Archive for August 16th, 2006
Once again, a political event was not shown in the Buffalo area, even though it was televised in Rochester, Syracuse and NYC. NY1 did make a live audio feed available using RealPlayer. I will give a brief impression of each candidate.
First to be questioned was Andrew Cuomo (D). Mr. Cuomo was asked about his experience as a lawyer. He responded that he has been protecting consumers during the biggest purchase of their lives, a home. He said he has protected them from the “bad banks, insurance companies, appraisers and underwriters.” It sounded to me like he plans on following in Spitzer’s footsteps attacking business while ignoring government fraud and abuse.
Next up was Mark Green (D). Mr. Green also reiterated the theme of crusading against big business. At one point he said, “I’ve sue hundred of businesses for fraud, just like Eliot Spitzer”.
Charlie King (D) was third. He stated that his top two priorities would be education and health care. He sounded like he advocates throwing a lot more money at both. Tsk, tsk. Most of the questions he fielded were hot button issues and not very relevant for someone running for AG.
Next up was Sean Patrick Maloney(D). And yes, he has been my preferred candidate for AG. He was asked how he would protect consumer interests. His response was that he would target Public Authorities. He cited the Public Service Commission as one of his top targets. He said that Public Authorities in New York State are the “most out of control, mis-managed in the country.” He will do to Albany what Eliot Spitzer to Wall Street.
Last to speak was Jeanine Pirro (R). She tried to differentiate herself from the Democrats by emphasizing her experience as a prosecutor in NYC. She repeatedly brought up emotional issues such as battered women and abused children.
New York State’s biggest problem isn’t battered women, abused children, hate crimes, domestic violence or businesses. It is the high taxes combined with a climate that is anti-business. It is government fraud, pork and out of control spending. The only candidate who strongly put forth a position against the real problems we face was Sean Patrick Maloney.
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Three local businesses will recieve $4,060,000 in Corporate Welfare from the Erie County Industrial Development Agency. That is money coming out of the taxpayers pocket to support a for-profit enterprise. The net effect is higher taxes for everyone else.
An Astronics subsidiary, Luminescent Systems, plans a $7.5 million project centered on a 57,000-square-foot addition to its manufacturing plant. The cockpit lighting equipment maker expects to create 100 jobs in three years, and will receive incentives worth a total of $2.1 million.
Praxair plans a $1.5 million project to turn old manufacturing space into its U.S. Project Execution Center, and will add 25 jobs over two years. It was awarded sales tax savings of about $136,000.
Costanzo’s plans a $2.1 million project to add a freezer to expand its frozen food line, and add a truck dock to allow for more efficient shipping. It will receive about $460,000 in property tax abatement, sales tax savings and mortgage recording tax savings. It expects to add 12 jobs in two years.
Astronics share works out to $21,000 per job, Praxair will bet $5,440 per job and Costanzo’s will receive $38,333 per job. These figures are based on the assumption that the promised number of jobs materialize.
There is something wrong with a system that selectively subsidizes some businesses. What happened to the definition of the word entrepreneur? One who assumes the risks and benefits of operating a business. If a business is not expected to thrive or fail on its own merits, the value of goods is distorted and the incentive to run a profitable business is diminshed.
Link to Buffalo News - Three area firms get tax incentives from ECIDA for plant expansions
I’m Highly Amused by All the Blogging Recently About the Proposed Facade of the Walden Galleria Mall
There has been a lot of ranting and speculation going on in the local blogosphere about the proposed cityscape facade for the Galleria Mall. Some people are actually shocked, dismayed and downright upset. The nerve of the mall trying to imitate a genuine, sustainable, cohesive, anti-car urban shopping district. By the way, these are the same people who are blindly advocating the SmartGrowth approach to revitalizing our downtown. Some advocates of SmartGrowth are comparing Buffalo to Portalnd, Oregon and suggesting that we follow their failed policies that have driven the cost of housing sky high. A lesson in reality and economics is in order if a SmartDecision is to be made regarding development in the City. A start would be the following article, use the link at the end to read the whole piece.
Commentators of all stripes regularly bemoan the loss of unique American communityscapes of yore to the ubiquitous American landscape of today: Four-lane blacktops surrounded on both sides by service roads, car dealerships, chain restaurants, strip malls full of chain retail stores, convenience stores, and the like. I say the commentators can put a sock in it, and thank the American strip mall landscape for the high-quality, low-cost sock they can put in it.
The superficial uniformity of the American landscape bemoaned by self-appointed critics is in fact not a problem, for several compelling reasons:
First, merchants, architects, and retailers are responding to what we want. They are all entrepreneurs competing to make us happy, and we demonstrate which ones do the best job by how we spend our money. These entrepreneurs are getting it right, too, otherwise chains wouldn’t grow so large and suburban landscapes wouldn’t grow so identically.
Link to Ameristripmallicana by Brad Edmonds
Here is a reaction from an economic refugee from Portland’s SmartGrowth.
The excerpt from the article below provides a glimpse into the future if we continue to stay the course with our foreign policy.
The United States had a monopoly of nuclear weaponry only a few years before other nations challenged it, but from 1949 until roughly the 1990s deterrence theory worked – nations knew that if they used the awesome bomb they were likely to be devastated in the riposte. Nuclear war was not worth its horrendous risks. Today, by contrast, weapons of mass destruction or precision and power are within the capacity of dozens of nations either to produce or purchase. Every kind of weapon is now available; deterrence theory is less and less relevant, and the equations of military power that existed in the period after World War Two no longer hold. This process began in Korea after 1950 and the Americans discovered that great space combined with guerrilla warfare was more than a match for them in Vietnam. But there has now been a qualitative leap in technology that makes inherited conventional wisdom utterly obsolete.
The latest non-problem that is turning into a hotbed of discussion among scientists is the definition of the word planet.
In the hope of ending years of wrangling, a committee of astronomers and historians has proposed a new definition of the word “planet” that would expand at a stroke the family of planets from 9 to 12 and leave textbooks and charts in thousands of classrooms out of date.
But astronomers immediately began to wrangle about it.
“It’s a mess,” said Michael E. Brown of the California Institute of Technology.
Here’s the rest for all you would-be astronomers.
