Here & There 4-17-07

Legislature Candidate Wants To Reduce Tax Burden

When anyone says they want to reduce our tax burden in Sullivan County it usually catches my attention but when a "politician" says this message then I really sit up to see what else important they might say.
Jeffersonville Chiropractor Dr. David Sager has launched a campaign which he hopes will elect him as the next county legislative representative for District 1.
For the past eight years he has served the people of Sullivan County as one of our elected County Coroners.
In speaking with folks who come in direct contact with Dr. Sager they have told me he does his job with a great amount of professionalism and dignity.
Dr. Sager in making the decision to enter the race for the county legislative representative for the Towns of Bethel, Cochecton, Delaware and Tusten says he has made it his life's agenda to try to help people.
In accepting the Republican party nomination for District No. 1, he noted, "my blood does not bleed Democrat blue or Republican red, but rather, my heart aches for the residents of Sullivan County."
"I cannot sit back as our state, school and county taxes careen out of control. The rate of tax inflation has risen at a far greater rate than our pay or current job markets can sustain and I firmly believe that we are reaching a boiling point. New York State is by many studies, the second most highly taxed state in the union and Sullivan County is statistically among its poorest," Dr. Sager said,.
Dr. Sager says, "that even within the walls of the government center, I have never seen employee morale as bad as it is today," and he points out that government center employees, "know why, because they are proud residents of Sullivan County too and can see what has been going on around here for years."
The District 1 Republican candidate points out that there has been "foolish waste of a major county resource in the landfill," and he wonders "just where we will be placing our own trash in the coming years."
He is critical of "the overpriced purchase of a new Department of Public Works (DPW) site in a poor location on a busy roadway and which is affectionately referred to as "Moneywood" not Maplewood as you watch untold additional millions of taxpayer dollars poured into it to make it even suitable for workers' needs."
Dr Sager speaks about the subject of a new county jail and what it will "really cost us in the end."
"I can tell you with an estimated 7-10 million dollars price tag on just the supervision of the building of the jail, it isn't looking good," Dr. Sager said.
He calls a spade a spade when he points out that there has been "politically motivated vendettas, back stabbing, nepotism and partisanship on a daily basis," in our county government and he reminds county taxpayers that "this year it's the sales tax, but next years it will have to be something else that they raise."
We like those who say we need a change now and we agree that there is a great need for responsible leaders in the county legislature who are going to stop the waste going on within county government.
We would like to see more candidates who endorse facts and the need to run the county with the efficiency of a successful business and there is a desperate need for leaders who are going to treat the beleaguered taxpayers of Sullivan County with kid gloves and spend within our means.