ajsbear

Mark, you're talking about politicians, most don't or can't see that far in front of them.

The details of the new budget include: --Essentially flat state school aid. Aid to public schools would increase about $1.1 billion, according to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and eliminate the $700 million cut Paterson had proposed in December. But that results in almost no increase for schools that have gotten bumps of billions of dollars from lawmakers pressured by school districts back home. School aid will total more than $21 billion, one of the highest per capita levels in the nation. But school advocates expected $1.5 billion more this year, even after Patterson's cut was restored, under a promise by the state following a court decision it lost for not providing a sound basic education for years. Remember this, the last time school districts received far less state aid than expected local property taxes were subsequently increased by an average of 10 percent. --About $3 billion of taxes and fees, from motor vehicle registration charges to public college tuition and other costs that would affect everyday life for most residents. --No more tax rebate checks to residents, although the STAR exemption program and NYC STAR credit will continue to provide $3.3 billion in property tax relief for now. --A bigger bottle bill. A nickel deposit would be required of bottled water, to go along with carbonated drinks. The state will get about $115 million of the unclaimed deposits, with bottlers keeping the rest under a last-minute deal worked out with lobbyists for the Coca-Cola Co. --Taxing little cigars often called cigarillos at the same 46 percent rate applied to cigarettes, instead of the 37 percent rate now. The Legislature also restored: --$340 million of critical funding to New York City, as per Sheldon Silver. --Funding for teacher training centers and adult literacy and bilingual education programs. --$125 million more to the State University of New York, for a total of $2.5 billion in funding; and $86 million more to the City University of New York, for a new total of $1.4 billion. --$49 million in cuts to community colleges. --Almost $50 million to the Tuition Assistance Program, which provides financial aid to college students. The Legislature also created a $50 billion program to provide low-interest loans to residents attending college and rejected a proposal for a gas tax.

Not only the layoff but the changes to tax exemptions. While not many here if any are in the over $300K tax bracket, what if we all lost the STAR exemption on our homes?

Back up there this morning as a hiker came across a downed tree trunk that was smoldering within the burn area. Winds were kicking up.

TRUCK this just shows you the quality of the drivers they are getting. My friend says most of these guys last less than a year.

This was Fleetcarrier, a non union transporter. Odds are it was a new driver. I asked a friend who has been doing this for 30 years. His take was it was a new driver who did not know his route, new to the area. The non union carriers hire and fire drivers constantly so there is no one who drives the same route for a time. The union shops use the same drivers for the same routes, they are thought to know their deliveries, how to get their and alternate ways around. When you get guys who either quit or get fired after or less than a year, well thye have no clue on the routes. Also he said that most of the regular drivers would not use GPS as they know where they are going.

couldn't find that in the dictionary.

3 engines and 3 trucks? City used to have 6 engines and 3 trucks.

Whet ever happened to "Best Qualified?"

You mean the stories of "Camp Hero"?

Hey here is the explanation in a simple 10 minute video. http://www.crisisofcredit.com/ It does not get any simpler.

Talk about adding fatigue and stress to someones life. When you can't pay your bills because you can't work a side job, now that's stress. With paying unemployment and overtime to keep minimum manning, how does this city expect to really save the money stated in the article? It'll probably cost them more when guys are out because of the fatigue and stress plus injuries. Talk about not thinking things through.

Still Chris, what do you think the response time is from the southern corner of the county to the northern reaches?

When you and what you vote on in the spring is a joke. The vote is on the extra's. Transportation, extra curricular activities, sports and so on. 90% of the budget which we do not get a say in is either the state mandates or the labor contracts. We have no say in these. Usually improvements like a new track would be a separate issue and not included or put in with a group of other improvements. We pay the some of the highest rates per student in the country. It's time we trim the fat here. Maybe privatizing some of the services, making them deal with competitive bidding. Do away with the guaranteed jobs for life. In the private sector people put more and more hours in than 37 1/2 or even 40.

But no Collapse or Haz Mat units.

And where would the unit then be located? In Yonkers? How would you respond to the northern parts of the county? Cortlandt, Somers?

Living in the northwestern most part of Westchester I figure WCDES, YOnkers whatever no one will be here for the first hour, we're on our own. Especially near rush hour. Did you ever try Route 9 from North State Road on north after 5? The new construction zone through Peekskill? Better chance bringing it up the river.

That goes the same for most of the towns within Westchester. Look at Ossining, town and village services, PD FD, and Cortlandt covered by 6 fire departments, state and county PD's plus 2 small departments covering villages. We are all tax payers and its time to think of how to save money. School Districts are another issue. It's time for many of them to start looking to combine, look at what they can do without, renegotiate contracts, share services etc.

My only thing is the duplication of services. If we were to combine many of the county services with local there would be an overall savings.

Rob, it was more like 400 plus nearing 500. We cooked over 265 lbs of pasta. Had to send out for more. Also brought in another 10 heads of lettuce, a dozen loafs of Italian bread. At one point both the bays and the meeting rooms were full.

On behalf of the Garrison Fire Company I want to thank all the EMT Bravo members who came down today. I think we can say the dinner was quite a success! Thanks again to all.

We can always use publicity photos

TODAY 4 PM to 8 PM

Great Mark, see you and I hope many others there.

We may have a rig outside, the business next door has given us permission to park the rigs on his property so we have more parking.