>>
Coming up on "Need to Know" something looms this Halloween
day and I don't mean trick or treaters.-
It is election day 2003 this Tuesday.-
We will hear candidates and convene a political rouge and open
up the business section with the Dell Democrat.-
That is next on "Need to Know."-
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[Captioning Made Possible by the U.S. Department of Education]-
(For "Need to Know")-
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>> Thanks for joining us.-
I'm Michael Caputo.-
We continue our coverage of election 2003 here on WXXI.-
While next year may be the mother of all elections with the
presidency at stake, this year is where we in the greater
Rochester area will have the loudest voice, in an all local
election, a time to chart the course of local governance for
the foreseeable future.-
More than 160 people are seeking dozens of positions in Monroe
county.-
Dozens more are campaigning in the surrounding counties .-
The race with the most attention is for county executive.-
Mago and bill Johnson have been debating in public forums and
broadcast venues on a host of issues.-
Whether Monroe ought to look at consolidation as a way to
combat government spenling.-
What the taxing and spending policy of the county government
ought to be the next four years.-
Whether a sales tax increase is wise.-
Whether a property tax increase is necessary.-
Before we begin our roundtable discussion let's hear from the
two candidates who met in a debate hosted by the Monroe county
bar association on Thursday.-
Topping the discussion was fiscal management of the county and
taxes.-
Among the questions asked was this.-
Are you in favor of the current county executive jack Doyle's
proposal to hike the sales tax and should the candidates now
be
involved in the sales tax proposal since one or the other is
going to inherit the increase.-
-
>> I've been opposed and have been vocally opposed to
raising
taxes of any kind.-
That includes sales tax.-
In my opening statement despite what bill Johnson says are
nonspecifics, I have talked very specifically about my approach
to streamlining government.-
I believe that it is the responsible direction we should go.-
Anyone who wins November 4 will inherit that budget January
2.-
And as much as anyone can say that we should have input prior
to that, that is nonsense.-
I control one budget in county government and that's the county
clerk's budget.-
And mine was submitted on time without a tax increase.-
We are projecting a surplus for next year.-
So, we are in some senses going to be left with the hand we
are
dealt.-
The 2004 proposal is an opinion.-
Jack Doyle's opinion of what 2004 will look like.-
I choose to get in there, do a top to bottom review of what
is
going out, what's coming in, put together a long-term strategy
for balancing the budget and take raising taxes off the table
completely.-
-
>> Look at Mrs. brooks on record.-
She uses the words aggressive, streamlining and outsourcing.-
She said in an interview in the business journal that she would
not only not raise taxes and cut services, but she would
eliminate no jobs.-
Those her words in the interview.-
But in her own submission for 2004 her budget increases.-
And six new people are radioed to her budget.-
I don't call that aggressive streamlining.-
And outsourcing.-
If she has more responsibilities with the closing of the D.M.V.
