People constantly vote against their own best interests. The village I live in had the opportunity to merge its police force with the town we're in and it would have saved every homeowner in the village over $300 a year without job loses or reduction in services. Guess how that turned out? Overwhelmingly voted down. I just don't understand the shortsightedness and parochialism of my fellow citizens. But we live in a democracy so the majority rules. It's just disappointing to see the same group of people then complain about their taxes when they had a chance to reduce them.

How does a janitor get a $79,000 a year pension? That is the real question. Only in NY!

I disagree with BilP about making the Gazette online edition free. I won't comment on partnerships, but I will say that the news model just doesn't work when you give away your content for free. That is why the WallStreet Journal and NY Times have a pay wall. It costs money to produce content and web ads, while certainly a source of revenue, have not become a big enough source to fund an operation like the Gazette. I think that rather than encouraging more papers to abandon the pay wall, I think that more papers should adopt it. When I was a kid someone told me that you get what you pay for, and I have found that to be true with free "news". I will continue to subscribe in both print and online and encourage the Gazette publishers to keep fighting the good fight.

Good ole Schenectady, some things never change. Secret meetings and backdoor deals with the unions; it's a modern day Tammany Hall. They say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Keep electing these folks, just don't be surprised by the results.

I know of at least two couples who moved out of Schenectady in the last three years due to the ever-increasing taxes. I know another couple currently looking to sell and move out. These were all gainfully employed, tax-paying, homeowner families the exact type of people that Schenectady is trying to attract. Until the local elected officials figure out how to fix their budgetary issues without raising taxes, there's simply no hope. You can't dig your way out of a hole, and you can't tax your way out of a budget crisis. Until you fix the underlying problems you're just putting a bandaid on the wound.

“People need to listen to the public, and the public is saying no more taxes,” he said following the meeting.

That's right, the public says enough is enough. I hope we all remember who voted for this tax increase during the next election cycle. I'm a registered dem, have been my whole life, but I just can't continue supporting a party that treats other people's money like a bottomless piggy bank. That money comes from real people, who are all struggling. This tax increase is INSANE and I hope that hundreds to people attend the October 15th meeting to voice opposition. I know I will be there. And don't forget you can email your county legislators: legislature@schenectadycounty.com

The tax cap at least provides a bench mark, tied to the rate of inflation, by which to measure how bad the local electeds are going to fleece us this year. In the past, they could say, "we're only raising taxes 8 percent and you should be thankful we didn't go for the 16 percent we wanted!" Although wouldn't it be nice if the county and towns had to pass a referendum vote like school districts have to, then you'd see some real change in the budgeting process.

Mayor Gary McCarthy...saying that the tax increase “doesn’t seem like that bad of a number.” And that pretty much sums it up. When you have an elected official proposing a deficit budget, even with a tax increase that is fiscally irresponsible. No household could ever run their budget like that because you couldn't go to your employer and say, I'm spending more than I make so I'm going to require a 4 percent wage increase. Wouldn't that be nice! No, in the real world we have mandates (taxes, insurance, etc.) to deal with and we make cuts accordingly. Schenectady will continue it's slow, steady decline with this type of inspired "leadership". Keep up the good work!

First off, I am not a teacher. Secondly, I am all for transparency, but what is to be gained by making teacher evaluations available to the public? Knowing whether a teacher receives a good or poor evaluation isn't going to create a mechanism to help him/her improve. It isn't going to create a way to get rid of them if they are persistently failing. All it's going to do is give ammunition to all of the teacher haters of the world.
I think that this whole discussion is really a waste of time. It's no secret why some schools have high graduation rates and others low; and it doesn't have anything to do with the teachers. The problems are concentrated poverty and concentrated wealth. And many of our communities are rigidly segregated by income rather than race. Undoubtedly, there are always examples of people who rise up from the most difficult of circumstances, but the fact remains that on average, your entire life outcomes (school, health, income level, mortality) can be largely predicted just by your mother’s educational attainment. We live in a country that is increasingly hostile toward the poor, and so when we see statistics like public schools with less the 50 percent graduation rates we want to blame the teachers when the real problems, and their solutions, are far more complex. However, most people prefer an easy answer, especially when it lets them off the hook morally.