Senator Saland Sponsors Fishkill Debt Relief Bill Raising Tea Party Worries
By Michael Boyajian
State Senator Stephen Saland sponsored legislation today that would allow the Town of Fishkill to issue $6.5 million in bonds to relieve its debt problems in both its general and highway fund.
The Town has been struggling with its debt problems due to a massive deficit spending spree begun in 2005. The Town has even had such financial problems as to warrant Moody’s to downgrade its bonds to just above junk bond status. Some describe the spending spree as to something along the lines of giving a teenager their first credit card and without a credit limit only in this case the credit card wasn’t issued by Visa or MasterCard but by taxpayers.
There is an urgency to the Saland senate bill because a report is due out any day now from the New York State Comptroller’s Office on its audit of the Town. The report is expected to give the Town 60 to 90 days to clear up its deficit.
A few years ago Nassau County on Long Island ran up a similar deficit only on a county wide level and it infuriated voters to such a degree that the once Republican stronghold moved into the Democratic column for an extended period of time.
One Republican stalwart in the once bedrock Republican county said, “They (the Republicans) forced me to vote Democratic because of the deficit, I had no choice.” There were seismic changes at the ballot box on Long Island for many years because of that deficit.
Many view the debt relief bill as a risky proposition for Senator Saland who is under increasing pressure from a Democratic reformer, Didi Barrett, who is challenging him in this November’s general election. Saland watchers speculate as to whether voters will now tie him to the Town of Fishkill’s $6.5 million deficit.
The irony here is that Town officials have organized Tea Party events in the past and it is common knowledge that Tea Partiers abhor nothing more than deficit spenders having thrown spenders out of office in more than one race. Many wonder what fate awaits Saland this November and Town officials next year with the rising tide of Tea Party politics near an emotional apex on matters related to over spending while holding office. Town officials may be doomed to massive election losses at the hands of the very people they had once empowered, the Tea Party.
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