Maggie Brooks
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The pressure’s on

Krestia DeGeorge and Chad Oliveiri

It’s not going to be pretty. Faced with a projected 2005 budget deficit of nearly $55 million, County Executive Maggie Brooks has lived up to one campaign promise: to gather recommendations for county savings from a handpicked Budget Advisory Team. But some of the team’s key recommendations — like multi-year budget planning and stabilizing the […]

Posted inNews & Opinion

Fuzzing up the math

Tarek Tannous

County Executive Maggie Brooks wants to straighten out the county budget, but to do so she will have to take a closer look at some of the figures she’s using. If not, she may find herself wondering why an estimated $500 million in state savings never materialized.             Hoping to bolster state coffers through Medicaid […]

Posted inNews & Opinion

The good budget

Avatar photo Mary Anna Towler

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 […]

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Lessons from the Johnson loss

Avatar photo Mary Anna Towler

A few weeks before the election, I was talking to a prominent Democrat about the county-executive race. The Democrat was supporting Johnson but didn’t think he was his party’s strongest candidate. Johnson’s biggest handicap, said this Democrat, was the city.             The Republicans, he said, would hang the city’s problems — crime, schools — around […]

Posted inNews & Opinion

The great race: Maggie Brooks vs. Bill Johnson

Avatar photoAvatar photo Christine Carrie Fien and Mary Anna Towler

Read more about “The great race” in the News Articles section here This year’s campaign for county executive is a crucial one. Monroe County is faced with major budget problems, a weak economy, loss of manufacturing jobs, small population growth, and a decline in the population of young adults.             Because current County Executive Jack […]

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