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In Our Opinion

Automatic Raises For Legislators Should End

The idea of automatic cost-of-living-adjustments for Chautauqua County legislators is, and frankly always was, a bad idea. We weren’t in favor of legislators receiving a 64% increase in pay in 2024. While that was the first raise in county lawmakers’ pay in about 20 years. A $5,700 raise doesn’t look like much until you realize it equaled a nearly $110,000 increase to the county budget. Now, next year, legislators are set to receive another pay increase tied to inflation. Can all the county residents who work two jobs raise their hands if their part-time employer have ...

Electric School Bus Delay Is Tip Of The Iceberg

A five-year delay in the state’s electric school bus mandate would be a reasonable compromise if it is included in the state budget as some Albany insiders say it will be. The electric bus mandate was always far too optimistic that technology would be ready quickly. Early adopters of electric buses have found the technology isn’t ready for New York’s winters. And, in a state where Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed relatively flat state aid for many smaller districts, the cost of bonding for electric school buses was going to be more than most districts’ taxpayers were going to be ...

DOT’s Busti Project Is Action That Doesn’t Accomplish Much

When was the last time you drove through the five corners of Busti and thought what would really make the intersection easier to navigate are new pedestrian signals, sidewalks and curb ramps? When was the last time you drove through the five corners to find a pedestrian? These are the great problems the state Transportation Department is going to spend your money trying to fix by acquiring private property near the intersection and then performing what has to be a limited reconstruction. What a waste of money. We’d prefer the state do something to redesign the entire intersection ...

When Did Closing Inferior Housing Become ‘NIMBY’?

Here we are, once again, feeling the need to write about the homeless in Chautauqua County. We’re moved to do so by a comment that may never have seen the light of day were it not for a lawsuit seeking to keep the former Econolodge on Route 60 in Fredonia that houses many homeless county residents open as the Fredonia Village Board seeks to vacate the hotel and possibly demolish it. We’re frankly not concerned with the legal back-and-forth between the hotel’s attorney and Fredonia officials. We are concerned by the conditions described by Fredonia’s code officers, as we ...

Pine Valley’s Hefty Reserves Disregard Taxpayers

We have complained for years about more than $30 million in reserves for Chautauqua County. Pine Valley Central Schools is even more guilty. In recent years, Pine Valley built its unassigned fund balance to roughly 30% of the succeeding year’s budget — dramatically higher than surrounding districts. Prior to this proposed budget, the district had just shy of $6 million in unassigned fund balance. It also has significant amounts in several reserve funds for various purposes. That’s too much — and goes against the 4% recommendation by New York state. This year, the ...

State Health Marketplace Should Include Senior Dental Plans

Too many senior citizens in New York state don’t have access to affordable dental care. That fact makes it hard to disagree with legislation (A.11235/S.7594) introduced by Assemblywoman Rebecca Seawright and Sen. Cordell Cleare that would require the NY State of Health Marketplace to require companies offering health insurance plans on the marketplace to also offer at least one dental plan for senior citizens. There are too many senior citizens paying out of pocket for dental care in New York state - and that means there are many who aren’t getting dental care at all because they ...