A Long and Continuous Stream of Abuses…
by Jul Thompson

Senator Antoine Thompson held a press conference on Friday to announce that the Democrats have retaken control of the Senate, and to offer up a bogus commitment to reform. The rest was mostly a failed attempt at blaming the Republicans for pork, patronage, and a host of other problems that have plagued the Legislature for the past 40+ years. Everyone knows they’re both to blame.

Antoine has caused a tremendous amount of damage to Western New York. I had occasion to meet him on the way in, and expressed to him how disappointed we are with his representation of us. In the short time the Dems gained control of the Senate, they passed an outrageous $131.5 billion budget which includes a $9 billion increase in spending, a $13 billion increase in taxes and fees, a payroll increase of 58%, the revocation of STAR rebates, and among other things, sent $550 million that Western New Yorkers were overcharged for electric power into the black hole of Albany’s severely mismanaged General Fund. All this in the midst of a severe recession. Strangely, Antoine touted a plan to bring some utility relief. Not sending our hard-earned money to dunderheads in Albany would have been a good start. It was also suggested that nobody cares more for the elderly than the Democrats, though the STAR rebates went a long way towards helping the elderly with property tax credits.

People in attendance applauded more funding for zoos and parks, apparently oblivious to the fact that overtaxation and exhorbitant utility rates, coupled with low-paying jobs are causing people to lose their homes. O well, let them eat cake. Antoine also talked about jobs creation with schools projects, yet his previous vote in favor of Wicke’s Law effectively prohibits non-union competition for any of these projects. So it begs the question, are any of these jobs creation projects not completely taxpayer-funded?
It’s also amazing to me that Antoine and his ilk support the creation of Senate Majority Offices — six of them, to the tune of a million dollars apiece. If you can believe it, they are “to better serve the public.” Would someone please tell them not wasting our money on frivolous redundancy would serve us best? Of course the real purpose is to consolidate their power base, to ensure years and years of continuing abuses. And though they can use our money and abuse our trust for their own self-serving interests, they cannot find maybe $30,000 to pay a couple of lifeguards to man Woodlawn Beach.

Naturally, Antoine still hasn’t submitted the toll bill, that nearly 9000 of his constituents have been asking for, to transfer the Niagara section of the Thruway, which includes the Grand Island bridges, to the State DOT, and out of the hands of the bloated, unaccountable, and utterly mismanaged Thruway Authority. Such a move would be a glorious $20 million+ boon to WNY — but Antoine answers only to Brooklyn Democrats.

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