Out With A Bang

Drama is very important in life, you have to come on with a bang. You never want to go out with a whimper. Everything can have drama if it's done right. Even a pancake - Julia Child

The Journal News is reporting that Ed Day has eliminated the job of 'Tourism Coordinator' when C.J. Miller was told on Friday her services were no longer needed. Miller's New Year’s Eve fireworks shows in Haverstraw, Nyack and Piermont was "just a way for us to go out on a high note with a bang" she told the Journal News. 

This "bang" was of course paid for in part by senior citizens who received their Town and County tax bill in the mail this week "to be paid without penalty by January 31".  Examining their latest tax bill they found to their shock it had gone up by several times that of the increase they will receive in their social security payments in 2014. 

According to the Head of the CSEA in Rockland there are over 100 patronage jobs in the County costing "millions" in salaries and benefits. Miller was reported to earn $101, 709 annually which did not include the cost of her benefits package.

Presumably Legislator Murphy has more positions to suggest for elimination. He said on WRCR ....

"Are you asking me if we have people on the payroll that we don't need? Of course! Of course! Do I approve of it? No. Have I tried in the past to have some of those jobs eliminated? Yes. But politics is politics and many people who are on the payroll are there because they are being politically rewarded. That is reality from the Federal level, the State level, the County level, the Town level; maybe not at the Village level. But, yes, there are people on the payroll WE DON"T NEED (Murphy's emphasis). You have to get a majority of the legislature to eliminate those jobs and I have never seen it happen".

Now that Day has started eliminating unneeded positions we presume "a majority of the legislature" is going to assist in further unneeded job eliminations. That example might spread to the Town Supervisors who should consider similar steps given that part of the increase in the tax bill received this week included the increase in taxes imposed by the Town Boards. 

If not then in the next election cycle some of these elected officials should anticipate that they will be voted out in another "big bang".

As Alfred Hitchcock once remarked - There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.

This blog is authored by Michael N. Hull, a retired senior citizen. Hull contributes periodically to the Facebook page Clarkstown: What They Don't Want You To Know.