Cuomo looks to 2016: Thruway toll hike postponed

When we were really the Empire State:  Thruway opening ceremony, 1955

New York's unemployment rate is 9%, Staten Island residents are entering their third week without food, water or heat - time for Andy Cuomo to run for President!

It’s only days after the presidential election, but the buzz is already under way about Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s potential run for president in 2016.

Time magazine put him on its short list, calling him the “rough-hewn son of a Democratic icon.”

Coincidentally, our "rough-hewn" multimillionaire second generation governor seems to be backing off from his economy-hammering, rural highway death rate-increasing 45% Thruway toll hike.

The state Thruway Authority again postponed a meeting to consider a major toll increase on trucks on the 570-mile thoroughfare.

The Authority's website said the meeting scheduled for today at 11:30 a.m. in Albany has been postponed. No new date was announced, and no explanation was given for the delay.

It's the second time in a week that a vote on a potential toll increase has been postponed. The authority was originally scheduled to meet Friday in Rockland County, but canceled just hours before the meeting.

Rest assured New York bloggers will be working overtime when Cuomo the Younger, architect of the nation's financial crisis, throws his hat into the ring.

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.

Tompkins County to join 25th district?

Congresswoman Buerkle

Is this an attack on one New York's most conservative member of Congress?

Congresswoman Ann Marie Buerkle (NY-25) has released the following statement in regards to Congressional redistricting:

"A story earlier today citing anonymous sources indicated that the current 25th Congressional District could be redrawn to include all of Tompkins County. This is just one step in a lengthy redistricting process and these maps will be presented to a federal judge, who will determine what shape the lines will take by March 12th. I will be on the ballot in 2012 and intend to continue the work I've started in Washington. If the results of redistricting require us to introduce myself to a new set of voters, I look forward to carrying my message of smaller government, personal liberty, and economic prosperity across central New York."

Or will the Prius-driving, global warming conference-attending academics of fair Tompkins be represented by Ann Marie?  

EPA chief: No proof Wyoming frack pollutes

EPA chief Lisa Jackson

Earlier this month, the Finger Lakes' anti-prosperity elites got the vapors when every news outlet in the free world screamed that Obama's EPA* had determined hydraulic fracturing in Pavillion, Wyoming had polluted water wells.  Our local status quo gang assured us that this was the death knell for fracking.

Two highly outspoken local opponents predicted the Wyoming report would play a role in the regional debate.

"We had an industry running around saying there's never been a case of pollution," said Wes Gillingham, director of Catskill Mountainkeeper. "We knew they'd find chemical in ground water ... It's very significant in debunking the line that industry has been using to say it's safe."

Agreed, said Walter Hang, an Ithaca-based anti-drilling advocate.
"It's very, very useful that EPA is now urging caution about going forward without adequate safeguards," Hang said. "Similar things could happen if New York state approves drilling; groundwater could be polluted."

Hold your methane-emitting horses, pardners!  No less an authority than Obama's EPA Commisar Lisa Jackson informs us that the Wyoming report indicates no such thing.   Tracy Marisa brings us up to date.

After personally analyzing the findings, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said that, with respect to Pavillion, "we have absolutely no indication now that drinking water is at risk." Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said that "the jury's still out" on the validity of the report. Tom Doll of the Wyoming O&GCC said "more tests are needed to rule out ... surface contamination."

We appreciate Marisa bringing Jackson's comments to our attention, and are waiting for the mainstream media to headline the story... waiting... waiting...

*EPA: Employment Prevention Agency

Land trust denied

 

 BREAKING NEWS: Cayugas' Land Trust Is Denied 

Update: or is it only postponed?

In its statement the Interior Department did not articulate as to why federal officials reviewing the application considered it incomplete and added the Cayugas could resubmit the application.

The nation owns more than 1,000 acres in its ancestral homeland in both counties around the north end of Cayuga Lake. The tribe needs the land placed into federal trust to open a gaming facility similar to the Oneida Indians’ Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona.

If you did it, you'd go to jail

Gillibrand and Clinton, new faces of Tammany Hall?

One of Nine is reading Peter Schweizer's new book, Throw Them All Out, and reminds us that...

"Lyndon Johnson was born into absolute poverty, spent a lifetime in public service and died a multimlllionaire."

