NYS Says No To Niagara Falls

http://niagara-gazette.com/local/x1503758131/State-to-forward-2-5M-to-Salamanca-until-Seneca-dispute-ends-no-similar-deal-for-Falls

An article in today's Niagara Gazette (see above) gives a pretty clear indication of what New York State thinks of Niagara Falls.  While the State once again found it within its heart of hearts to front $2.5 million to Salamanca, Niagara Falls is left to sit and wait while volunteer agencies get cut and more reductions of services are on the horizon.  As Governor Cuomo continues to let Niagara Falls hang by a thread, our elected officials standby hoping for a miracle.

On the one hand you have Mayor Dyster who is telling everyone who cares to listen that the Governor is doing all he can to help the city.  He keeps on pointing to the ridiculous offer to accept an advance on the money due the city from the NYPA.  This offer is typical NY State.  You see by taking the advance the city actually loses money in the long run because as a penalty for receiving this advance what is actually due the city would be reduced.  How the Mayor can continue to advance this is simply the act of a politician looking to save his own skin because he certainly does not want to propose service and staffing reductions.

Then of course we have our esteemed State Assemblyman John Ceretto.  If you recall Ceretto, along with Councilmen Choolokian and Fruscione, went to Albany last April to discuss with the Governor the prospects for an advance from the State.  Of course, despite Ceretto's claim that he speaks with the Governor regularly, when the Terrific Trio went to Albany they ended up meeting with an aide to the Governor.  There was plenty of huffing and puffing from the Terrific Trio about how they really got the point across and how they were confident that the Governor would come through.  Well, that didn't happen and then in June Johnny Boy wrote a letter to the Governor about an advance.

In today's article, Ceretto touts that he sponsored a bill to have payments be made directly to the city and not have to come through the State.  However, what Johnny Boy forgets to tell everyone is that his bill never made it out of committee.  Now, once again, he says that if the arbitration isn't settled soon that he will re-introduce legislation to have the city get direct payments from the Senecas.  With the Democrats having an even larger majority in the Assembly, what makes you think that a new bill from Ceretto will ever see the light of day.

Finally, we have Council Chairman Glenn Choolokian saying that the State doesn't seem to care about the city's financial problems.  My question to Glenn is: why aren't you asking your friend John Ceretto what he is doing about it??  It was you, Fruscione and Ceretto who were on local cable television talking about your efforts to bring these payments to the city.  Of the three of you, Ceretto is the state official.  He claims every time he sees the Governor he brings up the city's financial woes.  Really???  If we are to believe that, then its obvious that Cuomo doesn't give a damn about what Ceretto has to say or about Niagara Falls.  It would seem like these 2 political wizards, Choolokian and Fruscione, were taken in by old Johnny Boy.

In the end, all of these local officials posture like they are fighting the good fight for Niagara Falls but in reality they don't have the ability to do anything to break this stalemate.  In truth, if this bunch were for sale, I'd like to sell them for what they think their worth and buy them for their real value

Falls Bond Rating Goes Down & Blame Goes All Around

Last week or so, Moody's announced that the City of Niagara Falls' bond rating was lowered as a result of the casino revenue being withheld because of the stalemate between the State of New York and the Seneca Nation.  The significance of this is that it will cost the City more money if they want to borrow for capital projects.  It's no different than if a person has a bad credit rating: it is going to cost them more in interest if they want to borrow money.

The blame for this situation goes up and down the food chain.  The fact that Governor Cuomo has not had the decency to address this issue publicly is a slap in the face to the residents of Niagara Falls.  His lone visit to the City since becoming Governor was to give a sweetheart deal to Jimmy Glynn.  He never addressed the dire financial situation the City is in and of course none of the "hard-hitting" media in Western New York pushed Cuomo on it.

Then of course we have our local state representatives.  Neither Senator Maziarz or Assemblyman Ceretto has done anything to ratchet up the heat on the Governor to provide relief to the City.  The hair-brained scheme to advance NYPA money was a terrible deal for the City but it appears that it was the best that could be done by these two powers of state government.

Our city government has created this mess by spending casino money like drunken sailors.  Mayor Dyster is clueless.  He has lived off the casino revenue thinking that it was an endless source of revenue.  As a result, he never took measures to actually try to make government more efficient.  Tell me one initiative that Dyster has put forth that would reduce the cost of city government.  I don't think you can find one.

