You
could have seen it coming. Back in November, WXXI Public Broadcasting aired a locally produced documentary that,
according to promo material, explores the life of Paychex billionaire and
free-spending ex-gubernatorial candidate Tom
Golisano. The documentary, which “highlights his achievements,”
was WXXI’s first in-house production to be shown on WXXI-HD 21.1, the station’s
high-definition channel.
And now the other cash-filled shoe
has dropped. On January 26, WXXI announced it would receive $2 million from
Golisano, earmarked for the station’s techie side: completion of a new control
room and the replacement of “obsolete radio studios.” The first floor
of WXXI’s State Street headquarters will be renamed the “Thomas B. Golisano
Production Center,” says the announcement.
Also — hold your HD hats — the
$2 mil will be used to “provide more local programming and educational
services.” We already detect vibes from additional
“biography-style” programs in the air. But we hope there’ll be time
and resources for producing a follow-the-money miniseries. Working title: The Decline and Fall of the Independence
Party.
Septuagenarians,
unite
US
Representative Louise Slaughter has made it official: She’s running
for re-election in the 28th Congressional District, that oddly-shaped entity
that runs from here to Buffalo via the Lake Ontario shoreline. Slaughter’s
announcement was short and sweet, though. She promises a “more formal
announcement in the spring.”
Surely people like Monroe County
Republican Committee chair Steve Minarik and Western New York Congressman Tom
Reynolds are nursing some disappointment over this. Republicans in this region
have long hoped to take back “their” seat, which before redistricting
used to “belong” to the late Barber Conable and his short-term
successor, Fred Eckert. But Slaughter has been impossible to beat.
Now in her seventies, Slaughter has
an unexpected counterpart in moderate Republican Representative Amo Houghton,
the 77-year-old ex-Corning CEO whose district now stretches from the Southern
Tier to Monroe County. Houghton, a World War Two vet, is facing a challenge
from arch-conservative Monroe County legislator Mark Assini, who’s fired salvos
at the incumbent for being reluctant to back an illegal war.
Assini also has attacked Houghton,
whose father was US ambassador to France and grandfather was ambassador to
Germany and Great Britain, for being soft on the French. France, says Assini,
has been “an untrustworthy ally in the war on
terror,” meaning that nation didn’t heel like a Tony Blair poodle
when asked to obey George W. Bush.
Houghton recently was treated for
prostate cancer, fueling speculation he might not seek re-election. Only weeks
before, he told the media he’d make up his mind in April about running. Maybe
the chronic criticism from young Assini will be a shot in the arm.
Waging
survival
You’d
think that working full-time would pay enough to keep body and soul together.
But with the state (and federal) minimum
wage at $5.15 an hour — $10,000 a year and change — survival means
struggle.
Struggle away, some business groups
tell workers who call for a raise in the minimum. Labor advocates, though, say
New York’s working people need a big break.
That’s the message of the
“$5.15 Is Not Enough” Coalition, whose members include Action for a
Better Community, the Working Families Party, FoodLink, the Rochester Roman
Catholic Diocese, Metro Justice, the Rochester Area Labor Federation, and other
groups.
The coalition is now buttressing its
case with new data from the Albany-based Fiscal Policy Institute. This month,
FPI put out a study that highlighted how far down the economic ladder some
workers have climbed. In 1970, says the report, New York State’s minimum wage
was $8.83 in today’s dollars, 71 percent higher than the current level. Almost
as bad: Around one New York State worker in eight earns less than $7 an hour.
You don’t have to be a data-cruncher
to know that’s not enough to support a family. FPI figures the
“self-sufficiency wage” for a Monroe County family of three (one
adult, an infant, and a preschooler) is $17.49 an hour.
In parts of Long Island, it takes
almost $29 an hour for a similar family to make it, says FPI. But Monroe
County’s cost advantage doesn’t mean local working families are on easy street.
Bus
station blues
Bemoaning
a lack of public input, design flaws, and the secrecy shrouding the project,
several people complained about the transit
center portion of the three-pronged Renaissance Center proposal at last
week’s Monroe County lej meeting.
One speaker called it “a monster
that wants to swallow up Main and Clinton.”
Rochester’s Raging Grannies put
their opposition to song, calling the transit center “a diesel-spewing
hoop-de-do.”
“This isn’t the way. We want some
real county planning, so let the people have their say,” the Grannies sang.
Speakers complained about
nonsensical bus routes and a lack of attention to alternate plans.
Since the transit center has been
folded in with the performing arts center and MCC’s Advanced Technology
Education Center, more public input is needed, speakers said, “This is a whole
new project now.”
This article appears in Jan 28 – Feb 3, 2004.