Schweizer's book is causing our rulers to run around like cockroaches caught in a flashlight's beam.  Read the entire post to learn how our junior senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, wants you to think she's fighting congressional corruption, while offering a bill that ensures the well-connected swells of our ruling class, like Kirsten, will continue to rake in the swag at your expense.

For more on Harry Reid's "hottest senator," check out our previous coverage:

Who is Kirsten Gillibrand?

On the wrong track and headed for you 

Amity Shlaes for US Senate 

New York's senators: on the job 

Amity Shlaes: Repeating 1937?

Some call him Maurice...

Hinchey with disbarred lawyer

..some call him the pompatus of corruption.

One of Nine rounds up the latest on Ithaca hearthrob/corrupt Democrat congesspersyn Maurice Hinchey's self dealing with your money. 

We recently alluded to Peter Schweizer's new book, Throw Them All Out, in connection with congressional insider stock trading.  Well, it turns out that's not the only way MC's profit from their specialized knowledge.

It turns out the Sultan of Gerrymander has been handing out taxpayer money to himself - read the whole thing.  Will Maurice follow Barney Frank onto the rolls of the "comfortably retired at taxpayer expense when they should be in prison?"

Depending on government transit?

Staying in the barn today

Unionized government bus drivers catch a cold, you walk to work. 

In the Finger Lakes' Tompkins County, home to Cornell University, leftist dogma rules.  Public transit is the morally superior way to travel, so Cornell University employees are encouraged to ride the "sustainable", taxpayer-subsidized bus to work.

Public transportation is arguably one of sustainability's greatest allies. Whether in the form of bus, train, or subway, an effective public transit system reduces fossil fuel dependency, hazardous air pollution, traffic, and parking needs. Cornell University has partnered with the City of Ithaca and Tompkins County to equally support a reliable and extensive public transit system - the Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT).

Through the university's Transportation Demand Management Program, faculty and staff are offered fully or partially subsidized bus passes. 25% of faculty and staff use public transit as their primary means of commuting to and from Cornell.

This morning, the politically correct county's bus service demonstrates why Americans drive cars.  From Tompkins County's TCAT bus website:

Serious service delays

Several TCAT bus operators have called in sick this morning and are unavailable to work prompting a suspension in morning rural service and potential delays of all service throughout the day. 

As of 6:30 a.m., no service on Routes 20, 21, 36, 37, 40, 43, 52, 53, 54 and 67.

When we allow government to confiscate our incomes, accepting in return the promise of a subsidized ride to work, we learn why we'll always need the private automobile.

City council bans gas

Sitting in toasty comfort on a chilly November evening, the Common Council of the intellectual hub of the Finger Lakes, Ithaca, NY, last night banned gas drilling within the city limits. 

Preparing for a future without their City Hall's natural gas fired heating system, the council has redesigned its chambers - architect's rendering above.  No word yet on fate of the building's coal powered lighting system.

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.

Janis Kelly releases video

Ultra-liberal Ithaca, NY's own nationally prominent conservative blogger, Professor Jacobson, looks forward to the shock waves that will result from Republican Janis Kelly's realistically possible victory in that city's upcoming mayoral election.

You have not seen anything like what will take place here if Janis Kelly, Republican and unabashed Tea Party supporter, is elected Mayor of Ithaca.  You can donate here.  Her website, which should be live any minute, is KellyForMayor.org.  You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Janis has just posted a You Tube video, provided above for your convenience.  Note her creative use of "fracking."

Water/energy meeting tonight

Tonight, 7:00, Dryden, NY, hosted by Dryden Safe Energy Coalition:

The Dryden Safe Energy Coalition (DSEC) is holding the second in its series of public education meetings on energy development (the first was a legal issues forum held in Binghamton on August 22nd). The second forum is on “Water and Energy Development,” and will be held on Wednesday, September 7th, 7:30 – 9:00 P.M., at the Dryden Fire Hall on Route 13 in the Village of Dryden.

 Moderated by Dave Vieser of WHCU-AM.

Jedi knights to ban fracking

Late to the party, academic theme park City of Ithaca, NY is fixin' to ban fracking, too.  Getting right to the point, the liberal city's Ithaca's board of chosen leftists wants to make sure no shale gas is extracted within the city limits.  But how to ban the evil practice?

