Dryden Daily KAZ points out a great letter from many Upstate Republican State Senators, outlining their plans to "continue fighting during the upcoming State budget negotiations to ensure a fair and equal distribution of aid to all regions of the State and help local schools control costs by eliminating unfunded mandates."
On the other hand, apparently counties can no longer count on their Senators to support their home rule taxation requests. That's affected Tompkins County:
Tompkins County officials wanted to raise their mortgage recording tax from three-quarters of a percent to 1 percent. But Robertson said their state Senate delegation told them such a bill wouldn't make it through their chamber.
Why? Well, apparently because of a Congressional race that included Dryden:
Robertson and others pointed to the 2006 race in the 24th Congressional District, where Republican candidate Ray Meier was blamed for Oneida County's 5.5 percent sales tax -- the state's highest at the time....
Meier, who was a state senator, didn't actually raise the tax. Instead, he supported the legislative bill allowing county legislators to increase the tax. But the criticism still hurt, and Democrat Michael Arcuri won the congressional seat.
The 2006 race surprised me in many ways, but I never would have forecasted it changing what "business as usual" means in New York State.
Posted by simon at January 12, 2012 5:04 PM in politics (state)