When people of Buffalo cry about big goverment. They do something about it.
and then there are the people of williamsville and sloan, who voted to retain their village governments. i do not want to see them complain about their high taxes ever again.
Amherst voted to downsize their board last night. Does that give them the right to complain about high taxes?
Makes you wonder if Williamsville, Hamburg, Sloan, and Grand Island decisions would have been different if they voted on election night. Their referendums were presented in the middle of the year and only at one polling place a piece. Not very democratic if you ask me.
I believe that the voters in Williamsville and Sloan were asked to disolve their villages. This is a more extreme step than just downsizing their board. My memory could be off on this one and I really don't have time today to research it.
Isn't this really about diminishing Buffalo's (ie inner city) power while giving more to the 'burbs? I am all for cutting the political fat, but I am rather certain this will not work in Buffalo's favor.
Yes. I think you only need to look at who supported the original bill (Chris Collins and his coalition in the legislature) to understand what the expected results are.
I believe the percentage representation for the city will actually increase. At least that was Mr. Gaughan's take on it when asked by a city property owner when the question came up.
Some of the studies done comparing our government size to metros much larger is pretty eyopening.
Well, some measure of happiness can be had with the downsizing vote, that's to be sure.
However, so long voters keep re-electing Antoine Thompson (he looks to have won) and Sam Hoyt, this region and state will not move forward. Don't confuse talking with results with these two. The next big thing Hoyt proposes or champions will conveniently come near his next election as a way to fool voters. Thompson's not worth the keystro....
We need two major and significant changes here and in the state:
1. We need to scale back county government tremendously and provide only essential, regional scale service and let the cities, town and villages take over the services they can provide. Afterall, if all these individual munis want their own control, let them have it. Let Clarence continue to grow but payfor its own police department and stop having Erie County residents subsidize it. If we're not going to consider regionalism, the we don't need a county government as an added layer.
2. We need a state constitutional convention to change the 3-men in a room way business is done. We need to be a ballot measure state, allowing the populace to determine what they want to vote on and make this place a democracy. We need term limits; we need to do away with public authorities (PBA here we come); we need pension and retirement reform; etc... All these can't and won't happen because the Hoyt and Thompson of the system get re-elected and make no progress.
How Antoine Thompson continues to get re-elected is beyond me. He's borderline literate and is an outright thief. His re-election may be the one that keeps me from the voting booth for a while. I'm completely disgusted.
I couldn't agree more. I don't believe it's official yet (he was up by 300 votes last time I checked), however, just the thought of him back in office makes my head spin. How after all these scandals does anyone elect him back in? Has he done anything for the city or state?
I was glad to see the various downsizing proposals pass with an overwhelming majority of votes. This is encouraging news for WNY.
I probably showing my age but I recall talks and debates in the 1990's about regionalism like Toronto. Maybe those ideas need to be looked at again.
How much does downsizing actually save per person? One savings is that it will take less money to buy votes on a legislative issue.
Interesting Artvoice piece on downsizing from earlier this year:
http://artvoice.com/issues/v9n8/rioting_in_the_suburbs
I think the comparison with rioting is overblown, but I agree that this is just impotent anger against government lashing out at any available target. I like the quote about voting the incumbents out so hard they can never come back again.
It's interesting how anyone that shows 'anger' towards government is basically labeled a moron.
To me, the government is a bit like the store on Elmwood, but rather that We Never Close, it's 'We'll Never Close'. If you don't like a store, you don't go to it, and after a while it goes out of business. You reward good business with more business, and the those that can't keep up close.
Part of the growing frustration with government is we see advances all around us, everyday. Businesses adapt to increased connectivity and other technology break throughs, or they close.
Then we go to vote, and we fill in little bubbles like it's 1972. Or we go to motor vehicles and stand in line. Or...fill in whatever nightmare you've had with the government.
Voting for downsizing is a metaphor for telling the clerk at the DMV...'hey...my time is worth money'. It may be simple, and make a moron feel better, but it's all we've got.
I'm so glad WE THE PEOPLE FINALLY SPOKE on this one!!! Funny how it was only the Legislature that tried to tell us how wrong it would be to vote on this. Sill politics, maby if YOU actually did some good and kept up with your end (promises, job creations, and so on) we would vote you OUT!!!!!
WE THE PEOPLE also cast a vote of NO CONFIDENCE for Obama and Pelosi politics.
Unfortunately on the news yesterday, (2 on your side) :)
they kind of indicated that the reduction will hurt city residents as opposed to help as they state that residents are leaving the city for the burbs. And that means more representation for where the people are, the burbs. But what confuses me is that there is a buzz going on in the city. Hopefully our representatives see this and act on it.
Thats an interesting point, what would it take to eliminate county sheriff service for these municipalities that depend on it and do not pay for it fully??
I have heard the Village of Depew is a few years away from not being able to afford their police force at all? That an eventual merger is ineveitable. I'd imagine there would be a large shift in development if suburban towns and villages had to shoulder a larger cost of police than they do now.
Why do we have county government anyways?? We all fight eachother anyways/wanna be seperate on everything?
To plow county roads, maintain sewers, infrastructure?? (Could probably be passed off to different municipalities)
Federal and State Social Services (Run by the county and not the 3rd poorest city in the US Buffalo???)
To collect taxes..
Thats all I got.. It seems that if Collins really wanted to get tough on costs he would rein in on sprawl. Use county sales tax for schools and funding of the police force as a tool and not just a line on the budget.
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