The County Legislature voted 9-5 last night to reject the proposed budget. Of the Dryden legislators, Martha Robertson voted for it, while Mike Lane and George Totman voted against it. The future of the budget looks pretty complicated, so I urge you to read the whole Ithaca Journal article.
In other county news, the Enfield Republican party seems to have suffered a setback, as it turns out that [Democratic] "Town Justice Jane Murphy has never been investigated as a result of complaints filed against her," contrary to claims made in a flier distributed right before the election. Even County Republican Chairman Mark Finkelstein seems embarassed by this one. The person who sent the flier, William Mather, Enfield's "then-acting Republican Committee Chairman", "declined to comment on the letter Tuesday night." Of course, the 397-338 Republican victory still stands.
Meanwhile, District Attorney George Dentes continues to howl about the costs of any alternatives to his prosecuting people and locking them up in expensive prisons paid for by our state taxes. Without noting the cost of incarceration - since the county doesn't pay for that - he picks out every number in the county budget that might in some way reflect costs of strategies other than sending people to prison. It's past time to find another DA.
(The Drug Court Evaluation study I mentioned last week is available if you want a full perspective on how and whether these work, with lots of tables comparing practices across the state.)
Posted by simonstl at November 19, 2003 12:04 PM