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In Our Opinion

Lack Of Support For Lake Lawsuit Highlights A Need

The Chautauqua Lake Property Owners Association is having a hard time finding local government backing for a lawsuit it plans to file challenging the state’s Freshwater Wetlands Act. Three local governments - the Bemus Point Village Board, Busti Town Board and Ellicott Town Board - have decided not to sign on to the CLPOA’s lawsuit, which Jim Wehrfritz, the association’s executive director, said in late March will be filed by the end of April. The town of Ellery has signed on, according to Wehrfritz, as has the Builders Exchange of the Southern Tier. To be honest, the local ...

County’s Shelter Supplement Should Be Short-Term Program

For the second time in two weeks, Chautauqua County officials have announced a program that will help deal with the county’s homelessness problems. The county Social Services Department last week announced the Public Assistance Shelter Supplement initiative in an attempt to bridge the gap between public assistance shelter allowances and real-world rental rates. The supplement temporarily solves one of the issues that has helped drive the number of families struggling to stay in their apartment to all-time highs. By reducing reliance on emergency hotel placements and supporting up ...

Deficits, Energy Independence Must Remain Priorities

As time passes, the excesses of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act become more and more clear. Recent analysis by the Competitive Enterprise Institute confirms that the cost projections for the law when it was passed were woefully — perhaps even deliberately — inadequate. The institute’s studying of the costs places its expense to the American taxpaying public at between $936 billion and $1.97 trillion over 10 years and between $2.04 trillion and $4.67 trillion by the year 2050. For a nation already struggling with a national debt of $34 trillion, we believe this ...

County Legislature Is A Day Late, Dollar Short On Wetlands Regs

Chautauqua County legislators have finally taken a firm position on the state’s Freshwater Wetlands Regulations. Let’s be clear from the outset that legislative resolutions carry no weight and, for the most part, do absolutely nothing. We hold no illusion that the state would have reversed course on its Freshwater Wetlands Act had the Chautauqua County Legislature passed a resolution last January opposing the regulations or asking for a delay in their implementation. But, waiting until three months after the regulations took effect to pass a resolution asking for a delay in ...

Our Opinion: The Wrong Way To Balance The Budget

We knew there would be pain when President Donald Trump said he was going to right-size federal programs in an attempt to bring the federal budget under control. The only way to get control of federal spending is through spending cuts. Of course, now we’re finding out just how dependent on federal programs we really are - and some of these cuts come with real pain for people who are struggling to get by. Among them are the people throughout Chautauqua County who would have been helped by FeedMore WNY, which offers assistance to food pantries through its food bank distribution center ...

State Budget Is Late, But For A Good Reason

It won’t be long before we hear about all the problems caused by a late New York state budget. The budget itself is bad, increasing operational spending 11%, increasing some taxes and failing to deal with out-year structural budget gaps. Spending on education and Medicaid continues to balloon. Rather than rein in the governor, the state Senate and Assembly one-house budgets push spending even higher. That should be more than enough reason to hold up the budget, but this holdup isn’t about dollars and cents. It’s about policy that should have been dealt with outside the ...