Readers’ Column for the week of Oct. 12, 2014

You may call the Owego Pennysaver Readers’ Column at (607) 687-2378 24-hours a day, or e-mail comments to readerscolumn@stny.rr.com. We reserve the right to revise or reject any message.

The Circle of Reality surrounding STARTUP NY. Locate the Center of Excellence at Binghamton University. Scribe a circle within a 1-mile radius. Identify all companies, businesses, services and residents within the circle. Survey each regarding the provision of revenue, supporting services utilized by the companies, owners of the companies and employees of the companies; participating in STARTUP NY. These services include public safety, social services, health, transportation and education. Participating companies may pay no taxes for 10 years. Where does the revenue supporting the aforementioned services originate? What are the effects? Maintain, reduce, or eliminate services. Individuals, accepting the responsibility for governmental management, should provide timely, accurate and complete information pertaining to programs such as STARTUP NY. Officers of participating colleges and universities should also provide information pertaining to their education institution quarterly, publicly. Should each institutionally controlled site be circled?

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I am a taxpayer in the town of Nichols and I’m calling regarding the large increase in the Owego Apalachin School District taxes that I pay. Currently my taxes have gone up at least a third. Compared to last year I pay at least $300 more. I was told by the gentleman in the Owego Apalachin business office that this was because my assessment went up. I called the Town of Nichols assessor’s office and they said nothing of such has occurred. I checked my previous tax bills and my land assessment and my total assessment are exactly the same, but yet my school tax rate was previously 79.7 and is now 93.34. I do not know why this happened but I would like some honesty from the Owego Apalachin business office and school board. I do not think it is fair that they pay for the building of a new school with Town of Nichols residents’ school taxes.

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Follow the news. National Ebola health crisis. According the MSNBC reporting, republican budget economies have led to the loss of 40,000 positions in the United States public health service. Is that an economy? No wonder no one seems to know what to do. The answer is simple when it comes to republican budget cutting. Don’t you agree?

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A word to the wise politicians out there. Let he without sins throw the first stone. I’d be very careful about accusing any political opponent of illegal activities since there’s not that many people free from such allegations in New York State.

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I have to say, I read this column in the Pennysaver pretty much religiously and you Obama haters out there, you’re embarrassing yourself! You’re showing your ignorance. Get a grip.

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The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is growing exponentially. All air travel between these countries and the U.S. should be immediately terminated and no one traveling in these areas for the previous three weeks should be allowed to enter the U.S. This president should quit playing to his base before the November elections and do his duty to protect the people of the U.S. If he is too weak to do the job the airlines should do it for him.

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As a parent of a young child in Tioga County I wanted to leave this positive encouragement for all parents in Tioga county. Please, we are brand new in the beginning of the school year; get involved with your voice in your child’s education. If your child attends Apalachin Elementary join the parents group. If your child attends OES in preparation for the new school join the PTO. If your child attends Tioga Elementary contact and attends the Tioga/Nichols PTO meetings, and if your child is in Waverly please contact the parents group association. Tioga county parents need to be as involved as they can and lend their voices to their child’s education. Please do so with a start of a brand new school year.

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Candor seniors, there is an Oct. 23 meeting at noon with a dish to pass. We meet every fourth Thursday of the month at the United Methodist Church, Route 96 in Candor. All are welcome to join us. This Thursday we are having a special speaker, Neil Zimmer. He is a wood turner and will be giving a talk on his craft along with displays.

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Readers beware. Someone is calling homes on the weekends or any time representing NYSEG. They say they are NYSEG but they are not. They may say you have a refund coming, the only thing you want to do is either hang up or tell them you are calling NYSEG to verify it. I just did. I just called NYSEG and they did not make any calls regarding a refund. They would either send the refund directly to your home or if you have other outstanding accounts they would transfer the refund to another account, but they DO NOT make phone calls.

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Follow the news. By the end of the congressional year, congress, which we thought did nothing much has authorized more funds to be spent in Afghanistan than the United States spent in rebuilding Europe after WWII and $104 billion of that enormous amount was stolen or misplaced according to the New York Times. Now it’s been reported that republican budge guru Paul Ryan wants to enlist new budget and accounting measures for the nation called Dynamic Scoring which seems to be more smoke and mirrors to bring back voodoo economics. You know, the trickle down theory supported at first by David Stockman with his magic numbers fame. It looks like the same old game of the emperor’s new clothes, but since Halloween is coming we must mention that more Ryan type Dracula cuts to domestic programs including social security, Medicare, and food activities must be contemplated in that republican ivory tower. Let’s vote the bums out in November!

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Maybe the film crew for the walking dead would like to film in the town of Owego because we still have a lot of zombie houses left for the neighbors to get disturbed over.

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To the people in Candor, they must have nothing else better to do than to cause problems on Slate Road for one person. I hate to tell them, I’m going to still stay there! They can try and cause all the problems they want but I will still be there.

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To the person calling about saving money by terminating the bus service, you must have a vehicle. What about people who need the bus? They pay to ride it; some people ride to work etc.

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In contrast to a current person calling in, the only bums that are going to get thrown out in November are the democrats in the senate, maybe a few in the house.

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The other day Obama gave a speech telling how great the economy was. Well, it’s not. If it was that great why is the government continuing to put $75 billion into the stock market? Let the stock market be on its own. It’s a big boy. Either make it or not.

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I’m calling to inquire why Candor Central School District thinks we need to purchase a building with all that acreage for a bus garage. I encourage people to vote no. We do not have the students or the numbers to incur that kind of expense. Vote no.

