Don't let the door hit you in the ass, Joel.

Who's looking out for you?

"Yesterday was a sad day for the taxpayers of Erie County," said Legislator Elise M. Cusack, R-Amherst, who voted against the budget and the tax increase. "Our leadership chose to conduct business as usual and squandered a tremendous opportunity to reform our government." The public is the victim, said Legislature Majority Leader Lynn M. Marinelli, D-Town of Tonawanda, who pushed for a sales tax increase that could be shared with local governments, then voted against the budget when she found it larded with pork and patronage. "Why would the public have any trust in the system if we just go back to status quo?" Marinelli asked. "We did not vote to continue doing county business as usual." Finance and Management Committee Chairman Albert DeBenedetti, D-Buffalo, joined her to oppose the budget. It was a rare instance when they broke from the Democrats' eight-member majority to side with a majority of Republicans on a contentious matter. They were outvoted by the six remaining Democrats and Republicans Charles M. Swanick of Kenmore and Jeanne Z. Chase of Evans. Marinelli says the Legislature's procedural rules were broken, and DeBenedetti hinted at legal action. He has sued before over perceived violations and always lost. But a moderate Republican, Barry A. Weinstein of Amherst, also said the vote could be subject to a court challenge. "I have a very hollow feeling," Weinstein said, minutes after voting against the budget and the sales tax, which needs approval from the State Legislature before it can be implemented. He, too, called it business as usual. Will the government cinch its belt as a sign of good faith for the residents who will pay a higher sales tax? Well, County Executive Joel A. Giambra won back the 200 suspected patronage jobs that Democrats deleted as a shot across his bow when negotiations started to build last week. "Those are positions that were needed," he said Thursday. The top staff can retain take-home cars, the Legislature still has its ratio of six staff members for every lawmaker. And pork spending remains, though it falls from $180,000 per member to about $150,000, legislators said. That means lawmakers can parcel out up to $150,000 to scout troops, fire departments, town festivals and assorted causes whose organizers will thank them publicly for their generosity. Budget Director Joseph Passafiume figures a medium-income family in Erie County will pay $230 more each year to county government with a new penny on every dollar of goods purchased. Residents will also pay more for certain services at the county clerk's office and a 35-cent charge on cellular phone bills. There are sacrifices for government officials, and one involves Giambra and Victor M. Getz, his senior executive assistant, driver and patronage czar, who earns $81,000 a year. "Vic Getz will no longer be driving me," Giambra said Thursday in a post-game analysis of the vote. With Getz a lightning rod for critics of wasteful spending, Giambra said he will now request that a sheriff's deputy drive him and provide security - "the common practice in many governments such as the City of Buffalo," he said. Getz will be reassigned to another job. Meanwhile, about 400 workers will be laid off, a far cry from the 3,000 that Giambra predicted he would dismiss had his "scorched earth" plan been adopted. Budget documents show the layoffs - about 4 percent of the county payroll - are scattered throughout many departments, with no unit suffering too heavily. "Make no mistake, this is a very painful document," Giambra said Thursday. "It will be painful for citizens who will see a reduction of services and it will be especially painful for the hundreds of county workers who will have to be given pink slips only a couple of weeks before the holidays."

Translation: You need to be my friend if you expect to feast on the public trough. Disgusting. Kudos to the folks who care & are looking out for us.