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News Blogs
 
Legislature's giveaways
By Carl Strock
Monday, April 14, 2008
As I explain in my column in the Daily Gazette (Tuesday), the state Legislature accomplished a few things during the rush of budget bills that received little media attention. It virtually locked non-union contractors out of big public works construction jobs, and it required local school boards to provide the same health insurance to retired employees as to active employees. One was a sop to the construction trade unions, the other was a sop to the teachers’ unions. Both passed unanimously, without debate. So please don’t take too seriously the pledges you hear from your local senator or assemblyman about holding down your property taxes. When it comes to voting on things that directly affect your property taxes, like public construction and school health insurance, your local senator and your local assemblyman dependably vote against you. The limiting of public construction jobs to the trade unions, by the way, was disguised as reform of the much-maligned Wicks Law, in case you might have heard about that. The school health insurance bill wasn’t disguised as anything. It just slid through with the rest of the budget package. There were no hearings, no debates, no public notice, no nothing. Just the usual sleight of hand. The usual waving one hand in the air for distraction while dealing from the bottom of the deck with the other.
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May 11, 2008
11:53 a.m. [ Suggest removal ]
I don't want to talk about the union right now, I'm upset about the story of the man getting beat up in Hamilton Hill. 30 kids roaming the street at 1:30 in the morning? Where are the parents? The cop spokesman answered it, they don't care about that, but they'd raise hell if the cops talked to their kids. So now we get another lawsuit. What's this moron doing walking thru those neighborhoods at 1:30? Not a thing right with this whole scenario. Maybe the cops weren't specifically on their beat, but come on, this isn't the cops fault. Not at all.
7:30 a.m. [ Suggest removal ]
In regards to the man who got beat up walking home from work.Where are the parents at this hour?Do we as citizens expect a cop on every corner?When the parents crawl out of bed to go to the police station to complain that their child has been harrassed they should be arrested for child neglect.When will the parents take some responsibility and stop blaming the police for all their problems!
3:33 p.m. [ Suggest removal ]
I agree there is something grievously wrong when a gang of teenagers jumps a man walking home from work, late at night, and beats the tar out of him apparently just for the fun of it. This is savagery.
Yes, the police should always have a car on Hamilton Hill, not a mile away on Erie Boulevard, especially late at night, but no, you can't have a cop on every corner or on every block. At some point people are responsible for themselves, and parents are responsible for their children.