MAYVILLE - The majority of the members of the public who addressed the County Legislature on Wednesday did so in support of an issue or particular budget item.
The first to speak were supporters of 4-H and the Boys and Girls Club, who spoke about Youth Bureau funding cuts. Others spoke about the county's contribution to the County Home and the importance of the county's airports.
After several such speakers addressed the County Legislature, Paul Shanahan spoke on behalf of the local Tea Party chapter - reading the group's opinions on the 2012 budget.
TEA stands for "Taxed Enough Already," and the local chapter is named the Southern Tier Tea Party Patriots.
Shanahan spoke about the high taxes in Chautauqua County and reiterated the local chapter's opinion that despite being driven by state mandates, there are ways for the county to come in under the tax cap.
The Southern Tier Tea Party Patriots supports the effort to privatize the County Home. They called for the county's contribution, in the form of IGT funding, to be eliminated from the 2012 budget if not offset with contract concessions or other changes.
The group opposes borrowing money to decrease the budget, depleting fund balances while increasing debt.
The group also believes the cost of the public workforce is unsustainable.
"Combined wages and benefits are higher than the private-sector counterparts that pay for them," the group says in a news release. "It is our position that the County Legislature does what's necessary through negotiations and/or layoffs to achieve a net zero increase in county workforce spending."
The group also supports the full $1.2 million in cuts to the sheriff's budget. That full cut would have meant the reduction of 35 positions. However, the legislature voted to restore $500,000, meaning the Sheriff's Office is still down funding in 2012 and will have to cut positions as a result - full-time deputies, part-time deputies, dispatchers and others.
Just as with their support of the privatization of the County Home, the local Tea Party members support a change in how the county's airports are operated - with at least the privatization of the Chautauqua County Airport at Dunkirk.
The Tea Party group is also in favor of the Medicaid boycott, which others spoke in support of on Wednesday. At the legislature's afternoon session, Todd Tranum, CEO and President of the Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce, spoke about the county not sending its weekly Medicaid payments to the state in 2012.
A link to the Tea Party group's full news release can be found from this story online at www.post-journal.com.