This Just In.... Local Residents Are Morons!
First off, I apologize for being gone for so long. I've heard from many of you that I need to get back on my soapbox for the sake of this city. So, at least this one time, I'm back. Secondly, to those of you whom I offended with my last post, I too apologize. But you need to understand, this is my blog, I choose to say whatever the hell I want to say, your feelings be damned. If you don't like it, that's fine, don't read my blog. Go check out the Christian TV network or Nickelodeon - ain't no bad words there and lots of hugs and bunny rabbits too. But, if you're willing to strap on a pair and deal with the realities of life in modern America, than read my opinions whenever I find the time to post them. I guarantee I will elicit some type of feeling in your mind and body. But guys, please no more nudie pictures, I don't swing that way.So apparently WHAM ran a Voice of the Voter poll recently on the topic of Metro Governance. You know, that very same topic that supposedly scared suburban voters from choosing Bill Johnson four years ago. Well, now 70% of voters support some form of consolidation. Guess I was right in assuming that suburbanites didn't vote for Bill because they didn't want a black man as County Exec. But enough of the race card, I've played that enough. Let's get to the heart of the matter. You suburbanites are twisted sons of bitches. How the hell do you go from getting deathly scared of PacMan eating up your local communities to agreeing with Bill Johnson? All in less than four years?!!?!?!? Worse yet, I guarantee if there were a black man running for County Exec under the exact same platform, he too would get destroyed at the polls. Crap, there I go again with the race card. Sorry about that.
Hmmm....so looking at the WHAM-TV story, we find that while voters support government consolidation, they don't want to see their local Mayor or Town Supervisor lose their jobs. They went to East Rochester, the poster child for everything that's wrong with home rule laws, and they found that folks there just don't want to see their local Village officials and police officers (insert Italian name here) lose their jobs. And yet, they're so damn tired of all these taxes! It costs $1.1 million for the Village of East Rochester to have its own superfluous police department. Given that there are roughly 2,774 households in the Village, that means that each homeowner must pay $462 per year for police service alone. But wait, of those 2,774 households, a high percentage of those are renters. There are only 1,764 owner-occupied housing units in East Rochester. This means that every homeowner in ER pays close to $620 a year for their police department. That's just nutty. There's a Monroe County Sheriffs Department substation practically in the Village. Why do they need their own department?
Matter of fact, why does anyone need their own department? As a City of Rochester homeowner, I would be more than happy to give up having a City Police Department to make way for a Metro Rochester-Monroe Police Department. This would save County taxpayers hundreds of dollars a year without losing any amount of security. But I guess that just makes too much damn sense. It goes far beyond police of course. Why the hell is there an East Rochester School District? More people live with a 1/2 mile radius of my house than live within the entire Village of East Rochester. Do they really need their own schools? What is so wrong about Metro schools? If they're good enough for the low-tax southern states, aren't they good enough for us? How about splitting the county into four districts by quadrant? That way, the rich folks in Brighton, Pittsford, Perinton, and Mendon would pretty much keep their high standards and their kids won't have to share classrooms with smelly Gates kids. But no, we love our kids. 58% percent of voters think we should not do anything to our schools. But of course, those same folks constantly demand a cut in their school taxes!
The fact is, you can't have cake and eat it too. You can't go around talking shit about Rochester, Monroe County, and New York State and how high the damn taxes are without being willing to accept some changes in your community. Metro government can and will cut taxes. It can and will improve our economic standing. It can and will bring us closer together as a community. You're a complete and utter moron if you say "I can't stand the high taxes here in Gates, I can get the same relative quality of life in Georgia for a fraction of what I pay here" out of one side of your mouth and out of the other side say "don't you dare merge our governments or take away our police!". You have to be willing to bite the bullet. You can't make an omelette without cracking a few eggs. Get over your parochial attitudes for the sake of our community as a whole! The folks in the Louisville-Jefferson County, Kentucky area bit the bullet a few years back and merged their City and County governments. The result: lower taxes, lower crime, economic growth, and a growing population. That can happen here too, if we are willing to do what it takes to make it happen.
posted by Man About Town @ 6:55 PM
Comments: 8
