I know it’s all over Rochester right now, but I just have to pop in for the benefit of my readers and blogging buddies and give you a helpful career tip: if you’re going to lie on your resume (I mean really lie, not just fudge like we all do), try to make sure that the lie in question doesn’t involve being a cop.  They take it personal.

And oh, yeah: you’re less likely to get arrested if you’re not trying to get a job in a government building.

Carla Palumbo is reporting in on her blog to say that the batting down of the F.A.I.R. plan may be much, much worse than I’d thought, because the county may be stuck with the intercept plan without having the benefit of the F.A.I.R. plan’s school tax offset (which is the part that was ruled illegal).

w00t!  This could be bad.

Mark Hare of the D&C puts in what is, ideologically at least, a decent op-ed for the paper on city violence and the role schools must play in curbing it.  My quibble is in this question:

Three years ago, a blue ribbon task force called for, among other things, the recruitment of 10,000 mentors over 10 years to work with children in need. Where are they?

Well, Mark.  You’re a journalist.  Rather than asking us the question, why not get us the answer?

Now that county tax payers are getting their statements and realizing that, in most cases, there was absolutely no benefit in county tax dollars for having had the F.A.I.R. plan forced on them, budget crunches at the schools affected are starting to hit home with an even worse new reality of budget cuts:

Tough Choices for School Districts - 13WHAM.com

Wendy Lane said, “You want to cut some of the special-ed services, and then you want to cut some of the higher-education services. Well, what are you saying? You want these students to just be middle-of-the-road type of students?”

And that’s the rub of school tax cuts: no matter what you cut, you are basically denying students a certain segment of their education. High-performers who would be better-educated in honors classes - and possibly fail out of boredom in general-ed classes - might have to face losing their honors classes. Kids who need a leg up just to pass might face losing out on their best teachers. And of course, the music programs always take a hit when budget cuts happen.

And remember: either tax increases or budget cuts are the only options, here. Unlike the Monroe County budget, school budgets are by law restricted from running deficits of any kind for any reason.  So not only do tax payers get no budget savings from the F.A.I.R. plan, but in fact they may be looking at significant tax increases in the near future.

It didn’t have to be like this. It could at least have had the support of the public. But no, that’s not how Maggie Millions rolls, baby. She’s the decider.

Oops. Remember all those savings that the F.A.I.R. plan was supposed to have made for county taxpayers? Well, maybe not so much:

How Much Savings with F.A.I.R. Plan? - 13WHAM.com

“The next line says last year I paid $530, this year I pay $626. Next line, I paid $432, that’s public safety; this year I pay $711. The bottom line, I paid a total of $1,943, this year I pay $1,920,” he said. That’s $23 in savings.

Now, keep in mind that the schools will be needing to recoup the loss of revenue from the F.A.I.R. plan. Folks take pride in their schools and expect them to perform well, so of course, they’ll pay the extra taxes to see that loss recovered. And of course, we’re still betting that sales taxes under perform state tax revenues in order for this to have been a good plan.

Bravo, Maggie. Bravo County Republicans.

All of that genius fiscal planning Saggy Maggie did was predicated on the notion that New York State was planning on increasing funding to schools. Well, now there’s rumblings in Washington that this may not happen at all:

State budget ills put planned school aid hike at risk || Democrat & Chronicle: Local News

Spitzer and the Legislature earlier this year agreed to raise aid to local school districts by $1.1 billion this year, and $7.6 billion between last year and 2010.The second installment is due in the new fiscal year that begins April 1. But at a budget conference Tuesday, Francis and budget experts from the Senate, Assembly and state comptroller’s office agreed that state finances in the immediate future are shaky because of the recent Wall Street nosedive, the mortgage-lending crisis and the skyrocketing price of oil.

“When Wall Street gets a cold, New York state gets pneumonia,” said Francis, who pointed out that the state depends on the financial-services industry for about 20 percent of its tax revenue.

