Readers’ Column for the week of June 2, 2019

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. 

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Today is Tuesday, and at 4:05 p.m. this afternoon I had the “pleasure” of being saluted with the middle finger of an apparently disgruntled member of the Glenmary Drive community. While traveling below the posted speed limit of 40-mph, I noticed a man, about a hundred yards ahead of me, crossing the road from a conversation with his neighbor and returning to his residence. Once well within in his driveway, the “bird” flew high! And for what reason, I have no idea. A bad day at work? A conversation with his neighbor that went sour? President Trump’s fault? Who knows but him? Here is my concern. Someday, should this persons behavior persist, someone is going to oblige him in a potentially violent manner. Given the times in which we live and the outrage of our nation at all levels, offering an offense in such a manner, may be seized upon by someone who is equally troubled or worse. As for me, I shook it off and went on only to opine in this column. Because I see and hear of this behavior far to often, I am concerned for the welfare of our community. Have we truly forgotten how to be civil? 

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To the person not happy with the political comments, they are better than someone complaining about the neighbor’s cat doing its business in your flower garden.

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I met a very kind lady on Memorial Day. Her name is Crystal. I want to extend my heartfelt thank for being so kind to me. She will know who I am.

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I’ll bet a considerable sum that it wasn’t 10 degrees hotter in the 1950’s and early 60’s than it is today. Records are kept in many places. It’ll be an easy win.

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You’re blessed with a truly outstanding Owego Apalachin Central School District. Besides having taxpayers that work for the District Unions, no other District in New York has had two budget proposals voted down in the past eight years. Does the District think we aren’t smart enough to understand the 2 percent tax cap formula sham and they remain entitled to take all they can get every year? Vestal had a 0 percent tax increase.

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Yes, there are 479 people that think maintaining the excellent O-A school system is worth it. Apparently there are 597 people that think it’s okay to regress to a mediocre school system.

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There are many sources documenting New York State corruption. One is the Empire Center for Public Policy, Inc., an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank based in Albany, N.Y. New York has the highest teacher salaries and benefits in the nation and world. New York also has the strongest and most numerous Public Sector Unions in the nation. Go figure. Visit www.empirecenter.org/about-the-center/.

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In Broome and Tioga counties, OACSD is demographically closest to Vestal. Go to www.vestal.stier.org/Downloads/2019-20Budget_DCMOfinal.pdf and see what a responsible District can do. Vestal could have increased their levy by 1.74 percent. Instead, they managed financially with what they had and elected not to go for the gold. Vestal proposed a 0 percent, or no levy increase. They put health insurance premiums and pension costs under control, and gave voters a measure of academic excellence. OACSD maximized its levy at 3.83 percent. OACSD’s budget newsletter makes no mention of the financial problems, excesses in salaries, and healthcare costs. The negative impact on taxpayers and students merits no mention. Go to https://data.nysed.gov/lists.php?start=79&type=district. Why are both Tioga Central and Vestal academically outperforming OACSD? Our children aren’t dumb and more money clearly isn’t the answer. Nothing has changed since 2011. Not a single penny of any property tax increase is for the children.

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Okay gas station operators. Guess what. “Pay at the pump” is there so the customer doesn’t have to go inside and stand in line to pay and get a receipt. “See clerk for receipt” defeats the whole purpose. Let’s be a bit more proactive, okay?

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The defeated, go for the gold, OACSD budget proposal called for a 3.83 percent property tax increase, or $654,316. Most likely the BOE will now propose a 2 percent property tax increase, or $341,679 as a legitimate added burden for taxpayers. This $341,679 equals 0.71 percent ($341,679 / $47,931,679) of the budget or rounding error. There was no need for the 3.83 percent property tax increase other than to fill the bucket allowable by the property tax formula. If 3.83 percent was a necessary tax increase, then what legitimacy does 2 percent have?  To say they can’t maintain continuity of resources “for the children” without a 2 percent increase is absurdity. Go back and reduce your ridiculously high compensation expenditures. OACSD refuses to do any budgeting for the purpose of maintaining the highest teacher and staff salaries in the Southern Tier. In order to get the fat out, the BOE needs to be limited to 0 percent increase for the next few years and be barred from taking any resources away from students.” If they cut any resources “for the children” then it comes out of their pockets. 

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If anyone finds a key attached to a colored sparkly turtle, please call Carol’s Coffee & Art Bar at 687-1436.

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It is difficult for me to understand why someone would vote against the school budget and yet vote to give the libraries more money. Ten years ago the libraries got no money. Now they’re getting over a quarter of a million dollars in our taxes. Our children get much more benefit from our schools than they do from the libraries and yet people think libraries need to be funded more and our schools don’t. I think it’s a very sad day when this happens. 

