Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks has proposed a $1.2 billion budget for 2013 that she says makes no significant changes to county programs or services. She presented her budget proposal tonight before a meeting of the County Legislature. The budget increases the cost of zoo admissions by about $1, and also raises the amount taxpayers […]
County Legislature
Posted inNews & Opinion
POLITICS: Indigent burial legislation defeated
Democratic legislation regarding indigent burials was voted down by a County Legislature committee last night. The legislation sought to address long-standing complaints about the condition of grave sites paid for with county assistance. Advocates for the poor have complained that the graves at Oatka Cemetery are in an area that is not well kept and […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
So long, intercept
Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks says the sales tax intercept has saved the county $30 million in Medicaid costs since it took effect in 2008, but now she wants to repeal it. The intercept, controversial when it was introduced, is an arrangement where the state takes approximately half of the county’s sales tax revenue and, […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
POLITICS: Carbone to run for vacant Lej seat
Democrat Vinnie Esposito’s County Legislature seat isn’t even officially vacant, and already a November election battle is taking shape. Republican Joe Carbone announced his candidacy this afternoon at County Republican headquarters. Carbone, a podiatrist who lives in Irondequoit and has his office in the town, ran against Esposito last year. Esposito is resigning from the […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
NEWS BLOG: County Lej voting on five-year capital “wish list” – including MCC downtown move
Tonight the County Legislature will hold its annual vote on a five-year plan for county infrastructure projects. The 2013-2018 Capital Improvement Program includes Monroe Community College’s proposal to move its downtown campus. College officials want to move the Damon City Campus from the Sibley Building on East Main Street to several buildings in the Kodak […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
County Legislature, Brighton: Travis Heider
Of the five primaries for County Legislature seats — two Democratic, one Republican, two Independence Party — we selected the two we found most interesting and most highly contested, one city, one suburban, both Democratic. In both, the current legislators are retiring due to term limits. In the 14th district, which covers most of Brighton […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Blind date
It’s about accountability. That’s what some 30 residents told county legislators at their meeting on September 14. The speakers were opposing a Republican plan to move the county executive’s deadline for submitting a budget from mid-October to mid-November. That would leave only a month for the legislature to deliberate on a budget and adopt it. […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The disappearing GOP
No incumbents? No problem. People just shaking off the last bits of holiday reverie might be surprised to find that the person representing them in the county legislature is not who they elected to serve. Nearly a third of the 16-member Republican caucus will consist of appointees before too long. The slow leak […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The good budget
In a remarkable display of sobriety and honesty, the Republicans in the County Legislature have passed a budget — the first rational one in years. “Rational” may be too generous a word: It’s absurd to cut funding for school nurses but continue to provide police services for wealthy towns that could well afford to […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
News briefs 9.17.03
‘Prime’ numbers A couple Monroe County towns fired their leaders last week. In Chili, incumbent supervisor Steve Hendershott lost to County Legislator Tracy Logel in the Republican primary, 1,207 to 815. Hendershott goes on to the general election on the Conservative and Independence lines, but insists he won’t campaign. Likewise, Channing Philbrick lost […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Reader Feedback 7.2.03
Brainy wrestlers, fighting spraying, downtown development
Posted inNews & Opinion
News Briefs 6.18.03
Touchy subjects Lawmakers at the June 4 meeting of the Monroe County Legislature’s Ways & Means committee went out of their way to be mean to one another. As noted in this week’s cover story (“The tobacco trick,” page 10), tempers flared between Democrats demanding hard data on the county’s finances and Republican legislators, particularly […]
