Buffalo Civic Day
And I thought every day was Buffalo Civic Day. Actually, according to Kevin Gaughan that may be true, but Buffalo Rotary has asked if he would give a speech to mark a day (Wednesday July 9th) in which the citizens of Western New York come first. Kevin only has three more stops on his tour of Erie County's 25 towns, 16 villages and three cities. No one can recall anyone undertaking this type of reform tour before. He started in November in Lancaster when it was ten below, and here we are on this beautiful day in June. He has spoken to over 20,000 people during the course of this project regarding his ideas on how to reduce government and grow our community.
Kevin kept a journal of his journey and has decided that he is going to publish a small book based on those accounts. He feels that he understands the Western New York character - its past and present problems. "On Buffalo Civic Day, I will offer a path to a new future," Kevin told me. "Based on what I have learned speaking with hundreds of citizens about their past challenges and present hopes. Politicians are stuck in the problems of the past. Citizens are busy creating opportunities for the future. Our task is to put citizens back in charge of our local government."
Kevin’s efforts have produced significant results, as several towns and villages have adopted his government downsizing plan.
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scooter
Kevin rocks. What a great message. Smart reform. How come we aint listening? Have you all looked at your tax bill lately?
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rb66
Long overdue!
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al-alo
Kevin is good intentioned, but i doubt he rocks.
his formula is one dimentional and simplistic. it doesnt take a town/village/city's population into account. it doesnt allow for the different models of government, nor the amount of constituent services provided in one town vs another.
its a "one size fits all" approach to government. it doesnt work well for clothes, it doesnt work well for govenment.
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EliGeorge
I don't think I agree with you al-alo. You can read more about Kevin and his message here http://www.thecost.org/report.htm That includes his findings for every place in Erie County where the population of each city, town, and village are clearly displayed - as well as the ratio of citizens to elected officials. Fairly interesting stuff.
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sbrof
Why is it one sized fits all? Each community is different but the goals of shrinking government overhead should also be dynamic based on your size. He is trying to get everyone to dump one or two reps is basically the lowest common denominator because no gov. today is going give up 5 if their neighbor is only giving up 1. people don't think in terms of size they think in terms of names.
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sbrof
Compare Us to Others
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al-alo
Eli, i mistyped as i edited my comment. i meant to say "all it does is take a location's population into account"
but Eli, its just a ratio. that is the point i meant to make. it doesnt account for any other factors.
there is no way to establish need. if one town's elected official is swamped with constituents questions, petitions and requests and another town's official has very little, where is that caluclated? how is that quantified? it isnt.
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I_love_this_town
Kevin compares our region (erie county) to other VERY comparable regions, Baltimore, Indianapolis, etc. They have a larger population, they are continuing to grow, and they have a fraction of the governemnts that we have in erie county. They are happy, and healthy, with "little league" and sanitation, and beaucolic settings. They have all the cute little stuff that everyone is SOOOOO concerned about not being able to have here without all this governement. We are losing our young adults, other cities are GAINING population!!! Wake up people. I do not get angry, per se, but our government, should make us all outraged. This is OUR city, not THEIRS. What are they going to do when there are not any tax payers left here to pay them their salaries? This town is run by small fish, and they are all fighting for the same worm, and they are willing to be souless to get it!!! Kevin's plan is just a start towards a movement of change, but at least its a start! WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE?
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