News Briefs 6.4.03

Borrowing
time

Like
an ex-smoker who breaks down and buys a pack of Camels in a moment of stress,
Monroe County Executive Jack Doyle wants to dip into the county’s tobacco
settlement money to pay for general operating expenses this year and cover last
year’s deficit.

            In 2000, Doyle sold the rights to
the county’s share of future tobacco settlement money (as much as $725 million)
in exchange for $142.5 million in cash. That money, as required by law at the
time, could only be used without penalty to fund future capital projects or
relieve debt the county owed on past projects. The county then earmarked some
of those funds to expand the county jail, build new facilities for Monroe
Community College, and finance, with state help, construction of a juvenile
justice center.

            Since then, federal tax laws have
been amended to allow tobacco settlement funds to be used for general operating
expenses without penalty. The county expects it will have to cover a nearly $19
million deficit from last year. It also projects that its operating budget will
fall short by about the same amount this year. So Doyle has decided it’d be
wise to take $36 million out of the $142.5 million capital project/debt-relief
pot and use it to help close those existing and anticipated deficits.

            Before that can happen, the county
legislature must approve an amendment to the 2000 local law that dictates how
tobacco money can be spent. The matter goes before the Ways & Means
Committee on June 4, and is expected to be considered by the full lej when it
convenes June 10.

            In his formal request for the
amendment, Doyle wrote that given the state’s fiscal crunch, the prospect
Albany will provide funds for a juvenile justice facility is “doubtful at this
time.” So he’d use $15 million the county previously set aside for that
as-yet-unrealized project to help cover the deficits. (County officials say
they haven’t abandoned the idea of the center, but may create it in an existing
facility, rather than build a new one.)

            The rest of the $36 million, however
— $1 million for new MCC facilities and $20 million for the jail expansion
— has already been allocated for the MCC and jail projects. So the county
would have to borrow $21 million to replace that previously allocated money.
The availability of “historically low interest rates,” Doyle writes, makes this
borrowing an attractive option.

            Though Doyle didn’t spell it out,
the unattractive option would be to slash county spending and services, raise
property taxes, or do both this year to cover the deficits. That option is
especially ugly given the fact the county exec seat is up for grabs this
November in what’s shaping up to be a tough race.

            Last summer, when budget projections
forecasted huge gaps for 2002 and 2003, Doyle proposed sweeping spending cuts
and layoffs that provoked heavy criticism from citizens, social service
agencies, cultural organizations, political opponents and former allies alike.
A property tax increase was passed, over his objections, in an attempt to
soften the blow. But that modest increase is clearly not enough to balance the
county’s books. By reallocating the tobacco money now, and covering the costs
it was to pay for with future borrowing, Doyle may be able to avert a similar
crisis this election year.

            “For obvious reasons, it would be
good get all this bad news out this year,” says Republican County Legislator
Ray Santirocco, who broke with Doyle and his party’s caucus last year to help
pass the bipartisan budget that raised property taxes.

            “They’re desperate,” Democratic
legislator Jay Ricci says of the Republican administration. “They’re putting
off facing reality until after the election.”

            Doyle’s proposed reallocation “shows
that his budget was way out of whack for this year,” Ricci says. “The money
that we added, while it was painful to increase taxes, looks like it was
absolutely necessary.”

Henrietta’s Republican revolt

At the tail end of May, a clear
majority of Henrietta Republican
committee members turned against their longtime standard-bearer, incumbent Town Supervisor James Breese. By a vote
of 58-45, they chose challenger Jack
Driscoll, a former town board member and current county legislator, to be
their 2003 candidate for supervisor.

            The
stage thus is set for a September Republican primary.

            Breese,
who’s held the office for going on two decades, isn’t going away quietly. “It’s
what you call old-fashioned insider politics,” he says. Driscoll, he says, “got
his friends together” to swing the vote. “It’s a personal thing [with
Driscoll],” says Breese. “He wants this job. My problem is, the 7,000
Republicans out there ought to have a say in this.”

            Breese
is known for speaking out. “I never said I’m warm and fuzzy,” he says. “I’m
decisive.” But are there matters of substance to argue about? Not according to
Breese: “This is a kind of weird situation out here, because there aren’t any
issues.”

            The
challenger sees another reality. Breese, says Driscoll, “thought the process
was great for nine straight times; now he thinks it’s ‘stacked.’ He’s reached
the point where he feels entitled [to the office].” Driscoll adds he
recommended only two people for committee membership.

            Driscoll
promises to raise land-use as a campaign issue. “We need to start paying
attention to the quality of life” in Henrietta, he says. “We ought to have
music in the park in our natural amphitheater,” he says, referring to one
feature of the town park on Calkins Road. “I was the guy, when I was still on
the town board, who formed the Land Use Committee,” he says. A document
prepared by that committee, he says, became the basis of Henrietta’s
comprehensive plan.

            Any
common ground in the Breese-Driscoll debate? “We’re both fiscally responsible
types,” says Driscoll. “We need a healthy tax base.”

Hemlock
gets a trim

A
reader alerted us that work crews were hauling
logs out of some forested land on the east side of Hemlock Lake, around 30 miles south of Rochester.