office she has to hire more people to do it.-
How can the county now do more with less?-
How can she ignore a $51 million hole in the budget?-
Nobody wants tax increases.-
But nobody in this county either wants bad services.-
And that is the dilemma that has to be resolved.-
-
>> He has chided me repeatedly.-
How are you going to balance the books?-
How will you make this a priority?-
Have you heard him once talk about anything that he is going
to
do to resolve our county financial problems?-
He has talked about raising taxes.-
That's the only thing on the table.-
Yesterday I listened to him for 15 minutes talk about
everything that is wrong with the existing county budget and
proposed 2004 budget.-
Not one proactive or not one idea about how he would solve the
problems.-
-
>> I want to remind Mrs. brooks I read her booklet, all
22
pages.-
She hasn't read mine because the first page says how to make
Monroe county great and there are four steps about how I would
deal with this problem and I indicated clearly raising taxes
would be the last resort.-
-
>> I would like two invite in two people who are very
capable
of picking up the arguments.-
Here is Brighton town supervisor Sandra Frankle a Democrat and
Larry Staub vice chairman of the Monroe county Republican
committee.-
Let's start with fiscal management.-
I will address you first Larry.-
Bill Johnson has been making the argument in the race and using
the add Magic Maggie and she promises no tax hikes, no services
cuts.-
Somehow that a way to deal with the deficit?-
Is this message stick ing?-
>> I don't think so because everything that we have seen
in
this campaign, everything that people who come up to Maggie
on
the trail, people we have talked to say thank you for making
that distinction.-
Thank you for making that line in the sand that you will not
raise taxes.-
Take it off the take.-
Because if you don't take it off the table where is the
challenge?-
If you always have the taxpayer to go pack to time and time
again.-
People are sick of taxes going up.-
They want some stability in taxes.-
And they really appreciate that Maggie brooks has taken such
a
first of all stand on the issue.-
-
>> Mago has patrolled not to raise any taxes at all.-
She has promised not to reduce the county staffing levels.-
She's promised not to cut services.-
And in the face of a $46 million, $51 million deficit, that's
going to be a really hard promise to keep.-
So I think that the voters ought to help Maggie keep her
promises by voting for bill Johnson.-
And the reason I say that is because bill has demonstrated
fiscal responsibility in managing the city of Rochester with
a
credit rating that is much stronger than the county.-
-
>> Let me put this on the table.-
There's no doubt over the last 10 years Roman Catholic
churching on a no property tax increase fledge politically has
worked.-
The Republicans have won that seat for the last eight years.-
Isn't the message now a different message, a slightly different
message, going to work with the electorate?-
Why?-
-
>> I believe that the message of fiscal responsibility
resonates with voters because people budget in their own
homes.-
They know that as costs increase, even if everything else stays
the same, they have got to have more revenue to cover those
costs.-
So, our first challenge and bill Johnson has talked about this,
is economic development, creating more business, bringing more
business in, creating jobs.-
But it is also very likely that there may have to be very
modest property tax or sales tax increases because we need to
have essential services, and if we compromise those services
the community is compromised.-
-
>> Why does that message work, mike?-
Why does keeping property taxes table work?-
Because people want it.-
That's why they vote for it.-
That's why they elect candidates who hold those ideas, who make
that pledge, because that's what they want.-
That is disrespectful to the voters to say if the voters don't
really know what they are talking about, they are voting for
a
person who made a pledge to hold the line on taxes and she's
going to be held accountable to that pledge when she runs for
re-election.-
-
>> But the reality is that jack Doyle pledged no to the,
not to
raise taxes and lack at the financial mess the county is in.-
In the town of Brighton we inherited a major financial mess
from the prior Republican administration who played the same
kind of election games, spending down the fund balance to
almost nothing, overmating revenues, underestimating
expenditures, using one shots to pay for ongoing operating
expenses and in the end we had a huge structural deficit that
we had to correct.-
We bit the bullet and made the tough decisions and restored
fiscal integrity and stability, earning a high level of moody's
credit rating.-
I think the county can do the same but it will take someone
with courage, guts and bill Johnson is the person that has
that.-
-
>> Clearly, bill Johnson has a track record.-
He has a track record on how to manage things and I don't
believe it is a fiscally conservative track record.-
It is a record of raising taxes.-
He has raised taxes 38% in romp and what did he tell the romp
business journal two weeks ago?-
His first action would be to raise taxes.-
-
