Carrying the Water

Have you ever carried someone else’s water? I have. Not knowingly, but I carried it just the same having convinced myself that the water was actually mine. Chalk it up to political naiveté or just plain ego. More likely it was a combination of both. Anyway, after several years of maneuvering, or being maneuvered as the case may be, I’ve finally arrived back at where I started but a lot wiser and certainly more perceptive. In short, I’m pretty sure I know which water is mine to carry. I just hope it’s not too heavy.

Taxman

Let me tell you how it will be
There's one for you, nineteen for me

Taxes. George Harrison captured the emotion we all feel when we begin to realize just how much in taxes we pay. Just how much is enough?

If you drive a car, I'll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I'll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.

We’re getting absolutely crushed by taxes, in New York State particularly. Property taxes are skyrocketing. Sales taxes are incrementally increased with greater frequency. George might have been exaggerating about the degree to which we’re taxed in his lyric, but his disdain for the taxman was never clearer.

So what will it take to reverse the pain? I know I don’t have the answer but I know where to start. Don’t vote for the incumbent at election time. I know it sounds wacky but how else are we going to get our elected officials to listen? We need across the board spending cuts in conjunction with no tax increases. One without the other is a losing game.

For example, Schenectady County is already in dire fiscal straits with budget shortfalls. How does that happen? It’s poor, some would say incompetent, budget forecasting. The problem, I think, is that they do the forecasting in reverse, essentially manufacturing the projected numbers to get them to what they already intend to spend. Somehow it continues. People complain but they fail to translate that outrage into different outcomes. In short, we keep getting screwed. More to the point, we keep letting them screw us.

I’d abolish the entire tax code as we know it, if it were up to me. It’s not.

Now my advice for those who die
Declare the pennies on your eyes
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman
And you're working for no one but me.

Don’t I know it.

The Wind

The prospect of wind farms in Rotterdam took a small step forward at last Tuesday’s Planning Commission meeting when a 197 foot temporary test tower was approved. The tower is approved for up to three years and it may well turn out that there is not enough wind to make a full-blown wind farm economically viable. This newly approved tower will be situate to already existing cell phone towers apparently.

Though only one resident spoke out against the tower, the concerns voiced were aimed more at future efforts to erect a wind farm and therefore were slightly misdirected. It will, nonetheless, warrant much closer scrutiny as this initiative progresses and the onus will be on the Town Board to make sure zoning is updated and sufficient to ensure proper safeguards should a larger scale project emerge.

Alternative energy is vitally important but look for this issue to heat up if a wind farm is eventually proposed as it was in Cherry Valley.