Protesters pressure administration on gas prices

Protester in "New York" t-shirt with effigy of politician - Andy Cuomo?

While Andy Cuomo was at the DNC in Florida, fighting to secure his opportunity to run against President Romney in 2016 by calling for higher taxes,  Finger Lakes gasoline prices crossed the four dollar/gallon threshold.  

Not allowing the administration to ignore the economy-crushing energy costs, student protestors took to the streets.

Student and youth groups affiliated to various political parties continued their protest against the recent price hike in petroleum products on Thursday by enforcing one-hour long chakka jam (road blockade) in front of different colleges and academic institutions across the country.

Fortunately for New York's second generation Democrat governor, the chakka jam was held in Nepal, not Watkins Glen.  It appears Upstate New Yorkers, blinded by Andy's media induced celebrity, would rather not talk about record high fuel prices under Cuomo II, not to mention ever-increasing taxes and years of 8 percent unemployment.

Trumansburg's Barangus closes

Joan Baez at Barangus, 2009

Barangus, the Trumansburg landmark known for its black bull on the roof, has closed after 50 years.  

We hear that many T-burg locals are concerned by a recent rash of business closings.  We are also told that many of those same folks proudly display "Obama 2012" bumper stickers.  Coincidence?

September in the Finger Lakes

Sunday afternoon.  Click pic for larger image.

Auburn IDA denies developer subsidy

Help a fella pay his country club dues?

In a rare occurrence in the Finger Lakes, an  Industrial Development Authority has declined to dish out taxpayer cash to a tin cup rattling developer.

On Tuesday, the Auburn Industrial Development Authority voted unanimously to deny a payment in lieu of taxes request by Calamar Construction, a Wheatfield-based company planning a $9.3 million independent senior housing complex.

"I don't believe in PILOTs for residential at all," AIDA board member and City Councilor Matthew Smith said. "There aren't going to be jobs, and it's a severe cause of market distortion."

Smith said if the project was needed and profitable it would be built without public assistance.

We've more than once seen this type of well-funded developer, who typically comes from a government regulatory background, bully local officials into  submission, so Auburn's decision is a breath of non-subsidized fresh air.  Next step:  get rid of all the IDAs and give their budgets back to the taxpayers.  

More here and here.

Democrats to pound another nail into Upstate's coffin

Next time you hear double-dipper Bob Duffy gassing about creating jobs in Upstate New York, ask him how this helps.

State lawmakers are in talks over a plan to lower New York's cap on carbon emissions, a move that would likely boost costs for coal-fired power plants and revamp the state's participation in a regional climate-change program.

Under pressure from environmental groups, lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office have discussed lowering the limit through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a nine-state cap-and-trade program in which carbon allowances are auctioned off to power producers.

Let's think about this for a moment.  If you're a struggling Finger Lakes homeowner, your second-highest-in-the-US electric rate will go up again.  If you're a swell who's invested in carbon credits, however, your net worth will increase.

"One of the most serious things that has been looked at this year is adjusting the cap, and by adjusting the cap the credits themselves will regain value," said Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, a Kingston Democrat who chairs the chamber's energy committee.

And if you happen to still have a job in a coal fired power plant, don't worry.  

The legislation would likely have a significant impact on the state's coal plants, particularly financially troubled facilities in Lansing, Tompkins County, and three others in western New York.

You and your fellow taxpayers will be forced to hand over more cash to your local government, which by the tortured logic of the state legislature, will make it all better.

Current discussions, however, center around providing state aid to municipalities should a power plant close, according to the bill language. Forty percent of the additional revenue from the emissions auctions would be earmarked for communities that are "substantially adversely impacted by the loss of property tax revenues" or a payment in lieu of taxes agreement "due to the closing of a major electric generating facility."

State to push more heavy trucks onto rural roads

Aurora, NY - April, 2010

2008:

“For far too long, people living throughout the Finger Lakes in Onondaga, Cayuga and Tompkins counties have been suffering, trying to get big rigs off the back roads winding through the region,” said Governor Paterson. “Residents have rightfully voiced concerns about trucks spilling garbage into lakes and watersheds. People also have expressed concern that the large trucks are damaging roads and houses, emitting fumes, creating noise and making it dangerous to walk or ride bikes on the roadways. I am pleased to announce that I have directed the New York State Department of Transportation to develop a new regulatory policy aimed at keeping large trucks off the Main Streets of Central New York and on the Interstate System, where they should be.”

