tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42695908556470581812024-03-04T12:21:07.890-08:00Dutchess Democracy[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.comBlogger1215125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-3370052206883738982023-10-13T08:39:00.001-07:002023-10-13T08:39:02.329-07:00
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What's here below is but the tip of the iceberg-- I've literally only gotten through 40 percent of the 506 pages online in the recipient search box for Serino online at NYSBOE website:
https://publicreporting.elections.ny.gov/ContributionsByRecipient/ContributionsByRecipient
Recall two Poughkeepsie Journal editorials (2000 and 2004) and the late great former County Executive Lucille Pattinson— calling on Dutchess County government to follow the example of Rockland County and pass a law limiting campaign contributions from companies doing business with the county (note— similar law passed in Orange County too):
https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/10/16/dutchess-lawmakers-want-marc-molinaro-return-330-k-campaign-cash/1647087002/
https://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2018/09/newitemized-molinaro-received-330000.html?m=0
https://ecode360.com/9665748
https://www.recordonline.com/story/news/2013/10/04/orange-county-lawmakers-ok-campaign/42776653007/
Some of my notes so far (again I'm not even halfway thru looking thru Serino donations):
$500 from Parkview Construction and Development (Baldwin Place)
$500 from Tri-State Drywall & Acoustical
$2000 from MJ Engineering and Land Surveying (Clifton Park) $2000 4/4/23
$500 from Parkview Construction and Development (Baldwin Place) $500 3/1/23
$1000 from TRIAD Group (Troy) $1000
$500 from Tri-State Drywall & Acoustical, Inc. $$1000 from Steven Tinkelmann/Architect
Allan Page $1250
Page Park Associates $1000
Dickinson & Avella, Pllc Albany $1000 2018
Donald Capoccia $3000 2014-2018
Apple Eight Hospitality Management $1000 11/15/16 NYC
Diamondrock Hospitality Company $5000 11/15/16 Bethesda MD
Daniel Loeb ℅ Teragram LLC $11,000 8/17/16
David Mack $1500 Kings Point NY 2016
Delta Management $4000 NYC 6/20/14
Bp One Wfc Co. LLC $10,300 10/7/14
Bpc 12 Associates LLC $10,300 9/30/14
Bronstein Properties LLC $5000 10/10/14
44th Street Development LLC $4080 10/10/14
55th and 9th LLC $1772 10/10/14
80 Pine LLC $2500 8/28/14
East 81st Realty $10,000 7/10/14
Edward Walter $2000 11/3/16
Apple Eight Hospitality Management $1000 11/15/16 NYC
Diamondrock Hospitality Company $5000 11/15/16 Bethesda MD
Emil Panichi $5000 4/4/23; $1000 9/15/23
Baroni Recycling $3000 9/1/23
M & O Sanitation $1300
Altria (Philip Morris) Client Services $250 9/14/15 and $250 8/16/18 of Richmond VA
[the largest tobacco company in the US]
Bristol Myers Squibb $500 4/10/18
AT&T Pac $1250 (2016-2018)
Wayne Nussbickel $1250
One Dutchess Phase 2, LLC $1000 7/13/23
Peckham Industries $5000 3/15/23
Glenn Pacchiana of Jackson/WY $5000 9/26/23
[Thalle Industries Quarry/Recycling in Fishkill]
$2500 5/14/18 Briarcliff Manor
$7500 from Thalle Industries Quarry/Glenn Pacchiana (2018-2023)
Affordable Self Storage $2000 this year ($2600 previously)
3R Partners PAC of Rochester $1575
Rpac of NYS $3000 (Albany) (nys association of realtors)
Amity Construction Corp. $1000
Baright Associates/Enterprises $1500 + $6325 to her state Senate campaigns 2016-2022
Richard Baright $2000 (Red Hook)
Todd Baright (Red Hook) $2488
Beam Enterprises of Chester $500
DS Electric of Hyde Park 9/26/23 $1000
Fairview of the Hudson Valley 3/27/23 $2500
Herb Redl, LLC $1250
Guardian Self Storage East $1250
Jean Kearney $3000 (of Mahopac)
Key Construction Services of Hyde Park $3000
Kimberly Williams $5000
Williams Lumber $3500
LMDH Corp $1500
Meyerson Enterprises, LLC of Red Hook $140
MHTC Development, LLC $5000
MidHudson Construction Management $1300
Schmitt Bros Excavating and Site Development $500
Splashdown Beach $2500
A.Colarusso & Son Chatham $1000 7/9/15
Bp One Wfc Co. LLC $10,300 10/7/14
Bpc 12 Associates LLC $10,300 9/30/14
Bronstein Properties LLC $5000 10/10/14
44th Street Development LLC $4080 10/10/14 NYC
55th and 9th LLC $1772 10/10/14 NYC
80 Pine LLC $2500 8/28/14 NYC
Apple Eight Hospitality Management $1000 11/15/16 NYC
ACECNY Pac $2500 2014/2017
Ashford Hospitality Advisors, LLC of Dallas/TX $5000 11/3/16
Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers $500 11/14/18 (Wash. D.C.)
American Insurance Association Pac of Wash. D.C. $1250 2016-2017
Associated General Contractors of NYS PAC $12,400 Albany (2014-2022)
Arnoff Moving & Storage $2300 2020-2022
Bernard Curry of Scarsdale $2900 2022
Blacktop Maintenance Corp $1500 2022
Bottini Fuel $1550 2016-2022
Chazen Environmental Services $2725 2014-2018
Committee for Economic Growth $8000 in 2014[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-28079707404953661102023-10-12T19:14:00.001-07:002023-10-12T19:19:27.418-07:00
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Tune into WHVW 950 AM/96.5 FM tomorrow (Fri.) 6 pm-- I'll be interviewed by JP Ferraro about this upcoming Zoom I'll be hosting with Shuman (pertinent to this fall's elections-- hell will freeze over before Sue Serino challenges business as usual corporate welfare in Dutchess-- one more reason to help elect the human Teddy Bear Tommy Zurhellen County Executive-- unafraid to challenge anything-- and ready for real change)!
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Put Weds. Oct. 18th 8 pm Eastern time on your calendars-- to join Michael Shuman and yours truly for our Zoom forum-- on Innovative, Pro-Small-Business Economic Development-- and an End to Corporate Welfare in Dutchess County for Good(!):
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87549171608?pwd=xifyjkNaX3bxKUfjNFQV4yY4vFYFM8.1
Meeting ID: 875 4917 1608 Passcode: 734322
New FB event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/634548938811211
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This event will be sponsored by Working Class Dutchess-- let us know if your organization can be added as a cosponsor; you may recall a similar webinar I organized with Michael Shuman on this very topic five years ago (5/14/18)-- co-hosted by the Bard Center for Environmental Policy Director Eban Goodstein, Sustainable Hudson Valley and Melissa Everett, Re>Think Local and Scott Tillitt, Sven Thiessen and Northern Dutchess NAACP, Jen Metzger and Citizens for Local Power, and Pramilla Malick and Protect Orange County-- on innovative, new-economy ideas for Dutchess government to revitalize our county with new green jobs, helping locally owned small businesses survive and thrive!
Old FB event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1477488845712353
Shuman and Doreen Tignanelli are right-- corporate welfare via the Dutchess County Industrial Development Agency and Dutchess County Local Development Corporation is wasteful-- see Doreen's research on this here: http://conta.cc/44tRu0k .
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Nuvance just laid off 14 nurses at the Vassar Brothers Medical Center.
https://midhudsonnews.com/2023/09/29/nursing-layoffs-at-vassar-draw-criticism-from-jacobson/
Nuvance laid off 102 workers at Thompson House in Rhinebeck in Mar.
https://www.dailyfreeman.com/2023/03/31/northern-dutchess-hospital-parent-nuvance-to-close-thompson-house-laying-off-102-employees/
Nuvance received $99 million in tax-exempt bonds from the Dutchess County Local Development Corporation in 2019 for massive expansion.
https://www.bondview.com/bond/267045ME9
https://www.abo.ny.gov/annualreports/PARISAuditReports/FYE2019/Local-LDC/DutchessCountyLocalDevelopmentCorporation2019.pdf
Eight years ago former County Comptroller and Democratic Dutchess County Executive candidate Diane Jablonski was on the mark when she wrote this in the Poughkeepsie Journal about the $466 million Vassar Brothers Hospital expansion: "If Health Quest seeks funding through the Local Development Corporation (LDC) that supports tax-exempt bonding for non-profit organizations with lower interest rates, the taxpayers need to know the requirements the LDC will place upon Health Quest as a condition of providing the financing. The LDC should establish the following requirements for all bonding...Inclusion in all agreements of clawback provisions with penalties to ensure that the job creation committed to by Health Quest is achieved."
https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/opinion/valley-views/2015/07/01/health-quest-proposed-expansion-raises-many-questions/29233729/
Taxpayer advocate Doreen Tignanelli of the Town of Poughkeepsie: "Regarding permanent job numbers, materials for the Dutchess County Industrial Development Agency March 22, 2023 meeting show a failure to meet DCIDA job creation and retention numbers for the three IDA projects closed in 2022: Arthur May Redevelopment, One Dutchess Phase 3 and Built Parcel 3. For the IDA, only 32% of the target for new jobs was met and only 40% of the target for job retention was met.
https://www.thinkdutchess.com/clientuploads/directory/meetings_minutes/IDA/2023/2023_0322_IDA_Reg_Mtg_Packet.pdf
To learn more re: Nuvance mistreatment of workers see:
https://midhudsonnews.com/2022/08/03/nurses-protest-staffing-levels-at-vassar-brothers-medical-center/
To learn more re: LDC/IDA corporate welfare across NY see:
https://www.osc.state.ny.us/press/releases/2022/06/dinapoli-releases-annual-ida-report
https://www.osc.state.ny.us/files/local-government/publications/pdf/performance-of-idas-in-nys-2022-annual-report.pdf
This type of wasteful/inefficient corporate welfare that passes for "economic development" in Dutchess is a direct result of who Molinaro/O'Neil/GOP majority in County Legislature have appointed to the boards of the Dutchess County Local Development Corporation and Industrial Development Agency; companies getting favorable consideration from county leaders have for decades now enjoyed a close pay-to-play relationship with Dutchess Republicans.
https://www.thinkdutchess.com/dcldc-board-and-staff/
https://www.thinkdutchess.com/dcida-board-and-staff/
https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/2018/10/10/8-dutchess-legislators-call-molinaro-pay-play-probe/1579441002/
https://www.change.org/p/dutchess-county-executive-marcus-molinaro-molinaro-give-the-money-back-return-pay-to-play-donations-to-firms-who-got-contracts
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/2-Molinaro-pay-to-play-updates---from-Albany-Times-Union-and-NY-Daily-News--when-will-media-here-in-Dutchess-start-reporting-on-.html
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https://fiscalfairness.org
https://fiscalfairness.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/PR_ReinInSecretiveCorporateSubsidies.pdf
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According to a Good Jobs First report that came out this February:
Dutchess County is one of only five counties outside of the NYC/Long Island region with over $10 million in foregone school revenues due to net tax abatement in 2021. "New York State public schools lost at least $1.8 billion in revenue to tax abatements in FY 2021. A substantial portion of these abatements occur when industrial development agencies (IDAs) acquire properties and lease them to private companies in exchange for payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs). With the properties technically owned by a public agency (the IDAs), they pay no property tax. The PILOTs typically equal a small share of what property taxes would have been."
https://goodjobsfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/How-Tax-Abatements-Cost-New-York-Public-Schools.pdf
ILSR ideas: https://ilsr.org/fighting-monopoly-power/small-business/
Orange County Democratic state Senator James Skoufis won't stop speaking out and pushing to reform and clean up the Orange County Industrial Development Agency-- where are the Democratic elected officials in Dutchess County when it comes to exposing/stopping the corporate welfare of the Dutchess County Industrial Development Agency and Dutchess County Local Development Corporation?
https://midhudsonnews.com/2023/10/04/no-ida-tax-breaks-for-woodbury-common-expansion-says-skoufis/
Fact: Florida, Louisiana, and Alabama-- but not New York-- already require private businesses that lease property owned by industrial development agencies like the Dutchess County IDA to pay property taxes. "In New York, IDAs are allowed to acquire properties and lease them to private companies in exchange for payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs). Because the properties are owned by a public agency, they pay no property taxes. School districts in New York get a large percentage of their funding from property taxes."
https://dailygazette.com/2023/06/06/state-lawmakers-push-to-end-subsidies-for-industrial-development-agencies/
Progressive/watchdog groups urge oversight in economic development: Common Cause New York, Fiscal Policy Institute, League of Women Voters of New York State, New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, New York State Council of Churches, New York Public Interest Research Group, Reinvent Albany, Strong Economy for All Coalition
https://nystateofpolitics.com/state-of-politics/new-york/ny-state-of-politics/2022/01/14/progressive--watchdog-groups-urge-oversight-in-economic-development
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Michael Shuman has spoken out about this for years-- justifiably ripping into corporate welfare giveaways from county/state "development agencies" and "development corporations" across the U.S.-- scroll down for reminder of amazing/detailed research/work by Doreen re: corporate welfare in Dutchess thru Industrial Development Agency and county Local Development Corporation...to his credit, Tommy Zurhellen has often spoken about how he's pushing in his campaign for transformative change of Dutchess County government; I could be wrong-- but I strongly believe that Tommy with a new Democratic majority in the County Legislature would actually implement many of the innovative, local-investment reforms to the currently wasteful "economic development" practices in DCIDA/DCLDC-- an issue state Senator James Skoufis has really tackled head on in his part of the Hudson Valley (re: Orange County IDA waste/corruption).
https://mainstreetjournal.substack.com
https://michaelhshuman.com
The Main Street Journal Sept. 29th
Celebrate Local Investing
A PLAN TO ACCELERATE LOCAL INVESTMENT
We will present the following action agenda to state, county, and local officials in Maryland gathered at the “Benefit Corporation Annual Forum” on October 9, 2023. Please share the agenda with elected officials wherever you live.
Locally owned businesses are responsible for 60-80% of the jobs in Maryland (depending on the definition of “local”). Compared to publicly traded companies, a large body of evidence shows that these businesses are significantly more important promoters of social equality, entrepreneurship, sustainability, smart growth, tourism, food justice, and democratic participation. Most are highly profitable and can contribute significantly to growing the state’s economy.
And—yet—local businesses receive almost none of the state residents’ investment dollars.
Instead, Marylanders’ long-term savings are in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, pension funds, and insurance funds that are almost entirely invested in publicly traded companies. Put another way, the state’s residents are systematically overinvesting in Wall Street securities and underinvesting in local businesses, the businesses most likely to improve state well-being. Disrupting this pattern by shifting even a small percentage of investment dollars from Wall Street to Main Street could have a huge positive impact on the state’s economic development.
Accomplishing this could be done through modest and low-cost interventions. The following could be done at all levels of government:
(1) Education – Educate residents about the virtues and possibilities of local investment, including the possibility of using tax-deferred savings for local investment through self-directed IRAs and solo 401ks. This could be done through economic development offices, community colleges, or grants to nonprofits.
(2) Mobilization – Identify and connect “Main Street” champions throughout the state who are prepared to organize small groups focused on local investment. In Port Townsend, Washington, a community of 10,000 residents formed a group called LION (the local investment opportunity network), bringing together local investors and businesses through monthly potlucks. The result has been nearly $1 million per year of new local investment since 2007.
(3) Web Listings – On every economic development resource website, post lists of local businesses currently looking for investment. This makes local investment opportunities easier to find. The Maryland Neighborhood Exchange, which has listed Baltimore businesses looking for crowdfunding investment since 2019—a project that has cost about $10,000 per year—has thus far helped 72 businesses (90% BIPOC owned) raise $3.8 million from 9,700 investors.
(4) Technical Assistance – Deploy experts in crowdfunding who can help coach local businesses on how to use the tool successfully. Today’s average successful investment crowdfunding business raises nearly $400,000—and yet it’s almost impossible to find any small-business support organization in Maryland with this expertise.
(5) Investment Funds – Create targeted investment funds for different priorities, such as local food, renewable energy, affordable housing, or small-scale manufacturing. Funds facilitate more investment by providing investors with diversification, liquidity, and professional management. Under an existing exemption in the Investment Company Act, a governmental jurisdiction might run the fund (or underwrite the fund’s operation), but most (or all) investment dollars can and should come from grassroots investors. They should be open to investment from non-accredited investors.
(6) Municipal Bonds – Issue municipal bonds to help seed investment funds. The largest community land trust in the country, in Burlington, Vermont, which provides affordable housing to several thousand families, was started by a municipal bond issued by Mayor Bernie Sanders in the 1980s. Most municipal bonds, however, are issued globally through investment banks. A better approach is to issue them in small denominations for local purchase. Connecticut recently issued $25 million of “micro-bonds” like this to support solar energy expansion—and it was bought out in 48 hours.
(7) State Networks – One way of lowering the legal costs of creating and administering funds and bond issues would be for the state to take the lead in raising capital, and counties or municipalities could then take the lead in awarding it.
(8) Tax Credit – Enacting a modest tax credit can help nudge residents to pay closer attention to local investment opportunities—effectively priming the pump. Michigan is preparing to pass a 50% income tax credit (up to $3,000 per resident), and there is no reason Maryland couldn’t do the same. The costs to the state, by the way, would be modest. Nova Scotia calculated that its tax credit for local investment funds generated jobs at a cost of about $500 per job. In contrast, Maryland’s bid for Amazon’s new HQ would have cost more than $500,000 per job.
(9) Local Banking – Shift governmental banking services to local banks and credit unions to boost support for local businesses. The probability of a dollar put on deposit in a local banking institution going into a local business is three times greater than a dollar deposited in a large interstate bank. Phoenix and Tucson have shown how to overcome the objection that smaller banking institutions cannot handle large clients.
(10) Public Banking – Create a public bank. The state of North Dakota has made more than $1 billion over the past century through its public bank. By depositing yet-to-be-expended public funds collected from taxpayers and the federal government in local banks and credit unions rather than global securities, North Dakota lowers costs, increases earnings, and supports local businesses.
(11) Trading Portals – The federal JOBS Act, which legalized investment crowdfunding, allows anyone to run a trading platform and charge a success fee (essential for successfully running the platform as a business). States like Maryland foolishly only allow broker-dealers to do this, which has effectively meant—no one is doing this. Maryland should create a pathway identical to the feds for residents to develop a platform that facilitates the trading of intra-state securities. This would help to greatly increase the use of Maryland’s $100 exemption (which was sponsored by Delegate Lorig Charkoudian).
(12) Discussion Groups – The SEC recently announced Rules 206 and 241, which permit small businesses to enter public “testing the waters” conversations with investors. All kinds of investment options, public and private, could be discussed. The problem is that the SEC did not preempt state laws that mainly prohibit such conversations. Maryland should harmonize its laws with these rules to facilitate more discussions of local investment.
These proposals have the following characteristics:
They are all high impact and low (or no) cost.
They provide mechanisms for the government to achieve more without raising taxes.
They are inexcusably absent from nearly all economic development activities in the state.
While most of these items could be done at all levels of government—local, county, and state—some make more sense at a certain level. For example, there’s a strong case that the state should create a tax credit, develop a statewide platform for small-bond issues, promote local and public banking, and legalize intrastate trading platforms. Montgomery County might open its Green Bank to local grassroots investors. And there’s a strong case for education, mobilization, and technical assistance to be done in local economic development offices. But the strongest case is to do as many of these as possible at every level possible.
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Michael H. Shuman is an economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur, and a leading visionary on community economics. He’s Director of Local Economy Programs for Neighborhood Associates Corporation, and an Adjunct Professor at Bard Business School in New York City. He is also a Senior Researcher for Council Fire and Local Analytics, where he performed economic-development analyses for states, local governments, and businesses around North America. He is credited with being one of the architects of the 2012 JOBS Act and dozens of state laws overhauling securities regulation of crowdfunding. He has authored, coauthored, or edited ten books. His three most recent books are Put Your Money Where Your Life Is: How to Invest Locally Using Solo 401ks and Self-Directed IRAs; The Local Economy Solution: How Innovative, Self-Financing Pollinator Enterprises Can Grow Jobs and Prosperity; and Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street. One of his previous books, The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition (Berrett-Koehler, 2006), received as bronze prize from the Independent Publishers Association for best business book of 2006. A prolific speaker, Shuman has given an average of more than one invited talk per week, mostly to local governments and universities, for the past 30 years in nearly every U.S. state and more than a dozen countries.
Recall-- 150+ local small businesses and others signed on to my New Economy Jobs Petition for Dutchess here (still current here and now in 2023-- as ruling GOP majority in county government have essentially refused to implement all of these):
https://www.change.org/p/dutchess-county-executive-marcus-molinaro-revitalize-dutchess-with-new-economy-pro-small-business-innovative-strategies-new-jobs
Click here for the 2008 Northern Dutchess Alliance Blueprint for Economic Development-- co-authored by Michael Shuman, Melissa Everett of Sustainable Hudson Valley, and Ann Davis of Marist College(!):
https://cab32f01-7260-41a2-a7d2-e8e5798b57d8.filesusr.com/ugd/d67794_cd3a0902fc3649528a2a3b866255b14a.pdf
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[I sent this letter below 4/15/18 to my 24 former colleagues in the Dutchess County Legislature pls email countylegislators@dutchessny.gov-- kudos as always to Co. Leg. Giancarlo Llaverias for even back then agreeing to co-sponsor this resolution I drafted/submitted, inspired by Shuman's work here!]
