…if two individuals in the same tax jurisdiction live in properties with the same values, they pay the same amount of property tax, regardless of their incomes.
Anyhow, Nate here used to be the supervisor of a small town, so he knows how this works – yet again, he’s assuming you don’t and that you’re dumb and gullible. The county, after all, does not set the assessments – the towns do. The county merely sets the rate, which has gone down continuously as property values appreciated.
And those taxes pay for all of the things that County Executives actually oversee, as opposed to international rail and state projects.
Caveat: I am a member of the BECPL Library Board.
The County Executive – the County – doesn’t run the Library system. They help to fund the library, but they don’t get involved in day-to-day operations.
As for the disruptions, those were a topic for discussion at yesterday’s meeting and the administration is dealing with that situation, which is far too complex than some tweeter calling the libraries “places of violence and disrepair” in order to politicize something apolitical.
Finally, Nate keeps saying Buffalo has the “worst job market in the country.”
I would love to see a citation to that purported fact. Maybe it’s just “vibes.”
The only change Nate McMurray would bring is a return to fiscal irresponsibility, relentless politicization of apolitical things, settling of scores, endless grievance, and a lot of time wasted on stuff that has nothing to do with running a county.
Korea, Singapore, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. These are Nate’s examples of better, “free”, cheaper healthcare.
It’s true, Korea’s system is an excellent universal healthcare scheme. It is essentially a single-payer system.
Singapore, however, is not a single-payer system. It is a hybrid that puts an emphasis on health savings accounts and is currently a darling of American conservative commentators and think-tanks. So, using Singapore to extol the virtues of a proposed NYS-based single-payer plan is bullshit.
Finally, the UK and her NHS. It is Britain’s pride and joy, which has been weakened to the point of crisis by a decade and a half of Tory rule, marked first by its disastrous austerity programs, followed by the autosanctions of Brexit and a concomitant exodus and resulting shortage of nurses, doctors, and aides. If anything, the Tory gutting of the NHS is a perfect example of the perils of government-run and taxpayer-funded single-payer schemes. (This is before we get into the fact that the UK also allows for a private healthcare market outside the NHS, which Canada, for instance, does not allow).
Weird, isn’t it, that Mr. Binational-let’s-run-trains-in-a-NY-Ontario-Schengen didn’t mention Canadian Medicare?
Anyhow, one of the biggest mistakes that proponents of single-payer plans commit is to call it “free.” It’s not free – it’s paid for through taxes and fees. European countries have higher rates of income taxation and value-added sales taxes help to fund their social services. Sales taxes in some European countries exceed 20%. In Ontario, the HST (used to be GST and PST) is 13%. It’s 15% in the Maritimes and Quebec (which still separates QST and GST).
New Yorkers are taxed quite highly already, and we have full and robust implementation of Obamacare and Medicaid expansion. While universal health coverage is a longstanding platform plank of Democrats, there are many different ways in which this might be accomplished. It is not a stretch for people to be wary of what a Republican-led State Senate or a Republican governor might do to implement austerity on a single-payer state plan if for no other reason but to establish that it doesn’t work.
Heard of Geely? It’s a Chinese care company that owns Volvo and Lynk & Co, which are poised to go all-electric in a few years. BYD is not in the American market, which is why “no one here ever heard of them.” Although they had a presence at the NAIAS a decade ago, BYD is not about to enter the American market, and if it did, it would likely have to build cars here. But, seriously, what’s the point of this particular brain-fart? I mean, people are already on it, guy. You’re reacting to something on Twitter that people in authority are already doing. Go have a Chips Ahoy and go home.
McMurray expends a tremendous amount of time viciously attacking Democrats, and has done so quite regularly since his last failed campaign for Congress. This time last year he was absolutely beside himself that Brian Higgins wouldn’t demand that Chris Jacobs resign over his vote against certifying the 2020 election. He was angry that Higgins wouldn’t do some pointless performative thing – as if that would give Jacobs pause and really allow him to reflect on his ways.
In the end, the only thing that got Jacobs to effectively quit is his reaction to the Tops massacre and his sudden support of an assault weapons ban. A step to far for the “pro-life” party.
Anyway, Nate is totally on top of things, like this, which he figures supports his plan to – as County Executive – execute a treaty with Canada that would facilitate the movement of people, things, jobs, and money.
Parts of this are stupid and parts of it are just false. Who died and made Nate McMurray the arbiter of what constitutes a “progressive.” As we learned just the other day, Nate has received corporate campaign cash in the past himself, so this is hypocrisy.
