New York’s 23rd Congressional District special election
This special election has drawn intense national interest…
The race is between Bill Owens - a somewhat moderate Democrat, Dierdre Scozzafava an extremely liberal Republican, and Bill Hoffman running on the Conservative ticket.
First you have to realize that New York has multiple political parties, the Conservative Party in New York is relatively strong for a third party.
Next you have to realize that the Republican nominee was chosen by a few Republicans who appointed her to run. She is extremely liberal; in fact, she is widely considered to be more liberal that Bill Owens who is the Democrat in the race…
The National Republican Party and many Republicans supported Scozzafava in the race; however, Sarah Palin and several other conservatives have backed the Conservative Party candidate over the Republican. Note this is exactly what conservatives need to do.
I am sick and tired of seeing Republicans support big Government and Liberal Republicans like Arlen Specter from Pennsylvania (Who finally became a Democrat this year).
Today Scoffafava dropped out of the race. She will still be on the ballot; however, she is telling her supporters they can vote for one of the other two candidates. Interestingly enough, she did NOT endorse either candidate.
I hope that Conservative Party Candidate Hoffman wins this coming Tuesday and that he wins big. That would send a message to “country club Republicans,” big government Republicans,” and “liberal Republicans” that they need to clean their act up or be challenged in the primary or even General Election by conservative candidates.
Go Hoffman!
Mike Sylvester
Maria Parra Resigns from Wayne Township Advisory Board
Maria Parra has resigned her position as a Wayne Township Advisory Board member in order to accept a position as the Technology Manager for the Fort Wayne Census office. Parra was a watchdog for taxpayers’ interest and constantly strove for openness and accountability. While her persistence did not make her popular with the board or the township office she will certainly be missed by citizens who support open government and fiscal responsibility.
State law requires her position to be filled by a vote of Democratic precinct committee members from Wayne Township. So if you’re a Democrat in Wayne Township and want to serve on the board then now is your chance - although one might question your sanity given the board’s history of infighting…
The US Economy over the next five - ten years
I am working on a series of posts that will discuss the US Economy and the direction I think it is headed in the next couple of months.
I personally think we have entered a period that will be similar to the “lost decade” in Japan.
In other words I think wages will be stagnant, unemployment will remain high, the stock market will not recover to peak levels, the dollar will continue to fall, Government debt will continue to pile up, etc.
I think that the Government will keep pouring money into big banks, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, etc. I think that the crash in Commercial Real Estate will start to resonate throughout the economy. I think everyone will soon realize that most Government and many Private pension plans are broke. I think Citi will file bankruptcy even after getting huge amounts of money from the misguided TARP plan, etc…
What do the readers of this blog think?
City Budget Thoughts
The city budget was passed by council last not a 5-4 vote with councilmembers Didier, Harper, Pape, Shoaff and Bender voting for it and members Smith, Goldner, Hines and Brown against it. Quite an a strange pairing if you ask me.
There was ~$460k cut from the administration’s proposed budget. The bulk of this was reducing city employees’ raise from 1.5% to 1%. They also voted to eliminate two neighborhood area advocate positions as well as their own part-time research assistant.
In the end I don’t think this budget cut nearly enough considering the revenue reductions we’re going to see over the next 2 years. I think giving city employees a raise in this economic climate is an outrage but given the lack of support for serious cuts the 1% compromise was the best council could do.
The council’s plan seems to be to spend down a portion of the city’s $23 million in cash reserves once the revenue starts declining. I certainly applaud that but there’s still a chance there will be major structural deficits remaining that can only be addressed through cuts and/or a tax increase. Furthermore, I don’t believe this administration will ever be willing to spend down a significant amount of those cash reserves. City controller Pat Roller is too influential and it makes her job much easier to maintain them so I’ll believe it when I see it.
Remember the horrors that we were all going to experience by cutting so much from last year’s budget? Did anyone even notice? Now some of this is due to the diligence of city employees who are doing more with less. But let’s be honest too, some of this is built-in fluff that always makes up a portion of any budget. Seeing how they are spending our money at time when we all need it the most I think the prudent decision would be to continue making cuts until we hit our pain threshold.
Do we really need consultants for gambling and I&M studies and whatever else is getting paid that we don’t know about? Can the city live with less tree trimming and leaf pickup and audit department? Do we need to spend millions of dollars in interest and bond fees for every project that comes along? Does our mayor need to make more money than every other mayor in the state - are we really buying any value for that?
I guess you know you came to a good compromise when nobody is happy. City employees, the mayor, taxpayers - I doubt anyone is too thrilled with this budget…
Our Presumptuous Deputy Mayor
I found one exchange during last night’s budget meeting particularly entertaining. Councilman Mitch Harper offered up an amendment that would cut the mayor’s office wages by $60k. The deputy mayor immediately said that such a cut would mean the elimination of the city’s legislative liaison Ozzie Mitson. Harper rebutted by saying that he was not targeting any single individual.
I found the retort by Deputy Mayor Purcell to be rather presumptuous. I mean whose to say that the $60k cut wouldn’t be to eliminate his salary. After all, a city this size probably needs a legislative liaison more than we need a deputy mayor. Hell, we pay the mayor $120k+ (more than any other mayor in the state) - can’t he come to council and argue for his own budget? He has 2 PIO staff, numerous department heads, a legislative liaison and 4 neighborhood advocates - why in the world do we need yet another layer of management called “deputy mayor”?
