$8 Billion in New Taxes and Fees on Whom?

The print edition of today’s Buffalo News features two extra editorial pages. Resembling two full-page ads, the “Buffalo News Editorial Opinion: Say No to State Government Incompetence” lists over 75 new taxes, fees, and other “revenue raising items.” But rather than let the figures speak for themselves, a large upper-case font, superimposed over the list shouts “THE STATE BUDGET IMPOSED $8 BILLION IN NEW TAXES AND FEES ON YOU.”

Makes your blood boil, doesn’t it? Here I am, Joe twelve-pack, working my fingers to the bone, and now those fat cats in Albany are trying to steal my hard earned money with the following measures sure to keep the little man down. They want to raise:

$4.78 billion by increasing the personal income tax rate by 1-2% on people making over $200,000 (We all know how hard it is getting by on 200 grand a year.)

$200 million by limiting itemized deductions, except charitable, on incomes over $1,000,000 (I work hard for my million dollars a year. Now some politician wants to limit my tax deductions? WTF?)

$10 million by imposing a tax on the sale of partnerships by nonresidents (I was in Miami over the weekend, bitching on my buddies yacht about how the founding fathers would never stand for such BS)

$5 million by closing timetable loopholes for claiming state residency (Now they want to tell me where I can and can’t live receive my mail? TYRANNY!)

$6.3 million on sales tax avoidance affecting vehicle, aircraft, and marine sales (Thank God I bought that Learjet last year)

$29 million by closing the captive insurance corporation tax (One more income-sheltering provision stolen from us little guys.)

$171.6 million by placing a 1.75% tax on accident/health premiums on for-profit Health Maintenance Organizations (Nobody gets into the health insurance business for the money. For example, Alphonso O’Neill-White, local CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield is forced to make due on $8,300/day. Now they want to cut into that narrow profit margin?)

$124 million by restoring a .35% assessment charge for hospitals (A hospital bed costs as much as a new car. How will they make ends meet if we resume this outrageous tax, especially when you consider that most of the money hospitals make comes from the State and Federal governments in the first place?)

$240 million by hiking health care premiums $45 for a WNY family policy (The money has to come from somewhere. Don’t look to Alphonso to eat some of that charge—this ain’t the USSR, yet.)

$1.2 million by increasing penalties for food safety violations (Is it not enough that my frozen hamburger company works around the clock slaughtering cows? Now I have to make sure there are no cow patties mixed in? Don’t come crying to me when you run out of food at your 4th of July cookout—I tried my best to provide.)

$5 million by increasing fees for pollutant discharge permits (Great. My company creates an insane amount of pollutants. Now I’m expected to pay more for the privilege of pouring them into the Niagara river? No thanks. Same goes for the $5 million they want to raise by doubling fees on all the pesticides I need.)

$500,000 by increasing fees for facilities that emit contaminants (See above. Let’s not forget the $300,000 they expect to raise by heaping fees and penalties on explosives handlers. Good luck with that one. Are you gonna be the one to ask for a dime from a man holding a stick of dynamite? Don’t tread on me!)

$2.7 million by nearly doubling the fees to run my nuclear power plant (Mr. Burns would never stand for such an outrage in Springfield.)

$400,000 by slapping a fine on uncertified crane operators (What’s next? Raising the cost of trying to win a stuffed animal from the Claw machine at Chuck E Cheese? I mean, how hard is it to operate a crane on a high-rise above pedestrians?)

$50 million in fees on non-LLC partnerships (Communism, plain and simple.)

$1 million by charging $10 to enter horses in races (Looks like it’s time to sell the mansion in Saratoga and move the thoroughbreds down to Florida.)

$115 million by charging a five-cent deposit on bottled water  (How many people will die of dehydration at the gym thanks to this cruel and short-sited policy? Don’t they know that water is better when it comes encased in a petroleum-based product?)

$476 million by “sweeping” cash from the NY Power Authority into the general fund (The Authority has worked hard for decades earning that $476 million. Now the state wants to take it away? Write your elected officials and demand that money be quickly returned to the Authority. THEY didn’t get us into this mess. ALBANY did.)

The list of outrages perpetrated by our elected officials against the common man goes on and on.

And look how these seemingly little changes can effect the entire economy. You ride a motorcycle? It’s gonna cost you $3.50 more to register it, Easy Rider. That will translate into fewer motorcycles on the road. Fewer motorcycles on the road translates to fewer trips by Mercy Flight next summer. Fewer trips by Mercy Flight translates to fewer hospital procedures combined with loss of revenue in the funeral home sector—not to mention fewer clients for physical therapists. Who pays in the end? YOU!