The New York State Health Act would create a single payer health insurance scheme in New York State. That might be a good idea, but the goal is universal coverage. How you get there doesn’t really matter, and each method has its pros and cons. I don’t know if I would want a future Republican governor or legislature in charge of a single-payer state-run program.
I don’t know what it means that he “bows to billionaires and developers” and frankly it’s pretty rich coming from a guy who is suing his billionaire former employer. I don’t know what it means to say that Mark “rejected bail reform” or “never focused on rail”. The former is just a lie, and the latter is also just a lie. Whether Mark Poloncarz told Nate McMurray to shut up about Trump, I have no idea, but as others have pointed out, it is a bad idea for a candidate ever to insult voters.
Mark is a “tyrant” because he’s so good at his job that people won’t vote him out. That’s sort of like how in Nate’s lawsuit against Delaware North, he points out that he was a well-reviewed employee. By the way, Dennis Gorski served in public office from 1972 – 1999, the last 11 as County Executive before he lost to someone who came in as a former Democrat who was going to be a disruptor and shake things up – Joel Giambra.
It’s nice, however, of Nate to assume that Mark is going to win in order to make his math work.
There’s definitely a joke. Nothing says “trust me, I’m competent” like either lying or being wrong about so many easily researchable facts. A billion dollars? No. $130M of County money for stadium upgrades and $250M of County money towards a new stadium. State money doesn’t count in a criticism of the County Executive. Nate’s only off by only 2/3rds of a billion there. That’s the kind of fiscal know-how we really need!
Nate has no fundamental concept of how a municipal budget is developed. Instead claiming the guy who’s had 12 consecutive balanced budgets with either year-end surpluses or minor easily bridged deficits is fiscally irresponsible and up to funny business.
What he asked Biden for yesterday is something completely different – a “major disaster” declaration, which frees up even more FEMA money for storm response and cleanup costs.
But this is what you can expect from Nate McMurray – barely informed accusations and a fountain of grievance. I don’t think Erie County deserves being stuck with a faux-leftist mini-Trump.
I mean, these things write themselves. Build a domed stadium – which would cost more than the complained-off $1BN – to be ready for “NEXT”, which is evidently “e-gaming.”
Let’s start out with a prediction: the likelihood of the Erie County Democratic Committee’s Executive Committee endorsing Nate McMurray over Mark Poloncarz for County Executive is nil. Null set. Zero. Zilch. Naught.Nate garnered a lot of Democratic support and money through his three-time losing streak for Congress, because he was going against Republicans. Now, he has quixotic scores to settle, so he is positioning himself falsely as some sort of youthful change agent who will shake up the status quo. Yet, so far all he’s really said is that Mark Poloncarz caused the Tops massacre, there should be a fast train to Toronto, the absence of a Nike Store is indicative of Buffalo’s decline, and when it comes to poverty, he alone can fix it.
But Nate is no outsider. He is the ultimate insider, who has since merely fallen out with everyone because he has a gargantuan ego and zero people skills.
Don’t believe me? Let’s go back to February 2018, before Nate’s first run for Congress, when he was still the Rus Thompson-backed supervisor of Grand Island. There was a very strong candidate running for that seat – Army veteran and former Erie County prosecutor Sean Bunny. Nate expressed an interest in running, and the party bosses decided that he was the best shot at winning, so they quite literally cleared the field for Nate, forcing everyone else out of the race, including Bunny, who has regrettably not sought elected office since.
When forced to exit the race in 2018, Bunny was diplomatic and expressed above all an unwillingness to do harm to the Democratic Party in a bruising primary battle against McMurray.
“While I am proud of the campaign I ran, I did not become a candidate to hurt the Democratic Party or hurt our chances in November,” he added. “The most important objective is defeating Chris Collins and his anti-Western New York agenda this fall.”
Bunny would not say if he will support another candidate and would not comment when asked if he was satisfied with the party process that is coalescing around McMurray.
That’s what public service is about – putting others before one’s own self-interest.
Nowadays, McMurray will scream bloody murder about Jeremy Zellner to everyone who will bother to listen. But back then?
Zellner acknowledged that he and seven other Democratic chairmen endorsed McMurray to avoid what could prove a divisive primary.
Nate took to Twitter again on Valentine’s Day eve to pen a weird sort of love note to the people whom he purports to be wooing for an endorsement.
“After much effort” is defined as, two emails – one on February 13th and another the next evening. I hope he’s ok from the strain.
Here, he accuses the party boss of excluding the guy no one knew was running until he Tweeted about it. Evidently, everyone is supposed to either read his mind or closely follow his Tweets. McMurray’s candidacy is based on the premise that ECDC Executive Committee members, representing the county party organization’s rank & file, will jettison one of the strongest, smartest elected officials we have for a three-time loser who is quite obviously just settling scores and feeding his ego.