>> Another message that has been sent out is the message
that
bill Johnson is all about raising taxes.-
That is his only solution, something that I think Mago is
trying to make the point on.-
Address that.-
-
>> As bill Johnson has said many times, there are other
ways to
cut costs and to save tax dollars before you get to the point
of having to raise taxes.-
Raising taxes would be the last, not the first thing.-
For example, consolidation of certain types of services where
it makes sense is one strategy that the council of Brighton,
pits Ford, Henrietta, the city of Rochester, Penfield,
communities through the this county have joined in
intermunicipal agreements to provide services in a more
efficient and cost effective way without losing local control,
without compromising the quality of services.-
-
>> Bill Johnson has taken a page out of Mago's play book.-
Consolidation of services.-
That is what Mago talked about, to work with other towns,
villages, municipals on consolidating services.-
But also streamlining.-
Outsourcing of some services that maybe government doesn't do
well.-
A top to boom review of what is coming in and going out.-
Looking line by line in the fine detail, drilling down in into
the budget.-
Not just the big budget numbers.-
Looking at actual contracts, how you can deliver services
better so you don't have to cut services.-
-
>> The reality is that bill Johnson is the one who pioneered
consolidation of services and Maggie took that page out of his
book.-
Because in 1992-93, when I was a new supervisor dealing with
a
financial mess I went to bill Johnson the new city mayor and
asked him to look at consolidating services with the town of
Brighton.-
He agreed.-
We went forward and that is a pattern that has been built upon
throughout the county ever since.-
So bill was there first.-
-
>> Well, bill wasn't there first.-
I think you have selective memory because apparently you were
not in the community in the 1970'S when lucian Warren pioneered
that.-
I don't think bill Johnson invented the consolidation of
services.-
We have over 500 service agreements in this area.-
He didn't make that up.-
That is demonstrated practice that works here.-
Consolidating services, consolidating things that governments
can do together to save money.-
That is where we need to look further.-
How do we do that but look at the other things.-
-
>> I'm glad you brought up lucien world trade toweren
because
he supports bill Johnson's approach and I think it is great
it
see people coming from the Republican side -- -
>> You are wrong.-
-
>> There are people out there who believe that the proshe
that
needs to be taken is the one that bill Johnson has embarked
on.-
-
>> For you to say that Warren supports Johnson is wrong
and a
lie and I would like you to call Mr. Warren today and apologize
for that because he doesn't support him.-
-
>> Well, all right.-
Maybe you can make that phone call later.-
But there's been an ad out there that Republicans and
independents for Johnson.-
Do you think there's a cross over?-
-
>> Who are these people?-
I have never heard of one of they will.-
Do you see one prominent Republican in there?-
There are a lot of people in the community -- there are a lot
of Democrats that support Mago.-
They are not name Democrats.-
These are not name Republicans.-
People are free to pick and choose.-
There may be a lot of liberal Republicans that -- probably not
a lot but some that support bill Johnson's ideas.-
But I think that the majority of Republicans it is
demonstrated, don't.-
-
>> I hate to do this but we have another big race in town,
the
district attorney race and I I want to let folks in on the
debate that went on last week here in the studio with the Voice
of the Voter debate.-
Mike green and Ann Marie Taddeo had been talking about
conviction rates.-
There's been this ongoing debate about the, whether or not the
current administration, Howard relin has conviction rates and
where that is.-
Look at how the debate has been going.-
-
>> I think it is extremely unfair to try to judge the
district
attorney's based on one number.-
I will tell you why.-
Do you want to look at felony conviction rates.-
The way they are figured in my opponent's commercial I could
have a 100 rate tomorrow.-
I could have offered each felon a plea of disorderly conduct
and allow them to get out of jail.-
In that set of circumstances they would all plead guilty, I
would have 100% rate and done no justice for the citizens of
this community.-
You can't look at that one number.-
The fact of the matter is that in 2002 we had a 94.4%
conviction rate on indictments in Superior Court informations.-
For all felony cases.-
In the first half of 2003 in the preliminary figures we had
a
95.3% conviction rate for those cases.-
Those are the real numbers.-
The numbers my opponent is using are distorted for several
reasons.-
The major reason is that that number compares of disposed cases
from any year regardless of when they came in against arrests
for one year and the reason that distorts reality is everyone
knows starting 2001 we had a project to clear up a backlog of
cases.-
In 2001 and 2002 15 or 14 years worth of old cases were cleaned
up.-
We took the lead.-
This was an issue that affected every district attorney's
office around the state.-
