COME ON, IRENE: FLIER FULL OF FICTION

What do you do if you're an incumbent elected official and are running for re-election, but have few legitimate accomplishments to trumpet during your campaign or none at all?

If you're Mayor Irene Elia, you take credit for the work of others, exaggerate what should be the nuts-and-bolts tasks of government or just make stuff up.

Nobody with a modicum of common sense takes campaign literature at face value -- dishonesty is as much a part of American electioneering as baked ziti at a fundraiser. But Herroner's recently released glossy, double-sided 3.5-by-8-inch flier may contain more bunk per square inch than any piece of political fare in recent memory. Especially since all Elia's spurious claims are printed on one side, with, to be fair, quite a nice picture of her on the other.

The introduction to the text side of the handbill reads, "Re-elect a proven leader who has gotten results. Four years ago, we sent Irene Elia to City Hall to help us renew the promise of Niagara Falls. Today, we see the results. Our city is on the rise!"

It's tough to find someone whose living doesn't depend on Herroner's re-election who would agree with that last sentence, but it does end with an exclamation point. So it must be true!

Then come the bullet points, 19 of them in all, broken down under three headings. The flier's words are in bold print, with Citycide's analysis in plain old text. Note to all other mayoral hopefuls: We're not just picking on the incumbent. Your propaganda will be exposed to similar scrutiny.

REBUILDING THE CITY'S FINANCES

• Zero percent tax levy increase for two straight years
  That sounds nice. Note, however, that it doesn't say "zero percent tax rate increase for two straight years." The levy, of course, is the total amount of cash billed to taxpayers. This attempt to fool voters into believing that their taxes stayed level not only contradicts the bills they got in the mail, it conveniently ignores the massive hikes in most assessments, some of which surpassed 70 percent. And regardless of spin, the tax rate has also risen during Elia's first term.
• Raised the city's bond rating to allow rebuilding of roads and infrastructure
  A kernel of truth -- the bond rating did increase slightly, but for only one reason, the opening of the Seneca Niagara Casino, which Standard and Poor's, the company that evaluates such matters, reasonably expects will lead to spin-off development and a larger tax base. The only City Hall fiscal procedure cited when the rating increased was a resolution sponsored by one of Herroner's challengers, Councilman Vince Anello, to mandate the city's budget surplus be maintained and not spent. Elia's administration fought the resolution, but now that it's done some good, it's an alleged accomplishment.
• Cutting business taxes to create jobs
  A move to eliminate the disparity in business and homeowner rates started under Elia's predecessor, Jim Galie, and she initially froze the equalization. In the budget for this year, business rates were cut by $1 per $1,000. That might have bought a nice dinner for the people who enjoyed that paltry windfall, but if new jobs were created as a result, they've been a very well-kept secret as hundreds of others evaporated at Nabisco, DuPont, Oxy Chem and Carbide Graphite, to name a few.
• Went from deficits to surpluses
  Yes, by raising taxes (as mentioned above) and cutting services, not by increasing the tax base or paring away useless patronage positions. But hey, somebody's got to work on her campaign.
• New Water Authority will spare residents a 70 percent water-rate increase
  Given the massive debts incurred by the city's water and sewer departments, there was no choice but to do some creative accounting by creating a new authority, thereby removing both lines from the city budget. And there's absolutely no guarantee shuffling the debt around will ultimately save taxpayers a dime.

RECLAIMING OUR NEIGHBORHOODS

• Provided funding to keep Block Clubs and Beautification Commission strong
  Galie's administration put together an "impact team" to help the city's cash-starved block clubs. Elia continued the initiative, but uses federal Community Development block-grant money earmarked for business and housing needs and not cash from the general fund to do so.
• Dramatically increased demolition of dangerous buildings
• Repaired nearly 200,000 square feet of sidewalks in front of 1,100 homes
  There's a definite theme developing here. Elia has also diverted Economic Development money to pay for work that's supposed to come out of the general fund for both, um, achievements. Knocking down vacant eyesores and keeping sidewalks walkable falls under the category of basic responsibilities of any municipality. Herroner patting herself on the back for either is akin to people who think they deserve special recognition for not turning into criminals or crackheads. And if her administration has actually repaired that many sidewalks, there's a list of home and business owners who have been on a waiting list for five years or more who would like to know when it's going to be their turn.
• Trimmed and removed nearly 3,000 trees and removed 750 stumps
  More math problems here. Figuring that it takes two workers roughly a day-and-a-half to remove a tree, each worker puts in about 1,800 hours per year, and tree removal can only occur during the summer months, then 40 workers would have had to do nothing but remove trees for the past three summers. The numbers just don't add up.
• Paved many major roads, covering nearly 20 lane miles
  One has to assume this includes state-funded reconstruction projects and the $300,000 worth of work on Niagara Street near Hyde Park Boulevard, which was paid for with federal money meant to refurbish the former Red Cross headquarters. If the city has funded 20 miles' worth of resurfaced roads, we'd like to know where they are.

REDEVELOPING DOWNTOWN NIAGARA FALLS

• Worked closely with the Seneca Nation and New York State to open the world-class Seneca Niagara Casino, employing more than 2,000 people
  Please. The casino deal was a result of negotiations between New York State and the Seneca Nation, with both parties going to tremendous lengths to keep Elia and her administration as blissfully clueless as possible. Herroner herself admitted as much at one of her sparsely attended "town meetings" this winter. She might as well take credit for last summer's particularly beautiful weather.
• Working with USA Niagara Development to resurrect the United Office Building and return it to the tax rolls
  Here, "working with" means "gave the building to for $1." It's not only not on the tax rolls, but USA Niagara's beloved developer, Carl Paladino, sobbed last week that state requirements for historic buildings have stalled his fanciful plans for luxury apartments in the art deco structure.
• Brought the new Niagara Aerospace Museum downtown
  And we thought that was our landlord, Frank Amendola. Private interests had everything to do with the museum's relocation from the moribund Summit Park Mall, while the administration sat on its collective thumb. Once the move became a reality, Elia sent her Community Development minions over with a check, buying the right to put an item like this on her campaign literature.
• New Niagara Explore Center will open this year
  This bit of highly optimistic prognosticating ignores one small detail -- Gov. George Pataki hasn't come through with the $10 million he promised last year. Elia's successor will cut this ribbon, if it ever gets sliced.
• Worked to bring the Flight of Angels Balloon Ride downtown
  The balloon is a nice complementary attraction to keep tourists from crossing the Rainbow Bridge to Canada. The deal that allowed its arrival also got Rainbow Centre impresario David Cordish out of his contractual obligation to build a 10,000-square-foot permanent structure on the site and eliminated a parking lot that yielded the city an average of $170,000 a year in revenue.
• Supported volunteers in transforming he former Niagara Falls High School into the Niagara Arts and Cultural Center
  "Support" is fine, but "money" is even better, and Elia provided none of that.
• Working to bring train station to Main Street
  Just like Galie, and Jake Palillo, and Mike O'Laughlin, and E. Dent Lackey. It's still a nice topic about which to make grandly empty announcements, but no closer to reality than it was when the mayor rode a white horse.
• Fought tirelessly to keep Small Business Administration in Niagara Falls
  We're sure the SBA's truly powerful advocates like Rep. John LaFalce (who brought the SBA here in the first place), Sen. Charles Schumer and Sen. Hillary Clinton couldn't have done it without her.

Niagara Falls Reporter

www.niagarafallsreporter.com

May 27 2003