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From: Joel Tyner
To: countylegislators@dutchessny.gov
Subject: Colleagues-- new resolution here re: Michael Shuman's willingness to work with us to revitalize our local economy-- pls call Co. Leg. office to co-sponsor if you agree...Joel
Date: Apr 15, 2018 7:43 PM
[for more info on all this see: http://michaelhshuman.com ]
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FOR DUTCHESS COUNTY TO WORK WITH NATIONALLY KNOWN LOCAL-ECONOMY, PRO-SMALL-BUSINESS, PRO-FAMILY-FARM EXPERT MICHAEL SHUMAN TO ORGANIZE A SERIES OF PUBLIC FORUMS ON INNOVATIVE NEW-ECONOMY POSSIBILITIES LOCALLY
WHEREAS, in 2008, nationally known local-economy expert Michael Shuman (along with Ann Davis of Marist College and Melissa Everett of the Northern Dutchess Alliance) prepared a “Blueprint for Economic Development: Business Strategies and opportunities for a Healthy Northern Dutchess Economy”, and
WHEREAS, much has happened in the world of local economic development in the decade since, and Michael Shuman is very much interested in working with us here in Dutchess County to update us on the state of the art in local economic development strategy innovation, and
WHEREAS, Michael Shuman has authored four books on local-economy innovation-- "Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age" (Free Press, 1998); "The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition" (Berrett-Koehler, 2006); "Local Dollars, Local Sense" (Chelsea Green, 2012); "The Local Economy Solution: How Innovative, Self-Financing Pollinator Enterprises Can Grow Jobs and Prosperity" (Chelsea Green, 2015), and
WHEREAS, Michael Shuman is a nationally known expert on new options for mobilizing local capital through reformed securities laws, new options for import substitution through anchor institution purchasing, new ideas for how to increase public procurement from local business and save money, new ways to promote local economic development through B Corps and higher social standards, and innovations in rural economic development that prioritizes family farms instead of agribusiness and small business instead of corporations, and
WHEREAS, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) was created in 2001 and the articulation of a new approach rooted in businesses that are “LOIS”-- locally owned and import-substituting; other organizations began promoting similar approaches, including Main Street, the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA), the Economic Gardening Forum, the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO), and Transition Towns, and
WHEREAS, the basic ideas of LOIS are simple: local ownership means that working control of a company is held within a small geographic area; import-substituting means that the company is focused first and foremost (though not exclusively) on cost-effective production for local markets; while the vast majority of LOIS businesses are small, some actually grow to be quite large and powerful, and
WHEREAS, the case for promoting local ownership has been deepened by empirical evidence that regions with higher densities of local business have superior economic performance; for example, locally owned businesses generally contribute more to the “economic multiplier” than do absentee owned businesses; more than two dozen studies over the past decade have compared the economic impacts of locally owned businesses with their nonlocal equivalents, and they consistently show that local businesses generate two to four times the multiplier benefits; that means that every dollar that moves from a nonlocal to a local business in a community generates two to four times the income boost, two to four times the jobs, two to four times the local taxes, and two to four times the charitable contributions, and
WHEREAS, a 2010 study appeared in the Harvard Business Review under the headline “More Small Firms Means More Jobs" the authors wrote, “Our research shows that regional economic growth is highly correlated with the presence of many small, entrepreneurial employers—not a few big ones”; the authors further argued that the major preoccupation of economic developers – how to attract global companies – is fundamentally wrong-headed; “Politicians enjoy announcing a big company’s arrival because people tend to think that will mean lots of job openings. But in a rapidly evolving economy, politicians are all too likely to guess wrong about which industries are worth attracting. What’s more, large corporations often generate little employment growth even if they are doing well,” and
WHEREAS, another study published shortly thereafter in the Economic Development Quarterly, a journal long supportive of business attraction practices, similarly found that “Economic growth models that control for other relevant factors reveal a positive relationship between density of locally owned firms and per capita income growth, but only for small (10-99 employees) firms, whereas the density of large (more than 500 workers) firms not owned locally has a negative effect,” and
WHEREAS, a paper published in 2013 by the Federal Reserve in Atlanta, which performed a regression analysis of counties across the United States, found statistically significant “evidence that local entrepreneurship matters for local economic performance; the percent of employment provided by resident, or locally-owned, business establishments has a significant positive effect on county income and employment growth and a significant and negative effect on poverty," and
WHEREAS, numerous studies in recent years suggest that local ownership (the LO in LOIS) enables businesses to contribute more to economic development than do global businesses attracted; local ownership matters in at least five ways:
1. Higher Multipliers – Locally owned businesses generally contribute more to the “economic multiplier” than do absentee owned businesses. More than two dozen studies over the past decade have compared the economic impacts of locally owned businesses with their nonlocal equivalents, and they consistently show that local businesses generate two to four times the multiplier benefits. That means that every dollar that moves from a nonlocal to a local business in a community generates two to four times the income boost, two to four times the jobs, two to four times the local taxes, and two to four times the charitable contributions.
2. More Reliable – While absentee-owned businesses increasingly consider moving to Mexico, China, or low-wage U.S. states, with only secondary concern for throwing the community into an economic tailspin, businesses anchored locally produce wealth more reliably for many years, often for many generations. This means that economic-development investments in local business have greater payoffs.
3. Higher Standards – Because local businesses tend to stay put, a community with primarily local businesses can raise labor and environmental standards with confidence that its businesses will adapt rather than flee.
4. More Dynamic – A community made up of smaller, locally owned businesses is better equipped to promote smart growth and walkable communities, draw tourists through unique stores and attractions, retain talented young people who seek entrepreneurial opportunities and a distinct sense of place, and reduce the noise, fumes, and risks of traffic.
5. Better Social Impacts – Compared to economies dependent on absentee-owned enterprises, local-business economies tend to have more social stability, lower levels of welfare, and greater political participation, and therefore be it
RESOLVED, that the Dutchess County Legislature requests that the Think Dutchess Alliance for Business and Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development work with nationally known local-economy expert Michael Shuman to bring his knowledge to bear once more here in Dutchess to help local small businesses, Microenterprise, budding entrepreneurs, and small family farms revitalize our economy here in Dutchess County, and be it further
RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be sent to the Think Dutchess Alliance for Business and Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development
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[recall info here below re: corporate welfare Dutchess-style-- sent out to this list Aug. 27th]
From Doreen Tignanelli (Doreentig@aol.com) of the Town of Poughkeepsie:
DCIDA approves nearly $1 million per job tax subsidy for Bellefield Phase II project in Hyde Park
On August 25, 2023, the Dutchess County IDA approved nearly $151 million in tax exemptions to create 154 jobs for Phase II of the Bellefield project in Hyde Park. Therefore, the per job subsidy is nearly $1 million that will be footed by Dutchess County taxpayers. The deal included a 20-year PILOT, payment in lieu of taxes.
A public hearing was held with written comments submitted by myself and by Jim Beretta, both against granting of Financial Assistance. There was one member of the public that spoke in person, Marta Knapp, who also was against the assistance.
In my opinion, these hearings are really nothing more than a formality as the DCIDA is a rubber-stamp board. In the nearly four years that I have been attending DCIDA/LDC meetings, the DCIDA has never failed to grant Final Approval for Financial Assistance for projects.
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https://midhudsonnews.com/2023/08/25/bellefield-phase-2-secures-ida-financial-incentives/
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click here for some of Doreen's previous work re: DCIDA/DCLDC issues:
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/more-corp--welfare-from-Marcus---co---you-decide.html?soid=1121263824363&aid=a8UDzqTZ-rI
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email: countyexec@dutchessny.gov, countylegislators@dutchessny.gov
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[reminder-- this is an election year, peeps-- if you know a Dutchess Democratic candidate for county legislator (or county executive)-- gently remind/fwd them this email with a suggestion that it might behoove them to join Doreen, Marta, and Jim in their lonely quest to expose and fight such egregious corporate welfare and waste of county tax dollars(!)]
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https://midhudsonnews.com/2020/05/08/letter-to-the-editor-tax-breaks-unwarranted/
Letter to the Editor: Tax Breaks Unwarranted
May 8, 2020
At the May 6, 2020, Poughkeepsie Town Board meeting held via ZOOM, a developer promoting his project told the Board he needed a 15-year tax break due to rapidly increasing construction costs. He attributed this to the fact that construction workers would rather stay home on unemployment than come back to the job. No evidence to support that claim was provided. He also cited a supply chain breakdown, noting it was unclear if that would correct itself over a short or long period of time.
The developer was from Reynolds Asset Management of Hohokus, New Jersey and the project was listed on the agenda as “Dalia 55+ Project on Violet Avenue”.
So, the developer wants a long-term tax break, known as a Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT), for a supposed problem that could correct itself in the short-term.
The Dutchess County Industrial Development Agency (DCIDA) would be the agency to approve the PILOT and, in all likelihood, will. This means that other county, town and school district taxpayers will pick up the tab for the developer’s tax break, likely resulting in higher profits for him. Some of those taxpayers may be construction workers, the very group he disparaged
These days, it seems as if every proposed project is asking for a PILOT, claiming the project would not otherwise be economically feasible. For example, Vassar College, even though it has an endowment worth more than $1 billion dollars, recently received preliminary approval from the DCIDA for a PILOT and a Sales Tax exemption for their proposed inn/conference center, again at the expense of taxpayers.
Doreen A. Tignanelli
Poughkeepsie NY
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[and on that note-- recall below sent out 5/1 to this list re: DCIDA/DCLDC]
From Doreen Tignanelli (Doreentig@aol.com) of the Town of Poughkeepsie:
DCIDA/LDC: failures in majority of permanent job numbers per 2022 Outcomes Reports
Regarding permanent job numbers, materials for the DCIDA March 22, 2023 meeting show a failure to meet DCIDA job creation and retention numbers for the three IDA projects closed in 2022: Arthur May Redevelopment, One Dutchess Phase 3 and Built Parcel 3. For the IDA, only 32% of the target for new jobs was met and only 40% of the target for job retention was met.
Materials also show a failure in DCLDC job creation number for two LDC projects: bonds for Marist and the CIA 2022. For the LDC, 0% of its target for new jobs was met. For job retention, 284% is stated although it seems a stretch, as if Marist and the Culinary Institute were going to up and move 1,420 FTEs (full-time equivalent jobs) elsewhere if it weren't for the LDC bonds.
See Pages 134 & 135 of materials packet here
https://www.thinkdutchess.com/clientuploads/directory/meetings_minutes/IDA/2023/2023_0322_IDA_Reg_Mtg_Packet.pdf
The Mirbeau Inn & Spa Beacon project is on the agenda for Wednesday, March 22, 2023 at 8 a.m. for the DCIDA to rubber-stamp its Preliminary Approval of the project. The meeting will be held in person and via Zoom. Meeting info can be found here:
https://www.thinkdutchess.com/clientuploads/directory/meetings_minutes/IDA/2023/2023_0322_IDA_Reg_Mtg-Notice_&_Agenda.pdf
Mirbeau Companies owns four other locations, including Mirbeau Inn & Spa Rhinebeck with its room prices ranging from around $410 to $730 a night. According to application materials, the company was not previously provided assistance by the DCIDA.
Mirbeau Beacon is seeking millions of dollars in "Financial Assistance" for their luxury project in the form of Sales Tax Exemption, Mortgage Tax Exemption and Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT). As is usually the case, the applicant is stating that the project will not go forward without Financial Assistance from the DCIDA.
While the DCIDA board members justify approvals by saying that tax revenues will increase upon project completion, they never say what the tax revenue would be if the applicants paid their taxes in full.
Applicants seek financial assistance in the form of tax breaks that shift the tax burden to the remaining base which may lead to higher tax bills for other property owners while maximizing profits of the developers.
Amazon cited for OSHA violations including New Windsor warehouse
Amazon has received tens of millions of dollars in tax exemptions from the Dutchess County Industrial Development Agency (DCIDA) for the construction of a warehouse in East Fishkill which is troubling in light of hazardous working conditions found at various Amazon sites.
Per recent media reports, Amazon was cited for "improper record keeping of work-related injuries and illness" according to a December 2022 release by OSHA. They were also cited for "failing to keep workers safe, exposed to additional hazards and concerns." The Amazon warehouse in New Windsor was included in the citations, see
https://www.timeshudsonvalley.com/stories/amazon-warehouse-cited-in-osha-investigation,62981
It is also being reported that federal inspectors issued a second set of citations against three other warehouses for putting workers at risk of serious injury, see
Another black mark for Amazon in two of their New York warehouses, this time for threats made, see
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/01/amazon-cited-by-osha-again-over-warehouse-injuries.html
https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2023-01-31/amazon-illegally-threatened-nyc-workers-ahead-of-union-votes-judge-finds
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https://www.recordonline.com/story/news/2023/02/22/orange-county-ida-tax-breaks-under-state-senators-investigation/69927471007/
https://westchester.news12.com/state-sen-james-skoufis-announces-plan-for-orange-county-ida-monitor
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https://midhudsonnews.com/2023/05/01/skoufis-plan-for-orange-county-ida-monitor-included-in-state-budget/
[click on link above for video of Skoufis on this]
Skoufis plan for Orange County IDA monitor included in state budget
May 1, 2023
CORNWALL – A proposal to create a state monitor to oversee the Orange County Industrial Development Agency is included in the state budget, Senator James Skoufis (D, Cornwall) said Monday.
He proposed the plan months ago because of what he said is mismanagement by the agency
“This Orange County IDA is so far off the rails you can’t even see the rails anymore,” he said. “They have no respect whatsoever for taxpayers. They cut bad deals after bad deals.”
Skoufis cited one recent incentive package for Royal Wines in Goshen, which he said would provide a per job subsidy amounting to $580,000. “Either the Orange County IDA are the worst negotiators on the face of the planet, or they simply don’t care about taxpayers,” the Democratic lawmaker said.
The senator said the monitor would give the taxpayers a voice and hold the IDA accountable.
Under the soon-to-be approved measure, the state inspector general’s office would oversee the monitor, the plan would sunset after three years unless the legislature opts to continue it and the IDA would be responsible for paying for the new fulltime position.
The Republican-controlled Orange County Legislature has gone on record opposed to the monitor.
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From Doreen Tignanelli (Doreentig@aol.com) of the Town of Poughkeepsie:
Thompson House in Rhinbeck is closing!
Options for long-term care in Dutchess County were not good before and now Thompson House, a 100 room long-term and rehab facility at Northern Dutchess Hospital is closing!
Nuvance Health is the owner/operator of Thompson House:
https://www.hvpilot.com/news/the-thompson-house-care-facility-set-to-close/article_c67f5f18-cf60-11ed-87de-63510fa27331.html
You may recall a September 14, 2022 PoJo article "Hospital executives pocketed $73M in bonuses while COVID raged" included Nuvance in the list of executives with bonuses of $1 million-plus.
Nuvance Health has also benefited from upwards of $99 million worth of bonds issued by the Dutchess County Local Development Corporation.
[ed.--
https://www.bondview.com/bond/267045ME9-- also p. 4 of this document:
https://www.abo.ny.gov/annualreports/PARISAuditReports/FYE2019/Local-LDC/DutchessCountyLocalDevelopmentCorporation2019.pdf ]
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[recall below sent out on this Aug. 4th last year]
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From Doreen Tignanelli (Doreentig@aol.com) of the Town of Poughkeepsie
FYI: Nurses protest staffing levels at Vassar Brothers Medical Center
Nuvance sought, and received, issuance of up to $130 million (they got over $99 million) in tax-exempt bonds from the Dutchess County Local Development Corporation (DCLDC) in 2019. DCLDC Chairman Timothy Dean also is on the Board of Directors of Vassar Brothers Medical Center. This conflict was noted in meeting minutes and Dean recused himself from that portion of the meeting, see
https://thinkdutchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/2019-0717-LDC-Board-Minutes-Reg-Approved-Signed-with-Financials.pdf
According to their website, "The mission of the DCLDC is to increase employment". That does not appear to be the case with Nuvance and its nursing staff.
In 2015, former county comptroller Diane Jablonski raised questions regarding HealthQuest bonding for Vassar Brothers and the DCLDC when it came to labor agreements and employment numbers, see
https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/opinion/valley-views/2015/07/01/health-quest-proposed-expansion-raises-many-questions/29233729/
https://midhudsonnews.com/2022/08/03/nurses-protest-staffing-levels-at-vassar-brothers-medical-center/
Nurses protest staffing levels at Vassar Brothers Medical Center
August 3, 2022
POUGHKEEPSIE – Hundreds of nurses were joined by other hospital staff and local leaders at an informational picket in front of Vassar Brothers Medical Center (VBMC) in Poughkeepsie on Tuesday. The nurses held the protest to bring awareness to staffing issues at the hospital.
There are more than 800 nurses employed at VBMC that are members of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) union. They have been working under an expired contract while negotiating with Nuvance, the parent company of VBMC since the beginning of this year.
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https://www.osc.state.ny.us/press/releases/2022/06/dinapoli-releases-annual-ida-report
DiNapoli Releases Annual IDA Report
Net Tax Exemptions Doubled Over Past Decade to $966 Million; Jobs Gained During 2020 COVID Year Were Smallest in Past Decade
June 17, 2022
New York's local Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs) reported 4,262 active projects with a total value of $114 billion in 2020, an increase of $5.3 billion from the prior year, according to an annual report on IDAs released by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. While reported project values have risen, the number of projects has decreased by 58, or 1.3%, since 2019. This continues a long-term trend, where project values have increased by 57% and the number of projects has declined by 4% since 2010.
“This report gives taxpayers a clear look at the financial and project data as reported by IDAs for their communities,” DiNapoli said. “IDAs can play an important role in helping local economies and businesses expand and recover after the pandemic. The tax breaks they provide do impact local taxes and should be looked at closely. Publishing this information, including IDA costs, increases their transparency and accountability to taxpayers.”
DiNapoli’s report also found IDAs reported the following:
For the 4,262 active IDA projects, it was estimated that a total of 225,227 jobs would be created during the life of the projects, with a median salary of $40,000, and 251,888 existing jobs would be retained, with a median salary of $44,727. A projected 44,636 temporary construction jobs would be created.
The number of net jobs gained (reflecting current jobs reported by projects minus initial jobs reported) were 167,984 in 2020. This is the smallest number of jobs gained in the last ten years.
Total tax exemptions for IDA projects amounted to over $1.7 billion, up $273 million, or 19%, over 2019. Property tax exemptions represented $1.6 billion, or 90% of total tax exemptions, and were partially offset by $782 million in payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs) in 2020.
Net tax exemptions (reflecting total tax exemptions minus PILOTs) totaled $966 million, an increase of $171 million, or 21%, from 2019. Over the ten-year period ending in 2020, net tax exemptions just about doubled.
Regionally, total net tax exemptions granted were much higher downstate, with IDAs in New York City, Long Island and the Mid-Hudson regions together granting 61% of all net tax exemptions. On a per capita basis, the New York City IDA provides the lowest net tax exemptions per capita ($22), while the Capital District had the highest ($93) in 2020.
In 2020, IDAs had total revenues of $72 million, consisting largely of project fees, a decline of $3.6 million from 2019. New York City IDA had the highest total revenues ($6.7 million), followed by Genesee County IDA ($5.7 million), Chautauqua County IDA ($4.8 million) and Chemung County IDA ($4 million).
Total IDA expenses in 2020 were $85 million, down $11.8 million from 2019. The largest operating expense category was professional services contracts, such as for accounting, legal or marketing services ($22.2 million, or 26%, of the total). Salaries, wages and benefits for IDA employees accounted for $19.2 million, or 23%, of the total. New York City’s IDA had the highest expenses ($8.6 million).
The largest new IDA project in 2020 by project value ($2.4 billion) was the New York City IDA’s BOP SE LLC project, which is constructing Two Manhattan West, a commercial office tower that is part of the Hudson Yards development.
The report summarizes data as reported by IDAs for fiscal year 2020 through the Public Authorities Reporting Information System, and is not independently verified by the State Comptroller’s Office. Three IDAs did not submit their data in time for this report. The report also contains information on Local Development Corporations, a related type of local authority.
DiNapoli’s office examines IDA costs and outcomes in several ways, including performing audits of the operations of individual IDAs, providing training to IDA officials on various topics, and encouraging improvements in IDA procedures and reporting.
Annual Report
Performance of Industrial Development Agencies in New York State
IDA Data by Region
Office of the New York State Comptroller - 2020 IDA Data by Region
Track state and local government spending at Open Book New York. Under State Comptroller DiNapoli’s open data initiative, search millions of state and local government financial records, track state contracts, and find commonly requested data.
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[recall below sent out Dec. 13th]
"The DCIDA is set to give away millions more in corporate welfare at their Wednesday, December 14, 2022 meeting, see
https://thinkdutchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/2022-1214-IDA-Reg-Mtg-Notice-Agenda.pdf
Agenda Item 9D, the proposed CANAM Hudson Valley Logistics LLC warehouse/distribution center in East Fishkill is set to receive around $16 million in sales tax exemptions, mortgage tax exemptions and a PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes). CANAM application materials stated no prior DCIDA assistance has been given. However, there appears to be a connection with the Amazon warehouse project, also in East Fishkill, that received tens of millions in DCIDA financial assistance. According to application materials for both projects, CANAM Hudson Valley Logistics and USEF Tioranda/Amazon project have a connection to Bluewater, with the CANAM application identifying Bluewater as "a secondary investor".
Speaking of the Amazon warehouse, Agenda Item 9C is for a time extension of the project completion date to December 31, 2023. There have been media reports that Amazon has scrapped or delayed warehouse projects across the nation, see
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/amazon-cancels-or-delays-plans-for-at-least-16-warehouses-this-year
The public can attend the DCIDA Mtg on Wednesday, December 14, 2022 at 8am in person at 3 Neptune Road, Suite A21, in the Town of Poughkeepsie or by logging into the Zoom Platform at
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89196033945#success
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89196033945 or calling 1-929-436-2866 Meeting ID: 891 9603 3945."
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[recall below]
From Doreen Tignanelli (Doreentig@aol.com) of the Town of Poughkeepsie:
Companies should be paying their full share of taxes.
What County Executive Molinaro fails to note in his budget message below is the tens of millions of dollars given away to companies like Frito-Lay and Amazon by the Dutchess County IDA. Taxpayers should not be subsidizing the profits of companies like PepsiCo, the parent company of Frito-Lay, whose worth is over $200 billion. Tax breaks given to these companies shift the tax burden to the remaining base.
Dutchess County’s tax base has grown to nearly $40 billion thanks to continued focus on economic development and job growth, evidenced by the County’s commercial vacancy rate in Dutchess County remaining the lowest in the region as Dutchess attracts new investment from companies from Amazon and Pepsi Frito Lay among others.
https://www.dutchessny.gov/Departments/County-Executive/2023-Budget-Continues-Tax-Relief.htm
https://www.dailyfreeman.com/2022/11/01/dutchess-county-executive-unveils-560m-budget/
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[recall below]
From Doreen Tignanelli (Doreentig@aol.com) of the Town of Poughkeepsie:
DCIDA treats themselves to Awards Dinner at the Culinary Institute, saying "it's in the budget"
At their October 19, 2022 meeting, the DCIDA decided to purchase a table for DCIDA members, some staff and "special guests" to attend the Think Dutchess Business Excellence Awards dinner at the Culinary Institute of America on October 27th. The invited "special guests" appear to include not one but two DCIDA attorneys, the father-daughter team of Donald and Elizabeth Cappillino. The total number of table attendees was never mentioned, nor was the cost. CEO Sarah Lee said no vote was needed with Kathy Bauer, DCIDA board member and finance/audit committee member, concurring saying "it's in the budget".
