Mayor Shayne Gallo delivers the 2015 state of the city speech Feb. 5 at City Hall. (Photo: Dan Barton)
The county’s biennial request for a one percent extension of its sales tax, currently worth about $27 million, is now before the state legislature. Cahill seems amenable to a greater sharing of the wealth, but says a significant majority of towns will have to take the initiative.
Here and there
Mayor Gallo formally announced for a second term on Monday, ironically in an empty Midtown parking lot that represents one of the major failings of his administration. Gallo, reading almost verbatim the speech he delivered a few weeks ago, staged his announcement on the grounds of the former King’s Inn on Broadway. Within a stone’s throw of the former welfare hotel was the abandoned Bank of America building that Gallo, with Congressman Chris Gibson, had hoped to convert into a police station. This is not to say that Gallo doesn’t have numerous positives to which to point, only that his campaign strategy is, to say the least, curious.
Former legislator Bob Aiello, nine-term Republican of Saugerties, announced last week he will be seeking a return to office as an independent. Aiello, in a recent e-mail, allows that “an awful lot has to be done” to break “the chains that hold political parties together.”
Bet on the beleaguered barber to make lots of noise in what will probably be a quixotic quest for redemption. Independents don’t beat anybody, especially incumbents (Democrat Chris Allen) who beat them before.
The county legislature is expected to adopt an anti-smoking law at its April 21 regular meeting, though it probably won’t have much effect. Under proposed legislation reviewed at public hearing last week, convenience stores within 1,000 feet of a school or playground would not be allowed to sell cigarettes, and store advertising would be restricted. The catch is that the proposed legislation grandfathers between 80 and 90 percent of existing outlets.
A spokesman for the convenience stores had a better idea: Ban the sale of cigarettes to everybody under 21.
The columnist Reynolds.
An interesting statistic from the reams of stats anti-smokers brought forth: The tobacco industry spends three-quarters of its annual $8 billion advertising budget promoting the three brands kids prefer. And that would be, according to Ellen Reinhard of TFAC, Marlboro (overall No. 1), Camel and Newport.
Dave Donaldson was passing around a memo he wrote to the Hein administration regarding what the chairman of the railroad advisory committee considered a less than zealous promotion by the county of Catskill Mountain Railroad events last year. The inference was that the administration, which has been locked in a lawsuit with the railroad for more than a year, did not give the railroad the kind of publicity it would have given, say, one of Hein’s pet projects. That’s fair commentary, but notices of railroad events were posted on the county’s Facebook page and given a one-liner in its annual tourism guide.
Despite the dearth of deserved publicity, the railroad’s two major promotions last year attracted more than a million dollars worth of tourism. Imagine the influx if Hein had been driving that train.
