Pretty much the reader digest version of tonight's events was this, the GOP wanted to get rid of a position in the Executive's administration and the Dem's refused to cut the position. The GOP in retaliation rejected the Dems proposed cuts to the budget and adopted Hein's budget in it's entirety.
Kind of ironic...no?
It will be so interesting to see how the new legislature works with Mike Hein because it's clear that the guys in there now have no clue! We're talking about both the Dems and the Republicans.
I'm glad Mike Hein's budget was passed, some of the cuts that came out of the ways and means committee were scary, like 90k out of the Comptroller's budget, basically handicapping Comptroller Auerbach from doing his job in what is clearly an underfunded department to begin with.
Here you have a legislature that is trying to undercut it's own Democrat Comptroller..it's sick, some Dem legislators that will remain nameless apparently have woken up and realized that they don't have power anymore and as they say misery loves company.
So I hate to say it but Kudos to a dysfunctional legislature that got it right by default this time!
Mike Hein and Elliott Auerbach continue to get it right all the time and lead by example for the people of Ulster County. While the 33 legislators just squabble and play politics like kids in a sand box. They need to all wise up and move out of the way and let team Hein/Auerbach do the job that the majority of Ulster County elected them to do.
33 comments:
Impeach Hein and AL SPADA for comptroller.
OLD GUARD
off topic.. but with that little nutsack BALL out of the 19th CD race, we can all be proud to support NAN HAYWORTH for Congress. With all this debate on health care, it is finally good to be able to vote for a Doctor, instead of a washed up night-club one-hit wonder singer, JOHN HALL.
Ham Fish VIII
right on Jeremy. We still have legislators who want to micro-manage County gov. they haven't read the charter and haven't got a clue. Republicans think Dem's are going to go back in session to fix the mess they created. It won't happen. They are responsible for Contract Agencies losing 25% of their funding, no evole program, not money for spca etc. Rep can use their strong arm tactic amonst their own but Dem's are not going to stand for this nonsense. Voters are going to realize its was a sorry day when they put Republicans back in charge. They haven't got a clue, back to playing games and the heck with the electorate. It was sight to be hold.
If you had a clue, it would be dangerous. Read the charter.
Nonsense. The whole point of the charter was to set up a system of checks and balances. The legislature abdicated its responsibility and gave all the power to the Executive branch. Dart and Rich Parete destroyed some very valuable programs. Watch, those 30 county workers will have positions within a year.
A strong Executive and an impotent legislature is a very dangerous situation for the public and the democratic process no matter how competent Hein and Auerbach may be.
Noonan made sense, though...why pay Gallagher 80k and Matteson 120k for no measurable results.
Frank Dart was out of line. The entire salary for the Legislature is 330,000 + benefits. Some take the insurance, some don't. Cutting by 10% saves $33,000 plus benefits.
That may put 1 or 2 people back to work.
Hein has a staff of close to $1 million dollars - and Auerbach is seeking to have a staff of that size.
Why didn't Dart propose to cut Hein's staff by 10%.
The ONLY thing that the Republicans asked for last night was a reduction in the size of the Executive payroll. They asked for 25%, but would have settled for ANYTHING.
The Democrats said NO - We can't cut ANYTHING from the Executive's office.
That is such bullshit.
The Democrats stuck to the committee system, which the Republicans were part of. They threatened the Democrats to either cut Hein's staff or they would not support the budget. All this happened at the 11th hour and the Democrats stood their ground. It was as Lomita said, a gun to the head. The Democrats amendments, restored most of the stuff Hein cut with minimal impact. They cut in other areas. Then there is the problem of an unbalanced budget to the tune of $1.2 Million. Where does that come from?
This Budget severely undermines the power of the Legislature. Only those who understand the Charter understand what happened last night. The Republican's were very, very stupid to pass Hein's budget. They weakened their position for the coming term.
There is a good reason the were voted out 4 years ago, they are fucking stupid. They proved it again last night. Goddamn idiots. Hein is going to have a field day with the morons running the Majority and his biggest fan Provenzano running the minority. Ulster County is doomed.
The contract agencies are not going to forget either. For every name on the list of agencies cut, are hundreds, if not thousands of people who work, volunteer, or support them. Libraries, 4H, Family, SPCA, UPAC. Right there is about 10,000.
