AND MORE TAXES? WHEN DOES IT END???

Aubertine's Taxes: Darrel Aubertine and the State Democrats are secretly plotting a slew of new taxes to replace some of the levies they triumphantly proclaimed dead just a few days ago, including a new one cent tax on plastic grocery bags. Media leaks on some of the proposals—including Thursday’s fleeting agreements on an income tax hike and more bottle deposits—are contributing to even more chaos, as some lawmakers cave to pressure from industry, special interests and constituents and back away from the deals. The budget is due on Tuesday, but lawmakers have left Albany for a long weekend break.

Patterson's Taxes: The Buffalo News hails electric ratepayers’ victory in defeating a NYPA plan to raise rates Upstate, but is appalled by Gov. Paterson’s plan to add a new tax to utility bills that will cost consumers even more. The budget plan is even more galling because New Yorkers pay the highest utility rates in the country for power that’s produced locally in Western and Northern NY, then shipped to other parts of the state.

Enough is enough already! These guys have gone off the DEEP end.

HOLY COW AUBERTINE!

Aubertine is losing his street cred with the Agriculture community quicker than Citibank is losing on stocks.  

There has been a "tit-for-tat" between the Aubertine staff, and the NY Farm Bureau and the International Dairy Foods Association, both of whom oppose Aubertine's new MPC bill.   The details can be found in this article published in Valley News Online.  You have to check this out for yourself, but Aubertine gets bloodied up pretty badly for the way he drafted the bill and for not seeking comment from leaders in the dairy industry.  

I don't think folks in the North Country will forget about this one anytime soon.  Of course when we called Aubertine's press secretary for comment we didn't get an answer... he was probrably out gettin' something blazed or trying to spin the unemployment numbers of his member's district.

Who would have thought the fireworks would be happening over Aubertine's farm policy?  One farmer called Darrel's legislation "10 years too late."  That's one Darrel's opponent ought to save for the oppo books.

Hillary to Fort Drum, Aubertine Looking for Cheap Publicity, and Addie Is No Where to be Found

Democrats in NY have been reaching out to everyone and their brother this week. It appears that ol' Hill is coming to Ft. Drum to beef up her cred back home after losing to the NEW candidate of hope and change... and fairy dust and unicorns.

Not only is Hillary getting into the mix in the North Country, but so is Mr. Aubertine. Mr. Aubertine, always looking for some cheap publicity, is getting a new office in Oswego. It goes without mentioning that Aubertine's talking points on that new office could be found in this weeks Watertown Daily Times (they're almost as bad as the New York Times when it comes to their partisan affiliation and love affair with the Democratic Party). In addition, Mr. Aubertine was seen at the Waddington Homecoming Parade this past weekend. He was in the parade and all by himself. He didn't even get out of his car. Crazy ol' Don Lucas even had a bigger presence if you can believe it.

Then a young gentleman at the parade came over and yelled to Aubertine: "Start drilling for oil you liberal Dem," sparking a laugh from the entire crowd of approximately 700 people. (We assume this young man was referring to the complete lack of control the D nominee for president, Barack Hussein Obama, had this week on the issue of offshore drilling.)

At the same parade, Addie Russell, the D running against Bobby Cantwell was no where in sight. Perhaps she is the least presumptuous of the three liberal amigos to be working the upstate circuit this week. Don Lucas also had a notable presence and a mighty fine fishing boat to show.

Nevertheless, you can bet that we will be back all the rumors, gossip, and gotcha politics we can dig up in the coming weeks before the election. So come on back yall.

Golisano's 5 Point Plan for a Responsible New York

Tom Golisano, the billionaire political guru of Western NY has created a PAC that will be distributing money all throughout NY this cycle based on the following 5 principles:


■ Property tax reform.

■ A responsible budgetary process.

■ Campaign and election reform.

■ Ending unfunded mandates.

■ Government transparency.


This is great news to us... we here at UGOB think that those are fine principles to commit to and build support for. That is why today the UpState Good Old Boys are endorsing Golisano's vision for a Responsible New York, which is also the name of his new PAC.


Too bad for Darrel Aubertine that he doesn't fit the bill on any of these measures.

First off, David Renzi, his opponent, committed himself to a property tax reform publicly while Aubertine stood silent.

As for responsible budgetary processes, we never saw Darrel do much of anything in the Assembly to address the issue, except for doing his part to commit to continuing the unfunded mandates dilemma facing the NY State and the federal government.

Then comes campaign/election reform... here is where Darrel stood silently as the leader of his party, Barack Obama, flip-flopped on his promise to take public financing for the presidential election. We called him to task on that issue several days ago and got no response. Then again why would he respond when the mainstream media fails to ask the tough questions. Darrel, do you support Senator Obama's position to forgo public financing for the general election and ruin any chance of meaningful future election reform? Someone should ask him that flat out. He doesn't have a good answer. Just look at how much money he took from Albany for his special election -- he has been paying those favors back for some time now and will continue to pay them back until he gets called to task.

On the issue of ending unfunded mandates Darrel gets an F (minus). We don't even need to get into the mess he and his party have created for unfunded mandates in state government. He is an accomplice of the worse kind as far as unfunded mandates go in Albany.

Last, we come to government transparency... well Darrel, you hired your sister (illegally) for your government office. That moment really brought out the nepotism in you. Then you lied about being offered the NYPA job by Governor Paterson. Darrel does not past the smell test on any of these issues.

Mr. Golisano, with that said, we endorse your plan and we hope you look straight past Mr. Aubertine with your 5 million plus bankroll if you really hope to fix state government in New York and correct these obvious problems in our government. Thank you for your service and commitment, please don't let us down. The people are counting on you!

Questions Linger Over Aubertine's Lie

Gov. Patterson was asked again whether his administration offered Aubertine the NYPA job... It looks like Patterson is sticking to his story.

There has been a lot of confusion over whether it was Aubertine or Patterson who lied about the NYPA job. Interesting how Aubertine learned to keep his mouth shut when asked about it over the weekend.

Mark this one on your calander folks, because Aubertine is never one to bite his tounge. Aubertine loves the sound of his own voice more than Senator Chuck Schumer.