Monday, February 26, 2007

The State of Our County Is . . .

She put it out there, time to break it down.

"And tonight I can stand before you and safely say the state of our County continues to grow stronger every day."

Harrah!

"Monroe County’s unemployment rate is now at its lowest point in five years."

True. But according to the Department of Labor fewer people are employed in Monroe now then when Brooks took office. All the unemployment rate means is that people are leaving.

"Visitors are traveling to our region in rapidly-growing numbers, and tourism continues to serve as an important economic engine...generating more than $800 million dollars for our County’s economy."

Really? Where is this money and how is it being used?

"And, despite a few snow flurries, our quality of life continues to be second to none."

dear lord . . .

"In 1980 there were 330,000 jobs in Monroe County . . . the job count today for this County is 382,000."

Twenty years of economic growth that took place before she was in office. As stated earlier, number of people employed actually down since 2003.

". . . companies are creating 6,900 new jobs, retaining over 28,000 jobs"


Hell, we'll eventually employ 213 people here at the WBP, give us some tax breaks and praise us for nothing. And, again, number of jobs, down; how is that a retention of 28,000 jobs?

"Last December, the Monroe County IDA pledged a $300,000 investment to Greater Rochester Enterprise."

GRE and the County's involvement just bothers me, read more here and here. Essentially this organization takes Monroe County tax dollars to invest in so-called economic development in surrounding counties.

". . . we must do everything in our power to give our young talent the tools they need to become the innovators and entrepreneurs of tomorrow. That is why I am pleased to announce that Monroe County is working with Frontier to develop a wireless internet network that will serve significant portions of Greece, Pittsford and the City of Rochester...as well as portions of the surrounding towns by the end of the year.
-snip-
. . . I will be working with our Juvenile Justice Council to convene a summit of parents, students, teachers, school administrators and law enforcement professionals this summer to address the growing epidemic of cyber-bullying . . . our County has created an on-line guide for parents to help their children navigate the information superhighway safely and securely."


If the internet is so dangerous why are we putting wireless networks everywhere? Ooooh . . . so we can have more grandstanding, preelection, stir up the base debates about whether to filter and/or ban them.

"Monroe County continues to struggle with an annual budget shortfall of $45-million dollars. The reason is simple. 79% of our budget is controlled by Washington and Albany. 79% of our revenue is used to pay for programs required by the federal and state government, but with little or no local authority to control their rising cost . . . upstate counties will go bankrupt under the burden of unfunded mandates...and the continued growth of the Medicaid program."

So she was right once. Read more here.

"We are known for our entertainment and culture and names like Chuck and Gap Mangione"


Did Chuck give the okay for this? Did the Mega-Lo checks stop coming?

"For as President Reagan wisely said...we are the showcase of the future...and it can be as grand...and as great as we make it."

Amen sister, I feel trickled upon -

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