Unfortunately Mary Anna I wish I could share your professed innocence. This is the same body (the Legislature) that are looking to raise their pay from $79,500+per diems for "living expenses" in Albany ranging from $71 to $165 per night, no questions asked, no need to produce receipts or evidence that they actually were in Albany. Many of them get stipends of thousands of dollars for chairing committees that seldom actually meet. Instead the chair of the committee gets proxies from all the majority members and the ranking member gets proxies from all the minority ranking members, they record the "votes" and the bill is given to the Speaker or Senate majority leader's office to work out with the other house and the Governor. The only reason we know the per diem game is going on, is because an FBI investigation caught Brooklyn Assemblyman William Boyland arranging from bribes from them, then turning around and charging the Assembly for having supposedly been in Albany when he was in New York City meeting with the FBI. The average income in NY, by the way, is $51,126. Also by the way, the State Legislature is supposed to be "part time".
Joe Bruno, a so-called "small government" Republican spent over thirty years taking a very nice government salary from the taxpayers and is now demanding that we give him $2.4 million to cover his legal bills from having been tried for corruption. I don't know from what rock you crawled out of as pure as the white snow but I am not surprised or shocked in the slightest bit. The people of this state are as dumb as the politicians they elect to office if not dumber. They can talk about smaller government and less tax money spent all they want except it seems when it's THEIR project or THEIR senator who's been there since most of them were in grade school. Then that person's as good as gold, trying to "fight" against the Democrats' incompetence or the Republicans' tyranny or what have you. Spare me. If people are dumb enough to elect the same people over year in and year out for 20 or 30 years, allowing them to pull down private no-show "income" from other sources, they deserve what they get.
No different here in Monroe County. Cheryl DiNolfo will claim to be "fighting" against "government" "waste" and "abuse". She's been County Clerk for a decade, taking over $800,000 in governmental salary in that decade. She's not going to trim the government, she IS the government. By the way, average income in Monroe County was $43,894 in 2011. Brooks hasn't saved taxpayers a dime, despite her profession to do everything for "the taxpayers", whoever they are. Rather she and her husband have made themselves public sector millionaires over her career. She hasn't worked in the private sector in 20 years.
Re: “Shelly Silver's sweet gig”
Unfortunately Mary Anna I wish I could share your professed innocence. This is the same body (the Legislature) that are looking to raise their pay from $79,500+per diems for "living expenses" in Albany ranging from $71 to $165 per night, no questions asked, no need to produce receipts or evidence that they actually were in Albany. Many of them get stipends of thousands of dollars for chairing committees that seldom actually meet. Instead the chair of the committee gets proxies from all the majority members and the ranking member gets proxies from all the minority ranking members, they record the "votes" and the bill is given to the Speaker or Senate majority leader's office to work out with the other house and the Governor. The only reason we know the per diem game is going on, is because an FBI investigation caught Brooklyn Assemblyman William Boyland arranging from bribes from them, then turning around and charging the Assembly for having supposedly been in Albany when he was in New York City meeting with the FBI. The average income in NY, by the way, is $51,126. Also by the way, the State Legislature is supposed to be "part time".
Joe Bruno, a so-called "small government" Republican spent over thirty years taking a very nice government salary from the taxpayers and is now demanding that we give him $2.4 million to cover his legal bills from having been tried for corruption. I don't know from what rock you crawled out of as pure as the white snow but I am not surprised or shocked in the slightest bit. The people of this state are as dumb as the politicians they elect to office if not dumber. They can talk about smaller government and less tax money spent all they want except it seems when it's THEIR project or THEIR senator who's been there since most of them were in grade school. Then that person's as good as gold, trying to "fight" against the Democrats' incompetence or the Republicans' tyranny or what have you. Spare me. If people are dumb enough to elect the same people over year in and year out for 20 or 30 years, allowing them to pull down private no-show "income" from other sources, they deserve what they get.
No different here in Monroe County. Cheryl DiNolfo will claim to be "fighting" against "government" "waste" and "abuse". She's been County Clerk for a decade, taking over $800,000 in governmental salary in that decade. She's not going to trim the government, she IS the government. By the way, average income in Monroe County was $43,894 in 2011. Brooks hasn't saved taxpayers a dime, despite her profession to do everything for "the taxpayers", whoever they are. Rather she and her husband have made themselves public sector millionaires over her career. She hasn't worked in the private sector in 20 years.