Earlier this week, the Erie County Legislature passed an amended budget that would restore funding to libraries and cultural organizations from the cuts that were initially proposed by County Executive Chris Collins.
Representatives came together across party lines to recover this funding and to also restore three auditor positions within the Comptroller's office. "We made real progress yesterday bringing together Democrats and Republicans to amend the budget with a super majority of votes yesterday," said Legislature Chair Barbara Miller-Williams. "Now we have to continue to do the work to make sure that the County Executive works with us and does not veto all of the priorities we identified as we voted to change his proposed budget."
The main concern moving forward from the Annual Session to consider the Budget is whether these amendments will outlive the veto process. "It is my hope that those that voted for those amendments will stay true to their commitments last night and vote to override any vetoes to those lines Collins may sign," said Miller-Williams.
Collins has from now until December 13 to veto any of the items approved by the Legislature. Miller-Williams said she plans to keep working to make sure that her colleagues stand behind their decisions.
"We are close, but we have not yet crossed the finish line," said Miller-Williams. "I will declare a victory when these organizations receive the funding that is vital to their survival. I plan to use the upcoming days to try to assure that we can make that happen."
Should Collins choose to veto any of these amendments, the Legislature will still have the opportunity to override his veto with a super majority vote. If this happens, the amendments passed by the Legislature on Tuesday will remain.
Photo: Two of the rally participants of the Culture Counts demonstration - from Thomas Dooney's BRO post.
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Representatives came together across party lines to recover this funding and to also restore three auditor positions within the Comptroller's office. "We made real progress yesterday bringing together Democrats and Republicans to amend the budget with a super majority of votes yesterday," said Legislature Chair Barbara Miller-Williams. "Now we have to continue to do the work to make sure that the County Executive works with us and does not veto all of the priorities we identified as we voted to change his proposed budget."
The main concern moving forward from the Annual Session to consider the Budget is whether these amendments will outlive the veto process. "It is my hope that those that voted for those amendments will stay true to their commitments last night and vote to override any vetoes to those lines Collins may sign," said Miller-Williams.
Collins has from now until December 13 to veto any of the items approved by the Legislature. Miller-Williams said she plans to keep working to make sure that her colleagues stand behind their decisions.
"We are close, but we have not yet crossed the finish line," said Miller-Williams. "I will declare a victory when these organizations receive the funding that is vital to their survival. I plan to use the upcoming days to try to assure that we can make that happen."
Should Collins choose to veto any of these amendments, the Legislature will still have the opportunity to override his veto with a super majority vote. If this happens, the amendments passed by the Legislature on Tuesday will remain.
Photo: Two of the rally participants of the Culture Counts demonstration - from Thomas Dooney's BRO post.
Collins should veto the funding. Legislators should uphold the veto.
Just like it's good there's a strong separation of church and state, there should also be separation of arts and state. People shouldn't be forced to fund a select few arts groups, and likewise politicians and their appointees shouldn't have power to tell the groups how to operate in any way. Government should just stay out of it and stick to its basic functions.
The private sector (profit and non-profit) can decide how much to fund the arts voluntarily by supporting fund raising and paying higher prices for tickets, etc. That's what happens anyway with most aspects of arts and culture. Taxpayer funding goes only to very few who are chosen very subjectively.
The same argument can be made for separation of sports and state. A much bigger waste of taxpayer dollars is the handouts to the Buffalo Bills and their multi-millionaire owner. In 2009 that amounted to over 7.35 million dollars for 9 games or about $900,000 a game. This breaks down to 4.2 million for operating and game day expenses, 2.9 million for stadium upgrade, and $240,000 for Sheriffs deputies. Where is Chris Collins outrage for this travesty?
That should be about $800,000 per game, not $900,000.
I almost wrote at the end of my comment as a proactive disclaimer that there should also be no public funding of the Bills stadium, ...or the Sabres arena, or of store buildings on the waterfront, or any state grants to Snyder's Hyatt and Croce's boutique hotel, and .... too much dumb spending to list.
The Bills lease wording pre-dates Collins' time in office, and the lease is almost expired anyhow. Hopefully after it expires, Collins and other politicians of both parties will all conclude there shouldn't be any more public funding of anything to do with any stadium here.
If the Bills continue in WNY long term in a privately funded stadium, if would be more sensible if traffic control costs were paid by NY state (since NYS receives income tax from Bills $120M+ payroll) instead of sheriffs from whichever county the Bills end up playing in. Better yet, the Bills (and Sabres) should reimburse the govt for traffic control, but since streets are public property I doubt that could be legally forced.
Regardless, nothing about the Bills should justify any other bad decisions or vice versa.
You "hope" that Collins and other politicians will stop public funding for the Bills? What leads you to believe Chris Collins would show any such progressive leadership? So far he has not displayed any evidence of challeging the wants of his core constituents, that is middle class and wealthy suburban families. His focus has been to cut healthcare, daycare, libraries, and culturals, most of which impacted the city and the poor.
BRLifer>"You "hope" that Collins and other politicians will stop public funding for the Bills?"
While no politician is perfect, I support Collins' proposed cuts non-mandated spending on arts which should be privately funded anyhow. And I can hope for more eventually like zeroing out county funding for stadiums. That isn't the same as predicting.
BRLifer>"What leads you to believe Chris Collins would show any such progressive leadership?"
I'll return that question to you -
What leads you to believe a Dem opponent of Collins would favor ending county funding for stadiums?
When did Poloncarz, Marinelli, or Hochul ever advocate ending county spending for the Bills? I think the answer is none of them have. If any ever do, I'll agree with them. For now, if you're assuming Collins will favor county funding in the next Bills lease then I'll assume the same too about his likely Dem opponents.
Regardless, the Bills lease signed by Joel Giambra shouldn't be used as an excuse for anything else.
Whatever>" Government should just stay out of it and stick to its basic functions."
But who's to say what the "basic functions" are? Some would rather see their tax dollars spent towards the arts while others would rather see public funding dedicated to making low-density suburban housing possible. How do you define "basic?"
Arm, people will always argue over what's basic - just like we're arguing here. What's the alternative to arguing? Should we assume anything and everything is equally basic just because some people demand it?
For example, some people said government's functions should include constructing a store for Bass Pro. Some say it should include improving the Bills stadium. Some say it should include money every year to a select few small arts groups.
I'm against all 3 of those. Maybe some people oppose the first two while considering it a moral outrage to oppose govt funding for arts. (It's "stealing Christmas" according to the Buffalo News arts writer!)