If that doesn’t sound fair to you, there is hope. For months, supporters of a millionaires tax have called on the New York State Legislature to impose a tax on New York’s wealthiest individuals in an effort to create a revenue stream for the state in place of cuts to precious government programs that will impact many New Yorkers, whether it’s through education or health care. While the millionaires tax is supported by many New Yorkers, it didn’t catch on with enough legislators and, most importantly, Governor David Paterson.

But then came Fair Share Tax Reform. This is a movement throughout the state to reform the aforementioned income tax so that those who make more, pay more. This movement isn’t just a group of citizens who are calling for change, it also has gained support in the New York State Senate, where Senator Eric Schneiderman has introduced legislation (appropriately called the “Fair Share Tax Reform Act of 2009″) that would do the following:

- If you make $250,000, your tax rate will increase from 6.85 percent to 8.25 percent. It is estimated that this increase alone will generate $568 million in revenue for the state.

- If your income is over $500,000, your tax rate will go from 6.85 percent to 8.97 percent. This will create $823 million in new revenue for the state.

- Those making over $1 million would also get an increase. Millionaires would see their tax rate go from 6.85 percent to 10.3 percent, generating $4.6 billion in revenue for the state.

Why is this important? Those huge spending cuts that Governor Paterson has mentioned could be canceled in favor of these reforms. Making wealthy New Yorkers pay more in taxes will create much-needed revenue. The state is in need of said revenue. They have a $14 billion deficit to overcome. This one piece of legislation and single reform could result in $6 billion for the state. That’s a lot of money created by one bill.

If you believe that Fair Share Tax Reform is the way to go, contact Senator George Maziarz and Assemblyman Steve Hawley and ask them to support this movement. If you would like more information, visit www.fairsharereform.com.

This is a key moment in our state’s history and we have two paths: We can either cut funding for key programs that will impact millions of New Yorkers OR we can reform our tax system so that those who make more pay their fair share. The former would be devastating. The latter would be one of the greatest reforms implemented in modern New York State history.

This local law is for the approval of pay raises that will be given to some county administrators. The list includes:

Highway Superintendent: Proposed salary – $73,730

Director of Personnel: Proposed salary – $60,687

Real Property Tax Director: Proposed salary – $60,687

County Treasurer: Proposed salary – $63,799 (includes $1,400 longevity bonus)

County Clerk: Proposed salary – $57,779 (includes $375 longevity bonus)

County Attorney: Proposed salary – $73,730

Social Services Commissioner: Proposed salary – $75,130 (includes $1,400 longevity bonus)

Public Defender: Proposed salary – $62,399

Sheriff: Proposed salary – $73,730

Coroners: Proposed salary -$1,656 (not including $100 per case payment)

My question to all of you: How many of you are making that kind of money? (Meaning, how many of you are making $60,000 or $70,000 a year?)

The vote was 5-0-1. Legislator Bill Eick (R) was absent and Legislator Gary Kent (D) abstained.

Yes, you read that correctly. Legislator Kent abstained on arguably the most important vote of the year.

Why would he do that? The Journal-Register article offers a hint:

“The entire Legislature spends a lot of time on the budget,” Kent said. “Hour after hour, day after day. I think that might be misunderstood by some of the people in the community. I think generally speaking, we did a really fine job on the budget. I think it could have been a little bit better.”

That doesn’t offer much in terms of reasoning, but it does raise some questions.

For starters, abstaining is usually reserved when you have a conflict of interest on a certain piece of legislation that prohibits you from having an unbiased view on the bill. In this case, I’m not sure Kent abstaining applies. He had no conflict of interest and from what I can tell, there is nothing that prevented him from voting on this.

If Kent didn’t like the budget, he could have simply voted “no.” He didn’t offer a clear opinion either way, only saying “I think it could have been a little bit better.” That’s short on specifics, so I’m not really sure what Kent was thinking. But if there was enough for Kent to like, why not vote yes? It can go either way.

The budget comes with another spending increase ($3.2 million from 2008 to 2009) and that alone is a reason why I don’t like it. Plus, the budget upholds a tax increase that last year was the second-highest tax rate we have ever had in Orleans County. Those are two things very wrong with this budget. That is why, if I had a vote, I would have voted against the budget.

What do you think of the budget?

A PowerPoint presentation conducted by Chief Administrative Officer Chuck Nesbitt says that the budget process begins in June or July every year. That means the budget process is about five or six months long, depending on the start time. If you take into consideration that legislators serve a two-year term, that means they spend nearly half their time as elected officials working on a budget. That is significant.

