Poughkeepsie Journal: Skartados adding to state fiscal mess

Poughkeepsie Journal
Letter to the Editor

Our assemblyman, Frank Skartados, was called back to Albany recently to fix a mess he helped to create.

This year, Skartados voted to hike taxes and fees from everything from DMV license plate fees to eliminating STAR property tax rebate checks. All this was done by Skartados to pay for a record state spending spree. Now that the economy has tanked and state revenues have bottomed out, the chickens have come home to roost for Skartados’s bad budget, and the state soon may not be able to pay its bills.

Meanwhile, as Skartados was called back to Albany to clean up this fiscal mess, the assemblyman has been conspicuously silent on advancing any solutions to cut spending. Former Assemblyman Tom Kirwan would never have voted so irresponsibly in the first place, and he certainly would be among the first to offer thoughtful solutions to get the state’s budget back in black.

Assemblyman Skartados is part of a large majority in the Assembly that just doesn’t seem to care how our money is spent.

Next year, mid-Hudson Valley voters should remember that when it comes to how their taxpayer money is spent, they clearly do not have sound representation from Assemblyman Frank Skartados.

Phil Anspach
City of Poughkeepsie

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20091211/OPINION02/912110314/Letters-to-the-editor-12/11