I never got to last week's opinion pages, where there was a lot of Dryden opinion.
One piece that's kept me thinking is Mike Lane's letter on the need for a county code of ethics. I've spent a lot of time worrying about influence at the town level, where it's tended to be informal, and at the state level, where our dysfunctional legislature has insititutionalized influence. I haven't really thought about the county level, which is big enough to be where things shift from informal to institutional.
Lane is right that elected officials need to make a point of avoiding employment that raises questions about their ties to other branches of government. It does limit opportunities for them, but at bottom we really need officials whose constituency is their voters, not their employers. (And I can say the same for state legislators with their bogus part-time for $79,800 approach.)
Murray Cohen of Dryden objected to the few charitable donations on Governor Paterson's tax forms.
Mike Ciborowski of Freeville wrote to object to newspaper dumping on Tehan Road this winter.
The Journal's Tuesday editorial looked at ways to improve education's ability to address poverty.
The Journal's editorial approved of the legislature's 3% tax levy goal.
Also, on Thursday, there was a by tc3.biz.
Posted by simon at May 13, 2008 8:55 AM in politics (local) , politics (state)