There were a million cases around the state.-
We cleaned that up in Monroe county so there is no backlog.-
We did it in those two years.-
My opponent's number takes 15 years worth of dispositions,
compares them to one year of arrest he is and artificially
lowers the conviction prges.-
If you compare all of the numbers, not just one number, to the
numbers from Erie county and -- what you will find is the
Monroe county district attorney's office consistently
outperforms similar upstate offices.-
-
>> Those two counties are notorious under achievers.-
And if earn to go down to the street and offer harassment as
a
plea to say assault in the first degree I would not be
surprised.-
And it does count as a vision.-
But let's talk about those cases.-
The numbers from 2002 are not skewed.-
The numbers that I present are based on the number of arrests
versus the number of convictions and that is the same for every
other county.-
That is how it is measured in New York state by the department
of criminal justice.-
And what about their projects?-
The fact of the matter it was only after an attorney filed a
complaint against the office that someone decided to do
something about it.-
It was a project imposed by the court system and I was part
of
the administration that helped put it together.-
Because they had never bothered to get rid of cases where
victims, the rights of victims were overlooked.-
In fact, the rights of defendants were never cleared.-
It was case after case, robbery, sodomy, kidnapping.-
The fact of the matter is the conviction rate should be based
on the work that police officers do.-
Anyone could hand pick their cases for indictment and you
should have 100% convictions at that, using that yardstick.-
-
>> What you learn if you are a prosecutor is you don't
hand
pick cases for indictment.-
23 citizens in this community sit on the grand jury and decide
which cases are indicted and which are the not and we get
convictions on 95% of those cases.-
Additionally, the figures show that we plea bargain less than
other similar counties .-
We get convictions for fell lob anies on a higher percentage
of
cases and we have a higher incarcerate, meaning more people
or
a higher percentage people are going to jail for crimes in
Monroe county than the other counties.-
-
>> Let me ask you this.-
This campaign has been, I would say, a little more bitterly
fought.-
What is the tone, sandy?-
-
>> I can that the campaign has, Ann Marie Taddeo has really
misrepresented what is really important, and that's the quality
of prosecutions and the effectiveness of the district
attorney's office where mike green has played a very prominent
and impressive role.-
The issue of cases is disturbing, but another thing that is
very disturbing to me is Ann Marie Taddeo calling for the death
penalty in a case which hbt even had its full hearing before
the grand jury.-
And, in addition, her bringing up the -- propose being the
notion of neighborhood protection zones where people would not
be allowed to plea bargain.-
That is probably unconstitutional.-
She has been a judge.-
She should know better.-
-
>> It is a very aggressive tone, a very aggressive race
and for
one reason, because crime is such an important issue.-
We talked about economic development and jobs.-
Those things are not going to happen if people are afraid to
come to this community.-
This crime problem, this homicide problem, where romp is the
murder capital of New York state.-
They are not going to come here.-
And you talk about the prosecutions.-
They are select corrective prosecutions.-
Mike green talked about you have to present it to a grand
jury.-
Those cases were not present today grand juries.-
Why was there a backlog in the first place?-
Because they choose what they can get a conviction because they
are worried about their rate.-
-
>> Both numbers are right, aren't they?-
They represent different things, don't they?-
Or am I wrong?-
-
>> They are comparing apples and oranges.-
-
>> When mike green talks about the 95% conviction rate
he
admitted in the forum where he said that is my perform
conviction rate.-
And that's great and being the top prosecutor he gets to pick
and chs which cases he undertakes and which cases he
prosecutes.-
I guess it wouldn't be that hard to get a 95% rate if you got
to pick every case you went off.-
-
>> But I will say that the cases that the district attorney's
office has to handle depend upon the quality of evidence that
is brought in from law enforcement agencies.-
And that is a factor in deciding how a case is going to be
prosecuted.-
-
>> I have heard that before, mike and let me add to that.-
When you talk about -- and mike green talks about it all the
time.-
We didn't go off that because, after that because of the
quality of evidence.-
Well, he takes a slap at the police officers who are out there
doing their job.-
That's why he didn't get endorsed by some of the close clubs.-
-
>> That has to be the last word.-
You are both great.-
You are welcome to participate.-
Write us any time at wxxi.org/ntk
or email us at
needtoknow@wxxi.org.-
Also you can call us any time dial the "Need to Know"
response
line at 258-0250.-
-
Now
let's turn to the business section with "THE
DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE."
