had no choice.

So now, Ms. Fiala and the Legislators have to find some money. The P&SB incorrectly reports we will have to find the full $1.4 million extra. Actually, there’s already $1 million budgeted for overtime at the jail right now. If the overtime is eliminated, that means we only have to find another $400,000. True leaders would suck it up and find it without raising taxes. But then, we don’t seem to have true leaders in our county government. Broome taxpayers–be prepared for yet another tax increase by your Democrat county government.

Technorati Tags: Binghamton, Broome County, David Harder, Barbara Fiala, New York Commission of Corrections, Broome Legislature

On to the budget analysis. I don’t pretend to be an accountant and understand the very complicated 571-page document that is the 2008 Proposed Budget. Perhaps there are some accountants out there who can chime in and enlighten us. Here’s my rather basic understanding (feel free to correct me):

First, here’s where we’ll spend $328,881,986 in 2008 (yes, that’s 328 MILLION dollars):

The above does not tell the whole story. Some of the items, like Central Food, the County Library, Golf and the Arena will actually bring in money. That is, we not only pay out, but the “asset” will generate revenue that comes back in. So some of those items will in essence be “self funding.” Also, many of the items above are funded by sales tax revenue and revenue from New York State. Yes! I know…that’s also money from our pockets too. But for the sake of argument, let’s save that discussion for another day. Assuming that many of the items above are “funded” by other sources, here is what we are left having to pay out of our collective pockets using property taxes:

And if you were to break it down by how much of each $1 of the property tax you pay goes to fund the above, it breaks down like this:

*due to rounding it adds up to 99 cents

You can see that 80 cents of each dollar is used to fund Social Services. That includes Medicaid, foster care, and a host of social programs. The lion’s share is Medicaid–approximately $34 million in the 2008 budget. Folks, this is nuts. This is socialism run amok. Our government, both New York State and Broome County, points the gun of the state at our heads and forces us to open our pockets and pay for our neighbors. It is immoral and it is unfair. We need local leadership that will challenge New York State and think creatively about reducing the budget.

How about this for a simple but effective strategy: Don’t raise the budget for the next five years. Cap it where it is and figure out how to keep reducing line items year by year. The cost of living will go up, state mandates will increase, etc. So what!? Figure it out. Cap it and start, little by little, living on LESS. Become known as the one county in New York State where it’s actually costing LESS in property taxes to live. And watch this area start to attract more people, new jobs and new businesses.

Agree or disagree? Have a question? Want to vent? Leave a message in the comments below.

Technorati Tags: Binghamton, Broome County budget, Broome County, New York State, property tax, Barbara Fiala

Political party affiliation does matter because a party’s philosophy will ultimately affect the laws that are made and the policies that are implemented. Yes, party affiliation matters. But on the local level, it matters less–far less. You see, party affiliation doesn’t have much to do with wooing prospective businesses to an area, or keeping them there. Or fixing roads and bridges. Or attracting talented workers. Or any of the dozens of other things local governments do. With local government, it’s almost all economics. Less taxes and more jobs equals more population equals good policy. It doesn’t matter if you’re Democrat or Republican.

Why this rant? A few weeks ago Darcy Fauci was named Broome County’s new director of economic development. Prior to that she was the county’s chief public relations person. Her boss, County Executive Barbara Fiala (a Democrat), gave her the promotion. The complaints from the Republican side of the isle didn’t take long to surface, primarily taking the form “she has no economic experience.” As Darcy herself said, “what kind of experience is economic experience anyway?” She’s worked in the county executive’s office for two years, and previous to that she was in the news business. She’s lived and worked in this area for some 20 years. Seems to her (and me) that she knows quite a bit about the economics of this region, and she likely knows how to promote this region to those considering relocation or establishing a new venture.

Here’s the bottom line: I have no idea how she will do in this position. But you know what, let’s give her a chance. I extend my hand across the isle, and say “Congratulations!” I don’t know about you, but I love it when someone works hard and gets ahead. This is not a case of favoritism or cronyism, but a case of someone working hard and getting a deserved promotion from the boss. We owe it to Darcy to give her a chance, and to help her succeed. For you see, when she, and Fiala, and everyone else in local government succeeds, we all succeed. That’s statesmenship. We need more of it in Greater Binghamton.

What do you think? Have I lost my mind and gone wimpy lib? Did Barbara Fiala make a mistake? Does Darcy deserve the benefit of the doubt? Do we need more statesmenship around Greater Binghamton? Leave me a comment.

Technorati Tags: Binghamton, statesmenship, county government