The Grand Award winner is none other than Kirchhoff Companies. Over the past several years, the DCIDA has awarded tens of millions of dollars in tax exemptions to Kirchhoff for the Eastdale Village project on Route 44 in the Town of Poughkeepsie.
The Large Business Award of the Year is going to Arnoff Moving & Storage where DCIDA Board member and County Legislature Don Sagliano is Vice-President and CFO.
There seems to be a lack of checks and balances.
Doreen Tignanelli
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[recall below sent out late last Tues. night]
From Doreen Tignanelli (Doreentig@aol.com) of the Town of Poughkeepsie
No end to DCIDA's corporate welfare leaving other taxpayers to pay
There is no end to Dutchess County Industrial Development Agency's granting of corporate welfare. At the meeting scheduled for October 19, 2022 meeting, the DCIDA is poised to approve exemptions for CANAM Hudson Valley Logistics Owner LLC to build a warehouse in East Fishkill, on the former IBM site, in close proximity to the Amazon warehouse that was previously granted millions in tax exemptions by the DCIDA. Also involved with CANAM project is USEF/Tioranda LLC, a player in the Amazon project.
CANAM is seeking Sales and Use Tax Exemption, Mortgage Recording Tax Exemption, Real Property Tax Exemption, Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT).
While DCIDA members fume when the point is made that other taxpayers often pay the price for exemptions granted to these companies, the New York State Comptroller seems to agree. In the Comptroller's 2022 Annual Report of 'Performance of Industrial Development Agencies In New York State', they state "However, the tax exemptions they grant to their projects can reduce the tax base of local governments and school districts, and may result in increases to other taxpayers’ bills."
Agenda and materials, including Zoom link, for the Wednesday, 8 am, October 19, 2022 DCIDA meeting can be found at
https://thinkdutchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2022-1019-IDA-Reg-Mtg-Packet.pdf
https://thinkdutchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2022-1019-LDC-Reg-Mtg-Packet-Revised.pdf
DCIDA/LDC CEO wants benefits increase, on mtg agenda for Oct 19
The DCLDC will also likely approve, as that is all they know how to do, a request by DCIDA/LDC CEO Sarah Lee's request to increase employee benefits. Currently, employees receive $16,000 in non-wage compensation in addition to their salaries. They have to use it for health insurance and/or retirement plan. If they use it for retirement plan, there are some limits in place. Lee says the current allowance of $16,000 is "helpful " but not enough so she is asking board members to increase it to $24,000 and to remove current restrictions. Sarah Lee herself has a salary of $125,000 plus the current $16,000 in benefits. For 2022, she received a 7.75% salary increase of $9,000. Apparently, she feels that is not enough.
Just to be clear, CEO Lee is asking for benefits increase to $24,000 and, if they use it for their retirement plan, she is asking the board to remove the current restriction to the retirement contribution to match the federal contribution limit.
A 33% increase is outrageous.
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[recall below sent out Sept. 19th]
From Doreen Tignanelli (Doreentig@aol.com) of the Town of Poughkeepsie
DCLDC agenda item to increase employee benefits , CEO already received 7.75% salary increase in 2022
https://thinkdutchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/2022-0921-LDC-Reg-Mtg-Packet.pdf
According to the DCLDC meeting packet for Sept 21, 2022, its CEO Sarah Lee is asking for an increase in benefits for employees. Currently, they get $18,000 in non-wage compensation in addition to their salaries. They have to use it for health insurance and/or retirement plan. If they use it for retirement plan, there are some limits in place. Lee says the current allowance of $18,000 is "helpful" but not enough.
She is asking them to "increase the fringe benefit amount to $24,000 and to remove the current restriction to the retirement contribution to match the federal contribution limit."
Sarah Lee herself has a salary of $125,000 plus $18,000 in benefits. For 2022, she got a 7.75% salary increase of $9,000. Apparently, she feels that is not enough.
There is no reason to believe that the board will not approve the CEO's request.
Speaking of worker wages and benefits, the DCIDA/LDC Vice-Chair, Mark Doyle, is farm manager at Fishkill Farms and he opposes proposed change to overtime threshold for NYS farm workers from 60 hours weekly to 40 hours, making more workers eligible for overtime pay.
So, in his DCIDA/LDC role, Doyle is okay with giving tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks for corporate welfare projects like the Amazon warehouse in East Fishkill but as farm manager, he is against workers receiving overtime pay after 40 hours of hard labor.
Doreen Tignanelli
"Information is the oxygen in which the fire of democracy burns. If you have information, it burns, if you don't, it chokes". D. DeBar
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------------[recall below originally sent out to this list Aug. 29th] -------------
y'all may recall how Doreen led us all to big recent win stopping Molinaro corp. welfare for CHPE-- let's do it again: https://conta.cc/3IwsDzQ
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From Doreen Tignanelli (Doreentig@aol.com)
of the Town of Poughkeepsie:
9:52 AM (7 hours ago)
DCIDA, more corporate welfare, East Fishkill CANAM/Hudson Valley Logistics distribution center
The Dutchess County IDA is at it again, poised to give tens of millions in tax breaks, including Payment in Lieu of Taxes ( PILOT), for another warehouse and logistics center on the former IBM site in East Fishkill. The applicant is seeking same PILOT as given to Amazon although they are only guaranteeing 100 jobs vs. Amazon's 500 jobs. Video of the July 13, 2022 meeting where this was discussed can be found at
https://thinkdutchess.com/ida/2022-dcida-recordings/
The public hearing for this project is to be held Wednesday, August 31, 2022 at 9:30 a.m. at East Fishkill Town Hall. Written comments can also be submitted, see hearing notice
https://thinkdutchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/CANAM-Hudson-Valley-Logistics-Public-Notice-PoJo.pdf
Application materials were included in the July 13, 2022 DCIDA meeting packet and can be found at
https://thinkdutchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/2022-0713-IDA-Reg-Mtg-Packet.pdf
Doreen Tignanelli
"Information is the oxygen in which the fire of democracy burns. If you have information, it burns, if you don't, it chokes". D. DeBar
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[recall below as well
From Doreen Tignanelli (Doreentig@aol.com) of the Town of Poughkeepsie:
Special IDA & LDC meetings, Friday April 8 for projects in Beacon and Town of Pok, Zoom and in-person
12:24 PM (9 hours ago)
The IDA & LDC posted special meetings for Friday April 8, 2022. The regular April meetings are scheduled for April 20. The special meetings are likely being held ahead of the regular meetings to hasten rubber-stamping of final approvals. Item 8C for 23-28 Creek Drive in Beacon includes increasing Sales Tax Exemption benefit by $95,000. Creek Drive already received PILOT and sales and mortgage tax exemptions.
Special IDA meeting, April 8, 8 a.m.
https://thinkdutchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/2022-0408-IDA-Special-Mtg-Notice-Agenda.pdf
8. New Business
A. For Consideration and Approval of a Supplemental Resolution for Arthur May Redevelopment Holdings, LLC (Town of Poughkeepsie) authorizing the modification of the previously approved documents to (1) reflect that initial ownership of the Facility will be in Arthur May Redevelopment LLC and (2) authorize the future assignment of all or any portion of the Facility to Arthur May Redevelopment Holdings LLC.
B. For Consideration and Approval of a Supplemental Resolution for Violet Estates Owner, LLC (Town of Poughkeepsie) (1) authorizing the termination agreements between the Agency and Violet Estates, LLC; (2) authorizing the assignment of Sales Tax Exemption benefits previously approved for Violet Estates, LLC to Violet Estates Owner, LLC; and (3) authorizing the amendment of the existing Lease and Project Agreement with Violet Estates Owner, LLC to reflect that Violet Estates Owner, LLC will be the operator of the Project.
C. For Consideration and Approval of a Supplemental Resolution for 23-28 Creek Drive, LLC (City of Beacon) authorizing the amendment of the existing Lease and Project Agreement (1) to extend the Completion Date to July 31, 2022 and to extend the termination of the Sales Tax Exemption benefit to December 31, 2022 and (2) increase the Sales Tax Exemption benefit by $95,000.00.
Special LDC meeting, April 8 (Immediately following IDA Meeting)
https://thinkdutchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/2022-0408-LDC-Special-Mtg-Notice-Agenda-1.pdf
7. Unfinished Business
A. Consideration and Approval of a Final Bond Resolution for (1) the issuance of the LDC’s Tax-Exempt Revenue Bonds, Series 2022 (Marist College Project) in an amount presently estimated to be $60,000,000 but not to exceed $65,000,000 for the benefit of Marist College for renovation and additional construction for the College’s Dyson Center building; and (2) the issuance of the LDC’s Tax-Exempt Refunding Bonds, Series 2023 (Marist College Project) in an amount not to exceed $13,000,000 for the benefit of Marist College for the refunding of the LDC’s outstanding Revenue Bonds, Series 2013A.
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[recall below]
call Hochul and state legislators: 877-255-9417
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From the Town of Poughkeepsie's Doreen Tignanelli (Doreentig@aol.com):
Invent Albany supports bill banning subsidies for E-Commerce Warehouses and Distribution Centers
Good news if the bill passes. Reinvent Albany calls subsidies to Amazon, etc. "New York’s dumbest forms of taxpayer handouts"
https://reinventalbany.org/2022/03/reinvent-albany-fully-supports-nys-senate-bill-banning-state-local-subsidies-for-e-commerce-warehousing/
Reinvent Albany Fully Supports NYS Senate Bill Banning State/Local Subsidies for E-Commerce Warehousing
March 2, 2022
Reinvent Albany Fully Supports NYS Senate Bill S8418
Banning State and Local Subsidies
For E-Commerce Warehouses and Distribution Centers
New York State and local governments spend $10B a year subsidizing businesses, most of which goes to enormous, highly profitable corporations.
Huge e-commerce companies like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and Home Depot do not need or deserve handouts from NY taxpayers.
Among New York’s dumbest forms of taxpayer handouts are the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars supporting e-commerce warehouses and distribution centers. This is a total waste of public funds. Research by national watchdog Good Jobs First clearly shows companies locate their distribution networks based on access to highways and major markets, not subsidies.
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/adc5ff253a3643f88d39e7f3ef1a09ee
We thank Senator Ryan and Assemblymember Solages for introducing this important legislation and the growing number of New York and national advocates standing behind it.
https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sean-m-ryan/senator-sean-ryan-assemblymember-michaelle-solages-announce-bill
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FROM SENATOR RYAN - 3/2/22
SENATOR SEAN RYAN, ASSEMBLYMEMBER MICHAELLE SOLAGES ANNOUNCE BILL TO END IDA SUBSIDIES FOR AMAZON
State Legislators and Advocates for Responsible Economic Development Push for an End to Subsidies for Amazon and Companies Like It
ALBANY – Today, March 2, 2022, New York State Senator Sean Ryan and Assemblymember Michaelle Solages were joined by several national and state advocates for responsible economic development as they announced their legislation (S.8418) to prevent industrial development agencies (IDAs) in New York State from providing further subsidies to Amazon and other companies like it.
IDAs were established in the late 1960s to incentivize economic development in localities by attracting businesses and creating jobs. However, the incentives offered by IDAs today often include the waiving of property and sales taxes, resulting in significant loss of revenue for municipalities, school districts, and local transit agencies.
This bill would prohibit New York’s IDAs from offering subsidies for e-commerce storage and transfer facilities, putting an end to incentives that often go to large, multi-billion-dollar corporations with dubious economic growth projections. IDAs in New York have diverted nearly $400 million in subsidies to Amazon alone since 2013. These subsidies often produce warehouses with mostly part-time jobs that pay $15 an hour – or about $31,000 a year – well below the median wage of many municipalities across New York.
In 2021 alone, Amazon received more than $176 million in subsidies for distribution centers in New York. The e-commerce giant reported $470 billion in sales in 2021, earning the company $33.4 billion in profits for the year.
Senator Ryan was instrumental in passing IDA reforms in the FY 2013-2014 State Budget that banned retail projects from receiving tax breaks, mandated more accountability from IDAs, and ensured all tax break agreements include claw-back provisions to enforce job creation promises.
Senator Sean Ryan said, “New York’s taxpayers should not bear the burden of subsidizing massively profitable companies like Amazon – and especially not when those subsidies are buying us low-wage jobs. We need to prioritize high-road economic development in New York, and this bill will help eliminate wasteful spending that benefits multinational corporations at the expense of our local municipalities.”
Assemblymember Michaelle Solages said, “Each year, industrial development agencies (IDAs) issue millions of dollars in tax exemptions with little oversight, and create too few jobs to justify them. This bill will reduce the massive loss in revenue local governments have to endure when IDAs provide these tax write-offs. E-commerce companies which bring in hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue each year must pay their fair share in taxes if they wish to build their facilities in New York State.”
Senator James Skoufis said, “I’m proud to stand with Senator Ryan in calling for a long overdue end to corporate handouts for warehousing giants like Amazon. These facilities are coming to our state whether they receive IDA incentives or not; they locate in regions where they determine better distribution networks are needed. Yet, my constituents continue shouldering these property tax breaks because IDAs continue to recklessly award these unnecessary subsidies. If the IDAs won’t willingly protect taxpayers and stop providing these handouts, the Legislature must step in and force the issue.”
Pat Garofalo, Director of State and Local Policy at the American Economic Liberties Project, said, “Subsidizing Amazon’s monopoly with public money directly harms local businesses, workers, and taxpayers. New York should set an example for the country by passing S.8418 and cutting off subsidies to Amazon's warehouse network. Doing so would send a message that New York doesn’t tolerate using public resources to build private, corporate power.”
Ron Deutsch, Director of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, said, “Continuing to subsidize e-commerce companies like Amazon to develop distribution warehouses that they need to build anyway simply makes no logical economic sense. It's a waste of hundreds of millions of public dollars that could be better spent on public services like childcare, home care, and higher education that have far greater returns on investment. Many thanks to Senator Ryan for introducing a bill to end these ridiculous corporate giveaways to one of the world’s richest companies.”[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-86859961300502956782023-09-20T07:01:00.006-07:002023-10-12T19:16:26.847-07:00join Neil Seldman Mon. Oct. 9th 6 pm @ Vassar College Rockefeller Hall Room 300-- learn how Dutchess County can transition from incineration towards zero waste, saving $$$, creating green jobs-- with cleaner air!<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpsxe7y2_tJ3_HS8nzlO_jwnINFqVoskeg79Juv3Q1KLSdgygucbgmcP9sca12VdPNhXe7Gjz0zAI89kPNvCh2i2YnrTe3GjAKA_TaByKEXiLs8tKtvjKTgvL8-4mr2amvdC6v76U1aQI2Sk3LA87PFd8E5f_kfxoMIrE7b2Q84tNnvkpAJqmQQ_mwjABG/s764/384741703_328803319809245_6317490391699698444_n.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="600" data-original-height="764" data-original-width="628" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpsxe7y2_tJ3_HS8nzlO_jwnINFqVoskeg79Juv3Q1KLSdgygucbgmcP9sca12VdPNhXe7Gjz0zAI89kPNvCh2i2YnrTe3GjAKA_TaByKEXiLs8tKtvjKTgvL8-4mr2amvdC6v76U1aQI2Sk3LA87PFd8E5f_kfxoMIrE7b2Q84tNnvkpAJqmQQ_mwjABG/s600/384741703_328803319809245_6317490391699698444_n.jpg"/></a></div>
Neil Seldman, Director of the Recycling Cornucopia Project for Zero Waste USA, will be speaking Monday, Oct. 9th at 6 pm Eastern time at a public forum– “How Dutchess Can Transition from Incineration Towards Zero Waste, Saving $$$, Creating Green Jobs with Cleaner Air” at Rockefeller Hall Room 300 at Vassar College at 124 Raymond Avenue in Poughkeepsie. <div><br /></div><div>The event is sponsored by Zero Waste Dutchess, Concerned Citizens of Dover, and the Westchester Alliance for Sustainable Solutions. [note: Neil will get to Rockefeller 300 by 5:30pm– earlier if students want to talk about academic projects around Zero Waste!] Here is an introduction to his work at the Recycling Cornucopia Program for Zero Waste USA; see: https://zerowasteusa.org/recycling-cornucopia/ Neil Seldman, who has been active in Zero Waste campaigns for over 50 years, will present a 30-minute lecture on why Dutchess County should transition away from incineration and begin planning and implementation of a true recycling/composting/reuse plan towards Zero Waste. Zero Waste Planning offers a system that respects nature and the need for good jobs that pay family evel wages and benefits. Hundreds of cities and counties have started along this path with remarkable results. Closing the incinerator will stop the pollution coming from the plant which threatens the environment and public health. The presentation will feature a critique of the County's current 10-year solid waste management plant. Seldman will describe alternatives to incineration that are in operation throughout the US. Neil Seldman is a former manufacturer and professor of political science. He has co-founded the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, the National Recycling Coalition, Zero Waste USA and Save the Albatross Coalition. He advises cities, counties, businesses and grass roots civic and environmental organizations. Seldman was quoted recently in the Daily Catch with his thoughts on the Dutchess County incinerator and it’s unfortunate pro-incineration Solid Waste Management Plan: https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/landfill-in-the-sky-dutchess-countys-new-solid-waste-management-plan-leaning-heavily-on-incineration-heads-to-crucial-vote-thursday/ </div><div><br /></div><div>Seldman: “Combined small recycling, composting and reuse businesses can create at least 300 new good jobs in Dutchess County: + Building deconstruction and materials resale + Electronic scrap repair and recycling + Composting and compost by products + Mattress recycling + Appliance recycling + Textile recycling + Retail thrift New Rules + Unit pricing for garbage collection + Shared savings with reuse companies + Pooled bonds program for small businesses + Resource Recovery Parks and Reuse Centers + Deconstruction Ordinance" Click here on link below for 9/12/23 Zero Waste Dutchess Zoom video of Neil Seldman of Zero Waste USA, Mike Ewall of Beyond Burning, Judy Malstrom of Zero Waste Dutchess, Jill Fieldstein of SaveDover.org, Doreen Tignanelli of the Town of Poughkeepsie, and Dave Heller of Rhinebeck– a debrief of what happened the day before-- when the Dutchess County Legislature Democratic Caucus stood strong and every Dem county legislator present voted no to the pro-incineration Solid Waste Management Plan for Dutchess (with no serious goals/plans re: increasing recycling/composting): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbN6gM4n5B4 Especially of note here-- Neil Seldman starts the video talking about his work in upstate New York in Warren County (population of 130,000)-- where, together with Tracy Frisch of the Clean Air Action Network and Diane Collins of Zero Waste Warren County, they've convinced a critical mass of elected officials at county and government levels to make sure that at the town level at municipal transfer stations that metal, glass, plastics, and cardboard is separated instead of all being put into one recycling container. This means that taxpayers in Warren County will actually be able to save $200,000 a year by having those valuable recyclables baled locally and picked up by Replenysh.com to be brought to nearby paper/other mills. Currently towns governments are paying $100 a ton to have their recyclables shipped an hour away to Albany to be processed there; this model avoids that. Neil made it clear to us in this video-- KISS-- Keep It Separated Stupid (keep materials that can be recycled separated from one another-- they're much more valuable that way). Click on these 2 links for Warren County's example for Dutchess: https://www.zerowastewarrenco.org https://www.cleanairactionnetwork.org ############################################### Thx again to Mike Ewall of https://beyondburning.ejnet.org for interesting info re: Penobscot (ME) incinerator-- during our Zero Waste Dutchess Zoom last week he informed us that they’ve literally had to postpone the auction (at least once) of that incinerator above in Penobscot (ME) because no one wants it!…(it’s the same age as the Dutchess incinerator)…Wake up Dutchess— county GOP will soon enough (after the election this Nov.) be forcing you to pay for a $500 million bond to construct a gleaming new (unneeded) incinerator — literally a billion-dollar boondoggle after the bonds are paid off over 20-30 years— Neil Seldman of ZeroWasteUSA.org has read the Solid Waste Management Plan for Dutchess repeatedly — and seen this very same story play out over and over across the US— WAKE. UP. If you have time-- watch/share at least the beginning of this new video from our Zero Waste Dutchess Zoom last week on all this-- Neil Seldman of https://zerowasteusa.org spoke on all this in depth(!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbN6gM4n5B4 [Penobscot burner: https://keenanauction.com/auction.cgi?i=5217 ] @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ [Dutchess incinerator began operation in 1989-- roughly same time; https://www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley/news/article/dutchess-county-solid-waste-management-plan-18282574.php ] @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Be like Neil-- read Solid Waste Management Plan for Du. Co. yourself(!): https://www.dutchessny.gov//ConCalAtt/2/2023159.pdf @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ On that note, Seldman recently co-authored this piece-- "The Second Recycling Revolution" pointing out more recycling/composting facilities have been constructed in the last five years than in the previous fifty years-- because more and more municipalities across the U.S. are increasingly realizing the wisdom of the Seldman K.I.S.S. motto (avoiding the dead-end road of trying to ship materials to be recycled to China that are all messy after being mixed up together-- "commingled"). https://nrcrecycles.org/mobius/nrcwp-content/uploads/2022/12/NRC-December-2022-Newsltr-Second-Recycling-Revolution-Seldman-Kinsella-MP.docx.pdf Dutchess County, with a population more than twice that of Warren County, could obviously save upwards of half a million dollars this way working with https://replenysh.com (you may recall that just a few weeks ago Ryon Hart of Replenysh joined us for one of our weekly Zero Waste Dutchess Zoom calls-- Hart indicated a strong interest in working with Dutchess if local officials were interested-- see link below!). Instead of embarking upon that sensible path, however, as Neil Seldman points out in this video, the taxpayers of Dutchess County are well on the way to a literal billion-dollar boondoggle of epic proportions. Neil has read and re-read the recently approved Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) for the county-- and come to the conclusion (along with Tyner and others @ Zero Waste Dutchess) that the county SWMP admits that the county incinerator is falling apart and will soon need millions of dollars in new pollution controls (not just incredibly expensive to build but quite expensive to operate). Neil knows that soon enough Dutchess County government officials ideologically bound to a burn-baby-burn approach will propose a $500-million-dollar bond to build a shiny new incinerator (that will cost literally a billion dollars to pay off over the few decades needed to pay off those bonds). Neil also knows from decades of experience dealing with this issue across the U.S. that a full fifteen percent of that half a billion dollars-- a whopping $75 million-- will go to the attorneys, bond firms, et. al. in a legalized-kickback frenzy with plenty of that funding returning to the Dutchess power structure in the form of campaign contributions (Neil has seen this over and over again across the country). