The lowly penny is the smallest increment in our monetary structure. However, it has caused poets to wax nostalgic more than any other of its more valuable kin. They are phrases that we learn as young children while playing underfoot of adults who tower above us.
A penny saved is a penny earned. In courtesy, rather pay a penny too much than too little. A bad penny always returns. Penny-wise is often pound-foolish.
It is this once-copper pocket-jangler that finds itself at the epicenter of what may be the greatest financial crisis ever to wreak havoc on Western New York. As a result of the Erie County Legislature's decision to forego County Executive Joel Giambra's request for an additional penny, or a fraction thereof, added to the county sales tax, our neighbors find themselves with a red budget indeed. What many, including Giambra himself, may have failed to realize back in November of last year, when the two options of a red or green budget were introduced, is that the red version would be colored by the blood of some 2,000 workers unceremoniously slashed from positions that many have held for decades.
Those of us in the newspaper biz often are cornered in supermarkets and coffeehouses and asked to give an opinion on such topical matters. The Erie County budget mess is no exception. After careful analysis, the answer I've come to give to people when queried on the subject is, "Why didn't they just pay the extra penny?"
I say they because I am a resident of Niagara County. A good percentage of the readership of this newspaper comes from the seventh most populated county in New York State, so I ask you, "Why didn't you just pay the extra Lincoln?"
The people that I have heard answer this question already usually sound as if they've just been hired to serve on the President's Council on Physical Fitness.
"We need to cut the pork," they say, with stern faces and unwavering brows.
Fair enough, but was this really the best way to go about doing it and, despite the bloodshed, has the mission been accomplished?
To be sure, many of the people on Giambra's "Family and Friends" program have fallen victim. All three of Giambra's relatives on the county payroll have been given their pink slips, as has longtime friend and patronage poster child Victor Getz. In addition to those cuts, many more folks who were hired because of who, and not what, they know, were kicked back to the real world of pay by merit. Still, all of those cuts combined are but a small dent in the huge train wreck that goes by the name of a $108 million deficit.
Most of the people put out of work are honest, hardworking employees who provide needed and valuable services to the community. Among their number are patrolmen, district attorneys, social workers, snowplow operators, parks workers, ECMC hospital staff, office staff and clerks.
Many of the people being laid off are the sole breadwinners in their families. In the short term, the moves will actually cost the county money, as the workers are entitled to millions of dollars in severance packages and unemployment benefits. Furthermore, the burden to the county may be exacerbated greatly in the coming months if many of those let go do not find suitable work in the private sector and end up applying for help through Social Services.
That penny saved really has been earned, through blood, sweat and a whole lot of tears.
What will be the long-term effect on families that have had to deal with the stress and worry over whether mommy or daddy might find a pink slip in next week's pay envelope? I have a friend who is employed by the county in a highly respected, merit-based position. He has a wife and three kids, the youngest not even a year old. They've all been feeling the stress that comes with not knowing if life will continue in the comfort zone you've worked so hard to achieve or be catapulted into the unfamiliar terrain of job-hunting and public handouts.
It's another vicious cycle. Stress leads to health problems and health problems cause the need for medical attention, the cost of which ultimately will be tossed back onto the county's shoulders.
Let's forget about long-term and look at the immediate fallout. The budget cuts will force all snowplow jobs to go from two-man to one-man operations. What exactly did the second guy do anyway, you might ask. Oh, not much, just operated the side plowing blades in an area that will now be mostly blind to the driver on the one-man crew. How long will it be before there is a tragic accident involving a pedestrian in the plow's blind spot? I don't know, but I do know that the countdown already has begun.
Three of the county's four motor vehicle offices have been closed. People complain about the lines at the DMV now. Can you imagine your wait time quadrupled? You don't have to imagine it because you'll now be living it.
When the cuts were first floated, Erie County DA Frank Clark said that they would result in "anarchy on the streets of Buffalo." How can anyone argue that he's even a smidgen wrong?
The local news stations recently have interviewed carefree people ignoring the sheriff postings at the closed county parks and enjoying activities like cross-country skiing and sledding with their children. "They're not going to stop us from enjoying ourselves," is what most say in defense of their violation of the law.
Oh yeah, think things through a bit more. You know those vacant lots with absentee landlords that grow weeds to obscene heights in the dog days of summer? Every county park is going to look just like those unattended parcels of land. There will be no one to cut the grass. Now imagine that you are a rapist or a pedophile. You're looking at a gift from the heavens. Acres and acres of unsupervised land with towering grass and weeds perfectly suited to offer camouflage for your heinous crimes. Furthermore, you are aided and abetted by a nearly nonexistent sheriff's patrol and, in the unlikely event that you are caught while in the act of destroying some innocent victim's life, the DA's office doesn't have the manpower to prosecute you properly. Sad to say that, at a time when many businesses are leaving Erie County, there will be a whole glut of sexual predators hanging out their shingles.
I don't mean to sound condescending or cynical, but it seems to me that, in wanting to execute overzealous governmental spending, the denizens of Erie County have put the gun to their own heads and pulled the trigger. Wouldn't a better plan have been to accept the penny tax and keep vital services, while serving notice that Giambra and every member of the Erie County Legislature would be looking for work come the next election term? Then the process could have begun to find candidates committed to trimming the pork without sacrificing the sow.
I'm curious to know what the people of Erie County think of what I've written and of the mess that they now find themselves hopelessly mired in. If you could turn back the hands of time just a few precious weeks, would you have sent your legislator a different message than the one received? Did you truly understand the ramifications of cutting $108 million from the budget? Are you prepared for the ugly, ugly summer that surely lies ahead?
Write me at the address below, I'll give you a penny for your thoughts.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | March 15 2005 |