Fundraiser planned for Senate Democrats (Friday)

By Rus Thompson | 07/15/09

  Top Democrat rips Senate staff raises Erie County’s top Democrat says voters should be angry over Senate Democrats’ secret pay raises for top staff. “Coming at this time, at a time when the state is in tough fiscal shape, certainly people have a right to be angry about it,” said Democrat Chairman Len Lenihan. Meantime, it was revealed that WNY Sens. Antoine Thompson and Bill Stachowski also lavished fat raises... read more »

Stimulus money plugs budget gaps while little goes to road construction in New York state

By Rus Thompson | 07/13/09

How Antionne Thompson and Stachowski wasted the stimulus A new government report found that Democrat-led Albany has spent less than 3 percent of its billions of dollars in federal stimulus on new construction projects that create jobs. Most of the money was used to plug gaps in the Democrat-crafted, out-of-balance state budget, as well as routine and overdue maintenance projects, like cleaning and repainting bridges, the GAO report... read more »

Money for nothing? State Senators doled out fat raises to staffers while Albany paralyzed

By Rus Thompson | 07/13/09

A. Thompson and Stachowski’s leaders handed out pay hikes while Albany dithered Even as they were locked in a month-long stalemate and facing warnings of gaping new holes in the bloated state budget they approved, A. Thompson Bill Stachowski’s do-nothing Senate Democrat Leaders handed out whopping pay raises to their staff last month. The pay raises of as much as 51 percent went to top aides to Sens. Malcolm Smith and John... read more »

A Long and Continuous Stream of Abuses

By Rus Thompson | 07/13/09

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... read more »

It's obvious Albany can't clean up its own mess

By Rus Thompson | 07/13/09

Even former governor agrees with us, he see we need a Constitutional Convention too. This oped was in the Wall Street Journal. So how can you help the taxpaying citizens of New York State Mr Cuomo? Will he help us push for this? We can only hope at this point. New York Needs a Constitutional Convention It’s obvious Albany can’t clean up its own mess. By GERALD BENJAMIN and MARIO M. CUOMO For the past month, the New York State... read more »

62 wrongos make a right: State Senate kills a bad bill for selfish reasons

By Rus Thompson | 07/13/09

This is how things work in Albany, vengeance politics instead of looking out for the people involved. Although I agree that this Bill should have failed, the reasoning is payback. Payback for DiNapoli holding back their pay. See if DiNapoli had simply let our Lawsuit go forward he would have had his hand forced by the taxpayers. His actions hindered our efforts and just as expected he gave them all their pay, per diem and cash vouchers. Our... read more »

ERIE COUNTY: TV ads coming to DMV lines

By Rus Thompson | 07/13/09

Oh isn’t this going to be exciting, we can all watch commercials while waiting in line to pay the highest DMV fees in the country. They will stop at nothing to raise more and more money, problem is we never seem to benefit from increased income to the government. They do. People waiting in line at several Erie County DMV locations will soon have more to look at than the back of someone else’s head. The county legislature has... read more »

Senate Majority Leader Espada?

By Rus Thompson | 07/10/09

  Isn’t it just amazing that after a month of calling this guy corrupt, accusing him of having too many issues to be in charge, he is now the Senate Majority Leader. And maybe even worse is Malcolm Smith as President Pro Tem. So if Paterson ups and croaks we will have Smith as Governor. My god we are really totally screwed in this state. Another is Monseratte, he has his issues accuse dof stabbing his girl with a broken bottle?... read more »

NY'S PENSION PERIL IT'S WORSE THAN THEY SAY

By Rus Thompson | 07/10/09

This is yet another huge warning sign of the pension tsunami that is headed our way. Something that should have been taken care of years ago still haunts us all. Sheldon Silver is the number one obstructionist when it comes to any changes that must be made. He is in bed with these unions that fight us every step. NEW York state’s pension system lost 26 percent on its investments and shrunk by a net $45 billion in fiscal 2008-09,... read more »

Temporary State Assessment TAX

By Rus Thompson | 07/09/09

Where was the press and the partnership on this? did anyone read the budget? Andy Rudnick supported the Stachowski candidacy. Do you think Stachowski even knew this new tax was in the budget bill? And everyone thinks our private sector leadership is just fine. I don’t think so. Neither Margaret SULLIVAN NOR ANDY RUDNICK ARE CAPABLE OF HANDLING THEIR ENORMOUS RESPONSIBILITIES TO OUR COMMUNITY. Carl... read more »