Sitting in the audience at Hein’s formal budget presentation in Rosendale in October, Auerbach said he was shocked to learn the executive was in fact transferring those staffers to finance. Was it bad faith, bad communication or yet another example of Hein’s gotcha way of doing business?
God-almighty Hein does not explain his actions to anyone, but faithful budget officer J.J. Hanson claims Auerbach had it exactly wrong. The fact that the comptroller’s three auditors are headed for Hein’s corral — the legislature willing — suggests otherwise.
Having antagonized the powerful executive — for good reason, I think — and after clocking legislative mileage vouchers a few years ago, Auerbach’s appeal to the legislature to “reverse this dangerous proposal” is at best — I predict — a long shot.
Too bad, for nothing feeds voracious power like winning.
Hail to the board
Maybe because I deal with them on a regular basis and at the risk of appearing the homer, I hereby declare Ulster County’s elections board the very best in the region. But they had a rare off-night this year in two important areas.
Media counts on early returns in order to address real-time questions to candidates, but this year final returns didn’t come in — with a couple of districts still out — until after 1:30 a.m. the next day. By then, most candidates had departed for parts unknown.
Worse was the handling of the ballot proposition on county charter amendments. The yes-or-no proposition was printed on the back of the ballot, something not made entirely clear to some voters, I was told. Other voters complained about the lack of adequate information on what was a lengthy, complex proposal reduced to a couple of sentences on the ballot.
Commissioners admit it could have been better handled. Nevertheless, more than 36,000 residents cast ballots, with 60 percent approving changes some may not have clearly understood.
Also at issue, though no fault of the elections board, were continuing concerns over privacy. Numerous voters have complained it is entirely too easy for someone else to read their ballots, either when they’re marked or inserted into devices that record results. That too is something that needs to be addressed before the next election.
What election?
It’s almost as though we didn’t have an election last week. Both sides are declaring a mandate from voters: Republicans because they retained the House, Democrats the presidency and the Senate. With this so-called mandate, the presidential incumbent won by less than two percentage points. The way I figured it, a swing of less than 160,000 votes in four battleground states would have reversed the Electoral College. It is galling to see both sides retrenching to where they have been the last two years. One is reminded of the stalemate on the Western Front during Word War I.
With all the prime players returning, there seems little hope for real change.