The pretense – really, the slur – here is that the Executive Committee members are seat-warmers who reflexively do Zellner’s bidding, but the “independent” party chairs really want Nate in there. Maybe one or two, but this is another gaslighting, making the gullible believe that the Executive Committee would really pick Nate if only they had the freedom to do so.
Of course you were going to do a press conference. There is no shortage of performative victimhood in the dwindling McMurray camp. The phony tough guy bravado is so laughably contrived, and there’s really nothing to discuss or debate – Nate McMurray has absented himself from the Democratic Party and its committee(s). He lost to Jacobs in November 2021. The last donation that the state system has from McMurray was $200 to India Walton in August 2021.
He didn’t help Kim Beaty. He didn’t help Kevin Hardwick. He didn’t help Randy Hoak. He didn’t help any town committees. If you don’t support Democrats when no one’s looking, how can you presume to demand Democrats’ support now? But he’ll make it about personalities and individual beefs he has, and pretend they’re contrived.
Witness the sheer immensity of the egotism here.
The interview is not for him to do anything else but explain to the people gathered why they should get rid of Poloncarz in favor of McMurray. It really is that simple – it’s not really his place to ask questions, but to answer them. The ECDC Executive Committee is not made up of shrinking violets, and I suspect they’ll be the ones doing the interviewing. The same goes for any local committee that may entertain him.
Fundamentally, he does not understand that the purpose of going before the Executive Committee is to ask them to do something for you. He thinks he has already deserved it, and anyone who says differently is a paid shill.
He “believes in reason” and that’s why he’s going to tell the party bigshots to tell Poloncarz to pound salt in favor of three-time-loser McMurray. Why? For “change.”
Nate does not have the self-awareness to grasp why that room will be “tough.” He will overtly insult the committee members by accusing them of being in Zellner’s / Poloncarz’s pocket without once considering that they actually like and support Mark.
So, what is it about the “direction” of the party “or the city and county” with which you “don’t agree”? Is it that – that they like Mark more than you? That they trust Mark more than you? That their committees have all helped by Mark and vice-versa?
Is it the fact that they won’t do your bidding? Because I think it’s the fact that they won’t do your bidding.
Is it the fact that they have exhausted their patience for you? Because I think it’s the fact that they’ve exhausted their patience for you.
And this is how McMurray sees himself:
The problem with this analogy is that Collins was decidedly unpopular. He played dirty politics throughout his tenure, he defunded culturals and went to war with them. He was an egocentric mini-dictator who had no time for debate or dissent. It was all about the amassing of power, electorate be damned.
Mark Poloncarz came in and sold to the electorate the idea that they and their quality of life mattered.
Nothing like a 22-Tweet thread to show everyone how not mad you are.
Never let it be said that Out-of-Date Nate doesn’t have a vision. He has ideas. You can MOCK THEM IF YOU WISH, but he really has these visions and ideas. Visideas. Ideisions.
Whether those ideas actually comport with reality, or fall under the job description of “County Executive” or can be done by such an executive pursuant to the County Charter – that doesn’t matter.
What matters is that you SAY THINGS.
What are you SCARED OF?
We can DO IT.
Let’s sample.
Imagine WNY and Erie County relying on yet another silver bullet project – a downtown domed stadium and convention center. An investment of billions to line the pockets of developers who have been sitting on Cobblestone District properties waiting to cash in on just such an announcement. And honestly, who needs a Cobblestone District, anyway? Pave over those bad boys with some Astroturf for, at best, about a dozen games per year and a convention center that’s been nixed already.
There exists no political will to move the convention center closer to Canalside, much less moving the Bills stadium downtown. We come down to that old tug-of-war between “would be nice” and “must”. (For examples on this theme, see here and here and here.) We must have a new stadium. It would be nice if it was downtown, but this is not of critical importance to the city’s future or the Bills’. Suffice it to say that if the Bills thought it was of existential importance, it would be happening.
The County Executive has no authority to have the Canada Border Services Agency working at some random Buffalo-area train station or Homeland Security to work at Union Station in Toronto or the Go Station on the Canadian side of the Falls. Even in Europe, border police will board a train and run a passport check at a border – even a Schengen one. In fact, in the past, when it was suggested that US agents run entry checks from the Canadian side of the Peace Bridge, the two countries could not agree on the details of such a preclearance scheme.