>>
We want to welcome Ellen Rosen business editor for the Dell
Democrat.-
How are you?-
-
>> Final fine.-
-
>> Let's talk about barb add home.-
They came in with their third quarter earnings.-
How did they do?-
-
>> They about tripled their earnings from year to year
and they
had some interesting news.-
The company wants to focus on developing getting back in
research and the things they are already doing rather than to,
not looking at major acquisitions as a way to grow the business
but to focus on what they do well and do more of it.-
With that he announced they will be hiring 40 to 50 scientists
to work at the north goodman optics center so those are high
paying jobs and R&D is one of the big clusters in the community
Rand building on that.-
-
>> On the layman said I guess if the street likes one
you
concentrate on the core activities rather than new things.
Diversification used to be the watch word but I think they are
saying get back to basics.-
-
>> The street likes when you make your guidance and they
beat
the street expectation.-
So that wins you points and what the street likes is
credibility which analysts had been criticizing them about a
year or so a ago for not having credibility, for not coming
in
the way they said.-
That is something that they have worked hard on in this
turnaround plan and if is about halfway through.-
-
>> He talks about the 150th year and he sounds like a
guy who
feels optimistic about the 150th year.-
Talk about that and what he has been talking about.-
-
>> They are talking about doing some things, investing
in the
community.-
They are going to have another announcement Monday with some
things they are planning to do and they are very interested
in
doing this eye health company and moving forward with things
they do well.-
-
>> Let's move on to Xerox.-
There was a story this week and someone I know said that maybe
I should have brought stock with the chip innovation work.-
What do you think?-
Is this that good news for them -
>> First, it could be but I think what people are really
looking at is is Xerox getting back to what they have been
which is a company of innovation, not having to worry so much
about its finances, they have said that the turnaround issues
are largely pind them and they can focus on what it does well
and they have been known as an innovative company.-
So now they are trying to capitalize on some things.-
So that was what got people excited.-
But it has a lot of potential applied properly.-
Right now you do this kind of circuit work, you are talking
about clean rooms and etching on glass and this is where an
inch jet printer could print these out into a sheet of
plastic.-
-
>> It could be cheaper and quicker?-
-
>> Yes.-
Xerox could license the technology, sell it to other people.-
It could lead to new products.-
All sorts of applications.-
-
>> I want to move to the story that we have been in the
paper.-
P.S.C. is delaying the delail of ganay.-
-
>> What R.G.E. did is filed with the P.S.C. to look into
permission to sell it and P.S.C. said we are not going to
consider giving permission until we know who you plan to sell
it to.-
So when you have the details nailed down of who and how much
you are going to make we will either authorize or not authorize
the sale.-
Basically what if is is a, they want to know who the nuclear
power plant may be going to and what the P.S.C. looks at
revenues as a way when they come to ask the rates it be set.-
They look at how much the utility has in assets so any money
made from the sale should go to defray any rate increases that
the utility might want so the P.S.C. wants to know000 fits
together.-
-
>> So they want to know how it fits together with the
rate
increase?-
-
>> Yes, they want to see the whole picture before they
make any
rulings.-
-
>> It is probably difficult for them at this point to
say how
that will fit in.-
If they don't have -- -
>> Sure it is.-
But RG&E's argument is by not authorizing the sale it inhibits
them from looking at a multiple of different buyers and
inhibits the auction process.-
The P.SC. has been behind the process because it should yield
the best price for the asset.-
-
>> Tell us what is coming up in the business section on
Sunday?-
-
>> We have a story that we are hoping will be helpful
to
people.-
You are all getting all the paperwork about what your health
insurance choices you want to make and we have a story to tell
you how to wade through that and make the best choice for your
family.-
-
>> Thank you have for being here.-
After the polls close election night turn on WXXI-TV where we
will provide the latest result and give you live reports from
the A.M. 1370 news team and have analysts.-
Next week we will look at the drug abuse by senior citizens.-
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