"I believe so much in the Marcy project, that I believe it is time we look to the next step. There are vital questions we need to answer: Where’s the next generation of workers going to come from? Where will employees live? How will new workers get educated and trained in STEM; Science, Technology, Engineering and Math? How will the region embrace corporate cultures that put a premium on diversity? These issues go beyond development of the site."Why are these things becoming the role of county government?
County Government does not wait to sweep up the pieces of human tragedy. We are all aware that the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut late last year gave new concerns to school safety. Sherriff Robert Maciol has taken the lead role in joining my administration along with Oneida-Madison BOCES and all of the school districts within the county in creating a police presence in local schools. The placing of trained safety officers in schools can not only providefor a layer of peace of mind and protection, but can also deal with conflicts long before they become serious problems.
Why is school safety becoming the role of county government?
One of the great successes in this county is the 911 Center consolidation . . .The success of the 911 center isn’t just about fiscal efficiency, although it does save money and operate more efficiently. It’s about public safety. The system is better today than before. The people of Oneida County are safer today because we acted.Are we really safer than when people self-dispatched emergency services by choosing which emergency number to dial? How much safer? Where is the statistical evidence?
"We cannot shrink our way into survival; we need to get there by being aggressive -- by planning big and working hard"This to me is probably the most telling statement. The tone is that we all must depend upon county government to get things done.
- So we spend a fortune on Griffiss "International" Airport that nationally is so insignificant that its tower is scheduled for closure because of a mere 2% decrease in an increased bloated federal budget.
- So we spend a fortune on infrastructure on the Marcy Nano-Center to attract a chip fabrication plant to a site that requires us to ask our US Senators to intercede for us to get a federal wetlands permit.
- So we've spent a fortune consolidating 911 (which had been kept solvent for years by contributions from Utica and New Hartford which were not on the system) that now requires asking Albany for a new charge on cell phones.
Perhaps in the current national parlance this is moving "forward," but in reality we are building a house of cards of government dependency. Our "faded glory" days were based on private entrepreneurship, not "public-private partnerships." Government can always find something to do to justify growing ever bigger and bigger, enriching those with government connections, but crowding out private enterprise and individual initiative.
And THAT is the State of Oneida County.
12 comments:
I found it comical that Picente is asking for $500,000 (funded with taxpayer dollars) to encourage consolidation???
Since when does one need $500K to encourage what is known to be true, that is, "consolidation reduces overhead...NOT increases it."
So much for Picente and his harping for the $.30 phone tax that is unnecessary and an example of backward thinking from the Oneida County leadership.
Although I agree with Strike's basic conclussion, the real problem with the speech is that it says little to nothing about the important issues facing the county and area. Just a few are: cost of government and taxes, performance and accountability of economic development agency performance, where have and are all the job training programs and dollars spent on them now going, the cost/benefit of an "international airport", County employee salaries and fringe benifits contracts, the Oneida Nation land dispute. These are but a few of the real issues. We get a lot of words but so little substance that it's hardly worthy of comment.
After all is said and done, much will be said but little will be done, except spend more taxpayers' money.
Strike. I just read the article about the water board deal. I suspect poor reporting is the blame for my question. It stated that current draws on the reservoir at 20 million gallons per day. It then stated that the imaginary chip plant would also use 20 million gallons a day. That is more than all the users combined and I am sure that they will not be paying the same amount as all of the other users combined. I think that this water is headed for the OIN. I do not know why they would want our over chlorinated water. Also, they said that the current users bills would be stabilized. That must mean that their expansion will not relieve their horrific prices to the taxpayers.
Yes -- the water deal is an interesting development. While MVWA has the agreement on its website, the "meat" is in appendices that are not available -- either at the MVWA website, or in the county clerks office. FOIL requests to date have been met with various assertions of privilege.
What the article did not reveal about sending H2O to Verona is that the OIN's payment up front for the water line would be largely written off against their water bill -- meaning, in the end, that all users of the system are paying for the water line extension (like the recent sewer district extension) with OIN acting as a bank making a loan. This is Oneida County's wrongheaded endorsement of sprawl at the expense of the *entire* Greater Utica area that is on public water. Westmoreland will become New Hartford which will become Utica as the region turns itself inside out, with new on the fringes and rot at the core. This is bad for everyone -- but developers.
If people were actually moving here I might agree with you about sprawl Strike, but they are not. There is nothing to bring people here, except welfare. its bad....
That's what makes the sprawl here so much worse, anonymous. If there was an influx of new people to increase population part of the cost of sprawl might be offset. But that is not happening. In our region of stagnant/declining numbers, people are spreading themselves more thinley across the landscape, increasing the area over which services must be provided, which increases the per capita costs of services. We are literally pricing ourselves out of the national jobs marketplace.
This article is excellent. Picente is has beocme the biggest tragedy to this region.
Is it still America? Cant people live where they chose too?
I agree with your ideas on sprawl but at the end of the day you cant force anyone to live in any one community? This isn't Cuba and Im not sure they go that far.
Consolidation can save money. But it has to be done the right way with the right forethought. Sometimes these new agencies from the consolidation will end up being cash consuming machines worse than what was in place. Take 911 for an example. Everyone including our revered newspaper sang loud and hard about consolidating the centers. (the OD hasn't seen a consolidation it hasn't supported). Yet now the county wants more and more money!
What is wrong with people in this area not to see this?
Everyone screams for fire and police to be consolidated. Shared services and all this baloney. Well, some things can be shared and some just isn't feasible. Take the fire dept. in Utica. The Mayor keeps telling the chief there is no money, and that he needs to generate revenue. They are on the cusp of offering there services to outlying areas that are volunteer. Didn't this same chief go and tell everyone he cant handle the calls they have now? Well? Which is it? So youre going to replace volunteers doing it for free with paid staff that need benefits and retirements? Again, this all consuming cash machine. Empire building at its finest. Not to mention after the volunteers are no more then magically the price the city wants will go up.... and there will be no other option than to pay and pay handsomely to the city whatever it wants for a lessor service than they had. What would the city send to a house fire in Yorkville if they were fighting one in Utica? They cant currently handle two fires without union folk being called back.... Well I will tell you people, they will call mutual aid for free like they do now and the suburban taxpayers will still be footing the bill. It's a real mess. There are no easy answers.
I absolutely agree that people should be able to live where they want . . . but there is no entitlement to particular levels of municipal services. If you want a particular service you should locate yourself close to the core where the service exists -- not expect others to pay to extend the service to you.
I have no sympathy, eg, for someone in Kirkland who has to treat their well water. Caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. If someone wanted city water they should have located closer to the city where it is available.
Extensions of municipal water and sewer subsidize development at the fringe, increasing demands for other services. The people in the urban core (ie, those already municipal systems) need to have the authority -- without any votes from those outside the system -- to determine how far they want their systems extended. In Oneida County, however, its those that are off the systems who hold the votes, and they can force those on the systems to pay to extend services. That's the tyranny of the "majority" where people force others to pay their bills.
There are very manageable solutions for an area as small as ours. Examples include a tax based sharing plan,elimination of tax abatement gimmics, a reasonable non profit sevice fee system and the solving of the Oneida Land claim/tax issue to name but a few. The real issue is not where people choose to live but who we elect. We have no leadership of imagination, talent or honesty. That tells us much about ourselves.
There are very manageable solutions for an area as small as ours. Examples include a tax based sharing plan,elimination of tax abatement gimmics, a reasonable non profit sevice fee system and the solving of the Oneida Land claim/tax issue to name but a few. The real issue is not where people choose to live but who we elect. We have no leadership of imagination, talent or honesty. That tells us much about ourselves.
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