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - SEPT. 1ST MEDIA ADVISORY - NATIONALLY KNOWN ZERO-WASTE EXPERTS OPPOSE DUTCHESS SWMP; INCINERATION IS MOST COSTLY/POLLUTING WAY TO DEAL WITH SOLID WASTE 300 JOBS COULD BE CREATED INSTEAD IN RECYCLING, COMPOSTING, & REUSE Contact: Neil Seldman, Zero Waste USA: 202-607-9786 Mike Ewall, Beyond Burning: 215-436-9511 Judy Malstrom, Zero Waste Dutchess: 845-876-2488 Dutchess County citizens and organizations like Zero Waste Dutchess and Working Class Dutchess are opposed to the proposed 10-Year Solid Waste Management Plan based on the environmental assessment of nationally known anti-incineration expert Mike Ewall and economic risks and opportunity costs according to Neil Seldman, Zero Waste USA. The Dutchess County Legislature’s Environmental Committee will be voting Thursday, September 7th at 5:45 pm on the proposed Plan in the Legislature’s Chambers on the sixth floor of the Dutchess County Office Building at 22 Market Street in Poughkeepsie; public comment will be allowed. Both Ewall and Seldman, well-respected analysts of solid waste management and recycling and composting systems, underscore the fact that waste incineration is the most expensive and most polluting method of disposing of municipal solid waste. “New York DEC and federal EPA data clearly shows that Dutchess County’s trash incinerator is the largest industrial air polluter in the county,” said Ewall. “The same is true for the other two trash incinerators in the Hudson Valley, all of which are run by the same company, Wheelabrator.” In 2011, when there were still eight coal-burning power plants in New York State, DEC documented that the state’s ten trash incinerators – all still operating – were far more polluting than the dirty old coal burners. “Anyone looking at that would be shocked, and cannot justify continuing to burn trash. The Dutchess County incinerator in Poughkeepsie puts out a whopping seven pounds of toxic mercury each year– literally enough to poison over 3100 lakes across the Hudson Valley and beyond, making fish in those lakes unsafe to eat– besides the 100,000 tons annually of global warming pollution that come out of that same smokestack,” said Judy Malstrom, Zero Waste Dutchess Co-Director.” “The science clearly shows that landfills are bad, but incinerating trash and landfilling toxic ash is even worse for health, climate, and environment. We know this from credible life cycle analysis studies,” said Ewall. “The county incinerator in Poughkeepsie also is the cause of well over ten million dollars a year in health problems due to its particulate emissions– we know this based on a recent analysis of a Baltimore incinerator completed by Dr. George D. Thurston of the New York University School of Medicine for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation,” noted Malstrom. Seldman points out that at least 300 good jobs, with family level wages and benefits, in recycling, composting and reuse would be created by small businesses. Seldman: “This is the way to expand and strengthen the local economy and tax base by using the resources under the County’s control– jobs in reuse would include building deconstruction and materials resale, appliance repair, mattress recycling, textile refashioning, electronic scrap repair and recycling, and composting (and composting products.” “Keep It Separate Stupid!” is what Seldman says is the key to the economics of municipal solid waste management– “If you mix all the materials it becomes waste and is expensive to manage. But if you keep materials separate they become valuable resources. Each time you separate, bale and ship materials to waiting markets, you add value to the local and regional economy” Ewall and Seldman focus on the shortcomings of the Plan: It calls for more incineration by building another plant. Moreover, the composting plan it calls for is hardly adequate for the needs of the County. Nearby Ulster County and Howard County, MD have comprehensive county-wide programs fully operational. Prince George’s County, MD developed an industrial scale facility with capacity that allows it to charge fees to other jurisdictions, which bring in compostable materials. This helps amortize the government’s investment. Ulster County is a prime example of how solid waste management can progress when officials make the right decisions. Manna Jo Greene, veteran Ulster County Legislator (D-Rosendale) and former long-time Hudson River Sloop Clearwater Environmental Director, points out that because Ulster County was so firmly against garbage incineration, the industry bypassed the county and focused on Dutchess and Westchester. Citizens in those counties got stuck with decades of pollution and high costs. Malstrom concluded: “Now is the time is now for Dutchess County to catch up to the Zero Waste movement that is growing rapidly in the US and overseas.” Zero Waste principles include 90% reduction of the waste stream, no incineration, organics out of landfills and bans on dangerous products and packages, according to the Zero Waste International Alliance. Zero Waste Dutchess and Working Class Dutchess are opposed to the Plan and is calling for the County to engage a Zero Waste consulting firm to provide a detailed plan that will include phasing out the incinerator and implementing strategies that have gotten other cities and counties to 60%, 70% and 80% reduction of their respective waste stream. ############################################################# https://ilsr.org/stop-trashing-the-climate/ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Many of you recently marched to end fossil fuels in NYC (which of course was a good thing)-- we only ask that you pls don't forget that right there in Poughkeepsie the Dutchess County incinerator also spews literally 100,000 tons of global warming pollution annually in CO2 equivalents (along with 7 pounds of mercury and countless other toxins including dioxins). https://www.beyondburning.org/pdf/emissions-NY-Dutchess.pdf @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Recall as well that earlier this month Seven Circles Alliance climate activists were brutally arrested for protesting at Burning Man in Nevada "Burning Man organizers estimate the festival’s carbon footprint at about 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year — equivalent to the annual emissions of 22,000 gas-powered cars." https://www.democracynow.org/2023/9/5/headlines/following_climate_protests_torrential_rain_strands_thousands_at_burning_man_festival @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ https://www.wamc.org/news/2023-09-13/dutchess-county-approves-waste-management-plan-despite-pushback-from-residents [excerpt here below; click on link above for GOP quotes] Dutchess County approves waste management plan, despite pushback from residents WAMC Northeast Public Radio | By Jesse King Published September 13, 2023 at 12:00 PM EDT The Dutchess County Legislature has voted to adopt a new Local Waste Management Plan, despite pushback from county residents. The Republican-led legislature passed the plan by a 17-7 vote Monday. The 10-year outlook was presented by Republican County Executive William O’Neil and developed by the county Division of Solid Waste Management, as required by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. It serves as an update to the county’s last waste management plan in 2012. The problem, according to the eight county residents who addressed the legislature before the vote, is that the document is more of a plan to plan rather than, well, a plan. “No goals stated absolutely means no goals met," says Sandy Stratton Gonzalez, a Fishkill resident with the advocacy group Mothers Out Front. "It makes sense to have a plan to reduce waste, to have our elected officials acts as leaders, to be proactive here, and to plan actively for a cleaner future.” There are a lot of different ways one can reduce and dispose of waste. Dutchess County phased out the use of landfills in the 1990s, and has since relied on its waste-to-energy incinerator in Poughkeepsie for the vast majority of its waste disposal. The new plan stands firm in its support for incineration, although it acknowledges that waste-to-energy facilities are “an expensive endeavor” for operators, and that the current facility cannot handle all of the county’s waste, which has increased in recent years. Many speakers, however, expressed concerns about the emissions resulting from incinerators. Studies have found that incinerating waste can contribute to air pollution by releasing chemicals and particulate matter into the air. “Is there anyone in the room here who wants to breathe toxic air?" asks Rhinebeck resident Dave Heller, to a silent audience. "That’s what I thought.” Democratic Legislator Brennan Kearney says the incinerator’s output is not only an environmental concern, but a matter of economic and racial justice. “Children from lower-income communities suffer from significantly higher levels of asthma and respiratory illnesses," notes Kearney. "They deserve our advocacy, our support, and our vote against the solid waste plan”... The plan asserts that the current Wheelabrator facility adheres to strict air-quality regulations set by the state and the federal government. Still, to meet the demand, it suggests that the county consider a new-and-improved incinerator facility down the line, which would likely take years of preparation and millions of dollars in investment. It also suggests the county explore expanded uses for incinerator by-products like ash, which is currently being trucked roughly 240 miles away to serve as an alternative cover for landfills. Democratic Minority Leader Yvette Valdes Smith says she’d like to see the county reduce its waste via composting. Currently, McEnroe Organic Farm in the town of North East is the only facility in the county that accepts composting materials from both businesses and residents. Valdes Smith says three municipalities — Beacon, Rhinebeck, and Red Hook — launched composting pilot programs last year, but otherwise if residents want to compost their waste, they’re largely left to do so in their own backyards. “I truly know this, we can do this county-wide," says Valdes Smith. "We can reduce our solid waste and go and be as progressive as surrounding counties. We are better than this.” Valdes Smith suggests that the county’s peak recycling rate, 44 percent in 2019, is a sign that residents are on board. The plan itself says “the County would welcome an entity building an additional composting facility,” and would contribute to a feasibility study — but no specific timeline is included... After an unsuccessful attempt by Democratic Legislator Barrington Atkins to table the issue, the plan easily passed. All seven Democratic legislators voted against the measure, while Democrat Randy Johnson of Poughkeepsie was absent. That's not all all folks-- click here on link below for our video from last week of Neil Seldman of Zero Waste USA, Mike Ewall of Beyond Burning, Judy Malstrom of Zero Waste Dutchess, Jill Fieldstein of SaveDover.org, Doreen Tignanelli of the Town of Poughkeepsie, and Dave Heller of Rhinebeck for weekly Zero Waste Dutchess Zoom-- in this case a 9/12/23 debrief of what happened the day before-- when the Dutchess County Legislature Democratic Caucus stood strong and every Dem county legislator present voted no to the pro-incineration Solid Waste Management Plan for Dutchess (with no serious goals/plans re: increasing recycling/composting): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbN6gM4n5B4 Especially of note here-- Neil Seldman starts the video talking about his work in upstate New York in Warren County (population of 130,000)-- where, together with Tracy Frisch of the Clean Air Action Network and Diane Collins of Zero Waste Warren County, they've convinced a critical mass of elected officials at county and government levels to make sure that at the town level at municipal transfer stations that metal, glass, plastics, and cardboard is separated instead of all being put into one recycling container. This means that taxpayers in Warren County will actually be able to save $200,000 a year by having those valuable recyclables baled locally and picked up by Replenysh.com to be brought to nearby paper/other mills. Currently towns governments are paying $100 a ton to have their recyclables shipped an hour away to Albany to be processed there; this model avoids that. Neil made it clear to us in this video-- KISS-- Keep It Separated Stupid (keep materials that can be recycled separated from one another-- they're much more valuable that way). Click on these 2 links for Warren County's example for Dutchess: https://www.zerowastewarrenco.org https://www.cleanairactionnetwork.org On that note, Seldman recently co-authored this piece-- "The Second Recycling Revolution" pointing out more recycling/composting facilities have been constructed in the last five years than in the previous fifty years-- because more and more municipalities across the U.S. are increasingly realizing the wisdom of the Seldman K.I.S.S. motto (avoiding the dead-end road of trying to ship materials to be recycled to China that are all messy after being mixed up together-- "commingled"). https://nrcrecycles.org/mobius/nrcwp-content/uploads/2022/12/NRC-December-2022-Newsltr-Second-Recycling-Revolution-Seldman-Kinsella-MP.docx.pdf Dutchess County, with a population more than twice that of Warren County, could obviously save upwards of half a million dollars this way working with https://replenysh.com (you may recall that just a few weeks ago Ryon Hart of Replenysh joined us for one of our weekly Zero Waste Dutchess Zoom calls-- Hart indicated a strong interest in working with Dutchess if local officials were interested-- see link below!). Instead of embarking upon that sensible path, however, as Neil Seldman points out in this video, the taxpayers of Dutchess County are well on the way to a literal billion-dollar boondoggle of epic proportions. Neil has read and re-read the recently approved Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) for the county-- and come to the conclusion (along with Tyner and others @ Zero Waste Dutchess) that the county SWMP admits that the county incinerator is falling apart and will soon need millions of dollars in new pollution controls (not just incredibly expensive to build but quite expensive to operate). Neil knows that soon enough Dutchess County government officials ideologically bound to a burn-baby-burn approach will propose a $500-million-dollar bond to build a shiny new incinerator (that will cost literally a billion dollars to pay off over the few decades needed to pay off those bonds). Neil also knows from decades of experience dealing with this issue across the U.S. that a full fifteen percent of that half a billion dollars-- a whopping $75 million-- will go to the attorneys, bond firms, et. al. in a legalized-kickback frenzy with plenty of that funding returning to the Dutchess power structure in the form of campaign contributions (Neil has seen this over and over again across the country). Mike Ewall also talked about how, if government officials don't abdicate their responsibility to be leaders and educate the public, provide enough recycling bins, production service, and pay-as-you-throw pricing incentives, those things actually serve quite effectively to exponentially ramp up recycling and composting rates towards zero waste (meanwhile, Dutchess County Executive William O'Neil pathetically throws up his hands at the Sept. 7, 2023 County Legislature Environmental Committee meeting, complaining about how people are lazy and don't want to recycle). Dutchess County deserves better. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Join Zero Waste Dutchess on Facebook too (and share!): https://www.facebook.com/groups/116408325212474 @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Thanks again to Lisa Kaul, Lalita Malik, John Rahl, Darrett Roberts, Joanne Underwood, Laurie Sandow, Dave Heller (tho Dave I'm not sure I would have used that wording), many others who came out to speak up at the Co. Leg. mtg. 9/11/23 pushing for more composting/recycling instead of incineration-- and kudos to the Co. Leg. Dem caucus who voted no to the Dutchess GOP's pro-incineration Solid Waste Management Plan resolution! Click here to view public comment and discussion among county legislators from Monday night's meeting(!): https://totalwebcasting.com/view/?func=VIEW&id=dutchess&date=2023-09-11&seq=1 Onward ho to Mon. Oct. 9th-- rally with Neil Seldman of Zero Waste USA in Poughkeepsie (hopefully with Tommy Zurhellen)-- help hold the GOP majority accountable this fall during Nov. elections for consigning the people of Dutchess to the fate of decades more incineration! Kudos indeed to Co. Leg. Dem Minority Leader Yvette Valdes Smith, Assistant Minority Leader Barrington Atkins, and Co. Leg’s Brennan Kearney, Giancarlo Llaverias, Craig Brendli, Kris Munn, and Nick Page for their comments on the floor and voting no to the proposed SWMP for Dutchess which unfortunately continues the current status quo of burning about half the garbage in Dutchess(!)...thx also to my Mom (Judy Malstrom), Johanna Fallert, Jill Fieldstein, Marta Knapp, several Sierra Club members, et. al. for also coming out Sept. 7th to speak up. Click here to view public comment and discussion among county legislators from last Thursday night's meeting(!): https://totalwebcasting.com/view/?func=VIEW&id=dutchess&date=2023-09-07&seq=1 @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Outraged by last night's vote?...you should be-- as always, feel free to let your feelings be known-- email countyexec@dutchessny.gov, countylegislators@dutchessny.gov, countylegislature@dutchessny.gov! [my Mom (Judy Malstrom) actually yesterday just got back a personal response from County Exec O'Neil himself!...(later this week we will share with you her response to him)] @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ https://midhudsonnews.com/2023/09/12/legislature-called-illiterate-pyromaniacs-prior-to-trash-vote/ [excerpt here of article; click on link for full piece; shame on Randy Johnson] Legislature called “illiterate pyromaniacs” prior to trash vote September 12, 2023 The county still uses landfills under the solid waste plan. POUGHKEEPSIE – After hearing from eight members of the community who rallied against the adoption of the new Dutchess County Local Solid Waste Management Plan, the Republican majority voted to adopt the plan put forth by the county executive. The 10-year plan is a requirement of the New York State DEC to maintain an environmentally friendly waste management program. The previous plan was adopted in 2012. Seventeen Republicans voted in favor of the plan while seven Democrats opposed it. Democrat Randy Johnson was absent. Of the eight speakers, David Heller of Rhinebeck likened the new plan to the Flint, Michigan water pollution issue. In taking a shot at the proponents of the county incinerator, Heller called the legislature a group of “illiterate pyromaniacs.” The environmentally friendly members of the audience disagreed on ways to improve the county’s composting rate with one woman calling for the use of an anaerobic digestion system for food waste while another denounced the plan, calling for an aerobic composting system instead. The new plan calls for an increase in recycling through composting but offers no definitive goals or milestones, as pointed out by Democratic Lawmaker Craig Brendli (City of Poughkeepsie). The county currently burns 45 percent of the county’s solid waste which equates to hundreds of tons of trash at the incinerator on Sand Dock Road in the Town of Poughkeepsie. On the recycling side, in 2012, the county had a recycling rate of 36 percent. In 2022, that number had risen to 42 percent, which is higher than the state average. Minority Leader Yvette Valdés Smith voted against the plan because it fails to set goals for composting and other methods of reducing waste. “We are better than this,” she said in urging for more environmentally friendly ways to manage the waste. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Mike crunched numbers; yes landfills are bad-- but incinerators worse: http://www.energyjustice.net/files/incineration/incineration_vs_landfills.pdf @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Again-- regarding countless references made during Thursday evening's Co. Leg. Environmental Committee mtg. by O'Neil/Pulver et. al. to studies on this issue from Columbia/WTERT-- guess who pays for those studies folks-- the incinerator industry-- that is, that Columbia Univ. "scholarship" on this issue that Dutchess GOP alluded to Thurs. is literally paid for by incinerator firms like Wheelabrator (that currently manages the county incinerator for Dutchess), Covanta (which only til recently managed the county incinerator for Dutchess), et. al.(!)...don't believe me-- Mike Ewall of Beyond Burning proved this to us all-- everyone who was on our Zero Waste Dutchess Zoom yesterday a.m.-- Mike likened it to all those "scientific studies" that for decades "proved" that "tobacco cigarettes are good for our health-- expose this b.s. peeps: https://web.archive.org/web/20210918104616/https://gwcouncil.org/sponsors/ [update-- thx to John Rahl for actually bringing this up last night!] @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Thx again to all who joined us for our Zero Waste Dutchess Debunk Zoom Sunday morning-- Neil Seldman of Zero Waste USA, Mike Ewall of Beyond Burning, and Doreen Tignanelli, Judy Malstrom, John Rath, and Pam Lovinger of Zero Waste Dutchess (with a reporter from a local publication part of the Zoom session posing questions as well!)....debunk and dissect pro-incineration misinformation put out by Dutchess GOP this week re: proposed Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) for Dutchess-- this one's a must-see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ4nnYJM5Bo @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Here's the zero-waste plan that Montgomery County (MD) is actually enacting there (written largely by Neil Seldman, Mike Ewall, et. al.)-- Neil Seldman recently informed us that the federal government is literally shoveling dollars out the door to help counties like Dutchess move towards zero waste by ramping up recycling/composting/reuse. Recall resolution I got passed unanimously in March 2009 thru Co. Leg. to access federal dollars for zero-waste planning for Dutchess-- O'Neil was Deputy County Exec for Steinhaus at that point-- imagine how far along Dutchess County could have been towards zero waste if O'Neil/Steinhaus/Molinaro/Serino/Rolison had actually implemented that Mar. '09 resolution passed unanimously (see below!): https://www.beyondburning.org/md/moco/beyond.pdf @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Click on these two links for our past super-informative Zero Waste Dutchess Zooms 8/29/23 and 8/22/23 with Neil Seldman of Zero Waste USA, Mike Ewall of Beyond Burning, Brenda Platt of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Manna Jo Greene of the Ulster County Legislature (former Clearwater Environmental Director), Shabazz Jackson and Josephine Papagni of Greenway Environmental Services, and Ryon Hart of Replenysh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmURuvpPYeI (8/29/23); https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMkBBtAOdsw (8/22/23). @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Just how polluting is the Dutchess County Incinerator?...see here: https://www.beyondburning.org/incineration/emissions-NY-Dutchess.pdf @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ What's the impact on human health of the Dutchess incinerator?...see: https://www.beyondburning.org/incineration/healthstudies.pdf @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Incinerators aren't "waste-to-energy facilities"-- call them out on this: https://beyondburning.ejnet.org/incineration/waste-to-energy/ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ [update-- kudos to Dem Co. Leg. candidate/activist extraordinaire Lisa Kaul for bringing the issue below of the CLCPA up last night during her testimony in the public comment period at the beginning of the meeting!] Thx also to Ulster Co. Leg. Manna Jo Greene (former Clearwater Environmental Director) for texting me this on-target message yesterday morning-- "Dutchess should be a test case for CLCPA Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act-- bring forward experts with data; if we can stop Danskammer, which is likely, Dutchess can set a precedent for other incinerators".......on that note, we've been in contact with Environmental Dept.'s @ Vassar, Bard, Cary Institute, beyond towards building coalition with that goal; weeks ago I also contacted pro-environment dynamo Assemblymember Sarahana Shreshtha re: Dutchess incinerator/SWMP issue; all hands on deck folks-- pls reach out to other local state legislators like Michelle Hinchey, Jonathan Jacobson, Didi Barrett on this too-- the CLCPA will only be as stringent as local state legislators will force it to be (and as County Exec Wm. O'Neil proved in his comments Thursday before Co. Leg., even he is worried that the CLCPA could well turn out to eventually force operations of incinerators to be phased out sooner than later!)...state legislators can be reached at 877-255-9417 folks(!): https://www.beyondburning.org/ny/CLCPA-WasteScopingComments.pdf https://climate.ny.gov https://www.energyjustice.net/ny/ClimatePlanScopingComments.pdf https://docs.google.com/document/d/14v9x4jDTw9RNjd08r-fdRcmYSW4FBqCjLIqGyl2w7fo/mobilebasic?urp=gmail_link @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Again-- superb must-read article here by Emily Sachar on this issue in The Daily Catch: "Landfill in the Sky? Dutchess County’s New Solid Waste Management Plan, Leaning Heavily on Incineration, Heads to Crucial Vote": https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/landfill-in-the-sky-dutchess-countys-new-solid-waste-management-plan-leaning-heavily-on-incineration-heads-to-crucial-vote-thursday/ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Mike Ewall recently confirmed that seven (7) pounds of mercury each year is emitted by the Dutchess Incinerator in Poughkeepsie-- enough to contaminate literally 3100+ lakes each 20 acres in size. Ewall also sent us these numbers too-- based on data reported to the state, the county-owned incinerator run by Wheelabrator in Poughkeepsie releases more pounds of health-damaging air pollution than any other facility in the county (2017 emissions data listed first-- then 2018 data): Global Warming Pollution (in tons of CO2 equivalents): 109,085; 93,554 [rest of data listed here below in pounds] Nitrogen Oxides: 296,925; 272,523 [triggers asthma attacks, chronic respiratory disease and stroke] Sulfur Dioxide: 12,890; 4,310 [triggers asthma attacks; chronic respiratory and heart diseases; stroke] Carbon Monoxide: 180,912; 137,808 Hydrochloric Acid: 4,112; 13,977 Volatile Organic Compounds: 46,418; 45,571 Particulate Matter: 589; 5,669 Chromium: 6.4; 6.2 Lead: 5.8; 4.3 Arsenic: 0.4; 0.4 Cadmium: 0.4; 0.5 [Lead and dioxins also have no “safe” level; dioxins are the most toxic chemicals known to science – 140,000 times more toxic than mercury – and incinerators are a major source: http://www.ejnet.org/dioxin/ .] One of the most alarming things we recently found out about was the fact that the Baltimore incinerator was found to be the cause of literally $55 million a year in health problems. Do the math-- the Baltimore incinerator burns 2250 tons of garbage a day-- that's 821,250 tons of trash each year. The Dutchess County incinerator, according to page 19 of the "Plan" burns 149,036 tons of garbage each year-- so the Baltimore incinerator burns about five and a half times what the Dutchess incinerator burns. If the Baltimore incinerator causes $55 million worth of health problems annually and burns 5.5 times as much trash as the county incinerator in Poughkeepsie, it seems logical to deduce that the Dutchess County incinerator causes literally $10 million worth of health problems each year(!). [think Dutchess incinerator is cleaner? it isn't] https://chesapeakebaymagazine.com/study-baltimore-trash-incinerator-causes-55-million-in-health-problems/ Dutchess County citizens and organizations like Zero Waste Dutchess and Working Class Dutchess are opposed to the proposed 10-Year Solid Waste Management Plan based on the environmental assessment of nationally known anti-incineration expert Mike Ewall and economic risks and opportunity costs according to Neil Seldman, Zero Waste USA. Fact: Federal EPA data clearly shows that Dutchess County’s trash incinerator is the largest industrial air polluter in the county. Fact: Dutchess County could create 300 new local green jobs processing materials by recycling mattresses, appliances, textiles, composting, building deconstruction and materials resale, electronic scrap repair and recycling, composting and compost by products, and retail thrift. Neil Seldman, Zero Waste USA: 202-607-9786 Mike Ewall: Beyond Burning: 215-436-9511 Judy Malstrom, Zero Waste Dutchess: 845-876-2488 Joel Tyner, Zero Waste Dutchess: 845-464-2245 Info: zerowastedutchess@gmail.com @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ From Mike Ewall (mike@beyondburning.org [here below Mike responds to five questions from Johanna Fallert of Mothers Out Front and DCPAA re: GOP statements during Thursday's Co. Leg. Environmental Committee re: SWMP/incineration] On Fri, Sep 8, 2023 at 3:11PM Johanna Fallert wrote: Dutchess County Executive O'Neil raised the following points in defense of the solid waste management plan: 1. County Exec O'Neil: "The incinerator is not as polluting as the automobiles on Route 9." Mike Ewall of Beyond Burning: "This is a common distraction. Yes, if you compare one incinerator to an entire sector, such as the sum of all cars and trucks in a county or a major highway, the total traffic is usually a larger "source" -- for a handful of major ("criteria") air pollutants. In no way does this justify burning trash at a facility that is the county's #1 industrial air polluter. Sure... it's an argument for ALSO prioritizing other needed changes in our society about how we get from place-to-place, but it does not justify sticking with trash incineration when incineration is the most expensive and polluting way to manage waste or to make energy." Ewall: "These comparisons also commonly focus on the high-volume, but generally non-toxic pollutants: carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and particulate matter. I said "generally" because VOCs and particulate matter can be toxic. However, if we look at the highly toxic and other hazardous chemicals released into the county's air, such as dioxins/furans, arsenic, cadmium, chromium (VI), lead, mercury, hydrochloric acid, and hydrofluoric acid, the incinerator is going to be a large portion of the entire amount, since these chemicals aren't common in vehicle exhaust or from burning oil or gas to heat buildings. However, trash incinerators release very serious amounts of these, and are usually #1 in any county (or close to it) for these very dangerous air contaminants, some of which bioaccumulate in the food chain, hitting people with even higher doses unless they avoid eating meat and dairy." 