Last but not least these sickos in our state capital want to raise $14 million by bumping up the tax on a gallon of beer by 3 cents. Which one of them is gonna have the guts to explain to my daughter that her college fund will be effectively eaten up by their irresponsibility and unbridled greed?

Man vs. Machine

According to a source in City Hall, the push for red light cameras has lost momentum since the home-rule measure was passed in Albany and approved by the Common Council this past spring.

Since then, one traffic surveillance company, Redflex, has met on more than one occasion with council members to voice their displeasure at this foot-dragging. They’d stand to make a lot of money on a deal with the city, but the city has yet to issue an RFP.

Meanwhile, in other parts of the country where such cameras are already in use, humans are revolting against the machines. Several municipalities are moving to do away with them, while vandalism of the cameras is on the rise around the globe. Tragically, the robots are even managing to turn humans against one another. According to this Washington Post report, “a technician was servicing a speed camera on Loop 101 in Phoenix back in April. An irate motorist shot him to death”

The battle, brothers and sisters, has begun.

—buck quigley

Old Obstacle to Jail Expansion Unearthed

County Executive Chris Collins’s proposal to build a new lockup at 120-134 W. Eagle Street is not a new idea, according to this 1998 Buffalo News Article.

The original section of the Erie County Holding Center was designed by renowned architect E.B. Green, who also designed the Albright Knox Art Gallery, the First Presbyterian Church and the Market Arcade, among other area landmarks.

The article identifies the separate, W. Eagle Street building, which currently houses the Erie County Board of Elections, as a “contributing structure” to the Joseph Ellicott Historical District.

Green also designed Buffalo’s War Memorial Auditorium, which was demolished this year and is soon to be commemorated as a coffee table book. A Bass Pro store may or may not take its place.

Simpson Speechifies

If you couldn’t get into your usual parking space at the Buffalo Club this morning, blame it on UB President John Simpson, who held his annual community address across the street at Babeville. I think I was the only sucker who put a quarter in a meter on the street. And I’m lucky I had a quarter, because the automated kiosk on Delaware Avenue was broken and wouldn’t accept credit or debit cards.

This year’s speech, “Buffalo-Niagara at a Crossroads,” riffs on themes borrowed from bluesman Robert Johnson and poet Robert Frost.

Teddy Roosevelt also received major props in the address, as Simpson reminded us, “If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk big; we must act big.” As in UB2020, get it?

Simpson also borrowed Roosevelt’s warning to skeptics: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Dust and sweat and blood, people. You can’t make this stuff up. He even threw in a reference to the Russians and Sputnik. But don’t take my word for it, read it for yourself by clicking here.

And for the heck of it, I’ll offer another Teddy Roosevelt quote, for your edification: “A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.”

Morlix Wins Award

Last night at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Hamburg native Gurf Morlix won a nice award. He’s playing at the Sportsmen’s Tavern Tuesday night. Tickets are going fast.

Here’s a link to this week’s AV interview with Morlix.

New Poll May Not Be So Authoritative

A new telephone poll commissioned by WGRZ TV has already been posted with a story in the online version of Buffalo Business First. This, the “final poll” commissioned by the TV station from Survey USA, puts Mayor Byron Brown ahead of challenger Mickey Kearns.

Survey USA also conducted a poll for WTVD-TV in Raleigh-Durham, NC last fall, for the Presidential election. There, three previous Survey USA polls had put McCain up by eight, five, and four points, while the fourth one put him up 20. Said McCain would get 58% of the vote, Obama 38%.

On election day, Obama won North Carolina and picked up 15 electoral votes.

So remember, polls are good space fillers for media outlets, but they aren’t always accurate, and they don’t even have to be, no offense to Survey USA.

People seem to love ‘em, though, so I figured I’d get a little mileage off this one, seeing as somebody else paid for it.

Judge Orders School Board Member to Comply with Law

Almost four months after the Buffalo School Board Election which took place on May 5, a new court decision may shed more light on the political contributions made to current board member Christopher L. Jacobs.

Four months? Why so long?

Because in that time, despite our efforts in court, Jacobs has still not filed complete campaign finance disclosure forms. We feel we’re just pursuing accurate information, and that takes time, not to mention expert legal representation from Peter A. Reese.

Jacobs’s attorney, Paul G. Joyce (pictured), disputes our motives. He claimed in an affidavit to the court that we were capriciously and frivolously trying “to harass and maliciously injure Mr. Jacobs.”