“These state regulations are something that the people of Skaneateles and the Finger Lakes area have sought for a very long time. There is finally light at the end of the (garbage truck) tunnel,” said Senator Schumer. “Governor Paterson, to his credit, has seen that state regulations are the way to go to get trucks – whether they be public or private, from New York City or elsewhere – off our community roads and onto the highways where they belong.”

 2011:

The state Thruway Authority on Wednesday proposed a 45 percent increase in tolls for most trucks on the superhighway to help bail out the financially strapped agency.

The authority’s board voted Wednesday to allow executive director Thomas Madison to “proceed with necessary actions” to implement the toll hike, which would apply to trucks with three or more axles.

Everyone is safer when big trucks stick to divided highways, which is one of the reasons we have a Thruway in the first place.  We believe the increase in heavy truck traffic on the Finger Lakes' rural roads has been the direct result of Thruway toll increases.  Its long past time to fire Howard Milstein, disband the Thruway Authority and remove all tolls.  A toll-free Thruway will make Upstate safer while slowing the disintegration of the Empire State's economy.

Auburn prepares for zombies

While record high gasoline prices and ever increasing taxes force Auburn residents to cut back, their government rolls out the mother of all SUVs.

Small arms fire, anti-tank mines or alien invasion — the latest addition to the Auburn Police Department's fleet can handle them all.

APD Emergency Response Team Commander Michael Roden admitted that the Casspir armored vehicle, loaned to the city by the U.S. Department of Defense last October, probably won't face any of those conditions in Auburn, but it's still a useful tool.

 Photo:  Taisha Laird  

County government helps developers scam taxpayers, again

Once again, a Finger Lakes county industrial development agency has subsidized a wealthy developer, leaving taxpayers on the hook.

Citing delinquent payments, the Cayuga County Industrial Development Agency decided last week to terminate its payment in lieu of taxes agreement with Ontario Realty, Inc., owner and operator of the Sterling Renaissance Festival.

County director of Planning and Economic Development Stephen Lynch said Monday that the company did not make scheduled payments totaling $27,000 to the county and town of Sterling in February 2011 and 2012 and the Hannibal Central School District in September 2011.

Here's an idea:  let's terminate all the industrial development agencies and give the money back to the taxpayers.

Billionaire Cuomo donor to raise Thruway tolls

How can our state government help revive Upsate's reeling economy?  Raise Thruway tolls, of course!

A top official at the state Thruway Authority on Wednesday didn't rule out a potential toll increase as the authority develops a long-term financial plan.

Yeah, that's the ticket!  Raise the cost of transportation!  Take more money out of Upstaters' pockets, while at the same time raising the price of all the goods and services thy need to live!

Who's responsible for this brilliant insight?  While, its Howard Milstein, a billionaire real estate developer from Manhattan who also happens to be one of Andy Cuomo's biggest donors!

Milstein, a billionaire banker and real estate businessman and a major donor to Cuomo and other state Democrats and Republicans, is the governor’s choice to head the Thruway Authority. Cuomo rejects the notion that Milstein’s donations had any link to his appointment, and maybe that’s possible. What does a billionaire want with a high-level patronage job, anyway? Defending the appointment, Cuomo said, “He’s an extraordinary businessman and having a private sector businessman who’s successful in real estate and finances makes total sense for the Thruway Authority.”

Well, maybe. First, though, you have to define successful. The fact is that Milstein’s real estate record in Niagara Falls has been abysmal. Milstein and his brother, Edward, have purchased about 441 parcels in downtown Niagara Falls over the last 12 years under the company name of Niagara Falls Redevelopment.

The Milsteins have done virtually nothing with these properties. They have outsized influence over economic development in Niagara Falls and that influence is shown in a swath of vacant, unimproved properties. Now—from the perspective of Western New Yorkers, at least—that disastrous record is being rewarded with a plum assignment from the governor. It’s deflating.

Bid out Thruway maintenance to private contractors?  Privatize the whole thing?  Don't be meshuggina.  It won't bother Milstein to an spend an extra buck to see a specialist in Rochester, or take his kids to the State Fair.  And as for you, who cares?

Nozzolio: force NY taxpayers to subsidize Virginia millionaire

AES Cayuga

The combination of an anemic Upstate economy, fanatic environmental regulations, and the abundance of cheap, clean natural gas being produced in neighboring states has resulted in hard times for the AES coal powered generator on Cayuga Lake.  In fact, AES had made the difficult business decision to enter bankruptcy, and has shut down operations at its AES Cayuga plant.  The facility's landmark steam plume has disappeared from Cayuga's shoreline, except for for brief periods this winter when the plant, which has no heating system, had to be operated to prevent freezing. 

