Voters could eliminate property taxes today..

...in North Dakota.  Finger Lakes citizens who believe "you don't own your home, you rent it from the teachers' union" will want to take note.

In an election here on Tuesday, residents of North Dakota will consider a measure that reaches far beyond any of that — one that abolishes the property tax entirely.

“I would like to be able to know that my home, no matter what happens to my income or my life, is not going to be taken away from me because I can’t pay a tax,” said Susan Beehler, one in a group of North Dakotans who have pressed for an amendment to the state’s Constitution to end the property tax. They argue that the tax is unpredictable, inconsistent, counter to the concept of property ownership and needless in a state that, thanks in part to wildly successful oil drilling, finds itself in the rare circumstance of carrying budget reserves.

“When,” Ms. Beehler asked, “did we come to believe that government should get rich and we should get poor?”

Who could be opposed to such an expansion of liberty and freedom?  Why, the usual beneficiaries of the status quo:

AARP of North Dakota
AFSCME Council 59
AGC of North Dakota
American Council of Engineering Companies North Dakota (ACEC/ND)
Badlands Board of REALTORS
Basin Electric Power Cooperative
Bismarck Mandan Development Association
Bismarck-Mandan Board of REALTORS
Bismarck-Mandan Chamber of Commerce
Bismarck-Mandan Home Builders Association
Burke Divide Electric Cooperative
Burleigh County Township Association
Capital Electric Cooperative Inc.
Cass County Electric Cooperative
Cavalier Electric Cooperative
Central Power Electric Cooperative
Credit Union Association of the Dakotas
Dakota Valley Electric Cooperativ
Dickinson Area Builders Association
Fargo Citywide PTA
Fargo Moorhead Area Association of REALTORS
FMWF Chamber of Commerce
Forx Builders Association
Fraternal Order of Police
Grand Forks Area Association of REALTORS
Grand Forks Chamber of Commerce
Grand Forks County Employees Association
Great River Energy
Greater Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Corporation
Home Builders Association of Fargo/Moorhead
Independent Community Banks of North Dakota
Jamestown Board of REALTORS
Jamestown Chamber of Commerce
KEM Electric Cooperative
Lignite Energy Council
McKenzie Electric Cooperative
Minnkota Power Cooperative, Inc.
Minot Association of Builders
Minot Board of REALTORS
Minot Chamber of Commerce
Mor-Gran-Sou Electric Cooperative, Inc
MPCG PTA
ND Assoc. of Oil & Gas Producing Counties
ND Water Resource Districts
ND Water User Association
NoDak Electic Cooperative
North Central Electric Cooperative
North Dakota AFL-CIO
North Dakota Association of Builders
North Dakota Association of Career & Technical Education
North Dakota Association of Counties
North Dakota Association of REALTORS
North Dakota Bankers Association
North Dakota Beer Distributors Association
North Dakota Beer Distributors Association
North Dakota Chamber of Commerce
North Dakota Corn Growers
North Dakota Education Association
North Dakota Emergency Medical Services Association
North Dakota Farmers Union
North Dakota Grain Growers
North Dakota Grocers Association
North Dakota League of Cities
North Dakota Long Term Care Association
North Dakota Motor Carriers Association
North Dakota Petroleum Council
North Dakota Petroleum Marketers Association
North Dakota PTA
North Dakota Public Employees Association
North Dakota Recreation & Park Association
North Dakota Retailers
North Dakota Rural Electric Cooperatives
North Dakota Rural Telephone Cooperatives
North Dakota Rural Water Systems Associations
North Dakota School Boards Association
North Dakota Senior Service Providers
North Dakota Soybean Association
North Dakota Stockmen’s Association
North Dakota Township Officers
North Dakota Utility Shareholders
Northern Plains Electric Cooperative
Professional Firefighters of North Dakota
Roughrider Electric Cooperative
Slope Electric Cooperative
Tobacco Free North Dakota
Valley City Chamber of Commerce
Verendrye Electric Cooperative
Wahpeton Breckenridge Area Board of Realtors
Wahpeton Breckenridge Chamber of Commerce
Ward County Farmers Union
Williston Area Builders Association
Williston Board of Realtors
Williston Chamber of Commerce, frozen tundra division.

 The "we got ours" club, frozen tundra division.

Update:  North Dakotans have voted to keep their chains.

Our tax plan

Just in time for election season, Bob explains South of 5 and 20's tax reform proposal.

Microsoft axes marketers

Former Microsoft marketers pursue other options

Old time software giant Microsoft Corporation is loosing some of its core corporate business to hip young competitors like Google and Apple.  What can the industry dinosaur, which spent $13.9 billion on sales and marketing in fiscal 2011, do to stop the bleeding?  Cut the marketing department, of course.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is making plans for a companywide restructuring of its marketing operations, a move that may include hundreds of job cuts, according to people familiar with the matter...