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The news says the job picture is looking much better now. Unemployment is down but wages are stagnant. The average manufacturing wage is $24.53 per hour. How many workers in Tioga County are making that wage?

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Thank you to the Pennysaver for printing the Tinseltown articles. They are wonderful, especially the one with the Lone Ranger and Tonto by Lone Ranger’s daughter. I remember when we were young and my father was listening to it on the radio. Wonderful! Thank you very much.

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This is for the anti-Tom Reed crybaby. You can start crying real tears now because your fat cat democrat contributors have decided to turn tail and bug out because Reed is poling so much better than his obamacrat opponent. I just can’t wait to read your nonsense again after the November elections.

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Do you know there’s no hunting 500 feet near a house, barn, building or a road? This does not make it okay to have 10 people go through your pasture and drive animals like deer and other things and making your animals go through the fence. Well this year I’m hunting you and I also hunt, so I’ll be out there too.

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Jean, I misplaced your phone number that puts in the zippers. I just want to know what your phone number is again. Please leave your number in the Pennysaver.

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Why are they dumping huge piles of black top on the end of Welch Road?

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I think they should cut the land taxes where we could make payments, like half and half by July being other counties give their seniors a break, we don’t get a break. I worked all my life and raised four children as a single parent. I know Broome and Tompkins County give seniors a break. I would be very happy if something was done about it in Tioga County, as Tioga County is the poorest county in the state; and I also think only property owners should vote on these school budgets. After all, these kids that are 18 and getting out of school don’t know anything about it, and half the time they leave the area and us poor seniors are stuck paying the taxes.

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I’d like to say that residents in this village are mad as hell over the new practice of picking up leaves. Mad because your ridiculous machine is a waste of money and you don’t do the job that you used to do. We are informed that you will be around with that sucker machine once a week. Seriously? So whomever you don’t get to can wait another week hoping that the piles they already raked up don’t blow away and have to be gathered up again. Once is bad enough. I guess the people who don’t bother to clean up their yard don’t care one way or the other, but for those of us who do, we care a whole lot! The village board and maintenance people better do something about the issue. Voters will remember this at election time; believe me.

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Once again, a great big “THANK YOU” goes to the kind and generous anonymous donors who made some St. Patrick School families’ lives just a little less stressful! From the very bottom of our hearts, please know that we are eternally grateful and vow to make you proud of your investment. Your timing is impeccable and we will, one day, pay it forward. Thank You! And just so the rest of the world knows, there are really wonderful people right here in our community!

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Goodbye and good riddens Eric Holder. For a man who said he wanted to be the people’s attorney general he’s a typical politician. Don’t believe what he says; watch what he does. He failed in several instances to prove whom he really was working for. Less informed voters, if you don’t comprehend this, stay away from the polls come November. You are no help to voters who have a moral compass, something lacking in both state and federal government. We need to clean up the political sewers.

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This is a guy we should be voting for. Saying he’s “not concerned about political correctness,” Republican gubernatorial nominee Rob Astorino on Tuesday called on the federal government to halt flights into U.S. airports from Ebola-wracked West Africa.

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I would like to my express my gratitude to our county legislators for eliminating funding for the Tioga Transit public bus system. I suggest that other public services be eliminated to save taxpayer money. I’m not a veteran so let’s stop funding Veteran Services. I have no children, and see no need for Youth Bureau Services. I pay my own medical bills, so we can scratch Medicaid. I have no problem with either drugs or alcohol, so let’s eliminate funding for Alcohol and Drug Services, and by the same reasoning, we can eliminate Mental Health Services. I’ve never needed a Public Defender; the list just goes on and on. When all this “public” stuff is eliminated, just think of the money we will save on taxes!

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To the person who came out against his local school’s capital project and complained about his school taxes, perhaps you should check and see if your assessed value has increased significantly. The entire town was recently reassessed, and if you own land or have made improvements to your property, a 2 percent school tax increase on a higher valued property may explain the increase. Candor schools have consistently had some of the lowest tax increases in the Southern Tier, and we have a reputation as a great small school, which is well managed and has great kids and employees.

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For the lefties in this audience, you better knock it off with the “war on women” bit. Seems it isn’t polling well. People realize just how silly and phony this accusation is. It’s having a negative effect on those attempting to use it to further their agenda. The business about Conservatives wanting to shut down food stamps, etc., is polling negatively also. No one wants to take anything DESERVED away from anyone. Just be responsible in finding ways to PAY FOR THE GIVE AWAYS. After all, isn’t that what YOU want your politicians to do?

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To the person looking for someone to do sewing, call Jean at 687-2069. Her prices are reasonable and her work is good.

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The proposed capital project in the Candor Central School district will address long-term maintenance and health and safety issues. Contrary to the letter in last week’s paper, the state has never reduced nor reneged on capital project aid. It is separate from the annual operating aid, which school districts receive for annual budgets. I do not work at the school, nor do I have children or grandchildren in the schools. But if you read the proposal and educate yourself with the facts, you will find that there is no fluff in the project. The district desperately needs a bus garage, and roofs need to be replaced, and other health and safety issues are overdue and need to be addressed. Of course state aid comes from the taxpayers, but your state income taxes are not going to go down if you vote no on this project. And it is due to sound fiscal management that the community can do this project without raising local taxes.

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If the people of Tioga County knew what republicans stand for they would never vote for Tom Reed. This is why Reed has not talked about issues that are important to us. Instead he is engaging in a character assassination of the excellent candidate, Martha Robertson. That is all he has left in the campaign bag. The 23rd Congressional District needs a representative that will work for the people. Vote for Martha on Nov. 4.