2. County Exec O'Neil: "The county has a B rating from the American Lung Association (one of the critics said there was another rating from this organization that is a negative)." Mike Ewall of Beyond Burning: "Yes, the latest ALA State of the Air report gives the county a 'B' rating. Better than many places, but how does this justify not aiming for an 'A' when it comes to the air we breathe? Ewall: "The ALA's 'B' rating is for only ONE pollutant: ground-level ozone. This is something that the county's incinerator contributes to, but vehicle and building heating systems would play a much larger role." Ewall: "The rating has no relation to all of the other pollutants -- toxic or otherwise -- pumped out daily by the incinerator." 3. County Exec O'Neil: "Waste-to-energy systems" (trash incinerators) were initially going to be eliminated under the CLCPA, but the state/CLCPA has backed down because they realized that this practice would, (I assume), create more landfills." Mike Ewall of Beyond Burning: "I don't know if there's any truth to this notion that incinerators were going to be eliminated under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). I'd love to see any history on that. The CLCPA Climate Scoping Plan had a waste chapter that we wrote extensive comments on because it was very biased in favor of incineration, and wrongly pretended that landfills are worse for the climate." Ewall: "That said, if we do nothing to implement Zero Waste strategies, then ending incineration DOES mean more landfilling (or emergence of even crazier ideas like different types of burning such as pyrolysis and gasification or burning in cement kilns). Landfilling is the lesser evil, and we must implement Zero Waste strategies to ensure that we have smaller, more biologically stable landfills that aren't so gassy and stinky because we'll have kept organics out and composted them, etc." 4. County Exec O'Neil: "Landfilling is more dangerous than incineration. Co. Leg Chair Gregg Pulver pulled up a quote from the EPA or DEC." Mike Ewall of Beyond Burning: "That's not true at all AND it's not even an accurate comparison because the comparison is landfilling vs. BOTH incineration and landfilling (of ash and of bypass waste that the incinerator cannot burn)." Ewall: "DEC most certainly has no studies to back up this claim. They, like all states and local governments that parrot this tune, are relying on EPA and incinerator industry claims. EPA has a waste hierarchy that places 'energy recovery' (incineration) above 'disposal' (meaning landfilling... as if incineration is not also a type of disposal). In early 2022, in a meeting I organized with EPA's waste division, they admitted that they have ZERO citations to back up the placement of incineration above landfilling in their hierarchy. In July 2022, at our request, EPA put a disclaimer on their hierarchy that indicates that they're reevaluating it based on the latest data and science. I expect this will take at least another year or two, as other processes we requested are dealt with in order to allow the agency to do any honest comparison... because they rely on a flawed model that only looks at climate impacts and screws that up with two major pro-incineration biases." Ewall: "Credible life cycle analysis studies have repeatedly shown that incineration (and landfilling ash) is substantially worse than landfilling trash directly -- mainly due to climate being the largest impact, but also because of the various toxic and otherwise harmful emissions from incineration that vastly outweigh any such emissions from landfills." 5. County Exec O'Neil: "Zero waste management is impractical. We have a disposable society, and people don't care." Mike Ewall of Beyond Burning: "We have choices. We can choose to have a disposable society or not. Increasingly, state and local governments are banning single-use plastics and are trying to regulate packaging in other ways. Much more to be done here, of course." Ewall: "Our local governments waste managers have choices. They can choose to blame the public for being lazy or they can stop being lazy themselves and can do their job by implementing the right policies and programs to educate and incentivize Zero Waste. It's been demonstrated many times over that if you give people the right tools (like recycling and composting bins), the right education on what goes where, and an economic incentive, they reduce waste dramatically." Ewall: "Pay as you throw (also named 'save as you throw' or 'unit-based pricing') is being done by 7,000+ communities around the country (might be over 10K... not sure). It involves paying per-bag or per-bin. Just like when we pay our water, gas, or electricity bills, we pay for how much we use. However, in most places, your neighbor could put out ten bags of trash a week and you put out one, and you both pay the same. It's not fair. Where places chance the pay structure so that what you're already paying (sometimes via taxes) is now apportioned so that you pay per TRASH bag, but not per recycling or composting bin, you see an instant reduction of about 44% on average, with half of that being materials going in the right bin, and the other half being source reduction and reuse -- tons that don't even have to be picked up at the curb because they're not there. This is the most effective and cost-effective way to quickly reduce waste, and where it's not being done, it's only the fault of the lazy waste managers and local politicians who aren't willing to put the right structures in place." Ewall: "Add to this curbside collection of food scraps and yard waste and you get even deeper reductions, especially if you cut trash collection back to once every two weeks and collect recycling and composting weekly. This gets the composting happening once people complain, then realize that they've been putting the 'stinky' stuff in the wrong bin." Ewall: "And to tackle another huge waste stream -- construction and demolition waste -- implement a deconstruction mandate and require a certain amount of recovered building materials in new construction and renovation, and you largely wipe out one of the largest waste steams aside from municipal solid waste (household and commercial trash)." "What about Sweden?...There was also a comment [from Pulver] about how Sweden is loving incineration." Mike Ewall of Beyond Burning: "Well, Sweden has become so reliant on incineration to heat buildings that they have to import trash to burn! They also dump their toxic ash on an island in Norway and use some of it for roads as well -- basically unlined linear landfills... a rather dangerous way to expose people to toxic chemicals without any effort to contain them. Incinerators are not magically good in Europe, despite all the hype. Europe overbuilt incineration capacity and is now regretting it, for climate and health reasons." @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Again-- read this then politely email Hank Gross of https://midhudsonnews.composing these questions below I just sent to him-- bias here unacceptable; contact him at news@midhudsonnews.com, news@statewidenews.com: https://midhudsonnews.com/2023/09/09/dutchess-county-unveils-countys-2023-local-solid-waste-management-plan-2/ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Thx to Jill Fieldstein of https://www.savedover.org for this article responding to dreck/misinfo from Pulver/O'Neil et. al. Thursday about how supposedly wonderful incineration is in Europe: https://e360.yale.edu/features/in-europe-a-backlash-is-growing-over-incinerating-garbage @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ On that note recall this from Neil Seldman of https://zerowasteusa.org : https://ilsr.org/garbage-incineration-in-europe-subsidies-distort-the-market/ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Thx to Doreen Tignanelli for reminding us to ask you all to email now(!): countylegislators@dutchessny.gov, countylegislature@dutchessny.gov, countyexec@dutchessny.gov-- remind them Nov. elections are coming(!) @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ [so again-- here's what I sent to news@midhudsonnews.com-- follow up!] From Joel Tyner (tynerjoel@gmail.com): Hank-- omissions in piece re: SWMP Hi Hank, Please correct a number of omissions in your article based on the presentation/vote on the county SWMP during Thursday's Dutchess County Legislature Environmental Committee: https://midhudsonnews.com/2023/09/09/dutchess-county-unveils-countys-2023-local-solid-waste-management-plan-2/ "Dutchess County Unveils County's 2023 Local Solid Waste Management Plan" Article: "Development of organic composting opportunities, reduction of waste generation and continued increase of materials being recycled in Dutchess County are the focuses of the county’s 2023 Local Solid Waste Management Plan." What's Missing: This ignores the fact that the proposed SWMP plans to continue to burn 45 percent of the county’s garbage (which County Executive William O’Neil was forced to publicly admit during Thursday’s Environmental Committee meeting)– and the fact that the county incinerator in Poughkeepsie puts two tons of dioxins into the air each year– along with 100,000 tons of global warming pollution (CO2 equivalents), and seven pounds of mercury (enough to poison 3100+ 20-acre lakes in the region to make the fish too contaminated to eat). It also ignores how the County Legislature's Minority Leader Yvette Valdes Smith, Assistant Minority Leader Barrington Atkins, and Co. Leg. Kris Munn (every single Dem who was present for the meeting on the Environmental Committee) all voted no to the SWMP resolution-- and it ignores the great testimony made during the public comment period from Jill Fieldstein of SaveDover.org, Judy Malstrom of Zero Waste Dutchess, Johanna Fallert of the Dutchess County Progressive Action Alliance, several Sierra Club representatives, Lalita Malik (former long-time Dutchess County Environmental Management Council Chair), long-time activist/singer Marta Knapp et. al. Article: "The county has increased its recycling from 36 percent in 2012 to 42 percent in 20922, both above the state’s recycling rate of 19 percent and the national average of 35 percent. When construction and debris recycling is included, the county’s overall recycling rate is 50.5 percent, compared to the state’s average of 43 percent." What's Missing: This ignores the fact that San Francisco and Los Angeles have 80-percent recycling rates– and the fact that, if William O’Neil (who was a Deputy County Executive at the time) and William Steinhaus (who was County Executive at the time) had actually implemented back in 2009 two resolutions the Dutchess County Legislature passed on this issue that year (one of those was passed unanimously– for Dutchess County to apply for federal funding to move towards zero waste)-- if O’Neil and Steinhaus had actually followed through on those, the county’s recycling rate would be just as high as Frisco and L.A.’s. Article: "The new plan prioritizes expanding composting opportunities, particularly for residents. What's Missing: This ignores the fact that the SWMP has no real plans or teeth to ensure that there is more composting– even County Executive William O’Neil stated this during Thursday’s Environmental Committee meeting, foisting the responsibility for increased composting on local municipalities in his comments. https://conta.cc/462ys2D https://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2023/09/brenda-platt-exposes-proposed-dutchess.html What's Missing: Any coverage whatsoever of the press release sent out to you and other local media last Friday (Sept. 1st); see attachment. I urge you to correct your article to include the omissions above to create much more balanced coverage on this issue along the lines of this recent piece in the Daily Catch: https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/landfill-in-the-sky-dutchess-countys-new-solid-waste-management-plan-leaning-heavily-on-incineration-heads-to-crucial-vote-thursday/ Imagine as well what Dutchess recycling rate might have been if O'Neil/Steinhaus/Molinaro had actually implemented these resolutions... [this one passed Mar. 10th 2009 in Dutchess Co. Leg.-- unanimously] RESOLUTION NO. 209072 RE: IMPLEMENTING A ZERO-WASTE APPROACH TO RESOURCE RECOVERY IN DUTCHESS COUNTY Legislators TYNER, DOXSEY, WEISS, and WASSELL offer the following and move its adoption: WHEREAS, the federal stimulus package legislation that just passed through Congress in February contains a $3.2 billion dollar appropriation for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants that were authorized by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007; under Section 544, Item 10, the funds may be used for "activities to increase participation and efficiency rates for material conservation programs, including source reduction, recycling, and recycled content procurement programs that lead to increases in energy efficiency", these funds are available to counties like Dutchess County by direct application for federal block grants, and WHEREAS, this presents an opportunity for Dutchess County to get federal dollars with other area counties for collaboration on a pilot regional comprehensive zero-waste plan proposal to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and NYS Department of Environmental Conservation similar to what has been successfully developed for the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District, and WHEREAS, a zero-waste approach to resource recovery in Dutchess County will save tax dollars, create green jobs, lower carbon emissions, and help clean up local air quality; Greenway Environmental Services has provided an excellent working model of this type of intense composting and recycling approach already at Vassar and Marist colleges, and WHEREAS, a zero-waste approach to resource recovery in Dutchess County will also create a track for good-paying jobs, as the Institute for Local Self-Reliance has successfully done in Hartford and other cities across the U.S., working with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Laborers International, Sheetmetal Workers, and Teamsters, and RESOLVED, that the Dutchess County Legislature requests that the Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development and Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency work with Representatives John Hall and Maurice Hinchey and Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer to bring federal funding to Dutchess County by direct application for federal block grants for a new zero-waste planning approach for resource recovery, regionally if possible with other area counties, from the national stimulus package legislation passed in February containing a $3.2 billion dollar appropriation for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants authorized by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be sent to Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development Commissioner Roger Akeley, Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency Executive Director William Calogero, Ulster County Executive Michael Hein, Putnam County Executive Robert Bondi, Orange County Executive Edward Diana, President Barack Obama, United States Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, Congressmen Maurice Hinchey and John Hall, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, Governor David Paterson, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Alexander "Pete" Grannis, NYS Deputy Secretary for the Environment Judith Enck, Senators Stephen M. Saland and Vincent Leibell, Assemblymen Joel M. Miller, Kevin Cahill, Greg Ball, Marcus Molinaro, and Frank Skartados. _____________________________________________________________ [this one on 12/7/09 passed 13-11 through the Dutchess County Legislature] RESOLUTION NO. 209386 RE: REQUESTING VARIOUS COUNTY DEPARTMENTS FOLLOW THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE DUTCHESS COUNTY GREEN RIBBON TASK FORCE ON SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT Legislators TYNER, DOXSEY, and WHITE offer the following and move its adoption: WHEREAS, recently the Dutchess County Green Ribbon Task Force on Solid Waste Management issued its recommendations after many months of meetings and much public input, and WHEREAS, Dutchess County's unemployment rate is still about twice what it was two years ago, with about ten thousand local residents out of work; recycling and composting (a zero-waste approach to resource recovery) creates ten times more jobs than incineration and landfilling, according to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and in Austin (TX), Seattle (WA), Portland (OR) and many other communities across the country a zero-waste approach has also saved tax dollars compared to a burn-or-bury approach, and WHEREAS, on a national level, over two-thirds of the materials we use are still burned or buried, despite the fact we have the technical capacity to cost-effectively recycle, reuse, or compost 90% of what we waste; the Dutchess County Resource Recovery Facility puts 3700 tons of carbon emissions into the air every year, and WHEREAS, Rockland County recycled 41,000 tons of cans, bottles, plastics, and paper last year at their Materials Recovery Facility, with a population almost identical to that of Dutchess County (about 290,000), while Dutchess County recycled only 8,000 tons of cans, bottles, plastics, and paper last year at our Materials Resource Facility, and WHEREAS, that the Dutchess County Legislature believes that the current governance arrangements for waste management in Dutchess County (basically all duties delegated to the Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency) have failed on many levels, especially by virtue of the fact that costs incurred by the Resource Recovery Agency at the expense of the taxpayers are far in excess of industry standards, and therefore be it RESOLVED, that the new PLAN must evaluate and identify new and better options, such as a new Dutchess County Waste and Recycling Management Authority, or more active participation of the County's Public Works Committee or Solid Waste Commissioner, and be it further RESOLVED, that the Dutchess County Legislature urges better mechanisms of oversight and transparency which are critical to the success of the PLAN and must be clearly outlined by the County's SWM consultant, and the County Legislature calls for the power of budgetary review over any new governance mechanism, and be it further RESOLVED, that the Dutchess County Legislature, in light of the extraordinarily high costs, inefficiency and mismanagement recently documented at the Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency, recommend that the new PLAN give careful and thorough consideration to the phasing out of the waste to energy facility over a 2-4 year time horizon and the phasing out or complete transformation for the Resource Recovery Agency over the same period of time, and be it further RESOLVED, that the Dutchess County Legislature requests that the PLAN and the Consultant chosen to advise the legislature thoroughly examine the possibility of setting countywide mandated recycling goal of 70% of all municipal solid waste generated in Dutchess County by the year 2020 by substantially increasing our food waste composting infrastructure, and therefore be it RESOLVED, that the Dutchess County Legislature also issues a Request for Proposals for a report from several nationally known zero-waste experts who have indicated an interest in helping Dutchess County on this, for detailed cost analysis and implementation outlines for a Dutchess County Zero-Waste Pilot Program to be implemented as soon as possible, and be it further RESOLVED, that the Dutchess County Legislature authorizes the development of several pilot programs around the county, dedicated to the advancement of research and assess the feasibility of a cutting edge zero-waste program for Dutchess County, and the creation of an eco-industrial resource recovery park to create jobs recycling current resources that are disposed of: food waste, fats, oils, greases, glass, electronic scrap, mattresses, and construction and demolition debris, and RESOLVED, that the Dutchess County Legislature requests that the Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency work with the Dutchess County Sheriff, Dutchess County Environmental Management Council, Dutchess County Supervisors and Mayors Association, Dutchess County Small Business Committee, and others to make sure recycling bins for cans and bottles and office paper are placed next to all trash receptacles in the county, and make sure that, as county law and the Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency website states, that "the following materials are required to be kept separate from trash: office paper (copy paper, stationery, computer paper, ledger), newspaper, corrugated cardboard, glass bottles and jars (clear, brown and green colored); metal cans (tin/bi-metal/aluminum); aluminum pie plates and foil; PETE and HDPE plastic containers (except automotive product containers), and major appliances, tires, yard debris," and be if further RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be sent to the Dutchess County Executive, Dutchess County Solid Waste Commissioner, Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency, Dutchess County Environmental Management Council, Dutchess County Sheriff, and Dutchess County Association of Supervisors and Mayors. ############################################################## Watch video from Thursday's Co. Leg. Environmental Committee mtg.-- https://totalwebcasting.com/view/?id=dutchess @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ And-- click on this link for Shabazz Jackson’s amazing presentation here 9/5/23 to Hurley Town Board to transform their town transfer station to a zero-waste/food waste composting station!…Shabazz is already successfully doing this in New Paltz (even Dutchess County Exec Bill O’Neil himself was forced to publicly admit this in his comments last night to Co. Leg.’s)— this is the local self-reliant model that Town of Clinton, Town of Rhinebeck, and a dozen other municipal transfer stations across Dutchess should follow — along with the rest of NY/US!…Dutchess GOP last night said openly that they were considering helping fund something like this for towns across the county — SHOW US THE MONEY— WHY ISN’T THIS IN THE PROPOSED SWMP FOR DUTCHESS?