"Mike Hein and Elliott Auerbach continue to get it right all the time and lead by example for the people of Ulster County.?????????
What are you smoking blabes?
This guys spends a million a year to hook his friends up on my dime, then has to rent to the state to make a few extra bucks to house lowlives and you think he is an example?
Maybe an example of a wannabe big shot who is stunned that he holds this position and wants to prove he is big timer to his friends!
Its people like you and him that make this county such a joke to the real world
One blows smokes and the other smokes and blows!
Hein is a joke and there is a ton of shit that could have been taken out of this budget and saved UC money this year
Looks like Auerbach collected his pay off for supporting the institution of Hein. Why isn't he investigating how much work is done by the Executive Office instead of how much credit is taken.
Welcome to the good ole boys club Elliot. I didn't know that watchdogs were supposed to sit and stay on command.
Hein's budget is bigger - he hid 4 staffers in plain site in other departments.
duplication of services? I would say so Gallagher and Matteson. Get rid of one.
JB, you have one BIG question to answer. If the Ways and Means Committee amendments, which were passed in a bipartisan manner, were so terrible, why was hein calling and begging the legislators to vote for the amended version????? See JB, it is you who has no clue. Mike "slick" Hein, outsmarted himself. Kudos to the legislators, both Democrat and Republican, who unlike you, figured out what the "slickster" was up to, and now poor Mikey is solely responsible for the coming mess.
John Hall has done more to help the wounded veterans in thei country than any republican has,, & i am a proud GOP'r -
give the devil his due & do not forget after decades of GOP dominace in UC legislature, it took susan zimet, to get our Veterans their own part of a Cemetary in their honor, in NP,,
so, elect who we can, but Hall does good work. plus Orleans had many hits & he wrote a classic for Janis Joplin ( Half Moon ) that pays him & his ex-wife hundreds of thousands of $$$
he aint no one hit wonder, jerko,,
30 jobs gone.
I never knew that Rip Taylor had such a sense of humor and that he knew about politics in Ulster County.
Mr. Donaldson did not fail to muster 17 votes to pass Hein's budget. Hein's budget was passed. Donaldson failed to get 17 votes to FIX HEIN'S FLAWED BUDGET.
Hein put together a flawed budget with mistakes in revenue (an accounting error and an overstatement of sales tax revenues - oh yes time will prove me right on this one) and then Hein cut out much needed expenditures. He figured with the Dems in the majority, that he could rely on them to "amend" his mistakes.
Well the joke is on Mike. Mike submitted his budget, and he is going to get that budget. Didn't he campaign on "hitting the ground running" and to be a "budget wizard".
Wizards don't submit budgets like this. NO WAY is there a problem with what the Republicans did. This is all Hein's fault. He should have never submited a budget that he couldn't live with. He NEEDED it to be amended and HE didn't have the votes.
Hein is just plain stupid. He gambled with the taxpayers future and jobs to try and make himself look good and the Legislators look bad by increasing spending.
He bet wrong. I hope he is voted out in 2011.
Where's all the money coming from to pay for the many lawsuits?They will prevail,most anyway.
Rip Taylor's outstanding poast we depoastified..pity
Quote from Lomita on the budget...
"I’m not going to vote for anything with a gun to my head and I don’t care if the gun is held by a Democrat or a Republican.”
Clearly, Alan Lomita is not a well person with all this graphic language of guns being held to his head.
Is he suicidal? Does the county have a policy for screening their members for mental health issues? Are legislators allowed to bring guns to the 6th floor? Alan Lomita is a very disturbed person and should seek medical attention.
Dr. Phil
Whoever joked "Al Spada for Comptoller"...thank you, I got a big laugh out of that!
11:50- Hein did not call asking Legislators to vote for the amended budget, He called to say if the W&M budget passed, he would not veto it. Your on drugs if you think Hein is unhappy with his own budget. 2010 is on the heads of Republicans and two Dem's, they passed Heins budget, Hein had nothing to do with the outcome of the vote. Live with it.
If we are screening people let the leader go first. He is very Nixonian.
