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Why didn't you just say to abolish public sector unions if it's that easy to deny these people?
No one said it was easy to force reduction in compensation, but considering the context of this thread is a discussion on who to choose as an elected official, I didn't think that we were constrained to "easy" decisions. The fiscal condition of Nassau County requires necessary, not easy, decision-making. The job has certainly been made more difficult by decades of "easy" choices, such as benefits and pensions that kicked the can down the road.
Whether or not there is a union involved is irrelevant when trying to determine what is required here. The new reality is employee retirement contribution plans, contribution towards benefits, and salary more in line with the prevailing rate. Sooner or later, Nassau County is going to have to get on board. The question is whether politicians who can face that reality can be elected now or if we will simply continue to put ourselves is more dire financial straits before we do so.
I don't get it at all. There are plenty of warnings for the cameras. Flashing lights, YOUR SPEED flashers and don't forget the signs that say PHOTO/VIDEO enforced school zone.
Its really ridiculous. They also give a 10MPH buffer. SLOW down!!!
You're right, you don't get it at all. This is a non-issue turned intro a blatant money grab and indirect tax. There has been no public outcry ever over excessive speeding in school zones or accidents, despite the sudden "well just slow down" argument. Sit a few cops there to slow down traffic from time to time like we've always done. Instead it's a multi-million dollar crony fest of supplying cameras and 3rd party collection systems to fleece already burdened taxpayers when there wasn't any issue to begin with. I agree, do the speed limit and I have no pity for the ones who got a half dozen tickets and are crying foul. They WERE speeding and got caught. However, they got caught in a money trap, not a safety one. A sudden desire for safety has nothing to do with investing $60 million to create a system to rake in fines to help close a budget shortfall. That anyone can't see the blatant BS in this is sad. Was this some ballot initiative that led you to vote for a particular candidate or is this some sneaky fleece job clothed as a public safety issue they conjured up to raise money?! That is the problem.
Im not disagreeing with the fact that it is a money maker for our broke county. Its crap. BUT it IS the LAW, and people are completely brazen when they blow past school zones well about a 10 MPH limit. In a perfect world we WOULD have cops out there patrolling, but they are too busy with all the other real issues out there. We don't have enough of them. Would it make you feel better if it was an actual "person" out there instead of a camera banging everyone for speeding?
Its just unbelievable to me that you are given a 10MPH buffer and people are raking them in, sometimes a few in a day!!!
Have you ever sat at a school crossing? Hundreds of people all day every day distracted, texting, talking, unlicensed etc...and just because there hasn't been a tragedy YET, that's an excuse not to be proactive and make people think twice about actually following the law? Jeez.
Im not disagreeing with the fact that it is a money maker for our broke county. Its crap. BUT it IS the LAW, and people are completely brazen when they blow past school zones well about a 10 MPH limit. In a perfect world we WOULD have cops out there patrolling, but they are too busy with all the other real issues out there. We don't have enough of them. Would it make you feel better if it was an actual "person" out there instead of a camera banging everyone for speeding?
Its just unbelievable to me that you are given a 10MPH buffer and people are raking them in, sometimes a few in a day!!!
Have you ever sat at a school crossing? Hundreds of people all day every day distracted, texting, talking, unlicensed etc...and just because there hasn't been a tragedy YET, that's an excuse not to be proactive and make people think twice about actually following the law? Jeez.
Because there hasn't been a tragedy "yet" is precisely why it shouldn't be safety issue #1 to the tune of millions of patronage dollars in start up costs. Money grabs under the guise of "public safety" are disingenuous. There are MANY safety issues on roadways that are DOCUMENTED and REAL infrastructure improvement needs but we aren't throwing penny #1 at those. Why, because they aren't easy revenue streams. This isn't about safety OR speeding OR police work (we had cops sitting by the schools all the time and still do...is it better they sit in the 7-11 or Dunkin Donuts parking lot instead)?! This is a BLATANT insulting indirect TAX. Nothing more, nothing less. People shouldn't drive too fast, duh. That's a far cry from suddenly deciding we need $60 million worth of cameras when there hasn't been a "tragedy yet." Like schools are something new. Ironically we never had an issue UNTIL the cameras when a kid was recently hit in the school traffic circle by a parent. Not an accident in front of the school in 50+ years or more. "Jeez."
You're right, you don't get it at all. This is a non-issue turned intro a blatant money grab and indirect tax. There has been no public outcry ever over excessive speeding in school zones or accidents, despite the sudden "well just slow down" argument. Sit a few cops there to slow down traffic from time to time like we've always done. Instead it's a multi-million dollar crony fest of supplying cameras and 3rd party collection systems to fleece already burdened taxpayers when there wasn't any issue to begin with. I agree, do the speed limit and I have no pity for the ones who got a half dozen tickets and are crying foul. They WERE speeding and got caught. However, they got caught in a money trap, not a safety one. A sudden desire for safety has nothing to do with investing $60 million to create a system to rake in fines to help close a budget shortfall. That anyone can't see the blatant BS in this is sad. Was this some ballot initiative that led you to vote for a particular candidate or is this some sneaky fleece job clothed as a public safety issue they conjured up to raise money?! That is the problem.
The sadder part is that the result of the scheme is to send 38% of the revenue (almost exclusively Nassau County residents' money) to a company in Arizona when that money could have otherwise have been used in the local economy. Indeed, for every dollar sent to Arizona, the spending in Nassau County is reduced by a magnitude far greater than $1 (e.g., $1 extra spent in Nassau County will result in an economic benefit in Nassau County far greater than $1 because the recipient of that $1 will, in turn, spend that money, and so on). Some empirical studies have found that the Local Multiplier effect (spending money at local, independent stores) boosts the local economic benefit four-fold. In other words, by sending 38% of every dollar collected out-of-state, the County could be theoretically damaging the local economy by a minimum $1.52 for every $1 of revenue collected by these cameras, and that does not even take into account whether the other $0.62 is spent in a manner that would have benefited the economy as much as consumer spending.