According to CAO Nesbitt, it is mandated by the state that counties have their proposed budgets submitted by November 15. Obviously that is out of this county’s control, but I find that date to be convenient. Every year, November 15 comes after Election Day. That means counties can wait to submit a budget until after Election Day. So if you are going to raise taxes (like the Orleans County Legislature did last year), the November 15 deadline is truly convenient and helpful for elected officials who wish to remain in their seats.

During this long five or six month process, the public has only one opportunity to let its voices be heard on the budget and that comes at a public hearing, usually held in early December only days prior to the next Legislature meeting where they will pass the budget. For example, this year the budget hearing was held on Dec. 8. On Dec. 10, the Legislature took up the budget for a vote and passed the budget. This isn’t the only time the Legislature has appeared to not care about what the public says. In the past, they would pass local laws on the same day as the public hearing for said law. They finally changed that to make it appear that they actually listened to what you said by having the public hearing at one meeting and then holding the vote for the law at the next meeting.

But as it relates to the budget, the input of the taxpayers should be a must. After all, the taxpayers are the ones that are making up the difference (via the tax levy) for the increased spending that isn’t covered by revenues and surplus dollars.

I would hope that the Legislature reconsiders their current process and implements a much more open and citizen-friendly process that would include monthly or bimonthly meetings during the formation of the next year’s budget. Not only would it good to have input from the people covering the tab, but it would be good for government to allow citizens to see the budget process from beginning to end. Then, once the tentative budget is released and the final budget hearing comes at the end of the year, you will have citizens who know the situation and know what to expect in the budget, instead of having a budget full of surprises.

To summarize the budget, the property tax rate will remain at $9.16 per $1,000 of assessed value. That is the same rate as last year, which was the result of a record increase and the second-highest property tax rate in the last 20 years and quite possibly, in Orleans County’s history. Keep in mind that five of the legislators – Chairman Henry Smith, Vice Chairman and Finance Committee Chairman David Callard, Legislator George Bower, Legislator Bill Eick and Legislator Ken Rush – were in office last year when they raised taxes to such record levels.

The county will have appropriations of $70,665,343 for 2009, a $3,271,476 increase from 2008. Revenues are estimated to be $55,730,711, up $2,906,885 from last year. When you factor in the less cash surpluses and allowance for uncollectable taxes, you are left with a total property tax levy of $13,786,732. So while the property tax rate has remained the same, the total tax levy has actually increased, albeit a rather small increase of $76,691.

Click for more.The problem with the budget is the same as last year. While they can say that they didn’t raise taxes this year, they didn’t cut taxes either. They kept taxes at the same rate even though they are spending records amount of money. Yes, they have federal and state mandates to abide by and that is where a good portion of that money goes. But a significant part of that are appropriations that the county can control.

Take health care for example. According to CAO Nesbitt, the health insurance costs for the county are going up $306,000 next year. What is being done to address that? Apparently nothing. The last I knew, there are some county employees (mostly upper-level employees) who do not pay a dime towards their own health insurance. That means we are picking up the tab for them to get full health insurance benefits FREE OF CHARGE for them but rather costly for us.

Granted, we might not be able to save the full $306,000. But I’m sure we could save a very large portion of that were these employees be required to pay part of their health insurance.

Without looking at the whole budget (again, it is rather thick), I’m sure there are other places where you could save the taxpayers money. We do need a better system of taxation that taxes those based on how much they can pay. But until we get such a system, we must deal with what we have.

Families in Orleans County are sacrificing. They are pinching pennnies and just getting by. The unemployment rate in Orleans County is up over six percent and rising. The median household income (as of 2004) is $38,482. People are having to sacrifice and budget month-by-month to get by. So what’s our county doing?

Spending more and turning to us and saying that we owe them $13,786,732.

The county needs to sacrifice a little bit too.

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Such is the case with Albion Mayor Mike Hadick. Hadick was in court yesterday to answer charges that he stole fireworks money from the Village of Albion. This is America and everyone is innocent until proven guilty. But the fact that Hadick is involved in another scandal means that he should resign. He needs to resign so that the Village of Albion can move on with someone who won’t cause distractions and bring embarrassment to the village.

Hadick’s troubles started last year with the infamous “Cover Up.” His silence (he supposedly was ordered to be quiet by the village attorney) did not do him any good. But Hadick wasn’t the only public official who was silent on that issue and he wasn’t the only one who played a role.

Then came Hadick’s DWI last year. He said then (like he has said now) that he wouldn’t resign. The DWI was, while serious, not as big as some imagined it would be. Some citizens who were interviewed by TV stations said that they were willing to forgive and forget and that “everyone makes mistakes.”

