Schenectady has demonstrated several times that they won't do the job correctly the first time (Upper Union, Downtown, and Seward Place are 3 examples). My tax burden accounts for 45% of my mortgage payment. How much more am I supposed to pay? How many programs and services do I have to support?

This sounds great in theory. In practice, how are the small, part-time business owners (often a one-person operation) supposed to keep track of tax rates by multiple counties in multiple states? In NYS, tax rates differ by county based on the point of delivery. So if I sell a widget to Saratoga and an identical widget to Schenectady, the final prices are different because of taxes. Federal taxation with current tax codes would mean people like me would have to stop selling online.

There's no confirmation that the machine saw my choices and registered them correctly.

Yes, I filled in the circles. Yes, the machine accepted my piece of paper and I saw the message that my vote had been counted. But there is still no final verification that the machine sees my choices.

There was a water main break off of Eastern Ave last night around the same time. Different area. Anyone else?

It's not "...just kids being stupid." The violence after school has been going on for months. But the prime offenders are under 16 so can't be charged.