The problems plaguing the East Side of Buffalo are many and complex, but in one breath to demand redevelopment of the Central Terminal as a train station and then in the next to decry “hail Mary schemes for big developers” strikes me as a bit rich. As for “micro loans”, there are already programs that offer these, including WEDI and the ECIDA. You would think that an informed candidate would promote that, rather than pretend nothing of the sort exists.
In any event, you cannot have a “Lake Ontario regional economic zone” with free movement of people and products without there being a Schengen-style binational agreement, something that is not only outside of a County Executive’s remit, but frankly unlikely for the foreseeable future, given the political situations on both sides of the northern border.
But Nate seems to think the border is closed. For God’s sake, get a NEXUS and you can go back and forth to shop at the Niagara-on-the-Lake outlets or the Walden Galleria to your heart’s content. That way we can have government invest in roofing companies and auto repair shops some more.
An “ecotourism hub.” With “camping and glamping” because evidently that doesn’t exist in WNY.
As for Scajaquada Creek, that work is already underway, my guy. I don’t know how we become the “Yosemite of the East” without a National Park or a big mountain, but someone remind him that Niagara Falls isn’t in Erie County, and there is very little in Niagara Falls, NY that would compel a visitor to stick around this side of the river in any event. I guess that’s why the rest area on Grand Island that isn’t visible to traffic from Canada until you’ve already passed the exit exists.
Nate doesn’t know his Buffalo from his Erie County.
It was only the City’s water supply that was not fluoridated. The Erie County Water Authority, which has not been contracted out to a private company, never stopped the fluoride. Municipal broadband is actually a Poloncarz initiative.
Nate has a plan for poverty, he says, because no one else cares and just points fingers. He sees people for their economic activity (or lack thereof). Imagine he presumes that he is the only person to “encourage new immigration to Buffalo” as if somehow Poloncarz or anyone else in County government has discouraged it. The delusion is just so insulting to everyone who’s been doing this stuff already. I mean, apart from spending trillions to force utilities to put all the electric lines underground, what has he suggested that isn’t already being done or is in the process of being done?
Yes, Mark Poloncarz – famously stingy with culturals. The balls on McMurray. When’s the last time he attended a play at a local theater or a concert at Kleinhans? A gallery opening? He’s going to, what? Fund culturals more? How much more? How much is missing? Which culturals have approached him to complain that Poloncarz is too stingy? And what makes him think Canadians are clamoring to come here to work?
What does that mean – a “County Executive who eats, sleeps, and lives progressive values?” I mean, in what way is Poloncarz not progressive, exactly? Because he lives in reality and not cloud-cuckoo land? Because he doesn’t make a sport of burning bridges and then demanding fealty and attention?
Not sure how Poloncarz has dropped the ball on “urging” others to do progressive things, but the only way you think that is if you haven’t been paying attention.
Is he advocating for regionalism? Remember that? Regionalism? I think there was a big push for that literally once every decade since the 1990s, and the best anyone can do is have a few towns unify their purchasing.
But regionalism to include Ontario, Canada? So, would we be implementing the EU’s Four Freedoms to accomplish that?
The Free Movement of Goods
The Free Movement of People
The Freedom of Services
The Freedom of Movement of Capital
But his biggest hit against Poloncarz is that he’s been CE for 11 years and was Comptroller for five before that. OK, so Mark’s been in countywide office for about 16 years. He’s been pretty good at it, too. He’s competent, he’s a policy wonk, he’s detailed, he’s diligent, but he also has plenty of time for big-picture advocacy, such as what Nate accuses him of never doing.
But he’s been in “office longer than any County Executive ever, longer than any President ever?” I dunno, FDR was President for 12 years, and before that he was Governor of New York from 1929 – 1933, and before that he served in the State Senate from 1911 – 1913. I make that out to be about 18 or 19 years in office. JFK was only President for 3 years, but before that he was a Senator and before that he was in the House. He held public office from 1947 – 1963, which is hey look at that 16 years.
Nate has campaigned for office longer than he ever held one.
All of this is a rehash of things that have already happened, have been discussed, are in the process of happening, or are absolutely and completely outside of the wheelhouse of a County Executive. But more to the point, what the hell is stopping McMurray from advocating for all of these things all at once and altogether for the last 16 years?
But good luck with North American Schengen, there. I think I saw it in the County Charter somewhere about international treaties.
One more thing. In the time that this “elderly blogger” has been blogging – since 2003, if we’re counting – I have been insulted by a lot of people. Only a small handful of them insulted my appearance, and now being attacked for my age is a new one. I’m 54. If that makes me “elderly” so be it, but when someone uses a term like that as an insult, how do I reconcile that with their professions of peace, love, and inclusivity? One of the things that actually exists in the County Charter is a Department of Senior Services, which is run by the Erie County Executive. If using “elderly” as an adjective negatively to describe my age and relevance, I shudder to think how this individual would deal with actual seniors.