911 Consolidation & the 7-Headed Monster
The city and the county look as if they might finally come to an agreement on 911 consolidation and what’s the solution? A 7 member board to oversee the department - ugh. That sounds even less efficient than the 3-headed executive we call the county commissioners.
Sheriff Fries seems adamantly opposed to the consolidation and I tend to agree with him regarding this new 7-member board - the entire structure seems illogical. However, Fries continues to say that consolidation won’t necessarily help response time and that I don’t quite understand. There have been well-documented cases, the Willows of Coventry fire being one, where the caller gave their information to one dispatch only to have their call roll over to the other dispatch where they had to give their information again. This has always struck me as the driving reason for why we need consolidation. That extra minute could cost somebody their life, but maybe I’m missing something.
The sheriff also seems to be very sincere and passionate about wanting to provide 911 service in a way that maximizes public safety. I think now that the city’s communication director Tina Taviano has been “transfered out” it would be a fine time to hand over the entire communications department to Sheriff Fries. He has been very vocal about wanting to increase first responder time and do things that make sense instead of just trying to find new ways to pay for 911 costs.
The city should give up the entire department, and the associated fees, on a trial basis for 3 years and see how it goes. My guess is the sheriff will run the department in a way that promotes public safety, and if he doesn’t, well then he’s an elected official and he can be voted out…
Congressional Corruption continues under Democrats
Back on June 22nd 2008 I blogged about sweetheart loans that Democratic Senators Dodd and Conrad received through the VIP Countrywide program.
Since that time both Senators have been cleared of any wrong doing by their buddies on the Senate Ethics Committee.
Finally Democrats in the House of Representatives have stopped blocking an investigation into Countrywide. They have finally issued far reaching subpoena’s.
Believe it or not,
The subpoena’s relate to a wide range of government employees – including members of the executive branch, House members and staffers, officers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and employees of state and local governments. Senators will not be included in the House’s investigation.
The subpoena specifies that the ethics committee will receive and redact all documents that identify members of the House.
It took over a year but the Democrats finally stopped blocking a necessary investigation of the Countrywide VIP program. That being said it is corruption at the highest level when the House decides to specifically NOT request information on Senator Dodd or Senator Conrad. Worse yet; the names of corrupt House members will be redacted. Luckily someone from the opposite party will quickly release the names…
Good grief…
Good grief, I actually agree with “uber liberal” George Soros
It is hard to beleive that I agree with George Soros on anything.
That being said, I agree with everything he said in a recent interview with the Financial Times.
I opposed the entire TARP plan in the first place. I blogged about it extensively last year.
It is 100% absurd how much money these bailed out insitutions are paying out to their executives.
Congress should be embarrassed…
A backlash against the Demcoratic Congress is building slowly but surely…
Mike Sylvester
My impressions of Fort Wayne City Council
I think that the City Council has proved to be a more effective body this year than in the previous few years. I think that if we can get three more strong members of City Council and replace three of the weak members of City Council in the next election our City Council can become an impressive body.
I hope that those of you reading this post will post your feelings of our current members of City Council in the comments section.
Here is my current opinions of our City Council:
I think we have three very strong members of City Council. I think on vote after vote these City Council members show that they are fiscal conservatives and make rational decisions.
- Mitch Harper (Republican)
- Tom Smith (Republican)
- John Shoaff (Democrat)
I think we have three members of City Council that I like on a personal level; however, find myself disagreeing with a fair amount of the time.
- Liz Brown (Republican)
- Tom Didier (Republican)
- Karen Goldner (Democrat)
We have three members of City Council I would like to see replaced. I disagree with these members of City Council extremely frequently.
- Glynn Hines (Democrat)
- Tim Pape (Democrat)
- Marty Bender (Republican)
Interestingly enough I have at least one Democrat and one Republican in each category…
I bet Jeff Pruitt’s list and my list are somewhat similar…
Mike Sylvester
A Little Corporate Communism with your Beverage?
Just so you know - this is the opposite of capitalism:
The Interim Study Committee on Alcoholic Beverage Issues voted 7-4 against Sunday carryout sales, and voted unanimously against recommending that carryout cold beer sales be allowed in places such as drug stores, grocery stores and convenience stores.
[...]
But allowing Sunday sales is opposed by many package liquor store owners, in part because they believe any business gained would be canceled out by additional costs for being open another day.They say big-box grocery stores and drug stores could easily absorb any extra costs, and Sunday sales would change alcohol buying habits in those retailers’ favor. They also argued Tuesday against cold beer sales in venues other than liquor stores.
Once again, a group of businesses that can’t compete in the open market lobby government to grant them special privileges so they maintain market share. The big loser, as usual, is the consumer. Here’s a gem of a quote:
“The dramatic expansion of cold beer sales being proposed would destroy the package-store industry in every corner of this state,” said John Livengood, president of the Indiana Association of Beverage Retailers
To that I respond - GOOD! Why the hell do we have special stores just for selling liquor anyway? It makes absolutely no sense. If they can find efficiencies that allow them to sell their product cheaper than everyone else then they should go for it. But unfortunately they only exist because they are wards of the state - a government-created monopoly. Clearly this distorts the market and causes everyone to pay more for their alcohol.