            Ordinarily, that would be nothing
unusual. But the land in question belongs to the City of Rochester, and the
city’s observing a logging moratorium in certain parts of the Hemlock-Canadice
lakes watershed, a prime source of the municipal water supply for more than a
century. The moratorium, a concession to environmentalists, is supposed to keep
loggers far away from some stands of old-growth trees till next year, at least.

            But the current logging has nothing
to do with the old growth or the moratorium, according to Ed Doherty, head of
the city’s Environmental Service Department.

            Doherty says three forested areas
west of Hemlock Lake are being thinned right now. Logging crews, he says, “are
removing red pines that were planted about 80 years ago and that are stressed.”
(Indeed, many stands of conifers are “monocultures” — plantings of a single
species — and are subject to die-off and deterioration.) And the crews are
re-planting the cuts with oak seedlings to promote a mix of native hardwoods,
he says.

            Is there a profit motive? “We may
get net revenue,” says Doherty. “But we seldom do.”

            Doherty suggests the moratorium will
be extended: “Unless we determine there are environmental benefits [to logging
nearer the old-growth], we will continue to defer on this.”

The
411 on 911

Something
to consider when trying to decide between cell-phone and residential-phone
service: the negative impact the cell-phone craze has had on 911 service.

            Because of increased cell-phone
usage, and the popularity of dedicated high-speed Internet access, there are
33,632 less “landlines” in Monroe County than there were in 1999. And a primary
funding stream for the Monroe County 911 Center has been a $.35 monthly 911 fee
on all landlines.

            “We’ve been losing about $18,000 a
month, which is just over $1 million since 1999,” says 911 Center Director John
Merklinger. “This is money that’s strictly dedicated to the day-to-day
operation of 911.”

            Merklinger says the Center is
averaging about $1.6 million in annual revenue from the surcharge. “But our
operating budget is $10.2 million,” he says. “So it doesn’t even come close to
covering the operating expenses. And it continues to decrease. I don’t know if
there is anything we can do to address this. We’ve talked about it, but unless
people go get a phone, we’re stuck.”

            This cell-phone problem was one of
many budgetary issues Merklinger presented to City Council during its budget
hearing for emergency services on Tuesday, May 27.

            The remaining budget hearings
include: Environmental Services on Friday, June 4, at 4 p.m., and the City
School District on Wednesday, June 11, at 4 p.m. followed by a public hearing
at 7:30 p.m. City Council is expected to vote on the budgets at its regular
meeting on June 17 at 7 p.m. All meetings are in City Council Chambers at City
Hall. Info: 428-7538.

Taxing
logic

On
May 23, the House passed what US Representative Jim Walsh afterward called “a
monumental $350 billion economic
stimulus package that will offer significant tax cuts to American families
and small businesses and provide much-needed federal funding to states.” (It’s
actually more monumental than that. Various sources estimate the total at $800
billion or more.)

            Walsh, a Republican whose district
includes the northeastern portion of Monroe County, was not alone locally in
voting for the package. Republicans Tom Reynolds and Amo Houghton also voted
yes; only Democrat Louise Slaughter said no. (US Senators Hillary Rodham
Clinton and Chuck Schumer, both Democrats, voted against the Senate version.)

            Walsh is correct about the state
connection: The package provides $20 billion total over two years to the
states. New York stands to gain around $2 billion total — about
three-quarters of it going toward Medicaid. Of course, as the Bush
administration and many other conservatives have dared to brag, most of the
cash is going to rich people, not the states.

            “More than two-thirds of the… cuts
will go to the best-off 10 percent, and well over half will go the top 5
percent,” says an analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice, a Washington-based
group. A CTJ chart shows the lowest 20 percent of taxpayers will get back $45
from 2003 to 2006 — not even $45 per year, but $45 total for the four years.
This bottom quintile’s average share of the total tax cut for the period is 0.3
percent.

            Moreover, as news reports now
indicate, many low-income people won’t be getting a much-touted increase in the
child credit. Regardless, their children and children’s children will be asked
to pay off $44 trillion in predicted
cumulative deficits, as reported in the Financial
Times and other publications now seemingly radical compared to US economic
policy.

            Rep. Walsh stands by his vote.
Spokesperson Dan Gage concedes “there are issues we’ll have to deal with,” that
is, deficits and debt. (Some Bush advisers say we’ll have to deal by
“reforming” social programs, for example, by cutting and/or privatizing Social
Security and Medicare.)

            “In the Congressman’s mind, we can’t
sit idle,” says Gage. “Hopefully,” he says, “we’ll have the same economic boom
as we did in the 1980s” after the Reagan cuts.

            Gage believes everything’s fair and
simple. “The more taxes you pay, ” he says, “the better your tax cut will be.”

Batter
up

The
Rochester Hispanic Youth Baseball League is opening its eighth season with a parade and a full slate of games on Saturday,
June 7. The parade will start at the Puerto Rican Youth Development and
Resource Center, 997 North Clinton Avenue, at 10 a.m. and wind up at Don Samuel
Torres Park, corner of Oakman Street and North Clinton, at around 12 p.m. The
season’s inaugural games will start later that afternoon.

Correcting
ourselves

In
our schedule for the Rochester
International Jazz Festival, published in last week’s festival guide,
guitarist Rik Emmett should be listed as playing the Water Street Music Hall on
Saturday, June 7, at 9 p.m. Emmett is not playing at the Memorial Art Gallery.

This article appears in Jun 4-10, 2003.