It seems like politicians never learn. Being untruthful and
not keeping your word is not only dishonest, its bad politics. George
Herbert Bush promised not to raise taxes; "And I'm the one who will not raise
taxes. My opponent now says he'll raise them as a last resort, or a third
resort. But when a politician talks like that, you know that's one resort he'll
be checking into. My opponent won't rule out raising taxes. But I will. And the
Congress will push me to raise taxes and I'll say no. And they'll push, and I'll
say no, and they'll push again, and I'll say, to them, ‘Read my lips: no new
taxes.’ This promise came back to haunt him as he signed a budget bill that
raised taxes. Voters notice and punished his party at the polling booth. President
Obama promised Americans that if they like their health care plan and doctor, they could
keep both, "If you like the plan you have, you can keep it. If you like
the doctor you have, you can keep your doctor, too. The only change
you’ll see are falling costs as our reforms take hold." When the
individual mandate went into effect earlier this year, millions of Americans lost their health
care plan, lost their doctor and healthcare costs have gone up not down. As a result, the
President’s approval has been in free fall ever since.
During the last election, the incumbent Supervisor of the town of Oyster Bay, John Venditto
and members of the town board ran on the “tax Revolt” line. This ballot line in
not from a political party but is the rallying cry against excessive taxation.
It is the premise that the candidate running
on that platform understands that taxes are crushing Long Islanders and there is
a reasonable expectation that they will fight for the taxpayer by opposing any
new taxes or tax increases. Yet barely two weeks after the election, the town board met
on November 19th and voted unanimously 7-0 to raise the town’s share of
property taxes by 8.8%. In response, they claim that it reflects only a small
portion of the property tax bill and the increase was needed due to "years of
fiscal challenges brought on by the national recession". The real problem is
spending and excessive borrowing. As we have noted before,
several of the Long Island towns have enacted laws that allow for automatic
spending increases tied to the inflation rate so they can claim that there was
no "real" tax increase if based on the adjusted inflation rate.
Pay raises for elected officials are always a contentious
topic. When Nassau
County legislators tried to hike their salaries by double digits, they heard an
outcry from their constituents killing the proposal. Taxpayers don’t object to reasonable pay hikes when times are
good, however when they have trouble paying their own bills during an economic
down turn, how can elected officials justify raises when their own constituents'
are suffering. Considering the recent effect of two major weather catastrophes,
Hurricane Irene and Sandy, it's not a good idea for politicians to hike their
own salary. When the effort is
compounded by trickery or deceit, it heightens the natural mistrust voters have
toward politicians.
Council members of the Town of North
Hempstead voted to hike their salaries and the salaries
of the Town Clerk and Receiver of Taxes by double digits averaging 25%. What made it worse
was how they went about passing the proposal. Supervisor John Kaiman resigned
earlier this year when he took a position with the Cuomo Administration and the
town board appointed John Riordan as an interim supervisor. Mr. Riordan
moved to raise the salaries after the November election. During a December 11th
board meeting, the proposal passed by a vote of 4-2. One of the board members
who voted for the salary hike was also appointed to the board replacing a board
member who recently resigned. If
the proponents felt so strongly that the proposal was justified, they should
have put their trust in the People and disclosed their intentions before the
November election
so voters could have had an opportunity to weigh in. Not to be out done, the Town of
Hempstead
also held a vote after the election to give council members and the Supervisor
pay raises. While the increases were more reasonable then those in North Hempstead, the proposed pay hikes were not clearly
accounted for in the budget and came as a surprise to voters after the election.
When ever politicians hold votes right after an election
whether to raise taxes, their salaries or pass legislation, they rob the People
of a fair election. While it is bad enough that the votes are held after the
November election, the effort to hold the vote so early once re-elected is based
on the expectation that people will forget. History has shown time and time
again that this strategy doesn’t always work. When politicians are dishonest and
break their promises, its bad politics; bad for the People they serve and bad
when the people remember next November.
