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The OBSERVER’s View

Thruway: Welcome repairs come at high cost

Last week, the New York State Thruway Authority announced it would be resuming work on a $45 million pavement revitalization project from the Fredonia to Westfield exits. That’s a large chunk of change for about 40 miles of road in both directions. “The Thruway is putting toll dollars to work, reinvesting toll revenue into rebuilding and modernizing the Thruway system,” Thruway Authority Executive Director Frank G. Hoare, Esq. said. “We are committed to enhancing safety and reliability with these infrastructure investment projects, while providing some of the lowest toll rates ...

New York State: Prison crisis just keeps growing

Is the state’s early release of non-violent inmates going to immediately create a public safety issue throughout the state? Of course not. But state officials are deluding themselves if they think this won’t be the only time the state’s lack of corrections officers is going to mean releasing inmates early in order to maintain safe staffing levels in prisons unless something changes. State officials are also deluding themselves if they think they can continue paying the National Guard tens of millions of dollars a month to maintain what were already poor staffing levels in the ...

DUNKIRK: City silence not fixing huge deficit

Elected city of Dunkirk officials who have voiced worries about the potential of a control board potentially overseeing operations are within their rights. But instead of looking out for its poorly managed government, shouldn’t this be about the current residents and future of the municipality? At the moment, the operation is sinking. It is $20 million in debt. Since the crisis came to light 13 months ago, what solutions have been put forth by the mayor or Common Council? We can think of only one — and it had horrific implications: raise the property tax rate 84%. This week, ...

FREDONIA: Is this the time to worry about Non Fred Fest?

Trust us, we can understand Fredonia Mayor Mike Ferguson’s feelings regarding recent comments made by State University at Fredonia students regarding the village’s handling of water issues and non Fred Fest. Fredonia students quoted in the student newspaper and an editorial written by a Fredonia student weren’t complimentary of village government. We’re sure Ferguson and other Fredonia Village Board members felt like they were wearing pork chop underwear in a dog park before reading The Leader story and editorial. The exercise is a good lesson for the Leader editorial writer. ...

Fredonia: Even flawed fiscal stress monitors could have helped

As Fredonia village officials struggle to whittle down a 65.3% tax levy increase, it’s interesting to note the village was also found not to be in fiscal stress in a state Comptroller’s Office review of village budgets released last week. We’ve said before that we think the Fiscal Stress Monitoring System is flawed, particularly when looking at Jamestown’s finances in the past. We still think the system is flawed, but perhaps the biggest flaw is that local governments have to submit paperwork to the state in order to be included in the rankings. Fredonia didn’t do that in ...

Assembly Speaker’s Budget Impasse Bill Is Misguided

We have finally found a point of agreement with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie - policy issues don’t need to be included in the state budget. That doesn’t mean we agree with his recent proposal to allow state lawmakers to be paid when the state budget is late because the governor inserts policy in the budget, a process that has led to late budgets the past few years because Hochul and state legislative leaders struggle to find compromise on the policy issues. We have long preferred that policy issues get hashed out on the Senate and Assembly floor where there can be an open ...