Buffalo Rising Online

WOW! Sam the Man is handing out new promises. Who's gonna keep watch and see if he follows up on this one?

I'll quote myself: "I guess Sam Hoyt has been working on this and not responding to my repeated request of explanation of NY RPTL section 1805 which protects NEW YORK CITY AREA PROPERTY OWNERS ONLY from high tax assessment increases. WHY CAN'T BUFFALO AREA PROPERTY OWNERS BE PROTECTED ALSO?"

The "promise" being handed out here is that he'll do his best. I'm sure he will.

Canalside is dead. Credit markets, budget shortfalls, lack of capital, and a shrinking population with the highest taxes in the country equal DOA. Unfort. Sa doesnt do a whole lot beside write letters and you people continue to vote him in year after year and then have the gall to bitch when he does nothing year after year..

Its is a good idea to raise taxes and kill off any plan that would result in more taxes down the road. Of course if the whole state was treated as n empire zone the population of metro Buffalo would probably be more like 2.3 million people right now. What a bother all those extra people would have been and parking would have been a headache.

Depression in Upsate = Secession of Upstate

We vote him in and he does nothing but draw a salary Shame on us.

My opinion....

1. I don't get the criticism of Hoyt here. There is a potential obstacle to a big development in Buffalo, he says that he'll try to do something about it, and then people claim that he "does nothing." It happens again and again here -- Hoyt announces he's secured funding for this or that project, or will look into this or that problem, and he's accused of doing nothing. Are the legislators who we never hear from doing less than nothing?

2. If upstate were to secede from NYS, we'd be a backwater basket case.

1.We already are a backwater basket case.....At least we could govern our own govt and have Downstate govern it for us - and not care about us. I know I am just dreaming

2. Criticism of Hoyt is our perogative. He has been in office X number of years, and where are taxed to death and the area is worse off. He is my elective official - I can criticize all we want

I did not vote for Sam "Smiley clam bake " Hoyt

Keep increasing taxes... I heard the weather in North Carolina is fantastic this time of year.

BTW, we already are a backwater basket case. Western New York is a freaking joke and continues to make idiotic decisions that accelerates our decline. Our politicians are WORTHLESS! WORTHLESS! WORTHLESS!

I can't think of a local or state politician who is worth a damn to the people of New York. The bar is so low that a local politician only needs to cut a few ribbons or side with an easy win initiative for the people of WNY to say "he is doing a great job". Seriously, wake the fuck up people!

Well eliminating Empire Development will ABSOLUTELY KILL ALL OF UPSTATE NY!

However, smart local politicians would immediately ask for all allocations of cheap hydro power devoted outside of the Buffalo Niagara Metro area be sold at market rates to fund local economic development.

We should immediately make the proposal to use a local asset to bargain for the maintenance of our local development incentives.

I've been hearing since before the election that Obama has a major urban agenda in the works - and clearly the nation is now also looking at billions of dollars of reinvestment to help revive the economy. A simple and profound step, then, would be to allocate some of those resources to states to create the citywide equivalent of Empire Zones for financially struggling cities nationwide (which is most of them). That could spur private-sector urban reinvestment by lowering effective tax rates - effectively leveling the playing field with the suburbs. A recent Buffalo News editorial credited much of Boston's rebirth to a drastic tax cut - check it out: http://www.buffalonews.com/149/story/417990.html.

Three days ago, the mayors of Great Lakes cities jointly called for an urgent economic recovery effort focused on investment in public infrastructure and creating jobs within Great Lakes region (www.glslcities.org/news.htm). Perhaps, then, the region would be a good pilot location for these citywide reduced tax zones. It can only be imagined what that could do for Buffalo.

1. WNY gets more from the state than we give. If we were to remove ourselves from NYC/Long Island/Albany, we would get poorer. I'm not in favor of getting poorer.

2. Criticism of Hoyt -- or any pol -- is certainly a voter's prerogative, but the criticism here is just stupid. To say that someone isn't doing anything after he lets you know he's done something is just dumb.