As far as the City Council goes, they are complicit with the Mayor in the fiscal mismanagement of this city.  They have gone along for the ride, holding the Mayor hostage by getting jobs for their friends.  The image that Glenn Choolokian and Sam Fruscione are protecting the taxpayers is bogus.  Particularly when you consider their actions in the formulation of the 2013 budget.  While the Mayor wimped out in dealing with the loss of casino revenue by making hard choices, Fruscione and Company did the same thing by cutting the funding to USA Niagara.  That reduction is simply a one-time fix.  They, like the Mayor, are banking on getting casino money to save them for 2014.  But there is no guarantee that will happen when you have a Governor who is more concerned about being President, 2 state representatives who have absolutely no ability or desire to place enough pressure on the Governor to get something done and a Mayor & City Council who are viewed as being backwater buffoons.

Of the whole group, there are 3 council people who will be running for re-election this fall: Fruscione, Kristen Grandinetti and Charles Walker.  Unless we send a message that we have had enough of the grandstanding and lack of courage to address this issue, we will be facing more of the same ineffective leadership and the City will continue on its downward cycle.

Cuomo Do You Know Where WNY Is??

Yesterday our magnificent Governor gave his State of the State address.  With all of the pomp and circumstance that would you expect from a man who seems bent on higher office, the item that really stuck out to me was his comments on casino gambling.  In his own declaratory fashion, Cuomo said that he is committed to three state-run casinos in Upstate New York.  There would be none in New York City.  They will be in high destination areas that will bring people from the City to these three locales.

The benefit for the three chosen sites are that 10% of the take will go to the localities and 90% will go to the state to be used for education. (Wasn't the lottery money suppose to go toward education?)  A number of people in these parts got all a flutter because the Governor said that the 3 casinos will be in upstate.  But what people don't realize is that for Cuomo upstate means anything above New York City.  That's mean we are talking the Catskills, Saratoga, Thousand Islands, Lake Placid, etc.  He is not talking about Western New York.

The reason he is not talking about Western New York is that the Seneca Nation has exclusive rights for gaming from the Niagara River to Rochester and from the Pennsylvania state line to Lake Ontario.  From Governor High and Mighty's perspective we have our gaming, even though the City of Niagara Falls hasn't seen a dime for 3 years.

Cuomo's first 2 years in office has been a facade.  He has tried to come across as a fiscal conservative while passing costs on to local governments as opposed to bringing about real reform which means mandate relief. 90% of the 3 state-run casinos is to go toward education yet where has the lottery money gone??  Obviously not toward education as Cuomo through his property tax cap is crippling school districts all across this state.

Cuomo reminds me of the Wizard of Oz.  A lot a talk but don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain.  He could careless about Western New York and especially Niagara County.  He views us as a bunch of backwater hayseeds and why wouldn't he.  The mayor of the largest city in the County (Dyster) has the persona of an absent-minded professor.  One assembly person is an empty-headed blonde (Corwin) who's next idea will be her first and the other assembly person is a cross between the Pillsbury Doughboy and Zalinsky  (Ceretto) from Tommy Boy.  And then you have our esteemed long reining Senator ( Maziarz) who is nothing more than a big fish in a small pond.  Throw in the bomb throwing majority caucus of the County Legislature and you want to know why Cuomo could careless about Niagara County.

In a nutshell: we're screwed

So Much For $1 Billion Of Development

This past week, our esteemed Assemblyman John Ceretto touted the $1 billion of development that Governor Cuomo promised Western New York and the sizeable commitment to tourism.  Well, except for the deal with the Maid of the Mist, haven't seen much coming our way.  In fact, Cuomo was touting $53 million that was awarded to Western New York in the latest round of competition for the $1 billion.  Guess how much Niagara County received?  $450,000 that was for the Live Niagara Falls Program which provides incentives for students to live in Niagara Falls.

While I don't have a problem with this initiative, I do have a problem with the fact that Niagara County received 0.008% of the $53 million awarded.  Less than 1% is a joke.  So much for Ceretto's clout with Cuomo.  Ceretto wants us to believe that he has an inside pipeline to the Governor.  Up to this point, one must come to the conclusion that Ceretto's pipeline is nothing more than a pipe dream.  But then again, what would you expect from a career politician.