Alderman Eric Rosario, I-2nd, said that recently retired alderwoman Maria Coles, D-1st, had done much of research into municipal responses to "hydro-fracking," before she left office. Rosario has taken over as the point person. His first action was to bring Tompkins County planner Darby Kiley before the planning committee on July 20 to give them an overview of the issue.

"I went to the TANG [Tompkins Addresses Natural Gas] meeting recently, this is a task force of the Tompkins County Council of Governments, which is kind of like the local Jedi knights," said Rosario. "We should be a part of response to the second draft of the supplemental generic environmental impact statement [SGEIS]. Gaps have already been identified, and the community impact portion has not been released yet."

Bold added.  While the alderpersyn Rosario diddles with the "response to the second draft of the supplemental generic environmental impact statement,"  we'll point out that almost all the residents of fair Ithaca survive its notorious arctic winters by heating with, yes, clean burning natural gas.  Community impact?  Is it cold in here?

Janis Kelly: "politically correct corruption"

Kelly

From the deep within Groves of Academe, the only Republican candidate for Mayor of Ithaca, NY, fires a fastball.

We must stop using public money for favored private groups. At the first Common Council meeting I attended, the council (including both J.R. Clairborne and Svante Myrick) used $50,000 in "low-income housing" funds to guarantee a loan for the State Theatre. This is wrong. A private car rental company (whose executive director, Jennifer Dotson, is on Common Council) has been redefined as "public transportation" and given reserved parking spaces all over the city, apparently at no cost. This is low-grade, politically correct corruption, and it is wrong.

Corruption, indeed.

Its about time someone exposed this scam .  Overtaxed Finger Lakes families are being forced to subsidize short-term rental cars for Ivy League swells.  Were we Ithacans (not likely! - ed), we'd support Kelly against her numerous lefty opponents.

Seneca to ban smoking?

Is rural Seneca County, New York planning to completely ban smoking on all county-owned real estate?  The county's Board of Supervisors will consider the issue tonight, and we assume Seneca's town supervisors will vote to join all the cool counties in banning the evil weed.  However,  almost 25% of all Seneca residents are smokers, well above the state's average, and if they're old enough to smoke, they're old enough to vote.

And don't forget, the new growth industry in the picturesque, but economically depressed, county is cigarette manufacturing.

A local speaks out

In a letter to Dryden, NY's town board, resident Ron Szymanski puts Dryden's me-too fracking ban  in perspective.  Syzmanski lists the logical problems raised by such a ban, and hits what we think could be the result most harmful to the ordinary Finger Lakes citizen.

ANTI-BUSINESS.  The natural gas drilling ban limits opportunities for local businesses, from trucking to restaurants.  The County recently dropped a road ordinance because of its unintended consequences on local businesses.  In addition, it denies Dryden residents access to jobs and further compromises our tax base.

We suspect that prohibiting the growth of easy entry jobs, and the prosperity those jobs might bring to locals, is one of the unstated goals of the organized defenders of the region's status quo.

Who is the gas industry?

The force behind the energy industry

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?

Dryden residents support fracking

The Town of Dryden, NY, a rural township evolving into a bedroom suburb for Cornell University, held a big anti-fracking hoedown last night.  Dryden's town board conducted a public hearing an on a me-too anti-fracking law.  We hear the usual anti-energy suspects were out in force.

Not to be overlooked in the "let's-return-to-the-stone-age" hysteria, supporters of a more balanced point of view have quickly organized as the Dryden Safe Energy Coalition. Check out the Coalition's website (linked) for a ton of facts and analysis. 

Town of Ithaca bans fracking

Town residents boarding Cornell's new campus shuttle

Well, that's settled.  WHCU AM reports:

The Town of Ithaca has become the first municipality in Tompkins County to ban hydrofracking for natural gas.

The ban came Monday night as the Town Board unanimously voted in favor of changes in the zoning code clarifying drilling  will never be allowed within the town.

In order to avoid the appearance of hypocrisy, the bedroom suburb's town board also banned smart phones, iPads, radios, televisions, refrigerators, air conditioning, cars, trucks, buses, farm tractors, electric lights, air travel, universities and modern medicine .