Have you signed the petition to end this debacle, yet? Can your kids afford you not to?

What is going on over there at the Rochester City School District’s board?  And what does Joe Morelle have to do with it?  Apparently, on behalf of two recently-elected school board members, Joe Morelle is pushing to delay the decision for a new superintendent and allow them to vote:

EDUCATION: Morelle pushes for superintendent delay - News & Opinion - Rochester City Newspaper

Morelle confirmed late Friday that he’s been contacting board members, pushing for the delay. A man identifying himself as Joe Morelle left a voice mail for one board member last week, saying it would be a “grave mistake” for the board to pick a superintendent without Campos and Williams. City has a recording of the voice mail. Contacted by phone late Friday, Morelle said it’s a matter of accountability. If outgoing board members make a bad choice, then voters, he says, have no means to hold them accountable for that choice.

I find this all a bit strange, actually, since this had been a non-issue up to Election Day. Now, everything’s changed.  This all seems to be pressure to keep the current interim super on permanently:

Morelle, cont’d:

Williams declined to say who he wants as superintendent. Campos couldn’t be reached late Friday. But a delay would open up the possibility that there would not be a majority on the new board for any of the four finalists. If that were the case, a deadlocked board might try to persuade Interim Superintendent Bill Cala to stay. And Morelle says Cala should be considered.

If no one’s pleased to see Maggie Brooks use the school system as a political football, then I’m sure we’re equally enthused with the idea of Morelle forcing a switch of gears after all the candidates have been interviewed and the plan of action established.

There may be a perfectly altruistic reason for this change in plans.  There may be good reason for the State Assemblyman to involve himself in the affairs of the Rochester School District.  But if the cited reason of “accountability” were the reason, why would you not speak up earlier?

I’m looking. . .

Technorati Tags: Joe Morelle, Rochester City Schools, Superintendent, William Cala

It’s getting nutty out there, folks.

RochesterTurning has, as usual, been doing the yeoman’s work in reporting the local political situation, including this season’s Sleazy Republican Mailer linking Democrats to terrorism. It certainly appears as though Monroe County Republicans are getting fairly worried about Maggie’s tax intercept, and pulling out all the stops to save their hides.

But then, my personal suspicion has been that most - if perhaps not all - of this in the plan, anyway. Maggie’s sitting on a million dollars and has nothing to do with it. I think the plan was to screw the schools to balance the budget, then use Maggie’s Millions to stop the electoral bleeding. Swamp the opposition in money, win back the majority in the Legislature, and then claim a new “mandate” for fiscal conservatism in Monroe County.

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RochesterTurning has a link to the new online petition demanding a roll-back of the tax intercept theft plan Maggie Brooks and the Republican Monroe County Legislators chose to pass in lieu of actual budget balancing.  There’s also an interesting discussion brewing in the comments.

Whilst looking up my referred visitors and other SEO stuff about the site, I happened upon an incoming link from an article on Mustard Street. I haven’t read their stuff in a while, but this article in particular is a well-written piece that deserves an answer. I was going to just comment, but then I realized that this could get wordy, and decided to make my own post.

The thrust of the article is that a report by the RBJ (which is not available online, even if you paid for it, as I discovered to my chagrin) shows that the top fifty highest-paid public officials in Monroe County are almost all school administrators. Only three slots in this field are employees of some other section of our government. Philbrick is quick to point out that we don’t know whether or not a given administrator has earned that pay, but the theory goes as follows:

Mustard Street: The Highest-Paid Local Officials

But this list helps to illustrate why, we think, Maggie Brooks has the political wind at her back for her FAIR plan, which reduces suburban school district revenues by 1 – 2 %. It explains why it resonates with the public when Brooks says, as quoted in the same RBJ article:

“…these well-paid and non-elected officials are choosing to sue Monroe County rather than finding a 2 percent savings in their total budgets.”

This theory doesn’t hold much water for me, but there are a lot of moving parts, so I’ll take a post to explain my position.
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