Changes may include shifting some of the more technical marketing workers to engineering groups, cutting employees who don’t have needed skills or whose work is duplicated by other workers, and revamping how marketing groups are organized and where they fit into the rest of the company, the people said.

In what some might see as a desperate attempt to stay relevant,  the smokestack-era coding shop is looking to play some diaper dandies.

A former Microsoft exec tells us Microsoft had made it a criterion of their annual review to recruit a set number of students straight out of college. He reckons Microsoft last year let go the bottom 10 to 20 per cent of its staff, kept the top 20 per cent and made life "uncomfortable" for the 60 per cent in between. "The plan is to hire in people fresh out of college to get new talent and make Microsoft cool again. It's pretty broad within the company," he says.

Blue screen of death, perhaps?  Bold added.

SDL buys remains of Alterian

British software house SDL has finalized its takeover of floundering marketing services provider Alterian.  The acquisition follows the closing of Alterian's Chicago office last month. 

Sucessful entrepreneur Al Swearengen  offers some advice to the 75 former Alterian Chicago staffers:

Alterian lays off 75

As Obama's "Recovery Summer" enters its second winter, we learn that consumer marketing services provider Alterian will close its Chicago office.  As a result, 75 consumer marketing professionals will join the army of the unemployed.

The London-based CRM company's restructuring follows a poor fiscal 2011. Alterian's revenue decreased from $53.3 million in the 2010 fiscal year, which ended March 31 of that year, to $52 million in the 2011 fiscal year.

As part of the restructuring plan, Alterian will make “substantial cuts to its operational cost base and initiated reviews of revenue recognition, and goodwill and other intangible assets,” the company said in an Oct. 27 investor statement. The company identified $14.3 million in operating cost cuts.

Part of the cost-savings plan includes reducing the staff from 450 employees worldwide to approximately 260, the company said in the statement. The company would not confirm whether the Chicago office closing is part of this strategy.

Alterian is currently in takeover talks with  British software shop SDL.  As the world's consumer markets flounder, the market analytics function is becoming just another generic web application.

Minoa gets out of ambulance business

The Syracuse area's Village of Minoa has turned over operation of it's municiapl ambulance service to another operator.  Facing a $300,000 operating deficit, trustees faced reality and made what was surely a tough decision.  The operation will now be run by nonprofit WAVES, a nearby service provider.

The change will mean an estimated eight village ambulance employees will be removed from the Village's payroll.  Most of those staff are expected to be hired by WAVES.

Using government to provide any service that could be handled otherwise always results in higher costs and lower efficiency.  Forced to pay taxes that are among the highest in the country, Finger Lakes residents must demand more of these changes from their elected officials, or replace them with representatives who understand the urgency of the problem.

Previous discussions of financial difficulties facing Central New York's municipal emergency services here and here.

New York travelers in the news

Carole King had it right:  "So far away.  Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore?"  Today's news:

Invasion of feral hogs poses problems for N.Y.

Schumer on week long China trip

 We'll let you decide which headline is more troubling.

Finger Lakes town requests ambulance proposals

1956 Cadillac

Last week we advised Finger Lakes municipalities to embrace privatization of services, citing the Villlage of Minoa's plan to get out of the ambulance business.  Today the Ithaca Journal reports that the Town of Ulysses is requesting proposals from private sector EMS providers.

Ambulance service in the rural Town of Ulysses has long been provided under contract by the tiny Village of Trumansburg's volunteer squad.  As more demanding lifestyles made volunteer EMT staff harder to find, Trumansburg hired professional staff to provide 24-hour coverage.  

As goverment employees, the paid EMT crew quickly became very expensive and difficult for part time village officials to manage.  The volunteer service did not charge patients, adding to the financial stress.  When it was realized that many patients' heath insurance would pay for ambulance rides, a suggestion was made to begin billing for services.  This led to a protracted battle between  officials trying to deal with massive costs and local leftists who view free EMS service as the first step toward 100% government provided health care.

After years of debate and legal fees, Ulysses Town Board member Kevin Romer is leading an effort to consider privatization:

The town board will send out a request for proposals to provide ambulance and emergency medical service to ambulance providers to get a clearer picture of what the disparity in annual costs is between the Village of Trumansburg's EMS service and commercial providers such as Bangs Ambulance...

At the board meeting Tuesday night, board member Kevin Romer said the request for proposals is for comments only and to allow EMS providers to give feedback about their expectations of ambulance service. Romer said the village has so far been uninterested in privatizing, even if it would save money.