…come out and ask that question and more this Monday 9/11 @ 7 pm— speak out during public comment period before the Republican Co. Leg. majority once again rubber-stamps the toxic pro-incineration Solid Waste Management Plan for Dutchess!...see: https://www.townofhurley.org/sites/g/files/vyhlif7651/f/news/greenway_presentation.pdf @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ From Mike Ewall (mike@beyondburning.org): Regarding the press release from Dutchess County Executive William O'Neil-- they use the term "waste-to-energy" in the title. It's important to not repeat that unscientific PR term without debunking it. See https://beyondburning.org/incineration/waste-to-energy/ I'll debunk their two paragraphs on incineration: Fact: There are no benefits of incineration (and landfilling ash) over directly landfilling trash other than space savings. It's not the size of landfills that makes them dangerous, but the toxicity. Placing most of the waste in the air is not an improvement, but is proven to be far more harmful for climate, health, and environment. Life cycle assessments done for several communities such as Washington, DC, Montgomery County, MD, Delaware County, PA, and Big Island, HI proved this repeatedly. O'Neil/GOP: "...the disposal option many counties throughout New York State utilize..." Fact: Most NY counties are not using incinerators, despite that NY has more than any other state (ten of them). The state also has about 25 landfills, if I recall the number right. O'Neil/GOP: "Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency's (RRA) waste-to-energy facility was built in the 1980s, under the direction of past County Executive Lucille Pattison, to end the County's dependence on landfills." Fact: Incinerators never "end" dependence on landfills. They just increase the toxicity of landfills by sending ash instead of trash. For every 100 tons burned, about 30 tons of ash are generated and landfilled. The rest of the trash goes out the smokestack in the form of steam and air pollution. O'Neil/GOP: "Today, there are no operating landfills in Dutchess County. Landfills produce methane, a greenhouse gas that has a global warming potential of more than 80 times that of carbon dioxide in its first 20 years and 25 times greater over the course of 100 years." Fact: The 25x figure is very outdated science. Should be 27-30x based on the latest climate science. Nonetheless, as bad as methane is, much of the carbon going into a landfill stays put and doesn't readily break down, such as the carbon in plastics and wood. This mainly stays sequestered, which is better than pumping all of the carbon directly into the air, which incineration does. Even using the latest climate science and the higher methane potency over 20 years, credible life cycle assessments show that incineration is still more harmful for the climate than landfilling, even if no gas is captured at the landfill -- but most landfills capture and burn the gas, converting methane back to CO2, which is about 82 times less potent over a 20-year time frame. O'Neil/GOP: "New York State greenhouse gas emissions from the waste sector represent about 12 percent of statewide emissions; with landfills making up 78 percent of that total." Fact: This is based on flawed models that don't count most of the GHGs from incineration. There are also more than twice as many landfills as incinerators in the state, so not an apples-to-apples comparison in the first place. O'Neil/GOP: "Those statistics do not account for the additional emissions from long-haul trucking to haul waste to landfills." Fact: Studies have documented that transportation is a tiny fraction of the impacts of a waste system -- so small that no real-life truck hauling distance can overcome the gap between choosing incineration over landfilling. Incineration is worse even if hauling many hundreds of miles to a landfill. O'Neil/GOP: "The RRA's waste-to-energy facility incinerates 140,000 to 150,000 tons of solid waste each year, producing enough electricity for the energy grid to power approximately 10,000 homes." Fact: This is a tiny amount of electricity compared to any normal power plant. Also, by destroying materials that could be recycled or composted, incinerators waste more energy than they "create." Recycling and composting the same materials would save 3-5 times more energy than an incinerator can get back by burning them. O'Neil/GOP: "Additionally, 4,000 to 6,000 tons of ferrous metals are recovered each year." Fact: Yes, but this modest about of metals recycled out of the ash doesn't justify burning. It's an argument for doing better recycling up-front. O'Neil/GOP: "The RRA's incineration is closely monitored..." Fact: Not true at all. Only three pollutants are continuously monitored. About another ten are monitored just once a year and all are monitored by the facility itself or their contractors. There is no independent monitoring, and the lack of continuous monitoring grossly underestimates the amount actually released because they only are allowed to do their annual test under idealized operating conditions. O'Neil/GOP: "...to ensure operations adhere to strict national air quality regulations. The RRA's operations are well within or below the state and federal emission limits." Fact: The state and federal emissions limits are weaker than for new incinerators, weaker than standards in other countries, and are 16 years out-of-date. EPA is supposed to update the standards every 5 years and had to be sued to update them recently -- a court ordered that they come up with new standards by the end of this year, but that won't take effect for at least another year and an industry lawsuit is working to delay it... a lawsuit brought by the Waste to Energy Association, which I believe DCRRA is probably a member of (as is Wheelabrator / WIN Waste). Also, permit limits do not mean "healthy and safe." They are technology-based standards, and staying within limits doesn't mean there are not health impacts from the pollution released. O'Neil/GOP: "Independent studies have shown human health is not adversely affected by waste-to-energy facilities." Fact: Other studies show the opposite. I've documented this in a factsheet a couple years ago. See: https://www.beyondburning.org/incineration/healthstudies.pdf O'Neil/GOP: "...and these facilities play a key role as a part of an environmentally sound system, according to the report " The Scientific Truth about Waste to Energy," a 2021 review of scientific industry studies conducted by the City College of New York's Grove School of Engineering which provides an exhaustive assessment of waste-to-energy processes' influences on public and environmental health and was peer-reviewed by subject matter experts from Columbia University, the University of Maryland, North Carolina State University, and State University of New York-Stony Brook, among others" Fact: That report is written by the "tobacco scientists" of the incineration industry -- an outfit funded by Wheelabrator and Covanta plus other incinerator industry players to pump out pro-incinerator "academia." It's an outfit called the Waste-to-Energy Research and Technology Council (WTERT) and is now part of a Global WTERT Council, still run by academic/industry folks at Columbia University and CCNY. I went to their conference last year and have been onto them for decades. See https://wtert.org Outfits like this exist to get gullible reporters to quote them as if they're objective without disclosing that they're just industry-funded mouthpieces. They seem to have removed their page listing their corporate sponsors. It's probably in archive.org. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Recall-- last October Mike Ewall actually convinced 273 other organizations-- including the Sierra Club, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Food & Water Watch, Democratic Socialists of America (Lower Hudson Valley), KingstonCitizens.org, Don't Trash the Catskills, Judith Enck's Beyond Plastics organization, Sane Energy Project, Coaltion to Protect NY, Syracuse Cultural Workers, The Story of Stuff Project-- to sign on to Mike's letter to the White House Council on Environmental Quality about EPA's bad policies relating to waste incineration-- this is crucial in Dutchess because DCRRA and Dutchess GOP for decades now have hidden behind the EPA's pathetic standards re: incineration; click here(!): http://www.energyjustice.net/incineration/2022CEQletter.pdf Fact: His work (that letter) is having impact(!)...media coverage here on it: https://www.wastedive.com/news/epa-lawsuit-incinerator-wte-emissions-standards-consent-decree/651627/ https://www.wastedive.com/news/epa-waste-hierarchy-incineration-landfill-warm/634166/ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Fact: This summer was the hottest ever-- and the Dutchess County Incinerator in Poughkeepsie puts 100,000 tons of global warming pollution (CO2 equivalents) into the air each year; incineration is far more costly and polluting than landfilling (or any other kind of energy!): https://www.beyondburning.org/incineration/factsheet.pdf https://www.commondreams.org/news/hottest-summer-ever-2023 https://www.commondreams.org/news/co2-concentration-in-atmosphere @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ From Doreen Tignanelli (Doreentig@aol.com) of the Town of Poughkeepsie: Wed, Sep 6, 3:06 PM (15 hours ago) Public comment I submitted re: Dutchess Co proposed Local Solid Waste Management Plan Public comment I sent to the DC Legislature and County Exec today: [note from me (JT)-- send your own!...to countyexec@dutchessny.gov, countylegislature@dutchessny.gov, countylegislators@dutchessny.gov!] "I request that my comments be included for the record regarding Adoption of Dutchess County's Local Solid Waste Management Plan. I urge the Dutchess County Legislature's Environmental Committee, and the legislature as a whole, to reject the proposed 10-year Local Solid Waste Management Plan. The fact that Option 2 of the plan considers building a new waste-to-energy facility to be the best choice for the future is alarming and will unnecessarily cost county taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Unfortunately, the county appears to have limited vision when it comes to waste management. The county dismissed my prior public comment on the draft plan with the response that zero waste and/or reducing waste was "not a realistic option". Contrast this with Ulster County whose many options include waste reduction, reuse, repair, recycling and composting. Dutchess County seems to be satisfied with doing business the same, outdated way they have over the 33 years the facility has been in operation in spite of the fact that we now know that increased greenhouse gas emissions worsen climate change and have health impacts including respiratory illnesses. While the plan claims that the waste-to-energy facility is "environmentally sound", that is suspect and it is disturbing that the County apparently has relied on the operator, Wheelabrator, to conduct testing which is like the fox guarding the henhouse. An article in the August 8, 2023 Times Union referenced a study that identified the Dutchess County facility as one of the most polluting incinerators in the United States. That study also stated that the facility ranked in the "dirty dozen" for emissions of mercury and carbon monoxide. Yet, the county plan calls for business as usual. There is an insignificant offer to "contribute to a study" regarding composting. This would be yet another study as there was a 2017 Organics Recycling Study for Dutchess County, with Lindsay Carille, Deputy Commissioner, Division of Solid Waste Management on the Steering Committee. That study noted the potential to divert approximately 40,000 tons of organics from the county's solid waste stream which would allow the county to meet its solid waste management goals. It also stated "The goal of Dutchess County’s LSWMP is to consider solid waste as a resource, instead of garbage. As was detailed in this study, organics are well-suited to being used as a resource, as organics recycling has the additional benefits of stewardship and education, generating revenue, job creation, energy generation, creation of value-added products, GHG emission reductions, and food donation for those in need." Unfortunately, six years have gone by with little to no progress on the study's recommendations so the County's offer to contribute to another study rings hollow. County residents deserve better and ending incineration should be the main goal of the 10-year plan. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ From Jill Fieldstein (jillfieldstein@gmail.com) of https://www.savedover.org Wed, Sep 6, 6:18 AM (1 day ago) "We are experiencing record breaking high temperatures, extreme weather has become the new normal, wildfires are growing in intensity — all phenomena directly resulting from human activity that releases heat-trapping greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. It is, therefore, alarming that Dutchess County is even considering a trash management plan that will contribute to these earth-killing conditions. Trash incineration releases 2.5 times more CO2 than a coal-burning power plant, not to mention the mercury and other toxins that pollute our water and food supplies. Dutchess County should “trash” its incineration proposal and put its focus on recycling, composting and other trash management efforts that moves us toward zero waste. Jill Fieldstein, Concerned Citizens of Dover (savedover.org)." @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Manna Jo Greene (Ulster County Legislator D-19, former Hudson River Sloop Clearwater Environmental Director): "We have long been concerned about the emissions from the Dutchess County incinerator, especially as an environmental justice issue. In addition to exacerbating respiratory illness, these emissions also include an array of greenhouse gases. Given the worsening global climate crisis, the practice of burning garbage is ill-advised and should be discontinued. Waste reduction, reuse, repair, recycling and composting minimize waste. If you maximize waste diversion, and reduce odors and toxicity, siting a local landfill becomes easier and is most economical. We urge the Duchess County Legislature to close the incinerator and adopt a plan to ensure truly sound Solid Waste Management." @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Click here for Manna Jo Greene's great PowerPoint on this issue-- Dutchess would do well to follow plans for Ulster County laid out here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eaHzI6oGt0zUDQsYat1MJYom_v5l4x17/view?usp=drivesdk#@ Pls join/share Zero Waste Dutchess on FB(!): https://www.facebook.com/groups/116408325212474 ############################################################# Petition is here (feel free to make a new one, all!...only six folks signed on to this so far) https://www.change.org/p/adopt-zero-waste-goal-for-dutchess-contract-zero-waste-expert-close-county-incinerator ############################################################# Again-- I recently found this amazingly informative and up-to-date article on Neil Seldman from this June not just about him-- but also state-of-the-art practices in recycling/composting towards zero waste away from incineration-- that should be being embraced by Dutchess and all over(!): "Decades-Long Zero Waste Guru Shares Stories and Insights" https://www.waste360.com/waste/decades-long-zero-waste-guru-shares-stories-and-insights @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ [note: here's a video recording of our super-informative Zero Waste Dutchess Zoom from Aug. 29th with Shabazz Jackson, Manna Jo Greene, Neil Seldman, & Mike Ewall-- well worth your while to watch/share this(!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmURuvpPYeI ] @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ [again-- update-- my Mom (Judy Malstrom) personally spoke with many folks at Saturday's Community Day in the Town of Clinton-- quite a few of them didn't even know the county incinerator in Poughkeepsie existed!...for reminder of how foolish and destructive incineration is, see: http://www.energyjustice.net/incineration/ ] @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ As Brenda Platt of the Institute of Local Self-Reliance points out, despite all the lip service Dutchess County officials are engaging in re: composting, the actual wording of the SWMP proves their hypocrisy in spades: https://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2023/09/brenda-platt-exposes-proposed-dutchess.html [media coverage thus far on this: with aforementioned lip service on this: https://www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley/news/article/dutchess-county-solid-waste-management-plan-18282574.php ] Of course, perhaps the most important reason for the Co. Leg. Dems (and GOP for that matter) to reject the SWMP (resolution #2023159) is because it not only continues to support the toxic county incinerator-- it actually proposed to expand its operations(!). [don't believe me-- read the SWMP with your own eyes; see for yourself: https://www.dutchessny.gov//ConCalAtt/2/2023159.pdf ] By way of contrast, compare Montgomery County/MD's amazing zero-waste plan already being enacted there-- click here to read this awesome example for exactly what Dutchess County should be doing: http://www.energyjustice.net/md/beyond.pdf https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/SWS/master-plan.html Note-- Montgomery County's contract with Wheelabrator to run the incinerator there runs out in April 2026-- so they've implemented a zero-waste plan to make incineration there obsolete Fact: Dutchess County's contract with Wheelabrator to run the county incinerator in Poughkeepsie runs out in 2027-- see examples here of counties across the US that are in the process of ending their incineration contracts w/Wheelabrator and moving towards zero waste: https://www.epa.gov/transforming-waste-tool/how-communities-have-defined-zero-waste [there is absolutely no excuse for Dutchess County not to follow these!] Fact: Minneapolis' contract with Great River Energy to run the incinerator there runs out at the end of 2025-- so they've implemented a zero-waste plan to make the incinerator there obsolete. Fact: Westchester County's contract with Wheelabrator to run their incinerator in Peekskill runs out in 2029-- so Vanessa Agudelo, Mike Ewall, WASS, et. al. are developing a zero-waste plan to make incineration there obsolete-- and publicly recognizing current local elected officials and candidates who are working with them. https://www.facebook.com/WASSPeekskill Fact: The Wheelabrator incinerator in Portsmouth/VA shut down before its contract was done(!). https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/local/mycity/portsmouth/large-fire-damages-wheelabrator-waste-facility-portsmouth-virginia/291-57b0b85d-1cbe-4e18-8da3-a9b5ab44b74e Fact: The Dutchess County incinerator in Poughkeepsie was constructed in the 80's and started operation in 1989-- it's 34 years old. According to Mike Ewall, "Between 2000 and 2022, 48 trash incinerators in the U.S. closed for good. Their average age when they closed was just 24. Despite hundreds of attempts to build new waste incinerators, no new incinerator has been built at a new site since 1995. However, one major new incinerator was built adjacent to an existing incinerator in West Palm Beach, Florida, and a handful of others were rebuilt or expanded. The trend is toward incinerators closing as they age. Few have made it to or past their 40th birthday." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [also-- according to page 11 of the DCRRA's annual report from last Dec., it would seem that "other operating expenses" in 2022 totaled over $9 million-- I'm guessing all of that went to Wheelabrator to run the county incinerator in Poughkeepsie and/or deal with the toxic ash-- but I don't know...for weeks now I've asked county legislators, the County Exec, DCRRA, and the Deputy Solid Waste Commissioner to look into this issue and respond to my emails and calls on this-- thus far I have received no response yet, pathetically-- your turn folks-- use the email addresses above to pose this question yourself-- see for yourself(!): http://www.dcrra.org/reports/Annual_Report_2022.pdf ] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Note(!): new-- from mike@beyondburning.org (Mike Ewall)-- "I just updated the stats on the age of incinerators that have closed since 2000. There are now 50 closed, not 45, and their average age at closure now rounds up to 25 years. This isn't based on federal data, but on analysis of various data sources, some of which is federal data, and much of which is keeping up with the news on the industry. Find the latest factsheet on this here: https://www.beyondburning.org/incineration/closures.pdf "</div>[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-54529650219778648432023-09-07T06:34:00.000-07:002023-09-07T06:34:09.001-07:00
Speak Out Thurs. Sept. 7th 5:30 pm at the Dutchess County Legislature's Environmental Committee Meeting
Dutchess County Legislative Chambers
Sixth Floor, 22 Market Street Poughkeepsie
[members of public allowed 3 min.'s each for public comment]
Proposed Solid Waste Management Plan for Dutchess Unnecessarily Prolongs Incinerator Contract–
County Should Contract Out Zero-Waste Consultant, Set Zero Waste Goal, Close County Incinerator(!)
Click here for full text of resolution #2023159:
https://www.dutchessny.gov//ConCalAtt/2/2023159.pdf
(don't forget to at least skim through at least some of the dozens and dozens and dozens of email letters as public comment from pages 135 to 234 of that resolution document-- they were all promoting composting not incineration!)
Em
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https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/landfill-in-the-sky-dutchess-countys-new-solid-waste-management-plan-leaning-heavily-on-incineration-heads-to-crucial-vote-thursday/
[excerpt here below; research/support links added]
Landfill in the Sky? Dutchess County’s New Solid Waste Management Plan, Leaning Heavily on Incineration, Heads to Crucial Vote Thursday
September 04, 2023
By Emily Sachar
One of the most consequential environmental decisions in recent Dutchess County history, one that experts say could affect air quality for years to come, is coming to a crucial committee vote this week. Implicit in the discussion, experts say, is the county’s need to build a new incinerator.
The battle lines are being drawn, as the county’s Division of Solid Waste Management has released a new waste management plan that says the county will need to lean on incineration, referred to as the “waste-to-energy” option, for years to come.
While it does not propose a new incineration plant outright, the report says that landfills, the only other theoretical option given delays in implementing “green” alternatives, are out of the question.
The Dutchess County Legislature’s Environmental Committee is slated to vote on the plan Thursday before it heads to the legislature for a full vote, now scheduled for next Monday.
“Does Dutchess want to create a landfill in the sky filled with lead, particulates, sulfur dioxide, and carbon monoxide?” asks Dr. Neil Seldman, Director of the Recycling Cornucopia Program at Zero Waste USA. “We shall see.”
Environmentalists say the county must pivot away from incineration and increase recycling, composting, and reuse of materials towards a zero-waste goal. They point to other communities, including Detroit and Minneapolis, that have opted out of burning trash. A 2019 report by the Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School in New York City ranked the existing Dutchess County incinerator, which at 35 years old is nearing the end of its useful life, as among the most polluting in the nation.
https://hudsonvalleypost.com/report-hudson-valley-incinerator-one-of-top-polluters-in-u-s/
The number of incinerators operating in the U.S. has dropped from 187 in 1991 to 66 in mid-2023, according to Mike Ewall, Founder and executive director of the Energy Justice Network [and founder of Beyond Burning], a national support network for grassroots community groups fighting dirty energy and waste industry facilities such as coal power plants, ethanol plants, natural gas facilities, landfills, and incinerators.
Seldman also argues that green initiatives, in lieu of incineration, could create 300 jobs in Dutchess County. Building a new incinerator also could be costly for taxpayers, he notes. New facilities would be funded by floating bonds, the interest payments for which would be borne by taxpayers, as would the operating costs of incinerators...
Joel Tyner, a former Dutchess County Legislator from 2004 to 2019, is waging a battle from his new home in Portland, Ore. to push the county away from incineration. “The new plan, unfortunately, continues the status quo of unnecessarily burning almost half the county’s trash,” Tyner, who co-leads a local organization called Zero Waste Dutchess, said in an interview Monday with The Daily Catch. “It ignores the potential for Dutchess to truly get serious about recycling and composting towards zero waste.”
Zero waste is a set of principles focused on waste prevention that encourages redesigning resource life cycles so that all products are repurposed and/or reused, Tyner said. The goal of the movement is to avoid sending trash to landfills.
It is not yet certain how the Legislature’s Environmental Committee members will vote, though they are expected to approve the new plan, Tyner said. Nor is it clear how each of the 25 legislators, elected to two-year terms that all expire this year, will vote. The Legislature has 16 Republicans, one Conservative, and eight Democrats.
Meanwhile, the topic has yet to catch fire with voters. Several leading environmentalists and politicians in Northern Dutchess County, among them Bard’s respected Chief Sustainability Officer Laurie Husted, Rhinebeck Village Trustee and composting expert Vanessa Bertozzi, and Rhinebeck Village Mayor Gary Bassett, all told The Daily Catch Monday that they are not current on the discussion of waste management at the county level. Tyner and others have been hosting Zoom meetings to inform voters, but no more than a dozen citizens have regularly participated, he said.
Incineration is necessary, the county says, even as the current incineration facility is reaching the end of its useful life. Of the 50 trash incinerators in the United States that closed since 2000, their average age at closure was 25 years, according to federal data. Few incinerators last beyond a 40-year lifetime, experts say.
In 2020, the Dutchess incinerator, privately run by a company called WIN Waste Innovations of Dutchess County [Wheelabrator], burned 151,099 tons of waste in Poughkeepsie and produced 53,521 tons of toxic ash, which was dumped in landfills in Ontario, Albany, and Chemung Counties, according to reports from Dutchess County prepared for the State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).
Almost all waste generated in the county that is not recycled or composted – the residential and business waste of 290,000 residents – ends up at the incinerator. The term waste-to-energy is a euphemism, critics say, used to support incineration as a management technique. Dutchess County’s incinerator powers 9,000 homes a year with its burn plan.
Environmentalists say, however, that toxic residues result. Data from 2018 provided to the DEC show that the county incinerator produced more than two tons of dioxins, said to be 140,000 times more toxic than mercury, and 272,523 pounds of nitrogen oxides, thought to trigger strokes and breathing problems.
The county incinerator in Poughkeepsie also emits seven pounds of mercury annually, enough to poison 3,100 lakes of 20-acre size, according to the Energy Justice Network. It also puts 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions into the air each year.
Health problems have been quantified in other cities and extrapolated to Dutchess County, explains Tyner. The county incinerator, he said, can be blamed for $10 million in health problems due to particulate emissions, a figure based on an NYU analysis of the Baltimore incinerator, which burns five times as much trash as the county incinerator in Poughkeepsie.
https://www.beyondburning.org/incineration/thurston-wheelabrator-health-impacts-2017.pdf
Experts who help communities move away from incineration say it’s not too late for Dutchess County to pivot. Seldman, who has advised cities around the country, said Dutchess should borrow a page from Ulster County, which he heralds as an ideal example in New York State of how to build a reliable, safe, air-friendly waste management plan. Ulster County has never had an incinerator. Westchester and Dutchess County are among the state’s worst counties for solid waste management, Seldman said.
“To defeat these things, you need a well-mobilized citizen organization, and that is not present in Dutchess County,” said Seldman, who added that billions of dollars in federal subsidies are available now to help municipalities and counties. It’s not too late."