Following the DWI, Allegations surfaced that Hadick was photographed nude and the pictures were posted on a political rival’s website. There were also pictures of Hadick standing next to a keg. Remember, this was after his DWI. Not smart.

After the pictures, there was a chorus of people calling for his resignation. I wrote a column in the summer of 2007 (after the DWI) where I called for Hadick’s resignation. It never made it to print because I was interning with the Journal-Register at the time and we didn’t want to jeopardize any chance at covering the Village of Albion. (In the end, I never covered the village.)

Click for more.

Hadick’s past caught up with him in mid-March – on the eve of the village’s elections no less – when a former mistress verified that the nude photographs online were indeed of Hadick. Hadick had previously denied that it was him in the photographs.

I can’t remember the last time the Village of Albion has been focused on this much by the Buffalo and Rochester media outlets. You would hope that Albion would get attention for something good instead of getting attention for an out of control mayor. But this is what Albion has to deal with in the present and as long as this case continues and as long as Hadick is mayor, that’s the way it will be.

Hadick should step down now. It will only benefit him, his family and the village if he does that. I know he’s fighting it, saying he will stay in power, but that’s not what he should be doing. He should step aside so that the distractions go away.

AGENDA

LEGISLATURE MEETING

September 24, 2008

4:30 p.m.

1. Call to Order

2. Pledge to the Flag

3. Roll Call

4. Presentation of Communications

5. Treasurer’s Report

6. Open Discussion

7. Presentation of Resolutions:

354 Authorizing Payment of Claims Against the County (Kent)

355 Approving Agreements between Social Services and School Districts regarding Preventive Services (Kent)

356 Setting Date of Second Public Hearing on Local Law No. 4-Intro of 2008 Regarding Real Property Real Property Tax Exemption for Cold War Veterans (Callard)

357 Setting Date of Public Hearing on Local Law No. 5-Intro of 2008 Regarding Real Property Tax Exemption for Capital Improvements to Residential Buildings (Callard)

358 Setting Date of Public Hearing on Local Law No. 6-Intro of 2008 Regarding Real Property Tax Exemption for Historic Property (Callard)

359 Approving Agreement between Mental Health and Accumedic Computer Systems, Inc. (Bower)

360 Approving Agreement between Real Property and Center for Governmental Research Inc. (Callard)

361 Approving Agreement between Office of the Aging and Community Health Foundation (Kent)

362 Authorizing Setting Up New Money in Highway Department Budget (Eick)

363 Calling On the New York State Congressional Delegation to Support an Increase in the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) to Provide New York Counties with Property Tax Relief (Callard)

364 Authorizing Filling of Vacancy at the Villages of Orleans (Bower)

365 Authorizing Out-of-State Travel for Health Department Employee (Bower)

366 Amending Agreement between Buildings and Grounds and Unified Court System (Eick)

367 Approving Agreement between Buildings and Grounds and West Fire Systems, Inc. (Eick)

368 Authorizing Setting Up New Money in Buildings and Grounds Budget (Eick)

8. Old Business

9. Adjournment

For those of you who are saying, “Who is this Robert Harding fellow?” here is a brief introduction for you.

I have lived in Orleans County all 22 years of my life. I lived in Albion before moving to Medina prior to starting kindergarten. I have called Medina home ever since.

I am a 2004 graduate from Medina High School and this fall I will be officially completed with my bachelor’s degree from SUNY Fredonia. My degree will be in political science and being that one of my “loves” is politics, that is what we will be talking about here.

Right now, I am still hunting for a permanent job. But that hasn’t stopped me from a few different projects. I am the administrator and lead editor for New York NewsLadder, a site that allows users to post top news items from newspapers and websites and allows consumers to see the top news from New York all on one website. Blogging isn’t new to me. Currently, I’m a blogger at The Albany Project – a political blog with a focus on New York State.

So what will we be talking about here? Politics, politics, politics. I will try to talk about Orleans County politics as much as I can, but we will also talk about the big presidential race between Democratic nominee Barack Obama and Republican nominee John McCain. This year, we also have an open congressional seat here for most of Orleans County and statewide there is a battle brewing for the New York State Senate.

I look forward to talking politics with you and hope we can have smart and sensible debate. I make no bones about the fact that I am a Democrat. That said, I will be reaching out to Republican candidates like Chris Lee to introduce you to all candidates and give you a taste of what you will be looking at in November.

If you ever have any questions or comments that you want to send to me directly, feel free to e-mail me at robert.harding22@gmail.com.

This is a great opportunity and I hope we can make the most of it.

My best to all of you,

Robert