County Republicans were just going through the motions when they suggested that State Senate candidate Ted O’Brien wants to raise your taxes because he’s a Democrat.
That Republican play’s so by-the-book it’s actually mentioned in the Gutenberg Bible.
This time, though, county Democrats pointed out while O’Brien has never voted for a tax increase his Republican opponent, Sean Hanna, has. That was in 2003, when Hanna was in the county legislature.
Suddenly it’s the Democratic candidate who can credibly claim to be the anti-tax candidate — and the Republican who has shown a willingness to bite the bullet and raise your property taxes when government needed the funding.
O’Brien is just one tremor in an earthquake. In 2010 the Democrats didn’t just oppose Maggie Brooks’ budget for Monroe County: They offered an alternative budget that contained a tax cut. It was rejected by the Republican majority.
Get it? The Democrats wanted to lower your property taxes more than the Republicans did.
Asked about whether he feels Monroe County needs new revenues, O’Brien says sure … but that a property tax increase is simply off the table.
Just ten years ago Democrats were arguing — correctly — that Monroe County desperately needed new revenues to solve a structural budget crisis, and that property taxes would likely have to be part of the solution. The county’s leading Democrat at the time, Bill Johnson, absolutely refused to take them off the table when he ran for county executive against Brooks.
Today the Democrats are running to the right of Republicans on taxes. Politically, the county’s Democrats now find themselves exactly where Brooks was eight years ago: pledging to bring the county to fiscal health by cutting costs, increasing efficiency, pursuing consolidation where it makes sense, and finding new revenue streams — but never, ever, raising property taxes.
That was exactly her platform then, and it’s their platform today.
Hey, how’s that worked for us?
Well, according to a press release from the Democratic Minority Caucus of the County Legislature (headed by O’Brien) “this administration has decimated the County’s financial well-being. With net assets having declined almost 50% in the past decade, this County is headed straight for bankruptcy.”
So … could be better?
Democrats are once again right on the facts: The Brooks administration has balanced the books only by selling off assets and taking on debt — moving the county’s long-term prospects from “bad” to “worse” to “call a priest.” And they’ve done it by following exactly the approach that county Democrats now endorse.
County Republicans were just going through the motions when they suggested that State Senate candidate Ted O’Brien wants to raise your taxes because he’s a Democrat.
That Republican play’s so by-the-book it’s actually mentioned in the Gutenberg Bible.
This time, though, county Democrats pointed out while O’Brien has never voted for a tax increase his Republican opponent, Sean Hanna, has. That was in 2003, when Hanna was in the county legislature.
Suddenly it’s the Democratic candidate who can credibly claim to be the anti-tax candidate — and the Republican who has shown a willingness to bite the bullet and raise your property taxes when government needed the funding.
O’Brien is just one tremor in an earthquake. In 2010 the Democrats didn’t just oppose Maggie Brooks’ budget for Monroe County: They offered an alternative budget that contained a tax cut. It was rejected by the Republican majority.
Get it? The Democrats wanted to lower your property taxes more than the Republicans did.
Asked about whether he feels Monroe County needs new revenues, O’Brien says sure … but that a property tax increase is simply off the table.
Just ten years ago Democrats were arguing — correctly — that Monroe County desperately needed new revenues to solve a structural budget crisis, and that property taxes would likely have to be part of the solution. The county’s leading Democrat at the time, Bill Johnson, absolutely refused to take them off the table when he ran for county executive against Brooks.
Today the Democrats are running to the right of Republicans on taxes. Politically, the county’s Democrats now find themselves exactly where Brooks was eight years ago: pledging to bring the county to fiscal health by cutting costs, increasing efficiency, pursuing consolidation where it makes sense, and finding new revenue streams — but never, ever, raising property taxes.
That was exactly her platform then, and it’s their platform today.
Hey, how’s that worked for us?
Well, according to a press release from the Democratic Minority Caucus of the County Legislature (headed by O’Brien) “this administration has decimated the County’s financial well-being. With net assets having declined almost 50% in the past decade, this County is headed straight for bankruptcy.”
So … could be better?
Democrats are once again right on the facts: The Brooks administration has balanced the books only by selling off assets and taking on debt — moving the county’s long-term prospects from “bad” to “worse” to “call a priest.” And they’ve done it by following exactly the approach that county Democrats now endorse.
I have a hard time blaming Brooks for our currents woes however, because early in her first term she proposed something radical: A small sales-tax increase that would help every government in Monroe County keep solvent while the county cut expenses. It was big thinking, it was a great idea, and county Republicans eventually fell into line — just like they’d fallen into line in 2003 when they’d passed a property tax increase meant to give the incoming Brooks some fiscal breathing room.
It never happened, however: Because instead of taking a victory lap, Democrats opposed the plan and tried to use it against her. “Can you believe that Maggie Brooks?” they asked. “Trying to raise your taxes like Bill Johnson said he’d probably need to?”
Brooks learned her lesson and never proposed a significant structural reform again — and it’s hard to blame her when she could coast to victory by following the same old playbook.
The tax increase that Sean Hanna voted for was part of a responsible budget — it was the right choice. Voters may not like to hear that, but voters are still facing the same stark choice they were eight years ago … only now it’s much, much worse.
To solve its structural deficit, Monroe County must adopt some combination of cutting services people value and raising more revenue through taxes.
Everything else is tinkering around the edges. A responsible candidate would tell us that. But we don’t vote for those — and they know it.
Benjamin Wachs writes for Messenger Post Media, and is the editor of Fiction365.com. Email him at Benjamin@Fiction365.com.