The Hon. Frederick J. Marshall did not agree. Here’s the transcript of Tuesday’s proceedings, including his ruling from the bench.

On July 17, two months after the filing deadline, and without notice to the litigants pursuing the records (us), or to the courts, Jacobs filed a somewhat more complete campaign finance disclosure form with the Buffalo Board of Education. That filing omits addresses and full names of contributors. Nonetheless, Joyce used that belated, incomplete, and unannounced filing as a rationale for calling our litigation frivolous and capricious. Here’s the affidavit. At the end of that document, you’ll find Jacobs’s July 17 disclosure. Click here to read Reese’s responding affirmation.

Let the guessing games begin. Assign last names to first names in the document, or vice versa, and win fabulous prizes from Artvoice for accuracy, and/or originality. Judging will take place if and when Jacobs meets the judge’s order to comply with the law within 20 days.

Despite Joyce’s claim, this all began because we were interested not so much in Jacobs, but in an undocumented and seemingly illegal entity created by the Buffalo Niagara Partnership called Buffalo Students First. The group spent more than $30,000 to back the incumbent at-large candidates in May’s school board election.

According to Jacobs’s July 17 filing, his campaign spent almost $54,000 on top of whatever backing he received from the Partnership.

Andrew Rudnick, Local Advocate

Buffalo Niagara Partnership President and CEO Andrew Rudnick writes in a letter published by the Buffalo News that Delaware North Companies should run the Aqueduct horse track in Queens. Delaware North has a well-known interest in these kinds of operations.

The note stresses that the team (Aqueduct Gaming) involved in the deal are New York companies: Saratoga Gaming and Raceway, McKissack & McKissack (whose Web site says the company was founded in 1990 in Washington, DC before expanding into the Chicago market and now has offices in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta and Orlando), Shawmut (with offices in Boston, New York, Providence, Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and New Haven), and Thalden Emery (with offices in Las Vegas, Phoenix, St. Louis, and Tulsa).

Finally, the letter states that the selection of Aqueduct Gaming would mean 100 new jobs in Buffalo. Says this is a “test of whether New York’s elected ‘leaders’ will support the state’s businesses.”

I put down the paper and called Andrew Rudnick to request a list of these local jobs. I was forwarded to the voice mail of Emily Alexandria Burns, Communications Manager for the Buffalo Niagara Partnership. I left a message on her office phone and her cell phone. I put in a follow-up call and was directed to Nadine Clancy, handling Business Intelligence at the Partnership. Nadine said she’d try to find someone who could answer my question.

It seemed like a simple question, seeing as the letter published today, but I guess not. I just put in another call, and was told that Emily was on a conference call and couldn’t talk to me. However, the receptionist sent her an email asking her to call me. She said Emily would be the one for me to talk to, since she’s the Communications Manager.

As soon as someone gets back to me with a list of the 100 new jobs that are hanging in the balance, I will publish it here.

Open Letter To The Buffalo Niagara Partnership

From the “Snappy Answers to Stupid Claims” department…

On page A3 of today’s Buffalo News, you can read the full-color, full-page open letter to the community from The Buffalo Niagara Partnership Executive Committee, also known as “the usual suspects.”

Question: What kind of Chamber of Commerce is so jittery about its public image that it feels the need to buy such expensive ad space in an attempt to convince the community it allegedly serves that things are on the right track?

Here are the things the BNP is taking credit for:

UB 2020 established as the regional priority for Albany action

Unfortunately, it’s a plan rooted in the dream that public money should be spent with no oversight. This is a plan? Why not just propose robbing Fort Knox? Both plots are illegal. Only difference is when the UB plan fails, the perpetrators won’t go to jail, they’ll just blame “politics as usual” for foiling their dubious scheme.

Modernization of the Buffalo Niagara International Airport and bringing low-cost carriers to our region

Just how much more modernization needs to be done at the airport? Transporter machines? This place has been modernized so many times you’d think we’d be zipping around it like the Jetsons wearing jet packs.

Construction of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and creation of nearly 5,000 jobs in the life sciences

Sure. How are things progressing with the dissolution of ECMC as a public benefit corporation? Don’t mind me, just a taxpayer, just asking.

Federal Courthouse going up on Delaware Avenue

Really? Taking credit for this? I had no idea a group of local businessmen exerted such influence on the Federal Government. Should be a busy place.

Development of more than 1,000 lofts, apartments and condos in downtown Buffalo—a place very few people lived in just a decade ago

Over the past 16 years, Andrew Rudnick has made like $6 million dollars in salary as head of BNP. Buffalo is the third poorest city in the nation, and lots of people live downtown. They just don’t have much food, and little shelter.