As we've previously reported,  financial difficulties at AES have sent shock waves through local governments in the Town of Lansing, Tompkins County, and the Lansing Central School, all of whom have feasted on the millions in property tax revenues paid every year by AES.  An economist might point out that all those millions actually came from Finger Lakes residents, who pay the highest electric rates in the continental US.

Tax addicted local governments, terrified that they might loose some of their historic ability to coerce gold plated pay and benefit packages from struggling peasants, however, can rest easy this morning.  "Republican" State Senator Mike Nozzolio has decided to use the power of government to force taxpayers to buy AES' otherwise unsaleable product.

This proposed legislation, titled S.6842, recommends the establishment of a power purchase agreement with the New York State Power Authority. The legislation would ensure that the AES Cayuga plant reopens and remains operational for a minimum of three years.

Power produced under Nozzolio's little experiment in serfdom will be doled out, not to Finger Lakes homeowners, but to politically connected fats cats.

Under the legislation, energy purchased from the AES Cayuga plant would be directed to supplement the state's ReCharge NY program. The ReCharge NY program allocates low-cost power to New York State employers.

Harker

And while local taxing entities are thrilled that their cash cow will be spared, let's not forget Victoria D. Harker, CEO of AES and the real beneficiary of Nozzolio's generosity with your money.   Despite the recent problems with her coal burning operation, and unlike many of her Upstate ratepayers, Vicki will still be able to afford dinners out.  Forbes reports Ms. Harker's total compensation from AES in 2010 was $2,661,548.00, with an additional $142,578.00 provided in director's fees from Darden Restaurants.



Updates:  

The well compensated Ms. Harken's actual title is "Chief Financial Officer and President of Global Business Services."   Vicki is reported to be planning to be out the door this summer.

For the truth about New York' s feudal "ReCharge NY" program, see One of Nine.

Happily, some clarity from DiNapoli

New York State's top financial officer, Tom DiNapoli, got involved in politics in 1972, when he was elected to the Mineola Board of Education at age 18.  While he's as much a standard issue New York liberal Democrat as the next guy, we can assume that Tom likes his job and doesn't want to be held responsible for the Empire State's bankruptcy, or a potential Federal takeover leading the the dissolution of what was once the world's beacon of freedom and opportunity.  So it's no surprise that Tom might actually look into some of our rulers' more wasteful spending.

More tax breaks does not equal more jobs.

That's according to State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's latest report on New York's industrial development agencies (IDAs).

In his fifth report on IDAs [PDF], DiNapoli says the number of jobs created by the local economic development engines dropped by 22,000 from the year before.

DiNapoli also cites a $483 million gap in what IDAs gave out in tax breaks and how much they took in via payments-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOTs).

That breaks down, the report finds, to a $2,659 cost per job - up 9 percent from the year before.

"Taxpayers are not getting enough bang for their buck when it comes to IDAs," DiNapoli said in a statement.

Tom may be on to something, if Seneca County's IDA is any indication.  Rather than bringing the county a Toyota assembly plant or an Apple Computer research facility, the IDA seems to just be making work for itself.

The owner and operator of a proposed new McDonald’s Restaurant at 2500 Mound Road will likely receive financial assistance from the Seneca County Industrial Development Agency.

James Coriale, president of Jascor Inc., the owner-operator of the existing McDonald’s on Mound Road, has received town approval to demolish the existing building and construct a new restaurant on the same site.

It appears that struggling Finger Lakes taxpayers are once again being forced to subsidize a profitable business that, absent the generosity of the Seneca County IDA, most likely could have updated its facility without taxpayer cash.  Beneficiary James Coriale, a successful businessman, actually owns six McDonalds' restaurants.

"We look forward to a welcoming everyone to our grand re-opening later this year," said Coriale. Jim Coriale owns six McDonald’s Restaurants, with locations in Penn Yan and Ovid, in addition to McDonald's in Walmart locations in Camillus, Horseheads, & Watkins Glen.

We enjoy Mr. Coriale's restaurants and we congratulate him on building a successful business in one of the most anti-business climates in the US.  We just don't have any extra cash to invest right now, and it seems Tom DiNapoli may be starting to figure that out.

US taxpayers buying into French automaker?

1983 Renault Alliance

Congratulation, Finger Lakes taxpayers, you're now going to subsidize the French auto industry.  Our own government-run car company sees opportunity in the land of escargot.

PSA Peugeot Citroen may announce as soon as this week plans to sell a stake of about 7 percent in the French carmaker to General Motors Co. as part of a development alliance, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

GM, which still owes billions to US taxpayers, has been using those confiscated funds to dish out big bonuses to the same employees who ran the industrial giant into the ground.