Colin - What exactly has Hoyt done? He said that he would like to maintain the status quo funding for the waterfront, that must have been really difficult for him. It is a no lose proposition for him, if status quo is maintained than we say that he has done something, if not then it was out of his hands. We are paying him for this?

I agree that we cannot remove ourselves from downstate, as a region. That said, more and more New Yorkers are seceding themselves from the state to better opportunities and quality of life in other states. That alone will ensure that the decline continues and the taxes will increase for those who stay. So what is Hoyt doing about this???

I want Sams job. Its better than being a weather man! Say whatever you want, bang an intern, and keep your job and salary...What gives? No accountability for any of our pols.

1. What has Hoyt done? This site is full of stories about some project that he's pushed, or some funding he's secured for a local initiative, or some issue he thinks is important. Now, you might disagree with him about these things -- you might think that the project is a bad idea, or that the funding is pork, or that the issue is trivial. And that's your right as a citizen. But the claim that he "does nothing" is false.

2. Sure, if upstate seceded we could write new laws for the new state. But is there really reason to think that things would be that different? The process of writing those new laws would be influenced by the same forces that had influenced the drafting of NYS law previously. Business groups, civic groups, unions and the like wouldn't simply disappear. And many of the unfunded mandates from Albany are actually handed down from Washington DC.

What has Sam Hoyt done??? Every intern Albany...Wooo Hooo

I guess that is what we pay him for...

From Colin: 1. What has Hoyt done? This site is full of stories about some project that he's pushed, or some funding he's secured for a local initiative, or some issue he thinks is important. Now, you might disagree with him about these things -- you might think that the project is a bad idea, or that the funding is pork, or that the issue is trivial. And that's your right as a citizen. But the claim that he "does nothing" is false.

Colin, that's the issue - plenty of plans and promises and nothing finalized. Therefore, I use your question - What has Sam Hoyt -DONE-?

I think the Empire State Development Corporation has more pull than Sam Hoyt to save the Enterprise Zones. Sam is just jumping on a hot issue like he always does. Either he focuses on neighborhood-based issues that a freakin block club could handle (e.g. rowdy students in the Elmwood Village area) or he inserts himself into an issue even though he is totally irrelevant (e.g. pulling his relatively miniscule discriminatory funds from the Westside Housing organization and thinking it would have an affect).

Why doesn't he find an important issue, focus on it, and make it happen - be an Assemblyman!

I think the amount of power alone that WNY has 'given' to downstate for the past 50 years is more than everything else combined that we get back from them. The cheap power from the Falls should have been a catalyst of our economy. They loose 30% of it in transmission loses.. that 30% alone could reshape our region.

"Municipal unions, labor unions, medicare, workman's comp: a litany of expenses would go by the wayside if downstate didn't dominate state government."

I honestly don't get how this would happen. The municipal unions of Buffalo and other upstate cities wouldn't disappear in a new state -- their contracts are with municipalities, not with the state. Other unions, who have contracts in the private sector, wouldn't vanish, either. Unless we shipped off all our old people to NYC as part of the deal, I don't see how medicare would disappear. And I guess that we could write new worker's comp rules, but that process would be subject to the same sorts of pressures that produced the current set of rules.

Bini --

I get what you're saying, but I think you're missing a key point -- the forces that pushed for the laws you mention wouldn't disappear. You might want more charter schools, but NYSUT doesn't -- and they would still be a powerful force in upstate. The municipal unions you mention would still be powerful. You might want less healthcare spending, but SEIU 1199 certainly doesn't. The same thing is true of all the other "special interests" -- community groups, school boards, local governments, IDAs, business groups, culturals, etc. And it's hard to imagine the public authorities simply relinquishing control of their fiefdoms that happen to fall within the boundaries of a new state.

The State is screwed for all the reasons that Colin mentions above. There is no hope short of rebuilding after the total economic collapse that we are quickly nearing.