The good old give and take in local politics. Notice the emphasis on the word local. I’m sure that in this vast country of ours, there does exist a system of government that mirrors ours. But not many. See, in a perfect world, a government should run with it’s politicians willing to give some to get some. However, locally, we exist solely on a system of take and no give. Let’s begin with city government. The Common Council (the governing body of this fair city) consists of 15 members and one Council President. They are all Democrats. Note: the presence of one party does not preclude them from agreement on anything. Example: council assembles an outside commission to redraw the Ward boundaries per law. Against the wishes of the council, there are no members on this commission. After map submission — and a 4-1 council committee vote to send the map ‘As Is’ to the entire council for a vote — council decides to do some cartography of it’s own because they don’t like the map as drawn. A perfect example of take and no give. The meeting last Monday didn’t even render a vote, only more discussion. Now, on the county level, we have the matter of the Albany County Nursing Home. Two matters of fact are: There is no way a new nursing home is going to be built; and, the county is incapable of running the nursing home on it’s own. County Executive McCoy has brokered a deal with an outside vendor to lease and run the home for at least the next ten years. Although the details of the lease have been on the table for the legislature to review since October of last year, only now do they — by they I mean Legislature Czar’s Frank Commisso and Shawn Morse — feel the need to bring on board an independent entity to vet the deal. What in God’s name were these people doing with the lease agreement for the last four months. Exec. McCoy could and should put a stop to this take and no give with a veto.……….A note to local weather forecasters: stop it with all the scare tactics you use in your teasers throughout the evening. “Capital District to get walloped; Capital District to get blasted.” Six inches of snow isn’t getting blasted. I can’t believe that they close schools before it even starts snowing. I guess when you say we should get six to twelve inches of snow, you were right. How about if a contractor told a customer that the job will cost between fifty and one hundred thousand dollars. I don’t think so.……….Kudos to Assemblymembers Fahy and McDonald, along with Senator Breslin for seeking a PILOT program for the Harriman State Office Campus which is located within the city boundary, but is exempt from city taxes. They came up with some number of $1.7 million a year for the next ten years to hopefully help city property tax payers. With the state relocating it’s uptown workforce to other locations, it’s longtime that the prime property be developed into a taxable entity.……….Yes folks it’s time. The time being the arrival of pitchers and catchers to the warmth of Florida and Arizona for the start of Spring Training. That, along with the fact that the rodent in Pennsylvania didn’t see his shadow, means that warm weather is just ahead. Note to weather forecasters: read the previous sentence.
And that is “The Daily Take”