The real culprit, which few seem to be talking about, is the state legislature, which increased county charges for Safety Net last year from 50 percent to 71 percent. Uniquely in Ulster, the county passes those charges down to the municipalities where Safety Net clients live. Other counties spread the burden equally among all county property tax payers.
Pertinent issues
It’s good to see congressional candidates Democrat Julian Schreibman and Republican Chris Gibson mixing it up on something more important than Romney’s tax returns or Obama’s birth certificate. Through separate press releases the candidates — both of which have been spotted in Uptown shooting campaign TV spots in the last week — have been sparring over Medicaid reform, a subject of intense interest among the electorate, especially seniors. Schreibman accuses his foe of supporting a proposal for a voucher-like system that he says could cost seniors an average of $6,400 a year. Republicans point to legislation already in effect under Democratic health care reform that cuts Medicare funding by some $700 billion over a period of years.
For sure, some sacrifices will be necessary to preserve a system that its directors warn could go broke in a dozen years or so. The question these candidates are debating is who gets hit.
Not a free ad
We see a logo for Republican state Senate candidate George Amedore on all his literature, signs, billboards, etc. But what does the star over the last vowel in his name mean?
Catching up with the candidate at a meet-and-greet in Kingston last week, I noted that the star was the traditional symbol of the Democratic Party, and it wasn’t punctuation since he doesn’t have any “I” in his name. So what’s with the star?
Amedore looked just a little perplexed by the question, but quickly came up with a plausible answer. The logo — with the star — was used for years and is still used by his family business, a prominent homebuilder in the Capital District, he said. Amedore said when he ran for Assembly in 2007 he replaced “homes” under the family name with “Assembly” and now with “State Senate.”
“I’ve always done well among Democrats,” he added.
No wonder, with that logo.