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So-- pls email the Co. Leg Democratic Caucus now-- before they come to a decision on how they're going to vote(!): yvaldessmith@dutchessny.gov, bratkins@dutchessny.gov, bkearney@dutchessny.gov, rjohnson@dutchessny.gov, gllaverias@dutchessny.gov, cbrendli@dutchessny.gov, kmunn@dutchessny.gov, npage@dutchessny.gov
[I have already reached out to contact them on this multiple times myself; you may recall that Joe Ruggiero, in his campaign for County Exec four years ago, did not shy away from strongly opposing the county incinerator, noting its dangerous/toxic pollution:
https://www.wamc.org/hudson-valley-news/2019-10-18/dutchess-county-executive-candidates-bring-differing-views-to-a-forum ]
Of course, pls also share your thoughts with these folks too-- now(!):
countyexec@dutchessny.gov, [County Exec William O'Neil]
solidwastemgmt@dutchessny.gov [Deputy Solid Waste Comm. Kerry Russell] agency@dcrra.org [DCRRA Chair Wayne Nussbickel]
- Dutchess County Legislature Republican Caucus -
dsagliano@dutchessny.gov, mpolasek@dutchessny.gov, bgeller@dutchessny.gov, tkeith@dutchessny.gov, tdaquanni@dutchessny.gov, wtruitt@dutchessny.gov, jdmetzger@dutchessny.gov, dbolner@dutchessny.gov, lpaoloni@dutchessny.gov, jcavaccini@dutchessny.gov, dmchoul@dutchessny.gov, gpulver@dutchessny.gov, scaswell@dutchessny.gov, fgarito@dutchessny.gov,
ehauser@dutchessny.gov, alansurman@optimum.net, dhouston@dutchessny.gov
[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-46756110381176671342023-09-01T19:20:00.003-07:002023-09-01T19:20:41.816-07:00Neil Seldman/Mike Ewall/Judy Malstrom Zero Waste Dutchess Press Release re: Proposed Dutchess SWMP
Zero Waste Dutchess📷
- MEDIA ADVISORY -
NATIONALLY KNOWN ZERO-WASTE EXPERTS OPPOSE DUTCHESS SWMP;
INCINERATION IS MOST COSTLY/POLLUTING WAY TO DEAL WITH SOLID WASTE
300 JOBS COULD BE CREATED INSTEAD IN RECYCLING, COMPOSTING, & REUSE
Dutchess County citizens and organizations like Zero Waste Dutchess and Working Class Dutchess are opposed to the proposed 10-Year Solid Waste Management Plan based on the environmental assessment of nationally known anti-incineration expert Mike Ewall and economic risks and opportunity costs according to Neil Seldman, Zero Waste USA. The Dutchess County Legislature’s Environmental Committee will be voting Thursday, September 7th at 5:45 pm on the proposed Plan in the Legislature’s Chambers on the sixth floor of the Dutchess County Office Building at 22 Market Street in Poughkeepsie; public comment will be allowed.
Both Ewall and Seldman, well-respected expert analysts of solid waste management and recycling and composting systems, underscore the fact that waste incineration is the most expensive and most polluting method of disposing of municipal solid waste. “New York DEC and federal EPA data clearly shows that Dutchess County’s trash incinerator is the largest industrial air polluter in the county,” said Ewall. “The same is true for the other two trash incinerators in the Hudson Valley, all of which are run by the same company, Wheelabrator.”
In 2011, when there were still eight coal-burning power plants in New York State, DEC documented that the state’s ten trash incinerators – all still operating – were far more polluting than the dirty old coal burners. “Anyone looking at that would be shocked, and cannot justify continuing to burn trash. The Dutchess County incinerator in Poughkeepsie puts out a whopping seven pounds of toxic mercury each year– literally enough to poison over 3100 lakes across the Hudson Valley and beyond, making fish in those lakes unsafe to eat– besides the 100,000 tons annually of global warming pollution that come out of that same smokestack,” said Judy Malstrom, Zero Waste Dutchess Co-Director.”
“The science clearly shows that landfills are bad, but incinerating trash and landfilling toxic ash is even worse for health, climate, and environment. We know this from credible life cycle analysis studies,” said Ewall. “The county incinerator in Poughkeepsie also is the cause of well over ten million dollars a year in health problems due to its particulate emissions– we know this based on a recent analysis of a Baltimore incinerator completed by Dr. George D. Thurston of the New York University School of Medicine for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation,” noted Malstrom.
Seldman points out that at least 300 good jobs, with family level wages and benefits, in recycling, composting and reuse would be created by small businesses. Seldman: “This is the way to expand and strengthen the local economy and tax base by using the resources under the County’s control– jobs in reuse would include building deconstruction and materials resale, appliance repair, mattress recycling, textile refashioning, electronic scrap repair and recycling, and composting (and composting products.”
“Keep It Separate Stupid!” is what Seldman says is the key to the economics of municipal solid waste management– “If you mix all the materials it becomes waste and is expensive to manage. But if you keep materials separate they become valuable resources. Each time you separate, bale and ship materials to waiting markets, you add value to the local and regional economy”
Ewall and Seldman focus on the shortcomings of the Plan: It calls for more incineration by building another plant. Moreover, the composting plan it calls for is hardly adequate for the needs of the County. Nearby Ulster County and Howard County, MD have comprehensive county-wide programs fully operational. Prince George’s County, MD developed an industrial scale facility with capacity that allows it to charge fees to other jurisdictions, which bring in compostable materials. This helps amortize the government’s investment.
Ulster County is a prime example of how solid waste management can progress when officials make the right decisions. Manna Jo Greene, veteran Ulster County Legislator (D-Rosendale) and former long-time Hudson River Sloop Clearwater Environmental Director, points out that because Ulster County was so firmly against garbage incineration, the industry bypassed the county and focused on Dutchess and Westchester. Citizens in those counties got stuck with decades of pollution and high costs.
Malstrom concluded: “Now is the time is now for Dutchess County to catch up to the Zero Waste movement that is growing rapidly in the US and overseas.” Zero Waste principles include 90% reduction of the waste stream, no incineration, organics out of landfills and bans on dangerous products and packages, according to the Zero Waste International Alliance. Zero Waste Dutchess and Working Class Dutchess are opposed to the Plan and is calling for the County to engage a Zero Waste consulting firm to provide a detailed plan that will include phasing out the incinerator and implementing strategies that have gotten other cities and counties to 60%, 70% and 80% reduction of their respective waste stream.
[email zerowastedutchess@gmail.com or call 845-876-2488 for more information][copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-57714333790618272502023-09-01T19:17:00.001-07:002023-09-01T19:17:33.784-07:00Brenda Platt exposes proposed Dutchess SWMP for merely giving lip service to composting instead of getting serious about it
Check out this new analysis of the proposed Dutchess Solid Waste Management Plan-- from Brenda Platt,
Director, Composting for Community Project for the Institute for Local Self-Reliance...
Click here to read proposed misguided Dutchess SWMP itself:
https://www.dutchessny.gov//ConCalAtt/2/2023159.pdf
[pages 135 thru 239 are filled with dozens and dozens of letters/emails from local residents demanding something better(!)]
[recall as well-- https://www.dutchessny.gov/Departments/Solid-Waste-Management/Docs/Draft-Dutchess-County-LSWMP-Plan.pdf
https://www.dutchessny.gov/Departments/Solid-Waste-Management/Solid-Waste-Management-Plan-Rethinking-Waste.htm ]
Thursday Sept. 7th the Co. Leg. Environmental Committee meets at 5:45 pm— public comment will be allowed with a three-minute limit for each person before legislators will vote on the SWMP— agenda just released; come out, speak up(!):
https://www.dutchessny.gov/Calendar-Page.htm?fromdate=2023-09-07&thrudate=2023-09-08&myselectedDeptid=225
From Brenda Platt (bplatt@ilsr.org):
Hi Joel,
Here are my notes on the proposed SWM Plan for Dutchess County.
WTE = a facility that destroys MSW through combustion [they got that part right in the definition!]
Increased organic composting opportunities, most done voluntarily and little opportunity for residents to participate [the plan is extremely weak on how to actually reduce and recover organic materials; it's like they didn't even try to address who to increase opportunities for residents and businesses]
Home composting - promoted thru sale of no-cost BY bins; 61 bins have been sold [but they sell the bins for $62 each! and only 61 have been sold!! That is hardly what I'd call a program. See my report, Yes! In My Backyard: A Home Composting Guide for Local Government, on how the County could do much better]
“We have a WTE facility that processes waste in an environmentally sound manner, recovers metals from the waste and produces electricity” [they don't even acknowledge anywhere in this plan that incineration emits pollutants - very egregious, concerning and misleading, to put it politely]
50,000 tons per year of ash ($3 million/year) from combusting 150,000 tons per year of Municipal Solid Waste [compare these tonnage figures to the 1,200 tons of food scraps reported as composted, the latter being absolutely paltry and there's no question the Plan should be much more concrete on how to reduce incineration]
“Organic composting” is weird terminology. Typically food scraps and yard trimmings are described as organic materials but no one says "organic composting," indicating how little they know of this field
“Foresight to build” a WTE facility in the 1980s [haha]
A solution is needed, only 2 options exist: landfilling and WTE [this is just plain not true of course: reducing waste and reusing, recycling, and composting are other options; it is false to only present disposal as the only solutions]
Ash used "beneficially" as daily cover for landfills [this is a concern and should not be allowed]
Calls for expanded "beneficial use" of incinerator ash such as in road bed material “would make economic and ecological sense”
[What nonsense. It does not make economic nor ecological sense. Plan acknowledges they spend $3 million/year managing ash. Alarming trend is the increase in projects to use incinerator ash. Disperse incinerator ash throughout the environment by mixing into road sub-base materials, asphalt, concrete, and structural fill.]
Republic Services - handles most County recyclables (77%)
600 tpd capacity
Single-stream facility
[Republic is one of 5 waste conglomerates that controls the $91 billion waste industry; single-stream leads to poor quality recyclables. Their reliance on Republic indicates their ignorance of the potential to create local jobs and independent businesses. See Neil's excellent work on waste monopolies here: https://ilsr.org/fighting-monopoly-power/recycling-waste/]
McEnroe Organic Farm - privately operated compost site that accepts food (permit allows 40,000 cy/yr)
Community Compost Co., Ulster Co. site offers FS DO at farmers’ markets for a fee, Beacon eg.
2020- hauler reports, 1,200+ tons food scraps composted
Two state prisons compost onsite: Green Haven Prison and Fishkill Correctional
[these existing sites/operators could potentially help become models for replication or help the County expand infrastructure and programs. If the County wants to increase food waste diversion, they should support them so they're free for residents to participate]
YW - accepted at most of the 15 local transfer stations
No County program for collection or composting of YW and residents are encouraged to BY compost [again, the BY composting program is extremely weak and the fact that the County doesn't have a program to collect or compost YW is mind boggling. But I may be reading this wrong in that maybe the towns/villages are all composting YW on their own.]
Hope to complete a study of the type and size of a compost facility within the 10-year planning period. !! p. 56 [this is nuts. Instead of the 10 year plan incorporating how to compost more, it simply states that we hope to complete a study on this in the next 10 years. Wow. I can't believe how backward this plan is.]
PAYT - [county doesn’t provide collection so they wash their hands of this successful tool in the toolbox]
P. 68, “for Dutchess County the priority option for disposal of waste that has not been diverted has not changed in 30 years, the WTE facility” [so telling! obviously they don't want to change a thing]
I think some of the other points I made during the Zoom call were:
- center job creation and local economic development in the plan
https://ilsr.org/food-waste-hierarchy/
https://ilsr.org/recycling-means-business/
- could be much stronger on reuse and moving to durables
- opportunity to include waste reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting in local Climate Action Plans. Lots of money coming for climate pollution prevention but the strategies need to be in the local climate action plans in order to open up those funding doors
--
Brenda Platt
@PlattBrenda
Director, Composting for Community Project
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
www.ilsr.org/composting
work voicemail line: 202-827-0842
Check out our composting resources in Spanish!
https://ilsr.org/recursos-de-compostaje/
[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-34693049399764306092023-08-20T09:55:00.002-07:002023-08-20T09:55:48.609-07:00ILSR Assessment of Gasification and Pyrolysis TechnologiesMunicipal Waste Combustor Feasibility Assessment
This assessment of gasification and pyrolysis technologies as feasible waste management options for Hawaii County was prepared by the Institute for Local Self Reliance (ILSR) in response to a request from Recycle Hawaii. Its conclusion is based on research as well as input gathered from waste management professionals and zero waste experts. In reaching this conclusion, technological readiness was considered on a par with the impacts that adoption of these, or any incineration technology, would have on the county’s long term waste reduction goals.
Technology Characterization
“Waste-to-energy” is a term commonly used to emphasize the energy production aspect of technologies that recover it from waste. Use of the term also serves to create a broader category within which distinctions can be made between early and advanced technologies by classifying some as incinerators and others according to the processes they use, such as gasification and pyrolysis. Instead of using this unscientific term, this assessment conforms to the EPA practice of 1) characterizing all technologies that ultimately combust municipal waste as “municipal waste combustors” regardless of whether this is achieved in a 1-stage or 2-stage process, and 2) treating this term as synonymous with “incinerator.” According to the EPA, gasification and pyrolysis are best described as 2-stage incinerators.
State of the Art Survey
Throughout the U.S., numerous companies are actively promoting municipal waste combustion as a means to address the impacts caused by shifts in Asian recycling markets. The development strategy commonly employed in this effort involves securing federal funds and tax incentives to cover the costs of small-scale pilot projects designed to produce results that will justify design/build/operate contracts for handling much larger volumes of waste.
Heinz Weverink, principal of Leftover Recycling Services, has been on the frontlines of the waste management industry for nearly 50 years. During this time he managed solid and liquid waste operations as well as recycling companies and served as an enforcement officer for the state of Maryland. Weverink has been involved in the development of numerous recycling and waste management facilities around the country, including the GenAgain facility for Agilyx, a chemical recycling project that took over five years to get operational.
Although he is a strong proponent of both gasification and pyrolysis in theory, Weverink attests from first-hand experience that major project failures and the need for significant subsidization have prevented these technologies from advancing beyond the pilot project stage. He further asserts that the high costs associated with developing such projects at a time when all branches of government are struggling to cope with COVID-19 makes this approach to solid waste management unaffordable. Weverink cautions against partnering with relatively unproven players, and the advice he gives municipalities considering this option is to base their decisions on the benefits of gasification or pyrolysis as solid waste processing systems rather than a means to produce fuels, which need additional refinement and are not ready for gas tanks or generators without additional costs and effort. His assessment of these technologies is that the industry must solve some very complex problems for them to work. Weverink’s major concerns are summarized below:
1) equipment providers routinely oversell the capabilities of their equipment;
2) chlorine is a common element found in municipal solid waste, and handling it requires the use of stainless steel, which adds significantly to the capital cost as well as the costs of treating residue;
3) plastic components, such as styrenes, degrade the value of the fuel produced;
4) residues formed by non-vaporized material become cadmium-based char, to be disposed of at great cost;
5) advanced technologies like pyrolysis and gasification work best with homogeneous feedstocks; handling the inflow of heterogenous material is critical and problematic.
Weverink points out that after 14 years of experimenting with chemical recycling, Agilyx is adapting by repurposing their equipment and processes to deliver a system that processes styrenes, a single plastic type, rather than the mix of plastics typically found in solid waste.
Richard Aho, principal EMS, LLC, is an engineer with 35 years of integrated solid waste management experience, during which time he has worked extensively with the pyro-processing of industrial minerals and energy production from waste feedstocks. Aho agrees with Weverink’s assessment and adds the following observations:
Start ups, shut downs, and fluctuation in the BTU values of the feedstock/fuel can easily create toxic emissions such as dioxins or furans. The issues of balancing a gas production system, an emission control system, and wide variation in fuel quality and contamination is difficult to quantify. A blast furnace has consistency with minimal variation in quality and quantity of fuel and inert (nontoxic) feedstock. An emission control and monitoring system is based on a tight set of operating parameters. Using solid waste as both fuel and feedstock is never going to be consistent. The introduction of multiple unknowns into the process can easily disable the emissions control system at the worst possible time for the downwind stakeholders. What protections would be in place, particularly for the at-risk members of the community?
With “unplanned” feedstock, catastrophic failure of the gasification system is possible. From an operational standpoint removing partially burned solid waste from a blast furnace would be very unpleasant and would probably require significant downtime/repairs. What contingencies are in place when the gasification system has been destroyed or damaged by the feedstock? The damage associated with failures could be catastrophic from the structural, safety, explosive/toxic gas, and sensor/monitoring perspectives. What safeguards are being proposed to address the introduction of multiple, fundamental variables into the overall process?
Mike Ewall of Energy Justice Network has done extensive research on incineration technologies. He explains that all combustion is technically gasification.
If you light a piece of paper on fire, and look closely, you’ll notice a gap between the paper and the flame. It’s the heat that gasifies the paper, and the gases that burn. This takes place in any sort of incinerator. However, in 2-stage incineration processes, like gasification and pyrolysis, this process is broken into steps, and is essentially like putting a pipe between the paper and the flame. The first stage turns the feedstock into a gas, which then gets burned in a second stage. Claims that gasification and pyrolysis are not incineration or do not involve combustion depend on a limited analysis that focuses on the first stage and ignores the second.
When assessing the feasibility of municipal waste combustors, Ewall points to recommendations made by leading industry experts who assist with their development, such as the pro-incineration consulting firm, Gershman, Brickner & Bratton, Inc. (GBB). GBB characterizes both gasification and pyrolysis as high risk investments due to “previous failures at scale” and “no operating experience with large-scale operations in the U.S.” GBB has continuously presented variations of this high-risk assessment for the past decade, as these technologies are relegated to small-scale demonstration plants that typically fail technically and/or economically. Plants that continue to operate do so by abandoning mixed municipal solid waste and switching to homogeneous feedstocks.
In XXXX Prince George’s County, Maryland hired GBB to review alternatives to landfilling. After extensive analysis of options including municipal solid waste combustion, gasification, waste-to-fuels, and mixed waste processing, GBB narrowed the list of qualified vendors from 16 to seven before Prince George’s County abandoned all of them in favor of a plan to extend the life of its landfill and adopt zero waste measures. Vendors with gasification technologies didn’t make the short-list of seven.
In 2014, the world’s largest waste corporation, Waste Management, Inc., sold off its investments in gasification, pyrolysis and other waste-to-fuels companies.
In June 2020, consultant Geosyntec completed a $450,000 Solid Waste and Recycling Master Plan for the City of Baltimore, which looked at options for replacing its aging trash incinerator. Their final report states:
Gasification is also an emerging and untested technology for waste processing in the U.S., which may make it difficult to permit and build such a facility. . . Based on the very high capital costs for a MWP facility using gasification technology, and the fact that gasification is a largely untested technology for processing organics separated from a mixed waste stream, a MWP facility configuration with a gasifier is not recommended.
MWP stands for mixed waste processing, which involves sorting trash to remove materials such as glass and metal before preparing what remains to be burned, composted or digested. Although proponents of gasification and pyrolysis claim these technologies can effectively process a wide variety of materials, they cannot process them as a heterogenous mixture. Extensive use of MWP is required to produce an acceptable feedstock and even when such sorting methods are in place, what comes off the back end is often still too diverse for the highly sensitive mechanical components that comprise these systems.
In their more detailed “Managing What’s Left” report leading up to the Master Plan, Geosyntec elaborates on gasification, stating:
Geosyntec is not aware of any commercial scale MSW gasification project currently in operation in the U.S. It is not a mature technology and thus analyses presented in this section are based on extrapolation from pilot projects that may not be scalable or projects currently under construction (which are unproven). This adds an extra dimension of uncertainty to the findings discussed here.
Geosyntec goes on to describe how gasification would compete with waste reduction efforts and face political challenges from an environmentally-concerned public:
Permitting and acceptance: Gasification is an emerging and untested technology for waste processing in the U.S. As such, it may be difficult to permit and build such a facility. Further, government agencies and the public may be skeptical of the benefits of gasification.
Pyrolysis is a process that involves the thermal decomposition of materials in an inert atmosphere. Because pyrolytic systems operate at lower temperatures than conventional incinerators or gasifiers, they produce a broader range of byproducts from incomplete combustion, including highly toxic and carcinogenic chemicals such as tars, dioxins, furans, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
A standard claim in favor of pyrolysis is that the process cannot form dioxins and furans because these substances “are formed when organic matter and materials containing chlorine are burned in the presence of oxygen at very high temperatures.” In fact, dioxins and furans are formed at temperatures within the range at which pyrolysis takes place (as low as 350—400°C), and the fact that the syngas coming out of the pyrolysis chamber contains roughly 20% oxygen by molecular weight demonstrates that even though the process does not introduce outside air, there is more than enough oxygen in the feedstock to combine with hydrocarbons and halogens to form these extremely hazardous substances.
Another common pitch made for pyrolysis is its effectiveness as a means for processing scrap tires, but in XXXX the Rubber Manufacturers Association (a trade association that supports using tires as an energy feedstock), reported that: “Major tire companies like Goodyear and Firestone once invested ‘immense resources’ in pyrolysis but could not find markets for the byproducts or even a way to integrate them into their own products. And scores of start-ups have tried and failed to make money from tire pyrolysis. . . The road is littered with the carnage of people who were trying to make this technology viable.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states that: “While technically feasible, tire pyrolysis— a process in which tires are subjected to heat in an oxygen-starved environment and converted to gas, oil and carbon char—has been inhibited by the high capital investment required and steep operating costs.”
Pyrolysis is also used to produce biochar from carbon rich materials like wood, wood waste, and agricultural waste. While promoted as a carbon sequestration strategy, biochar production results in toxic byproducts that are often ignored.
Existing emissions data on pyrolysis plants shows that air emissions from them can be comparable to, or even more polluting than, trash incinerators, which are dirtier than coal power plants by most measures and proven to be the most expensive and polluting way to manage waste.
Most pyrolysis proposals are brought forward by new limited liability corporations with no track record of technical or financial success. Their claims about the lack of emissions are misleading and stem from the use of designs that do not include smokestacks.
Like waste gasification and plasma arc facilities, pyrolysis plants are typically designed to process small batches at demonstration scale. There are currently no pyrolysis plants operating continuously at commercial scale using municipal solid waste as a feedstock.
Four other sources of information on gasification and pyrolysis technology are relevant to Hawaii County’s needs. The Global Anti Incineration Alliance prepared “Waste Gasification & Pyrolysis: High Risk, Low Yield Processes for Waste Management—A Technology Risk Analysis” in 2017 (a report that covers worldwide developments of these technologies) and “All Talk and No Recycling: An investigation of the U.S. ‘Chemical Recycling Industry,” July 2020. Among other important facts to note is that in Japan, the country with the most experience with solid waste gasification, the number of gasification plants declined from 1,800 to 1,200 in recent years.
