Binghamton's Fiscal 'Nostalgia' Is Dangerous

[Guest Guest]

Binghamton's Fiscal 'Nostalgia' Is Dangerous

 

http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs.dll...34/1005/OPINION

[Guest Regretful Voter]

I should've voted for this man Drazen. A common sense approach to governing a City with less people than attend a Yankee game.

 

Instead, I'm saddened to admit that I voted for Ryan and now I/we are paying the consequences of electing an inept out of touch administration trying to turn Binghamton into Burlington, VT. These people have proven themselves to be a bunch of first time administrators keyed to fringe ideology instead of the provision of basic services in the most efficient and effective manner. What a mistake. And I am reminded of it just about every day in the news and certainly at tax time. Now soon, with a new reminder arriving 3 more times per year in the form of a water/sewer bill.

 

I hope that Mr Drazen decides to once again become a candidate for Mayor. He deserves a shot. But I fear it will take the next administration a full four year term to just unravel the damage and craziness that these people have caused and will continue to cause in the next year and a half. We need to "Restore Normalcy".

[Guest Guest]

Can we draft this guy as our new mayor?

[tom]

I have posted this before and will post it again in response to Doug Drazens comments. This was last updated on 02/11/2008.

 

http://www.taxexemptworld.com/search.asp?t...city=Binghamton

http://www.taxexemptworld.com/search.asp?t...p;county=Broome

 

Broome County has 1,172 Tax Exempt/NonProfit Organizations with a combined total income of $1,103,799,334 with combined assets of $1,182,085,728.

 

Binghamton has 578 Tax Exempt/NonProfit Organizations with a combined total income of $909,024,278 with combined assets of $1,034,014,681.

 

And the taxpayers are paying to have their garbage hauled away!!!!????

 

 

@

[Guest Guest]

I have posted this before and will post it again in response to Doug Drazens comments. This was last updated on 02/11/2008.

 

http://www.taxexemptworld.com/search.asp?t...city=Binghamton

http://www.taxexemptworld.com/search.asp?t...p;county=Broome

 

Broome County has 1,172 Tax Exempt/NonProfit Organizations with a combined total income of $1,103,799,334 with combined assets of $1,182,085,728.

 

Binghamton has 578 Tax Exempt/NonProfit Organizations with a combined total income of $909,024,278 with combined assets of $1,034,014,681.

 

And the taxpayers are paying to have their garbage hauled away!!!!????

 

 

This is CRAZY!!!

[Guest Guest]

LMAO!

[Guest Guest]

What a joke this Drazen guy is! He's Binghamton's own Jim Jones!

[Guest Guest]

What a joke this Drazen guy is! He's Binghamton's own Jim Jones!

No, he's probably Binghamton's next mayor

[Guest Guest]

Probably the reason why Binghamton is so far ahead in charity value and income is because it has hospitals, which are tax exempt and probably already pay to have their garbage removed. I also think that the holding and profit you claim for binghamton are only liusted for binghamton because of a PO Box or a main office. Most of the property is probably owned outside the city. UHS is listed for binghamton even though one of its hospitals and many of its offices are outside of binghamton.

[Guest Guest]

Probably the reason why Binghamton is so far ahead in charity value and income is because it has hospitals, which are tax exempt and probably already pay to have their garbage removed. I also think that the holding and profit you claim for binghamton are only liusted for binghamton because of a PO Box or a main office. Most of the property is probably owned outside the city. UHS is listed for binghamton even though one of its hospitals and many of its offices are outside of binghamton.

 

You've done some great nit picking there, but I am immediately attracted to someone who thinks the way this Drazen is thinking. And that's probably the point of this thread, not specifics of who gets trash hauled for free.

[Guest flyscotsman]

You've done some great nit picking there, but I am immediately attracted to someone who thinks the way this Drazen is thinking. And that's probably the point of this thread, not specifics of who gets trash hauled for free.

 

Yep. The City of Binghamton needs to focus first and foremost on quality of life issues in the city core. That does not mean putting up antiqued streetlights and installing a roundabout, it means arresting criminals, cleaning up blight, and enforcing the code. There needs to be a "green zone", and this needs to be done in the entire "Binghamton downtown" area, from Kennedy Fried Chicken to Stuyvesant Street, from the ballpark and Lackawanna Station to Conklin Ave, to create a proper, attractive city core that can support businesses and new residents, which will drive up property values and give Binghamton the tax base it needs to start extending the program into the First Ward and other benighted neighborhoods. Instead, the City Centre neighborhood has continued to visibly decline with Ryan in charge.

 

The O'Neil building needs to come down, posthaste. Screaming drunks wandering the streets at 2 AM need to be arrested and thrown in a cell overnight. Violence at the Kennedy Fried Chicken and in the surrounding area needs to be treated as the major community issue it actually is, not dismissed. County transit needs to be placed under intense pressure from the City of Binghamton to clean their buses more regularly and control passenger behavior. Downtown parking needs to be improved dramatically. In the long run, we need rail service to New York City to make tourism more viable, to attract telecommuting professionals, and to ease student travel. Tourism, in particular, is a major boon this area can enjoy, but it isn't going to happen as long as our key city is visibly filthy.

[Guest Regretful Voter]

What a joke this Drazen guy is! He's Binghamton's own Jim Jones!

 

No. The joke is presently in office. Unfortunately for those of us who pay our bills, raising our water rates by 40% to cover administrative ineptitude in collecting 1.4 million dollars in outstanding water fees is not a joke.

