I'm outraged. You should be, too.

ERIE COUNTY HAS THE HIGHEST SALES TAX IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. If you work for a living, you should be outraged. If you owe your job to your wits, experience and hard work, you should be outraged. If you didn't get your job simply because you knew the right people, you should be outraged. If you're one of the 400 or so Erie County workers cut from the budget that passed last night, you should be outraged. If you ever had the thought in your mind that Joel Giambra was different - that he was forward-thinking and had the best interests of the people of Erie County at heart - you should be outraged. If you thought that the EC Legislature hearings held over the past few weeks actually meant something - and you thought that your voice would be heard, you should be outraged. If you thought that the County would take this very good opportunity to reform itself to avoid future fiscal crises, you should be outraged. If you thought that County government was run more democratically and fairly than Albany, you should be outraged. The red budget was defeated. A form of the green budget won. A bastard form of it. In certain ways, the budget that they passed last night at 92 Franklin is worse than both the green and red budgets. Why? Because it retains the tax increases and raises for patronage cronies of the green budget, and brings about no reform whatsoever. I'm glad the libraries will stay open, and I'm glad that Sheriff funding will be maintained, etc. That's great. What I'm outraged about is this: THEY DID NOT CUT ONE SINGLE, SOLITARY PATRONAGE APPOINTMENT. YET THEY INCREASED THE MOST REGRESSIVE FORM OF TAXATION - OUR SALES TAX. Every patronage appointment should have been cut. Every one. There are 950,000 residents of Erie County. You know - Switzerland offers its citizens universal health care. Yet their sales tax (VAT) is about 7.25%. They're managed competently, in a fiscally responsible & conservative way. New York is a banana republic where every politician has his own turf to protect to the death, and they don't care if they ruin the whole goddamn state, so long as their turf gets funded and protected. By the way. The average sales tax in the US is 6.25%. New York State sales tax is 4.25%. The counties get to add to that figure. Based on the Sales Tax Clearinghouse's figures, ERIE COUNTY HAS THE HIGHEST SALES TAX IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Please call your Erie County Legislator to express your outrage.