10:12
Are you on crack. The 2010 budget is Hein's. He asked for it and he got it. He is the one who won by a two to one margin. He had a mandate from the voters. Now they are going to get exactly what they voted for. Maybe next time they will think before voting for a smile. I am glad the legislature gave him exactly what he asked for. Now we can all see this guy for the moron that he is.
Hein was unequivocally depending on the Democratic Legislature to right what was wrong with his budget. Watch as he scrambles in the coming weeks and months to fix the errors in his budget. He was trying to dump any additional tax increases on the Legislature. His target was under a 3.5% increase. Anything over, he pushed to the Legislature who would have had to carry the burden of fixing the problems.
Its great to see how everyone complains about Hein when they voted for him and got him elected!!
10:33, I doubt that the majority of complainers are the people who voted for Hein. More than likely they are the people who voted for Bernardo.
Hopefully more people will vote for Bernardo next election, asshole.
Run Lenny Run..
9:14, I would never vote for Bernardo after his maneuverings during the last election. He is not trustworthy and very, very sneaky. He fits right in with the Republicans, they can have him.
The Ulster County Legislature has a lot of growing up to do.
Presented by County Executive Michael Hein with a 2010 budget proposal, the Legislature flailed about and, effectively, did nothing.
Not a single penny was added.
Not a single penny was removed.
Not a single penny was reallocated in the $349.2 million spending plan.
This means that either Hein’s budgeting powers are infallible and his priorities inarguable, right down to the last of its 34.92 billion pennies, or the Legislature is an institution incompetent to its responsibilities.
This is no argument for making a change just for the sake of making a change. But it strains credulity that 33 people could review a plan to spend more than a third of a billion dollars to serve the governmental needs of 181,670 people and fail to identify a single difference of opinion with the chief budget officer worth asserting.
In fact, no such failure occurred.
Minority Leader Glenn Noonan of Gardiner told fellow Republicans, who will take control of the Legislature on Jan. 1, to vote for amendments to the budget, but, then, vote against the amended budget as a whole.
“Anything that goes wrong with that budget, such as missing your sales tax (projection) or anything else that goes wrong, it is Mike Hein’s budget, it’s not your budget,” Noonan told his Republican colleagues. “Vote for it and it is no longer Mike Hein’s, it’s the Legislature’s.”
By the time it was all over, he and other legislators following that thread of thought had stamped themselves as having been against the budget, before they were for it.
That’s their story and, apparently, they’re prepared to stick to it.
Well, what does that really mean?
In effect, the public be damned.
The public be damned — we’re looking out for No. 1.
Instead of embracing their responsibility under the new county charter form of government, legislators fled from it, seeking nothing more exalted than deniability.
Outgoing Legislature Chairman David Donaldson, D-Kingston, got it mostly right when he assessed, albeit somewhat clumsily, the outcome this way: “I think some people cut off their noses to spite their face, and unfortunately, they’re going to live with it. I think this is basically going to neuter the Legislature for the next few years.”
13 Democrats voted to support the budget W&M adopted with all the amendments. It was all the Republicans along with Dart and Rich Parete who went along with the Republicans and voted no on the amended budget thereby passing Hein's budget. Get the story right, not like the freeman, making everyone think all Legislators supported Heins budget. Most Democratc did not, you got it??it was Republicans who passed Hein's budget.
The Democrats voted down every amendment the Republican's offered - like a gang of bullies. Then they have the nerve to complain that the Republican's didn't support the budget? Explain to me how it is Republican’s “fault” the amended budget did not pass. They couldn’t have done it without the handful of democrats that voted against the budget
Alan Lomita was worried about a gun to “his” head? What does he call it when he won't consider any negotiations on any amendments the Republicans offered. He was the one who was unreasonable. Republican’s were banging their heads against the wall Lomita built. Don’t blame them for not admiring his work.
By the way, Bernardo endorsed just as many Republican’s as he did Democrats. Both parties are mad at him – perhaps that is a badge of honor – he won’t play their game – he is trying to do the best thing with the best people of both parties while creating roadblocks for bad people doing bad things in both parties. Bernardo is the only person who seems to get it. We the people are sick and tired of political games at taxpayer expense.
2:33,Bernardo has worn out his welcome on both sides and his day will come. You can't piss everyone off. His wife better hope she is not challenged publicly because she is not as bright as some would have you believe. She is a mouth piece for Len.
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