The Budget Blame Game

This morning I read with much attention, the continuing saga of the Kingston Common Council
in a attempt to bring down the 15% tax hike. And, like Ringo Starr sang all those years ago
'It don't come easy'. It is my view , that the Majority Democrats are doing everything they can do
to bring down the numbers. With such council veterans on finance such as Reynolds and
Landi [a former chair of finance] they are dealing with a terrible National, State and Local
economy. But, cut they must. But where? Police, Fire, DPW? In my view, Mayor Sottile was right to make the cuts to parks and recreation. And, as a taxpayer I am concerned about the
deep cuts to Kingston Police and Kingston Fire. Some member's of the City GOP has come up
with suggestions. As, any citizen can. But, some of the cuts that are suggested I have to disagree
with. At this time, the police chief and the fire chief have city owned vehicles. As, does Mayor
Sottile. In my view, all three are on call 24 hours 7 days a week. So, why should Sottile the
highest ranking member of our city not have a vehicle? Also, what really shocked me was the
same member of the City GOP wants to cut the purchasing dept. The Republican, who ran city wide last year had the endorsement of the CSEA. The last time I checked the employees
of that dept. are members of CSEA. The budget needs to be cut but as Gov. Paterson said yesterday 'Let's do it and leave politics out of it'.