Does it make sense that a company who can afford to pay bonuses needs government subsidies to sell its cars, like the Chevy Volt?

According to all the reporting news sources, most managers could see bonuses for 2010 equaling 15 to 20% of their annual salary. Other reports are indicating as much as 50% of salary, while some blue collars might merely get $10K on average.

Question is, why is there any bonus at all at GM?

It is no small thing that General Motors and Chrysler are still in business today, due to the extreme generosity of the American taxpayers.

So, why should either company even think of giving bonuses to the blue collar and white collar workers at all before paying back the loans?

For those with short memories, the rotting hulk pictured above is a Renault Alliance, the ill fated offspring of the last time a US automaker got in bed with the French.

Upstaters beginning to notice gas prices?

 

Even if your only source of information is the old media, you might have seen this shocking story today.

High gasoline prices have Theresa Impink and her family thinking twice before taking the car out for a drive.

Impink, her husband and their two teenage children try to determine if the trip is worth the cost.

“We’re consciously cutting back on all travel because it’s getting too expensive,” said the 38-year-old Frankfort resident.

The most difficult part is Impink’s 50-mile roundtrip drive to Rome every day for work. To fill the tank of her SUV costs about $56, and a full tank only lasts between five and six days, she said.

“What I’ve done is adjust my whole budget.”

Keshia Clukey, the professional journalist who dug up this news, forgot to ask the financially strapped Ms. Impink if she is aware of the fact that the Obama administration wants high gas prices.

This barely made a blip in the news when it was first reported, but read what President Obama’s Secretary of Energy Steven Chu had to say about gas prices back in December:

In a sign of one major internal difference, Mr. Chu has called for gradually ramping up gasoline taxes over 15 years to coax consumers into buying more-efficient cars and living in neighborhoods closer to work.

“Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,” Mr. Chu, who directs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in September.

And now you’re paying $4  a gallon. not quite European prices, but no fun nonetheless.

 Will Upstaters vote to reelect Obama?  Stay tuned.

AES power plants in bankruptcy

AES Cayuga

AES Corp., owner of the recently re-started Finger Lakes power plant formerly know as Milliken Station, has filed for bankruptcy.  The company blames the ongoing economic depression.

AES Corp. (AES) units that either own or lease six coal-fired power plants in New York state sought bankruptcy court protection, citing the depressed economic environment for the electric power industry.

AES Eastern Energy LP and 13 other AES affiliates listed as much as $1 billion in debt in Chapter 11 filings yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. AES Eastern listed $100 million to $500 million in assets.

The units want to sell or transfer their only two plants in active operation, in Cayuga and Somerset, as part of a settlement with certificate holders, Peter Norgeot, president of AES NY, said in a court filing.

As we reported in May, financial problems at AES Cayuga are causing headaches for taxpayers in the Lansing school district.  Most Finger Lakes residents understand the Obama recession's impact on AES' power sales, but how many of us have ever heard of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative?  The RGGI boils down to a massive New York state tax on coal-fired electric generation, resulting in higher rates for already strapped consumers.  In addition, the tax may be forcing CNY electric utilities to switch to less expensive Canadian hydro power, further damaging the local plants' revenues.

For the past three years, New York has participated in the RGGI Cap & Trade scheme without the authorization of the state Legislature! Already this Cap & Trade energy tax has cost New York businesses and ratepayers a staggering $327 MILLION! Not only are we seeing an increase in our energy bills because of this mandatory cost increase to production being passed on to consumers, but this tax is also hitting us in other areas such as food, goods, and services.

Bold added.  We encourage our Finger Lakes neighbors to attend the upcoming AFP presentation in Ithaca, referenced in the One of Nine post linked above. 

Taxation Without Representation: The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in NYS

A presentation by Lisa Thrun, Grassroots Chair,

The New York Chapter of Americans for Prosperity

Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012 at 6:30 pm

Tompkins County Public Library - Borg Warner Room

101 E. Green St., Ithaca NY

Gannett catches up

We Upstate bumpkins are often called upon to help city folk adapt to CNY's sometimes uncomfortable realities.  This morning, we're happy to note that the professional journalists at old media powerhouse Gannett Corporation have belatedly acknowledged the truth about our former junior senator.

When Hillary Rodham Clinton ran for the Senate in 2000, she promised to bring 200,000 jobs to upstate New York.

But between January 2001, when Clinton was sworn in as a senator, and January 2010, when she resigned to become secretary of state, the northern suburbs and upstate region lost more than 100,000 jobs.

