Guest Trump Posted February 14, 2008 Report Share Posted February 14, 2008 I don't think Mayor Ryan really "gets it". Sure, his State of the City (from the point the microphone was turned on) painted a pretty picture of Binghamton. What he fails to mention how is how close Binghamton is to its constitutional taxing limit. Real property taxes have skyrocketed in the past decade, yet services have declined. Service fees have increased and the population has decreased. Less people are being forced to pay more. During his State of the City, Ryan sang the praises of home owners. Which is awfully disingenuous when you look at his administration. -- Ryan reinstated the media director position. -- He created a youth director, when the county already has a youth borough. -- Ryan raised the salaries of his executive assistant (who is doing less work -- since the hiring of the media director). And to justify his less than stellar year in office, Ryan wants to create four commissions to study city operations. To me, this is like telling residents "I give up, let's see what you can come up with." This is a time for conservative fiscal policies, from a strong leader. Not wishy-washy leadership from a guy who's in over his head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest Posted February 14, 2008 Report Share Posted February 14, 2008 Service fees have increased. That's no BS. My sewer/water bill skyrocketed 282% in less than two year's time. My tenant's useage may have increased a bit, but certainly not 282%. WTF is that all about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Glub...glub Posted February 14, 2008 Report Share Posted February 14, 2008 Service fees have increased. That's no BS. My sewer/water bill skyrocketed 282% in less than two year's time. My tenant's useage may have increased a bit, but certainly not 282%. WTF is that all about? What you need to look at is what happened at both the water plant and the sewer plant. Both hove undergone renovations. One is done, water and the other is in constant need of money. Costs for chemicals and getting them delivered have gone up. State and federal lab tests have increased. I don't believe the increases are due to employee costs in as much as it's the actual costs to do what is needed for claen water or to treat the sewage. Really the water side is dirt cheap. Look at how much has been spent at the sewer plant over the years and you'll see that it's in a constant state of loss. It's cost us millions already !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Trump Posted February 14, 2008 Report Share Posted February 14, 2008 What you need to look at is what happened at both the water plant and the sewer plant. Both hove undergone renovations. One is done, water and the other is in constant need of money. Costs for chemicals and getting them delivered have gone up. State and federal lab tests have increased. I don't believe the increases are due to employee costs in as much as it's the actual costs to do what is needed for claen water or to treat the sewage. Really the water side is dirt cheap. Look at how much has been spent at the sewer plant over the years and you'll see that it's in a constant state of loss. It's cost us millions already !!! Correct. Yet officials like Ryan, who is in over his head, increases the size of his administration (which increases taxes) because he cannot handle the duties of mayor in a small bankrupt city. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DLord Posted February 15, 2008 Report Share Posted February 15, 2008 Service fees have increased. That's no BS. My sewer/water bill skyrocketed 282% in less than two year's time. My tenant's useage may have increased a bit, but certainly not 282%. WTF is that all about? The explanation from City Hall was because we were conserving water, revenues were not increasing. So the City was raising the fee schedule for water to compensate. This was just for the water bill portion of the water/sewer bill. This did not include the increases for waste water. So we got hit twice. And this on top of the increases of City and County Taxes! What happened to the payoff the County gave the City for taking over tax collection? If I'm not mistaken, the County paid the City over a million to take over the tax burden. So we should have had that plus the salaries paid to the now defunct city tax collectors to offset some of these increases. Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat's Eye Posted February 15, 2008 Report Share Posted February 15, 2008 And to justify his less than stellar year in office, Ryan wants to create four commissions to study city operations. To me, this is like telling residents "I give up, let's see what you can come up with." This is a time for conservative fiscal policies, from a strong leader. Not wishy-washy leadership from a guy who's in over his head. What I get from this is the Mayor wants the back up of the people, his staff, and legislation to promote consolidating the BPD and Fire into Broome County. If he does this on his own, he'll be scorned from all sides as a bully, but if he has taxpayers behind him, then the real bully unions will have to back down. 60% of our taxes go to police and fire!!!! That's absurd! How many people work for the City besides police and fire? They're making so little money! I'm not saying they all need a raise, the idea is to bring taxes down, but why on Earth should a Fireman be making twice as much as the Mayor. Doesn't make sense. We don't need as many firemen as there are. That's for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mad Russian Posted February 15, 2008 Report Share Posted February 15, 2008 What I get from this is the Mayor wants the back up of the people, his staff, and legislation to promote consolidating the BPD and Fire into Broome County. If he does this on his own, he'll be scorned from all sides as a bully, but if he has taxpayers behind him, then the real bully unions will have to back down. 60% of our taxes go to police and fire!!!! That's absurd! How many people work for the City besides police and fire? They're making so little money! I'm not saying they all need a raise, the idea is to bring taxes down, but why on Earth should a Fireman be making twice as much as the Mayor. Doesn't make sense. We don't need as many firemen as there are. That's for sure. You mean we need a Mayor with some DELETED. Come on Matt stand up, make a decision on your own. That's what we're paying you and your staff for. Maybe nobody told you, but the job you took may call for making some tough decisions that won't be popular with everyone. STEP UP OR STEP DOWN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
God Hates Us All Posted February 15, 2008 Report Share Posted February 15, 2008 The guy is not all there. There is truly something wrong with his logic. Too bad he wasn't on the top floor of the O'Niel building when it collapsed. Binghamton would be better off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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