Thursday, January 10, 2008

2008 Council Holds First Meeting


What do you get when you mix a professional actor, a Reverend, a contractor , two former Aldermen and some well polished politicians? A good reality t.v. show and the 2008 Common Council. Tuesday's first real common common council meeting of the new year was very interesting as well as very predictable.

Charles Landi made it pretty clear that he is going to be an independent voice on the common council for the next two years as he fought hard unsuccessfully against the majority to transfer a property on Henry St to Trans Art that plans to turn the project into a African American museum.

" We can't have more properties going off the tax roles, I hope all of you people that are voting in favor of this tell your constituents that you just voted to raise their taxes" said Landi. The transfer passed 7-2 with Alderman Landi and Alderwoman DiBella being the only people to vote against the transfer.


After the Third time that Landi spoke on the issue, I must wonder if Council President Jim Noble may have regretted that his Dems brought back Landi to the Council. There also was some interesting tension and competitiveness between Landi and Senor....it'll be interesting to see how that will play out in the coming months.


I also got my first look at Alderman Polocco and Alderwoman Whitlock in action and I must say that I was impressed with both of them. Whitlock and Polocco seemed very knowledgeable as freshman law makers. Polocco certainly had more to say than his fellow GOP colleague Al Teetsel, who as usual, sat and did nothing.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is it possible Cahill is helping Polacco? The two are friends.

Anonymous said...

Is it true that what you can't see can still hurt you?

Anonymous said...

Cahill can't help anyone; he's politically tone deaf.

Anonymous said...

Is it not a shame when people like
Richard Cahill bash good hard working
people on his blog.....Or on his TV
show. If you disagree with him. He is a nasty little man

Anonymous said...

What is the story with Polacco?
From what I hear he still lives home with his father after a failed
attempt to become an actor. For the
first time in 30 years I did not
vote for my Alderman... The Dem
Gillen is to the left of George
McGovern.

Anonymous said...

I agree on the Polacco-Gillon Race
not to much to offer.

Ron does not want to work

And Bob wants to go back to 1968

Anonymous said...

Ron pounded the pavement to get the votes he needed to win the sixth ward. I think you'll find that for the next two years he'll work hard for the voters just like Cahill did.

Gillon was to-be a follower for Jimmy Noble and Jimmy Sottile.

Anonymous said...

Its a shocker that Teetsel voted for more buildings off the tax rolls.

Frankly, the men and women [the aldermen] who work for us seem to have forgotten the deal that Jennifer Schwartz made when she bought the building from the City.

It would seem to me that she failed and that the City should take the building back and then offer it for sale to the highest bidder.

Anonymous said...

This new council are all deadbeat alderman too. All they know how to do is suck up to the Mayor's need's. They are no use to us.

Anonymous said...

When an individual buys property at auction and then does not follow the rules the property should go back to the City and put up for bid again.

Jennifer Schwartz should not to allowed to sell? property because she let the property sit there doing nothing and prevented someone else for making use of hte building. NO MORE PROPERTY OFF OF THE TAX ROLLS. Charlie Landi and Annmarie Dibella are right on this one.

Anonymous said...

More buildings off the tax rolls. Excellent idea. If my taxes go up any more, and we all know that they will, they will be more than my mortgage payments. Instead of attracting people to the City of Kingston, our aldermen are making it more much more prudent to look to live outside the city. They are driving the middle class right out of town. Not a good sign when you are supposed to be revitilizing the city. Good work.

Anonymous said...

That was Landi's reason for voting no, but not Annemarie's. With DiBella, her opposition comes from a personal animosity toward Ms. Schwartz. She should be able to set personal differences aside and view it fairly. Sadly, she can't/.

Anonymous said...

Then you should make the same comment about Blaber. Blaber and Cahill both attacked the boots plan. Be consistent.

Anonymous said...

When your taxes go up, it is driven almost entirely by the cost of doing business (running the city), and has almost nothing to do with "another property off the tax rolls."

If there are 10,000 properties in Kingston paying taxes (an arbitrary figure) and one property which pays $3,000 in city taxes is removed from that mix, then another taxpayer who pays $3,000 in city taxes (not school, county or state taxes, because the city government has no control over those), then that property owner sees an increase of 30 cents.

But, if the combined cost of gas, fuel oil, salt, sand, retirement payments and employee health insurance for example (a small percentage of all the costs of doing business) goes up by $500,000, then that same taxpayer sees an increase of $50.

Like it or not, your taxes will always go up based on increased costs of doing business. Any lawmaker who promises otherwise is blowing smoke. That being said, it is incumbent upon lawmakers to make the increases as minimal and bearable as possible.

Encouraging the improvement of properties and the establishment of new businesses helps because those properties' assessments will go up, resulting in them paying a bigger piece of the pie, which then results in the existing taxpayers paying a smaller piece (unless of course, you "give away the store" to encourage businesses to open or remain).

Anonymous said...

It's the spending silly! Try cutting it for the taxpayer's sake. We had better services for more residents 10 years ago with only one City Hall? What happen?