 From South of 5 and 20's archives, March 2, 2011:

Back in the year 2000, when Hillary Clinton was wearing a Yankee cap and running for stepping stone to the White House Senator from New York, she won hearts and minds of Upstate voters by promising to bring us 200,000 new jobs.  As you may recall, we elected Mrs. Clinton, but Upstate continued to loose another 32,400 jobs before she bailed out of New York to become Obama's Secretary of State.

Congratulations to Gannett for getting up to speed.  We're not trained in journalism, of course, but we wonder if the media giant could have deployed its massive resources to ask Hillary for a comment before running this morning's piece?

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"Economic development councils" will prevent economic development

Planned city, now abandoned, former USSR

Who believes that that way to revive the once-Empire State's moribund economy is to allow the people who got us here to spend billions more of our tax dollars on Soviet-style central planning?  We'll tell you who:  Andy Cuomo and his gang of politicians, union bosses, academics and crony capitalists.

Dryden resident Tracy Marisa, speaking for the Dryden Safe Energy Coalition, takes to the Ithaca Journal to to explain why Cuomo's merry band is doomed to fail.

Central planning is not what New York needs; we need less government planning and a reduction in the role of government.

New York starts in the race for jobs with two strikes against it: one of the highest total tax burdens in the nation and excessive regulation coupled with bureaucratic administration. These are the problems that need to be addressed.

Marisa reminds us who's riding in Cuomo's clown car.

The composition of these councils also demonstrates a failure to understand how to achieve economic development as a majority of their members are drawn from academia and government.

Marisa provides alternative suggestions for shocking Upstate back to life.  Be sure to read the whole thing. 

Opening of the Erie Canal, 1825

Who is "the gas industry"?

The force behind the energy industry

Reposted from July 28, 2011

Here in the Finger Lakes, it seems every self-important leftist follows the "no-fracking " dogma religiously, without considering opposing points of view.  Since these right thinking drones are found everywhere in an academia-dominated bioregion like ours, the media has no trouble locating them when they need an opinion on the evil plutocrats running the shale gas industry.

The pro-energy, pro-jobs, pro-prosperity point of view is always represented as "the gas industry."  What the "mainstream" media, which does not do well with economics, is missing is that the "gas industry," as they understand it, does not exist.  Unlike coercive government programs, the "gas industry" would not exist if every man, woman, child and reporter didn't choose to consume energy on a daily basis.  The "gas industry" is really nothing but a willing servant, doing the demanding bidding of the common man.  But the "gas industry" is much easier to demonize than, say, Mrs. Smith's fifth grade class, which can study environmentalism in a nice warm classroom in January in the Finger Lakes, instead of shivering in a crude shelter in the woods, hoping to survive until spring.

What we really need is a way to create energy from the Finger Lakes' unlimited supply of hypocrisy.  Why, even our newly arrived "off the grid" cultists are usually hiding a gasoline powered generator from Lowe's somewhere on the homestead.  The next time an anti-energy "friend of the earth" asks you to sign her "let's outlaw fracking" petition, you should first ask her to shut down her website, give up air travel, stop drinking coffee, and turn over her smart phone, Volvo keys, prescription drugs and imported synthetic clothing.  

And, speaking of energy consumers, Lonely Conservative has also grown impatient.

We’re surrounded by so many stupid people who buy into the crap the left is spewing, but we’ll never see them turn off their power. Where the heck do they think it comes from?

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.

Finger Lakes wineries' success due to global warming

Bill Wagner at the Winery, 1979

After passage of New York's "Farm Winery Act" back in 1976, a few hard working entrpeneurs and visionaries got started building what is now the Finger Lakes' booming wine industry.  Today, wine tourism is a rare success story in Central New York's otherwise depressed economic landscape.

Our readers may have been under the impression that the wineries' current good fortune is the result of decades of hard work.  We might recall our neighbors risking their life savings, freezing in the mud while they fought our notorious weather to plant and establish those fussy grape vines. 

Come to find out, we were wrong.  In this morning's USA Today, Elizabeth Weise explains the real reason for the region's climb to prominence - global warming.

Warming overall has meant that areas not generally associated with wine are becoming bigger players in the industry. Among them...

•The Finger Lakes wine country in Upstate New York, where the wine industry has taken off since the 1970s, says David Wolfe, a specialist in agricultural climate change at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

We'd like to invite Ms. Weise to visit our area this February.  That's the best time to don snowshoes, trudge out into the vineyards, and tell the bundled-up locals trimming and tying the vines how the credit for the FL wine industry taking off belongs, not to them, but to global warming.