Demolition of the Aud and significant work on the outer and inner harbors

Excellent. Destroy a monument to American War Veterans in the hope of luring a fishing store. Better throw a few more buckets of tax breaks into the water. Drives ‘em into a feeding frenzy.

Retention of the Niagara Air Reserve Station

“Retention” sounds so much better than “reduction.”

Creation of Charter Schools throughout the region

Why shouldn’t we be discovering more ways to siphon public education funding into private enterprises? Think about the kids.

Downsizing of the Buffalo Common Council

The benefits of this accomplishment are all around us, for everyone to see.

Introduction of an affordable Enhanced Drivers License as an alternative to passports at the border

I don’t know whether I should feel safer or more of a sucker. Maybe I should buy a Nexus card for good measure.

Business Backs the Bills effort, which kept the team here

Which, for nine days every fall, guarantees a surge in alcohol related arrests for local law enforcement.

“Some of our success, however, is largely invisible,” the ad crows. Yeah, we know all about it. Invisible like the Emperor’s New Clothes.

This Is Not A Drill

The national debate about drilling in natural areas is heating up locally as the U.S. Energy Development Corporation, located at 2350 North Forest Road in Getzville, NY, proceeds with plans to develop five new wells in Allegany State Park.

Recently, NYS Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, Larry Beahan, and other concerned citizens have been turning their attention to the state park, as they did over a decade ago when the Pataki administration was moving toward selling timber rights in the park. Back then, former 10,000 Maniac Natalie Merchant hopped on the bandwagon and public opinion swung against the lumber industry.

Now, Hoyt is spearheading efforts with the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation “to forever protect Allegany from commercial logging and oil and mineral mining.”

Just as pro-drilling forces are losing their perkiest national cheerleader in the form of ex-Alaska Governor Sarah (Drill, baby, drill!) Palin—their case is further compromised by U.S. Energy Development Corporation’s recent rebuke from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, for their activities just south of Allegany State Park, across the state border in McKean and Warren counties.

On July 10, the department issued a cease and desist order to U.S. Energy “for persistent and repeated violations of environmental laws and regulations. The order prohibits the company from conducting all earth disturbance, drilling and hydro-fracturing operations throughout Pennsylvania.”

Over a period of just two years, beginning in August, 2007, U.S. Energy chalked up 302 violations of the Clean Streams Law, the Dam Safety and Encroachments Act, the Oil and Gas Act, and the Solid Waste Management Act. U.S. Energy is the owner and operator of the wells in the Alleghany National Forest in Pennsylvania, which borders Allegany State Park in New York.

According to the order, one third of the violations have been corrected, but the civil penalties for those violations have not been resolved. Among the many violations cited by the DEP are the unpermitted discharge of residual and industrial waste into the ground and the waters of the Commonwealth.

In Pennsylvania, U.S. Energy has had to “cease all gas and oil well activities including, but not limited to well stimulation, well drilling, road construction, pipeline construction and any other related well activities” in the state until the DEP notifies them in writing that they have complied with all the obligations of the order. They must also stop all “earth disturbance activities” except those necessary to fix the damage they’ve already done. View the cease and desist order here.

Prior to the park’s official designation in 1921, the area was widely drilled for oil, including the first oil well in New York State, which was completed in 1864. While the state controls the surface rights to the park land, private interests have been unwilling to relinquish ownership of what lies beneath to this day.

One bill supported by Hoyt would create a sunset provision for privately held oil and gas interests beneath the park.

U.S. Energy spokesperson Matt Iak confirmed that they have access to mineral rights in Allegany State Park, and that they are “going through the various channels” to make those wells a reality.

However, a spokesperson for the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation had this to report: “U.S. Energy has never applied for drilling permits in Allegany State Park. That being said, they have been drilling wells on a regular basis in other parts of Region 9 area (Western New York), and DEC does receive drilling applications from them on a regular basis.”

When asked about the Pennsylvania DEP order, Iak said, “It’s premature for us to make a comment. I can tell you that we’re both working with the same interest at heart, and it’s in very good spirit right now.”

He would not respond to any particular charges included in the order. “I’m not saying I don’t want to respond. I’m not in a position to respond until they give you the final word on what’s going on, and I think you’ll have a different opinion at that point in time.”

A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania DEP said that “the scope and magnitude” of U.S. Energy’s violations “is not commonplace, and that’s why we took the action that we did.”