Speed cameras or no speed cameras, ultimately, public employee compensation needs to be reduced because they are unsustainable. Required reading might start with this http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/uplo...ead%281%29.pdf study out of the Buckeye Institute of Public Policy. Although its data is Ohio-based, its analysis and conclusions can easily be applied to Nassau County or New York State.
Quote:
Originally Posted by zeekat123
Im not disagreeing with the fact that it is a money maker for our broke county. Its crap. BUT it IS the LAW, and people are completely brazen when they blow past school zones well about a 10 MPH limit. In a perfect world we WOULD have cops out there patrolling, but they are too busy with all the other real issues out there. We don't have enough of them. Would it make you feel better if it was an actual "person" out there instead of a camera banging everyone for speeding?
Its just unbelievable to me that you are given a 10MPH buffer and people are raking them in, sometimes a few in a day!!!
Have you ever sat at a school crossing? Hundreds of people all day every day distracted, texting, talking, unlicensed etc...and just because there hasn't been a tragedy YET, that's an excuse not to be proactive and make people think twice about actually following the law? Jeez.
I don't think anyone is advocating breaking the law. If they installed speed cameras for the purposes of reducing speed in school zones, then we would not be having this discussion. But the way project was implemented simply screams "safety used as a pretext for a revenue grab."
The sadder part is that the result of the scheme is to send 38% of the revenue (almost exclusively Nassau County residents' money) to a company in Arizona when that money could have otherwise have been used in the local economy. Indeed, for every dollar sent to Arizona, the spending in Nassau County is reduced by a magnitude far greater than $1 (e.g., $1 extra spent in Nassau County will result in an economic benefit in Nassau County far greater than $1 because the recipient of that $1 will, in turn, spend that money, and so on). Some empirical studies have found that the Local Multiplier effect (spending money at local, independent stores) boosts the local economic benefit four-fold. In other words, by sending 38% of every dollar collected out-of-state, the County could be theoretically damaging the local economy by a minimum $1.52 for every $1 of revenue collected by these cameras, and that does not even take into account whether the other $0.62 is spent in a manner that would have benefited the economy as much as consumer spending.
Speed cameras or no speed cameras, ultimately, public employee compensation needs to be reduced because they are unsustainable. Required reading might start with this http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/uplo...ead%281%29.pdf study out of the Buckeye Institute of Public Policy. Although its data is Ohio-based, its analysis and conclusions can easily be applied to Nassau County or New York State.
I don't think anyone is advocating breaking the law. If they installed speed cameras for the purposes of reducing speed in school zones, then we would not be having this discussion. But the way project was implemented simply screams "safety used as a pretext for a revenue grab."
Meh let them tax the lawbreakers instead of everybody. $10 million projections. Crazy stuff.
As said numerous times, fix the budget problem. Point the finger at the right people. Why the need to repeatedly make a case this is a money-grab by politicians is beyond me. We all know they need it already. You're blaming the enablers - the ones who have to play both sides - instead of the greedy ones. Where is 62% of this money going to again? Where do the astronomical school taxes go again?
Location: Free State of Florida, Support our police
5,851 posts, read 3,272,894 times
Reputation: 9123
No matter where you go and no matter what you do there is some politician with their greedy hands in your pocket. The fact is that a child getting hit by a car in front of a school is almost non existent. That's why they never show you the statistics because there are none lol. Also kids get dropped off in the morning and picked up in the afternoon. For at least six hours they are sitting in classes. But on LI lets keep those cameras rolling to get some revenue. We are taxed to death here on LI. Every time you turn around they bang you out for something else. It just never ends. The politicians have carte blanche. They know no one will vote them out of office. So therefore there is no restraint on their part. I will vote with my feet though. My wife got offered them same job and salary in Florida. We save 25k a year just by moving there in reduced mortgage, state taxes, oil bills and insurance. No wonder why NY is losing people in droves!
No matter where you go and no matter what you do there is some politician with their greedy hands in your pocket. The fact is that a child getting hit by a car in front of a school is almost non existent. That's why they never show you the statistics because there are none lol. Also kids get dropped off in the morning and picked up in the afternoon. For at least six hours they are sitting in classes. But on LI lets keep those cameras rolling to get some revenue. We are taxed to death here on LI. Every time you turn around they bang you out for something else. It just never ends. The politicians have carte blanche. They know no one will vote them out of office. So therefore there is no restraint on their part. I will vote with my feet though. My wife got offered them same job and salary in Florida. We save 25k a year just by moving there in reduced mortgage, state taxes, oil bills and insurance. No wonder why NY is losing people in droves!
I once thought people who left LI were the ones who couldn't afford it anymore. But now I've changed my tune because I'm just as sick of the tax money going to people rather than county improvements. While people are leaving in droves, people are also moving here just the same. Population over the last 10 years has not changed much. There will always be kids who need raising so these suburbs will always thrive no matter the cost and so the taxes remain. When and how will the cycle end? Politicians are the same EVERYWHERE. Unions demanding most of our money however, are not. Fight for rights, fight for fair working conditions and hours, but when it comes to fighting for pay that much higher than the avg worker doing the same job across the nation - that's obviously the root cause of the issue. Why isn't anything done about them? All we ever do is talk about it.
In all honesty, all politicians suck. They should all be voted out and the slate wiped clean. We need a reset of govt.
I'm with ya on that. Its not a Dem or Repub thing, both parties are the same. We have career politicians that have to be wheeled onto the floor in a wheelchair to vote! Its crazy. Our politicians have become the new aristocracy.
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