This morning's Ithaca Journal leads with a huge story on poverty in Tompkins County. County Legislator Martha Robertson is quoted on the challenges facing the county government's efforts to deal with poverty:
"The money we spend doesn't begin to meet the need. As large as the dollars are, there's so many people who fall between the cracks," said County Legislator Martha Robertson, D-Dryden. For example, she said many times people aren't aware of the services available to them. With more than 100 organizations offering programs that can help low-income people, it can be a difficult system to navigate.
The article also cites County Legislator Michael Sigler as "R-Freeville", though that should be "R-Lansing". (Maybe he has a Freeville zip code?) There's also an article on how one wrong move can create financial disaster, and a Poverty by the Numbers section looking at the statistics.
On the opinion page, TC3 sends a Laurel to the Town and Village of Dryden.
In state news, the Journal visits the State Senate's annual pork handouts. As expected, the majority Republicans funded 352 of their projects to 25 of the minority's projects, giving the Democratic minority a total of $391,000 in projects while spending that much and more on some individual projects on the Republican side. The Senate Republican spokesman couldn't be bothered to even have a total for the cost of the Republicans' projects. (Yes, I know it's just as bad in the Assembly, just with parties reversed. Amazing.)
There's also an article on the state budget process, which seems even crankier than usual. Frankly, I don't mind - all sides seem to be reaching out to the public for support, and anything that gets the public paying attention seems like a good idea to me.
Finally, the Journal has How they voted in Albany and How they voted in Washington.
Posted by simon at March 17, 2007 9:35 AM in Ithaca Journal , TC3 , politics (state)