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The 479 people who voted for the Owego-Apalachin school budget either work for the school district or have a family member that works for the district.

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I noticed there’s some construction going on by the Owego town offices and I just found out that the town board has pushed through what’s now a $16 million new highway garage and it has a gym and it has elevators, locker rooms and a cafe. All of that for less than 30 employees. It does not make sense. That’s a half a million dollars per employee of our town money being spent on that new building. Why didn’t anybody tell any of us taxpayers about that? 

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This is in response to the individual who said we should be proud of ourselves because we are not willing to pay for educating children in the school district. First of all, you can’t judge an education by how much money you spend. You can figure that out by how many good teachers you’ve got. Secondly, when I was in school I played football and I played baseball and we ran track. We did all that at the fairgrounds, Marvin Park. We didn’t have some fancy field that had to be rebuilt. When it came to basketball we had a gymnasium that was good for 30 years and didn’t have to be rebuilt. We didn’t have to have new scoreboards; if we did we had a school council that would raise money to pay for it. We played baseball in Marvin Park; the village took care of the field. So don’t tell me today’s education needs to be paid for. I made it all the way through elementary school without a teacher’s aide. Now we have teachers, teacher’s aides and they are all from the highest paid educators, so to speak, in the entire Southern Tier! So don’t tell me that I’m not willing to pay for that because I got such a great education in Owego. I did get a good education and it was taught to us in a fashion that didn’t require a Cadillac to do it.

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Happy Memorial Day!

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Come on people out there. Where has your pride gone? Let’s get those yards cleaned up, get the junk out of them and the garbage and everything on your porch. Properties look a mess nowadays. 

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I would just like to say I am so proud of the NASCAR organization. They did a wonderful job over the weekend in recognizing Memorial Day for what it is. NASCAR still plays the National Anthem and they always begin with a prayer.

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If the OFA Superintendent thinks taxpayers are confused and should approve the largest tax increase the district has proposed in years, we the taxpayers are not as stupid as he thinks we are. 

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When OFA proposes a budget increase of over $1.2 million and the board is asked to reduce the increase to one half million dollars by not raising taxes nearly 4 percent, the $700,000 difference is not a cut Mr. Superintendent, it’s a community concerned about their own long term financial stability. It’s still a big increase. 

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I’m curious as to how many more millions of dollars, I guess you would say, the Town of Owego Highway Department is going to spend on Bolles Hill before they figure out it needs a base under the road. This is ridiculous! This is about the third time now? Come on, and get with it.

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Note to the OA School Board of Education – A 3.83 percent tax increase, no matter how it is figured or explained, is still a 3.83 percent increase that will be added to my taxes. When 597 voted no and 479 people voted yes and (as stated in Press & Sun Bulletin, Thursday, May 23, 2019) it shows that basically 118 people control the outcome of $47,931,679.00. The OA School board has again excluded all Veterans who have served this country by not accepting a Veterans school tax exemption, which the state allows. I am one of those Veterans that voted the budget down. I am requesting that all Owego Apalachin School District’s Voters and Veterans vote all budgets above a 2 percent increase in our taxes down. 

National Political Viewpoints

How come the media isn’t telling us about a group of citizens in Texas who have taken up a collection and gotten enough money to build a wall along our southern border, stopping illegal traffic in one of the most highly traveled areas? It will be finished this Thursday. 

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Note to the person who pointed out the Trump got 60,000,000 votes. Hillary got 63,000,000. You got outvoted.

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Biden had student deferments and was declared unfit for service due to asthma. Clinton had student deferments, and then a really high, never would have been drafted, draft number. Schumer had student deferments and the draft ended before he would have been eligible. Sanders applied for CO status and was too old for the draft when his request was finally decided. Cummings had student deferments and the draft ended prior to his graduation. I had student deferments and got drafted as soon as I graduated, as did tens of thousands of others. Where did Cheney serve? Gingrich? Limbaugh? McConnell somehow got into the reserves to escape active duty. Ask to see the x-rays of Trump’s bone spurs. See how far you get.

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If Trump doesn’t cover things up how do you explain the “keep quiet” payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal?

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Trump’s latest attempt to MAGA, if the U.S. technology can’t beat the competition, declare the competition a National Security threat and ban U.S. government or businesses from doing business with them and then threaten, demand, intimidate allies around the globe to follow suit or pay the price. Trump and his gangsters fabricate a potential threat that, of course, there is no proof that the alleged threat is real – the fact that in doing so he isn’t just hurting the company being targeted, but any company that supplies components. China businesses are the current country being targeted, the fact that China spends more than twice what U.S. companies spend on R&D is a good reason for the U.S. to being five or more years behind. Washington, DC needs to focus on educating U.S. citizens who could make a difference; but Washington would rather build up the military and spread death and destruction around the globe than take care of U.S. taxpayers.

