Building on our Lancaster success, and to maintain momentum for our petition efforts next spring, I’ve spent the past several weeks in Cheektowaga and Amherst. Meeting with council members in each town, I renewed my effort to downsize both boards from 7 to 5 members.
Amherst and Cheektowaga are Erie County’s only towns with seven- member boards. I first proposed that they reduce in a visit to Cheektowaga, last December, and Amherst, last January, during my tour of our 45 municipalities. Since then, I’ve kept pushing.
Reducing our two largest towns from 7 to 5-member boards will set the stage for us to petition smaller towns to reduce from 5 to 3-member boards. As well, it will strengthen my proposal now before the Erie County Legislature to decrease from 15 to 9.
As we advance our cause, we never lose sight of the harsh realities that render these reforms necessary. Erie County’s 439 elected officials is more than 10 times the number of politicians than any like-sized area in America. And the cost of sustaining them, $32 million per year, thwarts any effort to turn our economy around. By having all 45 municipalities eliminate 2 positions, we can begin to create the prosperous, sustainable community that every Western New Yorker deserves.
This evening, the Cheektowaga town board votes on taking the first step toward adopting my plan. Hope to see you there.
December 2, 2008 at 2:22 am |
Dear Kevin,
December 2, 2008 at 2:41 am |
Dear Kevin,
I appreciate you remembering about first time meeting at Shanghi Red’s. I recieved your book and plan on reading it. I was in inspired by the imformation I learned that i told everyone i know about your website. To my suprise, alot of people know about The Cost.com which shows me that there will be a bright future for my daughter thanks to Kevin’s mission to inspire people to take control of the money thats not getting spent on the necessary area’s such as education. Thank you for your efforts.
February 2, 2009 at 9:59 pm |
So everyone’s surprised that in Amherst, a Zeplowitz poll shows that by a 2-1 margin people support downsizing? Why?
I think a lot of it is that once again, people are being denied democracy. The fact that Board after Board is REFUSING TO EVEN LET THE VOTERS OF THEIR OWN TOWNS DECIDE THIS ISSUE is ridiculous. Welcome to benevolent government– “We know better than you do, and we’ve done such a good job of it since 1970 or so running WNY and the state in general into the ground.” Thanks, guys and gals.
It’s particularly galling in Amherst because Satish Mohan got elected as a populist, and like many politicians, now mistrusts the people who put him into power.
They’ve already got one vacant seat there; last time I checked, the town isn’t falling apart yet. Is another one going to kill them?
June 4, 2009 at 3:04 pm |
Kevin, just wanted to say you I appreciate your efforts. This will be a long road but must start somewhere and applaud your efforts. My wife, son and I moved away from WNY 18 months ago and are enjoying much lower cost of living and 1/3 taxes than what I paid in Cheektowaga. I miss friends and family that we left behind but have made new friends here in Tennessee. Each time we have friends from WNY visit they fall in love with the area and tell us now they know why we moved. Since January 1 our town has layoff off 14 employees and the county announced layoffs of 100 employees 2 weeks ago, when was the last time Cheektowaga, Erie County or any other township layed off employees? Just last week my town announced tax rate reductions, when was the last time WNY heard news like that?
I wish you success with your efforts and ideas, breaking the mindset that taxes are high because of New York City and holding elected officials accountable for poor decision making. Who knows where we may end up next, but if it is WNY you can bet I will join your cause to make a difference. One thing that gets me whenever I come back to visit, people always say “yea but they get you in another way” when they here how low my taxes are, that is the furthest from truth. Now that I see the lower electric costs, natural gas prices and the 30-50 cents gallon less on gas and not to mention no state income tax! Sure we pay 9.25 sales tax but the slight difference does not make up for the $2100 property taxes for my 8 yr. old 2400 Sq Ft brick home versus my 1700 Sq Ft 35 yr old Cheektowaga home at $4900! I have a paid fire department that average response time is less than 10 minutes in my town, for garbage pickup they take anything I put out without even having to call, yes we recycle. The park system is an amazing asset with 10 lit ball diamonds, 2 lit soccer fields, spray water park, 4 fishing ponds, full modern playground and pressure treated walking paths that go 1.5 miles into woods! All this at the end of my street and this is one of several parks in my town alone!
Kevin, contact me if you want to learn more.
Russ Harris
October 31, 2009 at 2:56 pm |
I think your thought of smaller government is a good one. Where the real savings to the people would be the at the state and federal levels. I would like to hear your opinion on this. Please don’t says it needs to start somewhere. I’m sure the money saved on less people in local government is still wasted by the county in some way. Local governments should be stay the same because of the low dollars involved and as a local person you can get to them easier. The real savings is in State and Federal level. No taxation without representation.
David Giffin
Amherst NY