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County Budget Largely ‘Status Quo’ Budget

The tentative 2026 County Budget recently unveiled by the County Executive appears to be largely a status quo budget. The Tentative Budget continues the routine of raising County Real Property Taxes every year by $1,700,000 or so, it keeps County government employment at about 1,200 employees, and foresees no significant improvements or efficiencies in the delivery of County services. It is important to look at the context of this 2026 Tentative Budget. In 2009 County Property Taxes were $54,900,000. In 2024 they were $71,500,000, up 32%. In 2025 County Property Taxes went up again ...

Thus Far, A Quiet Election

This is an “off year” in politics. There are no elections for federal office. That comes next year when there will be elections for Congress. That doesn’t mean that the elections this year are unimportant. Who we elect for County Executive, the County Legislature and other local offices is still important. Local elections give us the opportunity to choose elected officials who are the closest to us, and who operate most of the government that we deal with on a daily basis. Some don’t like them, but I am a big believer in political campaign signs. They remind us of our ...

The Rest Of The Story

As a kid, I remember riding in the truck with my dad, listening to Paul Harvey’s iconic radio segment, “The Rest of the Story.” Harvey’s show was masterful. He’d spin the first half of a tale, often about history or ordinary folks, and just when you thought you had the facts straight, he’d reveal the twist, the context, the “rest of the story” that changed your entire perspective. His premise was simple: behind every headline, every controversy, there’s always a deeper story, a truth that only emerges when you look beyond the surface. Reading the back and forth about ...

Hochul Takes Vow Of Poverty

Governor Kathy Hochul recently endorsed Zorhan Mamdani for New York City Mayor - an endorsement she would not make without being fully on-board with Mamdani’s open support for authoritarian Marxist/Socialist ideology. (As demonstrated earlier, all Socialism, “Democratic” or otherwise, is necessarily totalitarian and authoritarian.) With her endorsement, our Governor must now demonstrate her sincerity through her actions. Governor Hochul must now implement the primary objective of Marx’s Socialism: Seize the means of production (businesses) away from private ownership and bring ...

Sink Them All Into The High Seas

For decades, illegal drugs from all over the world—and particularly from Central and South America—have come into the United States. As decades have passed, illegal drugs have become more and more lethal. The drug trade is no mere set of commercial transactions. It is no mere set of illegal commercial transactions. It is a criminal enterprise. Yet it’s more than a mere criminal enterprise. This is an invasion of the United States of America, an invasion that has taken more lives than this country lost in any of its wars. Correction: In any of its other wars. It is ...

An Old Site Brings Ancient Knowledge To Light

There’s a place in southeastern Turkey that most people have never heard of — a windswept hilltop called Gobekli Tepe. It was built long before the pyramids, long before organized farming. And it’s important for human beings to know its story, because when the site was discovered in the 1990’s, it changed everything we thought we knew. For generations, we were told that civilization began when humans settled down to farm. Only then, the thinking went, could people build villages, develop religion, create art, and organize into more sophisticated societies. But Gobekli Tepe ...