The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Hennessy touts fiscal record
ONEIDA, N.Y. » Running as a Democrat in Central New York can prove to be a difficult affair, but that hasn’t stopped Michael Hennessy.
Running under the banner of the Patriot Party in the upcoming election for County Legislator for Oneida County District 1, Hennessy is looking for change.
“The Patriot Party is a party on ethics reform and questioning the
“The spending is out of control andwe’ve seen taxes not really decrease at all under the last twoyears.”
— Michael Hennessy
status quo,” Hennessy said. “The way this county is going mademe realize that we have to have a change. There are so many issues I can bring up. The spending is out of control andw e’ve seen taxes not really decrease at all under the last two years.”
Hennessy has set his focus on dealing with spending issues and how best to take the burden off the taxpayer and hold people accountable for their actions.
“This county, with the state, has made some bad decisions,” he said, pointing specifically at the county’s collapsed deal with SUNY Polytechnic Institute to bring a lithography research program to the school. “Spent half a billion dollars for 100 jobs. What happened? Why isn’t anyone asking any questions about that? Half a billion dollars is a lot of money.”
Hennessy’s stance as a fiscal conservative shines through when talking about where money is going and how it is being used.
“Why are they building a parking garage in Utica at $45 million and the county taxpayer has to pick up 60 percent of that?” he asked. “Why is my district going to pay for something that most people out here aren’t going to benefit from?”
Hennessy also questioned the fairness of the Oneida Indian Nation agreement between the county and state, which awards the county 25 percent of gaming revenue from the Nation’s slot machine revenue. “When the county got $75 million over the last 5 ½ years, why are we only get- ting a small portion of that money?” he asked.
Hennessy’s plan as legislator is to redistribute casino revenues to the local, impacted areas “in a fair and equitable way”.
Seeking to have $7.5 million redistributed to Oneida County, Hennessy hopes to see $2.5 million for tax stabilization for the local schools and governments and $5 million to fix and improve infrastructure in these impacted areas.
“They’re going to say we can’t do it,” Hennessy said. “Just like they said I couldn’t lead the fight to cut the sales tax. We did it. I’m tired of people talking about what we can’t do.”
“This county, with the state, has made some bad decisions. Spent half a billion dollars for 100 jobs. What happened? Why isn’t anyone asking any questions about that? Halfabilliondollars is a lot of money.”
— Mike Hennessy