A Nov. 24 Record story on page 3 reported that residents in Newburgh are facing a 24 percent tax hike. On page 5 of the same paper, we learned that Kiryas Joel was moving forward with a water line at a cost of $29 million, which is most likely more New York state grant money. Seems to me that KJ is not affected by our state's budget crisis, and why would they be since the rest of us are paying for them?
Where does it stop? As a state employee, I and many others were not given our annual pay increase this year. Reason we were told was that the state is broke. It gets better: We were told that we had to bite the bullet again in 2010 and give up that annual step increase. The state is broke, we are told, But $29 million for water into KJ?
They continue to walk over us hardworking, taxpaying folks of New York state. The answer for each taxpayer: We need to organize and vote in bloc.
Ray Giganti
Pine Bush