Elect a Democratic majority to the Lej

All 29 seats in the
Monroe County Legislature are up for election this year, so no matter which
party wins control of the chamber, we’re guaranteed at least a few fresh faces;
many longtime legislators face term limits.

The Legislature has
major issues to tackle over the next few years. Of particular importance will
be working with the next county executive to improve the county’s shaky
finances.

City endorses a
Democratic majority in the Legislature to go with our endorsement of Democrat
Sandy Frankel for county executive. A Democratic county executive combined with
a Republican majority in the Lej could be a recipe for paralysis, given that
the GOP caucus routinely dismisses, rejects, or buries Democratic proposals
with little discussion.

That includes
proposals to strengthen oversight of county-linked local development corporations, to restore county cuts to child day care
subsidies, and to prohibit the county waste water treatment plant from
accepting fracking waste.

Republican leaders
referred a recent Democratic proposal to ban the sale of products containing
microbeads within the county to the administration for further study — a tactic
the caucus has historically used to quietly block the party’s legislation.

Legislature
Democrats are already showing signs that, as the majority party, they’d be
willing to work with Republican county executive candidate Cheryl Dinolfo, if
she wins.

One of Dinolfo’s key proposals is to eliminate county-linked local
development corporations. Recently, Democratic Legislator Joe Morelle Jr.
submitted legislation for the county to hire an outside law firm to analyze the
possibility and implications of dissolving the LDC’s.

Democrats have
raised questions about Dinolfo’s plan, but Morelle insists that the proposal
isn’t political. Rather, the idea is “to give the next county executive a
head start,” Morelle Jr. says.

This article appears in Oct 14-20, 2015.