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Three branches of government should be working together. Instead we have a president who refuses to work with Congress, stonewalls all requests, and refuses to have people talk with Congress. For a president who is a stable genius and so transparent, he sure does have issues.

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Mexico will be paying for the wall, China will be paying for the tariffs on the imports, and China will be bailing out the farmers. Does anyone believe this?

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The clowns in Washington, D.C. are determined to start another war, fabricating threats to elevate the situation and create more tension. Let the sovereign countries around the globe decide how they want to live. The U.S. has over half a million homeless, healthcare and higher education for the rich, families working multiple jobs to replace the manufacturing jobs sent to China; work on our problems before we dictate to the world, we don’t have to dominate over the world or be the world cops. The taxpayers are supporting over 800 military bases around the globe, and every country we meddle in and start a war in are worse off now than before we helped. Look at the track record in Libya, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea, currently Venezuela, and Iran. The goal of controlling every country with natural resources that U.S. big business want to plunder are on the to do list.

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I just would like to know how could anybody support Donald Trump? He spent two hours in Helsinki with Vladimir Putin, there’s no transcript of it, and nobody knows what was said. How can you support a president like that? He is not transparent; he is secretive and deceitful. He needs to be impeached; he’s doing the United States a great lot of harm. 

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The Democrat radicals should now be called the Communist Democrat Party. The 23 democrat presidential candidates are half-wit jokes. Their mental faculties are nonexistent. Nancy Pelosi, the delusional walking and talking mummy should put up or shut up. If this stammering and stuttering buffoon tries to impeach President Trump she will look like a bigger idiot than she is and will never succeed in the senate. That will produce pro-Trump demonstrations on a scale that has never been seen before and the democrats will lose the presidency in 2020 once again; but this time it will be by a huge, huge margin.

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This is for the genius leader who doesn’t read but likes to throw words around. The dictionary reads like this, treason betraying to one’s country as to enemy. Now who does that fit? Bone spurs.

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Trump said very seriously on television in front of people at the White House last week, “I am an extremely stable genius.” I have never laughed so hard in my life when I heard him say that. What human adult man talks like that? Who does he think he is, Einstein? No, he is a very, very unstable person. Wake up everybody – the U.S. Banks won’t lend him any money – they don’t trust him. Oh yes, Trump doesn’t do cover-ups either. Stormy Daniels, and on, and on, and on. 

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This is for the person who called in about anybody having proof of where the democrats want to take us. I’ve got one word, Socialism. Watch the news; watch the bias on CNN and the lying. Watch the democrats come out and give speeches contradicting themselves and lying. People need to wake up. Study Socialism, that’s where the democrats want to take us. No jobs, controlling our money, giving our money to illegal immigrants, I can go on and on and on but I doubt very much if you will even print this. 

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I’m spending my day watching the history channel of Vietnam in High Definition. It should be mandatory that every president elect is made to do so, especially Donald Trump and John Bolton because they have no idea the absolute horrors that these soldiers, our soldiers, are put into when they totally disregard what’s good policy for this United States. 

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Trump’s personal A.G. is now going to investigate the oranges. What’s up with that? 

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I strongly agree with impeachment but that impeachment should be for Pelosi, Schumer, Biden, Bernie, Maxine, Booker, Hildebrandt, Cuomo and this list goes on and on. There are too many to mention. If not, then these people clearly reinforce the need for term limits. Trump, on the other hand, is a stable genius. 

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Nancy Pelosi, Schumer and the whole lot should be fired by Trump. I think if Archie Bunker were around today he’d be giving Nancy a big ole raspberry. 

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There was no growth under Obama and Biden. It had been predicted they would reach 4 percent GDP each year. Never happened. We never even saw 3 percent, so how can Biden now take credit for this bustling economy. He’s delirious with all the other Democrats. Trump 2020, I’m wearing my Trump 2020 pin!

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So, Trump can’t be held accountable because he’s the president. Well look at the jackasses who put him there. He cannot tell a straight story. He is absolutely a seven year old that will get his own way or he has a fit. Come on, think about people, where is your common sense? 

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Whoever put that comment in last week about Russia helping us win World War II – I was there and they’re full of it! Russia was getting their butts kicked badly.

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Something for the civics lesson concerning the checks and balances built into the federal government and the separation of powers. Did you know that Montesquieu’s concept of three divisions of government was based on the bible? Isaiah 33:22 says, “The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver and the Lord is our king”. This concept was well known by our founding fathers that were all Christians of various persuasions. The constitution has worked for almost 250 years because it is based on reality and makes account for the weaknesses for mere human beings. As long as the principals of the constitution are followed, no single individual or elite group of people will be able to grab the reigns of government and put us under bondage. So let’s stop the bickering and fighting and start working together as fellow Americans to solve our problems.