"All this is just to get information on what it would cost (for a private company to provide ambulance service in town)," Romer said.

Romer said Bangs Ambulance gave him an unofficial rough estimate of $243,000 annually for providing ambulance service based in the village, while the village's total EMS budget hovers around $450,000, he said.

Romer said he's frustrated by how little progress has been made on the issue since he became involved. He said the EMS Task Force, a joint-municipal committee formed to solve the issue, hasn't even met in five months, although it does have a meeting scheduled this month. (bold added)

Many (but apparently not all) Finger Lakes taxpayers are struggling to keep their homes in the face of some of the highest property taxes in the country.  Yet even as those taxes increase every year, our local governments are reluctant to consider new ideas for providing basic services.  Part of the problem is that busy families are often unable to keep up with these issues, only to be shocked yet again when they open their tax bills.  This blog intends to raise awareness.  Please discuss with your neighbors.

More Finger Lakes districts looking to merge?

South Seneca Elementary

Belatedly waking up to shrinking enrollments and tapped out taxpayers, more Finger Lakes school districts are considering consolidation.  We recently noted discussion of a  Seneca County-wide consolidation.  This morning the Ithaca Journal reports another long rumored merger has moved closer to fruition:

Trumansburg Central School District officials are considering merger and resource sharing with the neighboring South Seneca Central School District.

Spurred by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's public push for consolidation of smaller school districts in New York, Trumansburg School Board President Douglas Ann Land and Superintendent Paula Hurley said at last week's school board meeting that they met with South Seneca representatives two weeks ago and began discussion of a possible merger of the districts and, in the nearer term, cooperation on joint services.

Struggling Finger Lakes families are forced to support way too many redundant school administrators.  Last week Governor Andy Cuomo, of all people, shined a light on superintendents' six figure compensation packages.  Consolidation will reduce administrative costs, starting at the top.

During the past decade, Central New York's dwindling private sector workforce has had to produce more while earning less.  Since the private sector is the ultimate source of all government revenue, its time for the public sector to get on the program.  Our government-run schools must learn to produce better results at lower cost, or get out of the way.

New solutions for municipal services

Tuxedo, NY, 1956

As awareness of economic reality belatedly sweeps the Empire State, every government service must make its case for continued taxpayer funding.  A case in point is provided by local "volunteer"ambulance services.

When smiling donors posed for the above photo in 1956, an ambulance was not much more than a horizontal taxi designed to rush victims to the emergency room.  Beyond basic first aid, little care could be provided at the scene.  While hospitals and funeral homes often provided ambulances to transport city residents, remote areas had to fend for themselves.  As suburbs grew, locals began to purchase their own ambulances, which could be staffed by volunteers who sprinted from their farm, factory, or storefront when called to an emergency.  

Inside a modern ambulance

Fast forward to 2011.  Medical technology has improved to the point where the ambulance has become a mobile extension of the hospital emergency department.  Ambulance crews now consist of highly trained medial technicians, regulated by multiple layers of government authority.  We all benefit from the most advanced emergency medical services in the world, but continuing to provide that level of service on a local, 24-hour, "volunteer" basis has become a challenge that is leading to the end of volunteer squads.

We place "volunteer" in quotes to reflect current reality.  Local ambulances and squad facilities are are often owned and maintained by taxpayers.  In addition, the difficulty of recruiting, training and retaining enough qualified volunteer emergency medical technicians had led some localities to hire full time EMT staff to assure 24-hour coverage.  Adding local government employees in today's environment defines "unsustainable".

As costs and taxes spiral out of control, Central New York municipalities are looking for new solutions:

The village of Minoa is investigating whether it would save money by eliminating its village-run ambulance service and contracting with another provider.

The village issued requests for proposals to several other providers, including EAVES, WAVES, NAVAC, Fayetteville, TLC and Rural Metro. The proposals are due today, and the village will decide what to do by next month, Mayor Richard Donovan said.

The village needs to cut costs, and this one measure being evaluated, Donovan said. Minoa is facing a budget gap of as much as $300,000, Donovan said. It already has trimmed many costs, he said.

Finger Lakes county, town and village governments must quickly move to privatization of basic services, or loose those services entirely.  Minoa's approach to ambulance service is the correct one.  Solicit several proposals, then ask community members to rip each proposal apart until the best one survives.  Precedents abound - in addition to providing ambulance service to Rochester, Syracuse and 400 other cities around the country, Rural/Metro Corporation also provides fire departments to 25 municipalities.  Indeed, readers may be surprised to learn that in "progressive" Ithaca, ambulance service has long been provided by for-profit Bangs Ambulance, Inc.