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Democrats continue spending irresponsibly

Posted 10/16/14

To the Editor: At Monday night’s Board of Legislators meeting, the Democrat majority voted on two resolutions to commit the county to increased spending- for a duplicative local bridge and to make …

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Democrats continue spending irresponsibly

Posted

To the Editor:

At Monday night’s Board of Legislators meeting, the Democrat majority voted on two resolutions to commit the county to increased spending- for a duplicative local bridge and to make the DA’s staff more comfortable.

The first resolution commits the county highway department to repair a bridge in Hermon, if and when Hermon obtains the funds for the material. There was no limit set on how much the county will contribute, but the present estimate is $250,000.

Where will this money come from? Why is the county highway department being committed to repair a bridge for the town when we can’t even keep up with repairing our county bridges? Also, there is another bridge in Hermon just a few hundred yards away that people can use to cross the same creek.

If this work is executed in 2015, the money that St. Lawrence County will likely spend more than cancels out a projected savings of $236,000 that the county administrator proposes in the budget by not filling 8 vacant positions in the Social Services Department.

Where is the fiscal responsibility in such decisions?

Secondly, the Democrats voted as a block to commit to spend county taxpayers’ to improve space in the courthouse for the District Attorney’s staff.

While this initially appeared to be an amenable resolution, amendments that were offered to limit the county’s financial obligation and ensure that county taxpayers would not be left with open-ended spending on this vaguely defined project were defeated strictly along party lines.

Why would the Democrats object to increasing the protection of our taxpayers’ money in such a situation?

As the debate continued, it became clear that there were significant questions that were not answered by this resolution. Even our honorable judges asked questions that were not fully answered.

How is it fiscally responsible to pass such a resolution and put tax dollars at risk, especially in these tough financial times? And this on the heels of outlandish pay raises for the DA’s staff that were approved by the Democrat majority.

Change is needed in the St. Lawrence County Board of Legislators. It is your choice on November 4. Please vote.

Dan Parker

Legislator, Potsdam and Stockholm