 

 

@

[Guest Guest]

Yep. The City of Binghamton needs to focus first and foremost on quality of life issues in the city core. That does not mean putting up antiqued streetlights and installing a roundabout, it means arresting criminals, cleaning up blight, and enforcing the code. There needs to be a "green zone", and this needs to be done in the entire "Binghamton downtown" area, from Kennedy Fried Chicken to Stuyvesant Street, from the ballpark and Lackawanna Station to Conklin Ave, to create a proper, attractive city core that can support businesses and new residents, which will drive up property values and give Binghamton the tax base it needs to start extending the program into the First Ward and other benighted neighborhoods. Instead, the City Centre neighborhood has continued to visibly decline with Ryan in charge.

 

The O'Neil building needs to come down, posthaste. Screaming drunks wandering the streets at 2 AM need to be arrested and thrown in a cell overnight. Violence at the Kennedy Fried Chicken and in the surrounding area needs to be treated as the major community issue it actually is, not dismissed. County transit needs to be placed under intense pressure from the City of Binghamton to clean their buses more regularly and control passenger behavior. Downtown parking needs to be improved dramatically. In the long run, we need rail service to New York City to make tourism more viable, to attract telecommuting professionals, and to ease student travel. Tourism, in particular, is a major boon this area can enjoy, but it isn't going to happen as long as our key city is visibly filthy.

 

 

AMEN

[Guest Guest]

Yep. The City of Binghamton needs to focus first and foremost on quality of life issues in the city core. That does not mean putting up antiqued streetlights and installing a roundabout, it means arresting criminals, cleaning up blight, and enforcing the code. Tourism, in particular, is a major boon this area can enjoy, but it isn't going to happen as long as our key city is visibly filthy.

 

Alriiiiiiiiiiighty then.

 

I walk my dogs every day. I can't believe the amount of litter and crap in the streets.

I realize some of it is left over from winter, but holy crap. It's everywhere. All over the streets, the grass between the streets and sidewalk.

 

Personally, I'm tired of picking up my neighbor's garbage. The westerly wind blows it across the street into my yard daily. It's become a lot worse this last year. I pick it up daily.

 

WTF???

[Guest Trump]

Let's hope Doug runs. He was right in 2005 and he's right today.

 

 

@

[Guest Guest]

Drazen, can run again all he wants. He canm run until he i sblue in the face. He will never be elected in this county.

 

I'm not even sure why The Press & Sun-Bulletin ran this pointless viewpoint. Was it all to say Drazen wants not-for-profits to pay for their garabge collection? Does he know it is not paid now? Has he done an inventory of garbage collection fees? He has talked to Taylor, Adams, WMT and all the other haulers? Does he have any idea what this might add in revenue?

 

All more of Drazen's hot air.

 

Give him a pointy stick and a scraper to get the gum off the sidewalk.

 

Friggin' clown.

 

I don't think Doug Drazen really has much of an understanding about what not-for-profits are or do or what they pay or don't pay whether in Binghamton or JC or anywhere else.. Has he ever been associated with one. As far as I can tell Doug Drazen have never done anything for anyone EXCEPT Doug Drazen.

 

Doug Drazen is back to his simplistic mantras.

 

"Bad, bad, not-for-profits"....

 

First, some of the not-for-profits do pay property taxes. I know that for a hard fact.

 

Secondly, often not-for-profits are doing things nobody in the private sector wants to do because they are either unprofitable or unpopular. Something just will not happen unless a not-for-profit does them.

 

Third, not-for-profit definitely does not mean "government" as Citizen 101 wrote on Pressconnects.com, "This is why it is very difficult for young people to return home and work here unless they work for government (aka a non-profit)." In fact, many not-for-profits are considered NGOs (NON-Governmental Organizations...)

 

Fourth, Mr. Drazen's own penchant for nostalgia seems to creep into his writing. Twice Mr. Drazen refers to "productivity", "Judging from the steep losses in population, productivity and property values Binghamton has suffered over the last two decades, making pursuit and preservation of federal grants city government's central purpose has not brought us that kind of reputation.", and "If Binghamton is to have any chance to enjoy the kind of progress, productivity and prosperity its political leaders claim they want to achieve, that change must come much sooner than later."

 

Mr. Drazen seems to want interchange "productivity" with "manufacturing".

 

Doug, the 1950s are gone.

 

They are gone.

 

Manufacturing, as you want to understand it, Doug, will not return. Sure, there are a few manufacturing industries still around and sure it would nice if a few more could be found but fundamentally the economy has changed, Doug.

 

So, when you refer to productivity what do you mean? What do you want? One could easily argue all the patients going to Wilson Hospital for cyberknife technology is our new productivity. All the cars spilling out from the malls onto the Parkway could be our new "productivity".

 

Fifth, as for this hauling of garbage for free, not-for-profits outside of the City of Binghamton certainly pay for their waste collection and water and sewer fees, I'm assuming they pay for much of it in Binghamton too, so I'm not sure how much you think you can raise there.

 

Finally, be careful what you wish for Doug. One could easily argue that it is better to have a not-for-profit using and maintaining a building rather than having it sit empty and fall apart, left to the City or the County to hold, without any more taxes being paid but with much more blight and deterioration taking place.

 

I find it ironic Douglas Walter Drazen, who is stuck in the past, is complaining about nostalgia. Doug is an anachronism, a throwback to a byegone era that will never exist again, not the 1960s that he mentions in his article but the 1950s. His supposed “solutions “are simplistic, naïve and obsolete. Look what his Mayoral term-limit legislation brought us, the worse Mayor in the history of the City of Binghamton.

 

Doug, as I have told you directly before, if you want to make yourself useful, work on getting a Recall Law passed in NY State, look at filing class action suit for Binghamton water users or file for an injunction of the water rate increase until we can prove what the increase should be and why it is needed. You scare and amuse people, Doug. You will never be elected to anything in this county. You would make a decent corporate council. Work with somebody; seek to correct the mistake you brought about last election.

 

 

@

[Guest Listener]

Shush Ed.