McMurray did, indeed, prompt this “elderly blogger” out of semi-retirement. It was things like this that prompted it. I don’t remember Nate calling me “elderly” when I gave him free promotion over and over again during his campaigns, but I am just a thing – a piece of shit – just one of McMurray’s many burned bridges.
When I ceased to be useful to him, he lumped me in with all of the other people whom he blames for his failures. He thought he could bully me and repeatedly call me names – even after I politely asked him not to – and he figured that I would be ok with that. I found him to be little more than a manipulative, gaslighting POS. FWIW, I still have the receipts.
I don’t think he’s viable so much as I think he’s unfit to be anywhere near elected office.
Remember early 2021 how you were going to have someone primary Higgins – was it Eddie Egriu? You were going to start a PAC. You were going to write a book – you know, that thing you just slammed Poloncarz for doing? I guess the difference is that Poloncarz’s book was about an accomplishment while yours would have been about failure.
What McMurray would like to change, if he can, is what he sees as conservative media’s wholesale demonization of Democrats.
“You hear people talking about Democrats in a way that sounds like they’re talking about Satan-worshippers,” he said. “I think we have to start to think on every level, the local level and the national level: How are we going to overcome this?”
Pot, kettle.
But what really sucks is that McMurray feeds his own poison to people. For instance, every Presidential election both parties enjoy a little burst of interest and activity from people who had formerly been on the sidelines. Do you think it helps or hurts Democratic recruitment to have a prominent but salty ex-candidate going around telling anyone who will listen how awful and corrupt it is?
When it comes to kneecapping Democrats, who needs Republicans?
I can tell from his Twitter feed he was recently somewhere in the UK. He posted a now-deleted photo of some books and they had the pound symbol on the pricetags.
It’s true – at Heathrow, American passport holders can use the e-gates. To use an e-gate, you line up, put your passport on a glass reader, look at a photo, and a computer figures out whether you are the same person as is shown in the Passport. In most cases, you’re allowed through and that’s it – collect your bags, go through customs, and on you go.
They’re not perfect. In December, we used e-gates in Munich for Schengen entry check, and one of my kids was pulled for secondary passport check. We used them again in London for UK entry, and my other kid was pulled for secondary passport check. Glitches happen.
Upon return to Toronto Pearson Airport, can you guess what they have? Well, it depends. At Terminal 1, if you have a NEXUS card, you use an e-gate and wave your NEXUS at a reader and you’re spat through to get your bag and then deal with Customs. If you don’t have NEXUS, you use a Kiosk that does most of the stuff automatically, and then you line up for an in-person check with a human CBSA officer. It’s quite efficient and speedy.
Did you know you could enter the US at the Toronto airport? You go through US passport control – again, there’s an expedited line for NEXUS holders – and boom, welcome to Mississauga, USA and when you arrive in the US, you do so as a domestic arrival. They have this in some Caribbean countries, and in Ireland.
So, there’s a big difference when you enter a country through a land border versus an airport. For starters, you’re not likely to be walking. You’re in a car. The car has stuff in it. The person in the booth is both passport control and customs. Now, you’ll be amazed if I tell you that the lanes at the land crossings in our area are all equipped with the same technology as e-gates – RFID scanners – and you can wave your Passport, NEXUS, or Enhanced License at them and they will scan the documents to be ready for the inspection officer.
I find in my experience that the questions asked at the border crossings seldom resemble a “blind date.” I don’t find the questions, “where are you coming from? Where did you go? What are you bringing back” to be especially “weird” nor does it send my “eye brows [sic] wriggling.” After all, it’s a hard border and you’re limited in terms of what you can take across. Usually, the officers are trained to detect oddball behavior and are probably likely to pull the people with weird answers and facial expressions over to secondary inspection.
Anyway, here’s my question – what does Nate’s flirtation with the border guard have to do with the number of lanes that are open? Is this going to be one of his platforms for the County Executive race, opening more inspection lanes at the border?
The Tesla deal was negotiated by the State as part of Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion initiative, and it was originally struck with SolarCity/Silevo, which Tesla bought in 2016 for $2.6 billion. (The owners of SolarCity were Musk’s relatives).
But our plucky young propagandist is banking on you not knowing that, and will fling his rhetorical dung wherever necessary.
By the way, the article to which that McMurray tweet is linked talks about microloans in Bangladesh and how such an initiative might help untraditional entrepreneurs in Korea. What a great idea, said the WEDI and ECIDA/SBA.