Zero Waste Europe issued ‘European Incineration Myths,’ July 2020. This document summarizes the variety of measures recently taken to discourage investment in all future solid waste incineration technology.
Jack Buffington, Research Professor & Associate Director Mack-Blackwell National Rural Transportation Study Center, College of Engineering, University of Colorado and recent author of Peak Plastic: The Rise or Fall of our Synthetic World, encourages the industry to develop non-thermal repolymerization of plastic discards, not thermal repolymerization, or incineration.
Professor of Chemistry (retired) Paul Connett, provided a detailed assessment of solid waste incineration in a lecture to the citizens of New York’s Warren and Washington Counties that covers the many issues surrounding incineration technologies.. Connett’s message underscores the need to capture organic matter and produce compost for local food production while also pursuing recycling as a means to create local jobs. High technology systems employ chemical engineers but they do not create jobs for regular workers; whereas recycling, composting and reuse are labor intensive.
Another area of concern relates to the need for sustained waste generation at a time when Earth’s natural resources are being depleted. Financing the high capital costs of municipal waste combustors requires a guaranteed flow of income, which is dependent on a guaranteed flow of waste. When governments are involved in incineration projects, taxpayers are held liable for costs incurred when the flow of waste drops below the guaranteed level. Recent costs to Oahu taxpayers as a result of a decrease in deliveries to H-Power provide a pertinent example. In 2017, the City and County of Honolulu fell 49,000 tons short of the volume it had agreed to deliver, which left Oahu taxpayers with a nearly $600k-bill to cover the losses Covanta incurred when it failed to provide power to the utility. At a time when major retailers are vowing to reduce the volume of waste they generate and investments in recycling infrastructure are driving the expansion of a domestic industry in the U.S., making a long term commitment to provide large volumes of waste to incinerators cannot be justified.
Summary and Conclusion
Based on ILSR’s research, municipal solid waste combustion does not offer a feasible waste management option for Hawaii Island.
ILSR found sufficient information from correspondence with academic, government, industry and public interest sources to determine that both gasification and pyrolysis have failed to live up to the promise of a cost effective and nonpolluting technology.
Recycling and composting have always been the preferred strategies for handling discarded items that cannot be reused, and incineration technologies, no matter how advanced, and regardless of whether they outsource the combustion aspect by producing fuels, undermine efforts to reduce waste. Rather than anticipate advancements that might someday make gasification or pyrolysis technologies acceptable, ILSR recommends that the county take immediate action to improve existing infrastructure in ways that take advantage of high drop off rates to produce a steady stream of clean, high quality discards. By making these improvements and working with international secondary materials brokers and companies capable of processing materials for reuse on island—through composting, anaerobic digestion, small scale recycling and reuse enterprises—Hawaii County can achieve the environmental and economic goals set forth in its general and community development plans as well as its climate action initiative and zero waste plan.
[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-91708098868405064232023-08-20T09:51:00.007-07:002023-08-20T09:51:41.411-07:00Mike Ewall: Trash Pyrolysis Is A Failed TechnologyTrash Pyrolysis is a Failed Technology
By Mike Ewall
Energy Justice Network
mike@energyjustice.net
www.energyjustice.net
What is pyrolysis?
Pyrolysis involves heating waste or other materials in a chamber, usually by burning fossil fuels to apply
heat to the outside of the chamber. It is intended to be oxygen-free, by not allowing additional outside air
into the chamber, though oxygen is often present in the material, anyway. It reduces waste to gases and
ash and usually uses a lower temperature range than other incinerator technologies, resulting in increased
formations of toxic chemicals such as tars, dioxins, furans, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
This pyrolysis process is usually followed by the burning of the gases in a secondary chamber.
Is it incineration?
Both the European Union and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) define pyrolysis as
a type of incineration. The U.S. EPA has a definition of a “municipal waste combustor,” which it states is
synonymous with “municipal waste incinerator” – a.k.a. “trash incinerator.” Their definition of “municipal
waste combustor” includes pyrolysis. The federal regulations, at 40 CFR 60.51a, state:
Municipal waste combustor, MWC, or municipal waste combustor unit: (1) Means any setting or
equipment that combusts solid, liquid, or gasified MSW including, but not limited to, field-erected
incinerators (with or without heat recovery), modular incinerators (starved-air or excess-air),
boilers (i.e., steam-generating units), furnaces (whether suspension-fired, grate-fired, mass-fired,
air curtain incinerators, or fluidized bed-fired), and pyrolysis/combustion units. Municipal waste
combustors do not include pyrolysis/combustion units located at plastics/ rubber recycling units (as
specified in § 60.50a(k) of this section). Municipal waste combustors do not include internal
combustion engines, gas turbines, or other combustion devices that combust landfill gases
collected by landfill gas collection systems.
Pyrolysis/combustion unit means a unit that produces gases, liquids, or solids through the heating
of MSW, and the gases, liquids, or solids produced are combusted and emissions vented to the
atmosphere.
Note: MSW stands for municipal solid waste (trash).
Is it polluting?
Yes. The limited emissions data on pyrolysis plants shows that their air emissions can be comparable to, or
even more polluting than, normal trash incinerators. Trash incinerators are the most expensive and
polluting way to manage waste or produce energy and are dirtier than coal power plants by most
measures. In any jurisdiction, they usually rank among the top air polluters, alongside airports, coal power
plants, paper mills and cement kilns.
Does the technology work on waste?
The technology usually does not work. Like waste gasification or plasma arc facilities, pyrolysis plants
generally have not managed to run continuously or at commercial scale. They’re usually not intended for
continuous operation, but run in batches, and are mainly used at a demonstration scale.
Most waste pyrolysis facility proposals are brought by new LLC companies with no real history who trick
local officials into subsidizing projects that fail, technically and financially. The companies often lie about
their emissions, claiming zero emissions or “no smokestack.” It’s typical for them to point to projects in
distant countries and pretend to have something successful going on there, though investigation usually
shows that they don’t really own or operate the projects, and/or that the projects have failed.
When a huge 6,000 ton per day (tpd) trash and tire pyrolysis facility was proposed in Logansport, Indiana in
recent years, the developer pointed to two reference plants. Upon examination, we learned:
• Undisclosed location, Germany
– only 4 tpd
– only operated ‘over’ 2,500 hours in 14 years (about 7 1/2 days per year)
– described as “not intended for continuous operation.”
• Eilenburg, Germany
– 37 ton per day but did not achieve this – only ran 1,600 hours in its life
– Only processed total of 2,500 tons in a year (2002)
– Longest continuous run was 15 days
– Contract cancelled due to financial reasons
In an interview with a man who works for a U.S. patent review company, he summed it up this way: He’s
been seeing pyrolysis projects for 14 years and “none of them are legitimate.” He stated that they're just
splitting combustion into two steps, making it more expensive, less efficient and not any cleaner. He
described the patent seekers as a steady stream of guys in their 50s-70s who worked at corporations,
thought it's a great idea, and go out and promote it and get money by whatever means and get some
patent coverage mainly to help get the money, but none are legitimate.
Pyrolysis has been proposed a lot for use with scrap tires. The biggest cheerleaders for tire burning, the
Rubber Manufacturers Association (a trade association), are even critical of tire pyrolysis, stating that:
“Major tire companies like Goodyear and Firestone once invested ‘immense resources’ in pyrolysis but
could not find markets for the byproducts or even a way to integrate them into their own products. And
scores of start-ups have tried and failed to make money from tire pyrolysis.” They go on to state: “The road
is littered with the carnage of people who were trying to make this technology viable.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has even stated that: “While technically feasible, tire pyrolysis –
a process in which tires are subjected to heat in an oxygen-starved environment and converted to gas, oil
and carbon char – has been inhibited by the high capital investment required and steep operating costs.”
Gershman, Brickner & Bratton (GBB) is the leading incinerator promoting waste consultancy in the U.S.
They regularly present on the status of the incineration industry at industry conferences. The following
slide is routinely featured in their presentations. It states that pyrolysis is “high” risk – not because they
think these incinerators have any environmental risk, but as a financial/investment risk due to “previous
failures at scale, uncertain commercial potential; no operating experience with large-scale operations.”
Where has pyrolysis been rejected in the United States?
There have been many proposals for waste pyrolysis in the U.S. Nearly every proposal fails. Many are hard
to know about because they die quietly, often because investors realize that it’s a bad investment and don’t
provide the needed money for the project. Others fail because the local government looks at their options
and realizes that it’s too risky and avoids it. Sometimes, the community has to organize to stop a proposal,
and nearly every time a pyrolysis facility is proposed, it’s stopped by community opposition. In very rare
cases, facilities are built, and most of them are small, pilot-scale operations that end up failing financially,
technically, or for both reasons. In some cases, they propose to use waste, but find that they can’t make it
work, and repurpose it for use with a more homogenous feedstock.
A complete list of failed projects would be extensive. We know of many that have been proposed and
never seem to have materialized, indicating failure, though it can be hard to confirm. Some confirmed
cases of proposals that have failed for one of the above reasons are:
Atwood, Indiana
Logansport, Indiana
Baltimore, Maryland
Bordentown, New Jersey
New York, New York
Niagara Falls, New York
Pearl River, New York
Cleveland, Ohio
Chester, Pennsylvania
Crawford County, Pennsylvania
Houston, Texas
Burlington, Vermont
Stafford, Virginia
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Where can I find more information?
See the reports under the “Incinerators in Disguise” and “Pyrolysis” sections about half-way down the page
at www.energyjustice.net/incineration
What are the alternatives?
Discarded materials ought to be handled by strictly following the internationally peer-reviews Zero Waste
Hierarchy by the Zero Waste International Alliance. See: http://zwia.org/standards/zero-waste-hierarchy/
and www.energyjustice.net/zerowaste for more information. Pyrolysis is considered to be part of the
“unacceptable” category, as it’s a form of incineration.[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-26370973801598866832023-08-20T09:48:00.002-07:002023-08-20T09:48:21.240-07:00Neil Seldman on PFAS from Incineration
COMMENTS ON PFAS AND WASTE INCINERATION
Memorandum to Minnesota Environmental Justice Table
Zero Waste Montgomery County, MD
Zero Waste Warren County, NY
N N SELDMAN (nnseldman54@gmail.com)
ZERO WASTE USA
https://zerowasteusa.org/resources/
July 31, 2023
+ Chemicals for Eternity: Forever and Everywhere Pollutants
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a large group of compounds commonly used as industrial chemicals and constituents of consumer products, e.g., as surfactants and surface protectors. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has identified 41,828 industrial and municipal sites in the U.S. that are known or suspected of using PFAS.
The literature refers to these chemicals as ‘forever’ and everywhere’ pollutants as these human-made chemicals do not breakdown and persist in the environment, and, they are ubiquitous in every day products. The widespread use of PFAS assures that they enter the waste stream and wind up in landfills and incinerators and thereby become a threat to humans that breath the air and consume contaminated food.
Studies have confirmed that when PFAS-laden materials in landfills they accumulate in leachate, or the chemical soup and must be treated as a hazardous substance. When PFAS are sent to incinerators they enter the environment via ash, gypsum, treated process water, and flue gas.
The impact of burning PFAS on humans is largely unknown.
A most recent study in July 2023 determined
that “PFAS are poorly to hardly biodegradable – and that is a real problem. They therefore accumulate in the environment – in soils and bodies of water. They can even be found in Antarctica. They can enter the human body via food, drinking water, or the air. Studies have shown that PFAS can be detected in the blood of almost everyone in the world. What this means for our long-term health is not yet known.”
+ Wake-Up Call
One study found 97% of the blood samples contained a type of PFAS known as PFOS, associated with multiple serious health problems for reproductive health and the environment. “This is such an important issue,” the researcher stated, (That) it is urgent we do more to understand the role that chemicals have in maternal conditions and health inequities. We are being exposed to hundreds of chemicals and this research contributes to better understanding the impact they are having on our health.”
Several interdisciplinary epidemiology studies focus on the impact of PFAS on children from before conception through adolescence, of exposure to environmental pollutants. Through interdisciplinary, multi-institution research projects suggest that these impacts could be passed along through genes to children. Braun and his collaborators measure levels of exposure and analyze associations with a range of different disorders and health issues, from those that may be experienced by individuals to those that can be passed along through genes to children. The health effects of these chemicals are becoming indisputable, said Joseph Braun, who directs the Center for Children’s Environmental Health at Brown’s School of Public Health, concluded, “There are multiple research groups around the country and the world that are finding more and more ways that exposure to these chemicals not only impacts the health of individuals but also their offspring,” he said. “It’s no longer a matter of ‘if’ but ‘how’ — and there are many answers to ‘how.” The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine issued a 300-plus-page report providing detailed advice for clinicians on how to test, diagnose and treat the millions of Americans who may have been exposed to PFAS chemicals.
Additional research on over 9000 PFAS compounds concluded that there is increasing concern regarding human exposure to these compounds due to their persistent, bio-accumulative, and toxic nature. Human exposure to PFAS may occur from a variety of exposure sources, including, air, food, indoor dust, soil, water, from the transfer of PFAS from non-stick wrappers to food, use of cosmetics, and other personal care products. Recent reviews identified that exposure to PFAS was associated with adverse health impacts on female and male fertility, metabolism in pregnancy, endocrine function including pancreatic dysfunction and risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, lipid metabolism and risk of childhood adiposity, hepatic and renal function, immune function, cardiovascular health (atherosclerosis), bone health including risk for dental cavities, osteoporosis, and vitamin D deficiency, neurological function, and risk of developing breast cancer. Most research on the impact of PFAS remains unpublicized, even as additional research on pathways and impacts are underway.
There is an urgent need for continued research focused on PFAS.
+ PFAS and HERC
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has commented on PFAS in its 20-year solid waste management plan for Metropolitan Minneapolis.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a significant challenge. Invented in the 1930s, PFAS are still commonly used for their water- and grease-resistant properties in many industrial applications and consumer products such as carpeting, waterproof clothing, upholstery, food paper wrappings, cookware, personal care products, fire-fighting foams, and metal plating. PFAS are persistent and can bioaccumulate, meaning the amount builds up in the body over time. When landfilled, PFAS migrates into the leachate, which is treated at a wastewater treatment facility. With no existing removal systems installed at landfills or wastewater plants to remove PFAS, the treated wastewater is discharged into surface water. It is uncertain that waste to energy (WTE) facilities maintain the high temperatures required to destroy PFAS. The waste industry is in the process of identifying ways to address this unusual class of chemicals. As the solid waste system continues to evolve, it needs to adapt to safely manage new materials.
The consensus among members of the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table and the HERC Shut Down Coalition of 30 grass roots organizations state that support for incineration by the MPCA given the known dangers of PFAS to people and nature is unacceptable.
This consensus is compatible with recent comments on EPA’s Pre-Rulemaking Comments on Large Municipal Waste Incinerator Standards [EPA-HQ-OAR-2022-0920]. According to this report,
Decades ago, Congress recognized the harms from incinerators and required EPA to act quickly to address these harms. Yet the EPA has never met the deadlines for establishing regulations to control the technology. As a result, none of these outdated municipal waste incinerator standards has ever met the minimum stringency requirements that Congress required. Thereby, failing to protect communities who have suffered from incinerator pollution for far too long. Because of EPA’s failure to update these incinerator standards in the manner and at the
pace that Congress required, decades-old, dirty incinerators continue to operate with decades-old
technology.
In order to protect communities from particulate emissions, SO2, NOx, hydrogen chloride, lead, mercury, dioxins and cadmium, the report calls for EPA to set emissions standards. The EPA must require continuous monitoring of these pollutants.
Congress gave the EPA the authority to regulate incinerator emissions of additional pollutants such as PFAS and related chemicals. Thus, EPA must use that authority to regulate LMWC emissions of additional harmful pollutants like polycyclic organic matter (“POM”), polychlorinated biphenyls (“PCBs”), per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), and ammonia slip.
With specific regard to PFAS, the report concluded:
There is overwhelming evidence that PFAS are a critical and persistent ambient threat to public health, and the Clean Air Act mandates that EPA set standards and monitor the emissions to protect people from toxic air pollutants that can cause dire health effects like the numerous serious risks PFAS pose.
When setting PFAS emission limits and monitoring requirements in the LMWC Standards, EPA should list the entire class as a regulated pollutant. As stated during a Senate Committee hearing by Linda Birnbaum, then-Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and The National Toxicology Program, “Approaching PFAS as a class, rather than as thousands of individual compounds, is the best approach for assessing exposure and biological impact, and for protecting public health.”242 Regulating PFAS as a class is especially important considering the breadth of the PFAS category, the ability of PFAS to spread thousands of miles beyond their point of origin, the risk of bioaccumulation, the creation of more PFAS by burning PFAS, and the fact that there remains many unknowns regarding the emissions of PFAS.
Appendix A - Excerpt from Earth Justice Comments, Pages 32-34.
. EPA Must Regulate PFAS Emissions. EPA must also exercise its authority under Section 129 to regulate LMWC emissions of PFAS. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences describes PFAS as a “large, complex, and ever-expanding” class of thousands of human-made organic chemicals used in 219 42 U.S.C. § 7412(c)(6). 220 Source Category Listing for Section 112(d)(2) Rulemaking Pursuant to Section 112(c)(6) Requirements, 63 Fed. Reg. 17,838, 17,849, Table 2 (Apr. 10, 1998) (also noting “municipal waste combustion” exceeds the threshold for the other 112(c)(6) pollutants dioxins/furans and mercury, which are already listed under Section 129). 221 Id. at 17,845, 17,849, Table 2. 222 Jamie M. Kelly et al., Global Cancer Risk From Unregulated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, 5 Geohealth 1- 19 (2021) (attached as Attachment 56); Hyunok Choi et al., Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in WHO GUIDELINES FOR INDOOR AIR QUALITY: SELECTED POLLUTANTS, pgs. 289-345 (2010) (attached as Attachment 57). 223 Marta Gabryszewska & Barbara Gworek, Impact of municipal and industrial waste incinerators on PCBs content in the environment, 15 PLOS ONE 1-13 (2020) (attached as Attachment 58); Prachi Gupta et al., The Environmental Pollutant, Polychlorinated Biphenyls, and Cardiovascular Disease: a Potential Target for Antioxidant Nanotherapeutics, 8 Drug Deliv Transl Res 740-759 (2018) (attached as Attachment 59). 224 Gupta et al., supra note 223 at 3 (attach. 59). 225 2005 LMWC Standards Proposed Rule, 70 Fed. Reg. at 75,356. 226 42 U.S.C. §§ 7412(d)(2)-(3), 7429(a)(2). 33 hundreds of products and industrial processes, including airplane jet engines, firefighting foam, and everyday products like waterproof jackets, nonstick pans, and paints.227 The carbon-fluorine bond that characterizes PFAS chemicals is “one of the strongest ever created,” making PFAS extremely persistent in the environment and difficult to break down or remediate.228 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (“ATSDR”) report that PFAS exposure is linked to serious health effects, including bone diseases, elevated cholesterol, diabetes, fatty liver disease, adverse impacts on thyroid and sex hormones as well as metabolic activity, and liver, kidney, and testicular cancer in adults. 229 PFAS have also been linked to increased risk of high blood pressure or preeclampsia in pregnant women, preterm birth, decreased birth weight, and other reproductive and developmental effects.230 The CDC further found that “PFAS exposure may reduce antibody responses to vaccines, and may reduce infectious disease resistance,”231 while the International Agency for Research on Cancer has declared certain PFAS carcinogenic. 232 PFAS are emitted to the ambient air by chemical manufacturing plants, industrial facilities that use PFAS in their processes, and when ultimately disposed of in waste incinerators. Once in the air, PFAS can be inhaled, particularly by those living nearby sources of air emissions – often environmental justice communities comprised mostly of low-income and/or communities of color – or they can deposit into the water and soil, where they contaminate our drinking water and food.233 According to EPA’s own data, over half the country’s PFAS waste is burned, despite the fact that incineration has not been demonstrated to be an effective technique in destroying PFAS chemicals.234 EPA has previously acknowledged the risk that incinerating PFAS poses considering the chemical bonds of PFAS make them difficult to destroy under typical incineration conditions, admitting that it “has evidence that polymers containing PFAS or PFAC may degrade, possibly by incomplete incineration, and that 227 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) at 1 (Mar. 2019), https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/materials/perfluoroalkyl_and_polyfluoroalkyl_substances_508.pdf (attached as Attachment 60). 228 Id.; see also Prepared Testimony of Linda S. Birnbaum, Dir., Nat’l Inst. Env’t Health Sci. & Nat’l Toxicology Program, NIH, Hearing on “Examining the Federal response to the risks associated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)” Before the S. Comm. on Env’t & Pub. Works, 116th Cong. at 2 (Mar. 28, 2019) (attached as Attachment 61). 229 Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Human health effects of drinking water exposures to perand poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS): A multi-site cross-sectional study Protocol at 22-23, (Nov. 17, 2021), https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/pfas/docs/multi-site-study-protocol-508.pdf (attached as Attachment 62); see also Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Toxicological Profile for Perfluoroalkyls at 6, 665 (May 2021), https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp200.pdf (attached as Attachment 63). 230 ATSDR, Toxicological Profile for Perfluoroalkyls, supra note 229 at 6 (attach. 63). 231 Zygmunt F. Dembek & Robert A. Lordo, Influence of Perfluoroalkyl Substances on Occurrence of Coronavirus Disease 2019, 19 Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 1, 10 (2022) (attached as Attachment 64). 232 ATSDR, Toxicological Profile for Perfluoroalkyls, supra note 229 at 6, 524 (attach. 63). 233 EPA, Interim Guidance on the Destruction and Disposal of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Materials Containing Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances at 11 (Dec. 18, 2020) (attached as Attachment 65); see also Hearing on “Examining the Federal response to the risks associated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)” Before the S. Comm. on Env’t & Pub. Works, 116th Cong. at 4 (2019) [hereinafter PFAS Hearing] (attached as Attachment 66) (testimony of Sen. John Barasso). 234 Anna Reade, New EPA Data: Huge Amounts of PFAS Underreported and Burned, NRDC (Oct. 21, 2021), https://www.nrdc.org/experts/yiliqi/new-epa-data-huge-amounts-pfas-underreported-and-burned-0 (attached as Attachment 67). 34 these perfluorinated chemical substances may be released into the environment.”235 While it is possible that combustion at 1,000°C might destroy PFAS, EPA further admits that “it is not well understood how effective high-temperature combustion is in completely destroying PFAS or whether the process can form fluorinated or mixed halogenated organic byproducts.”236 Worse still, some short chain PFAS – the type of PFAS manufacturers began producing more of in lieu of long-chain PFAS when concerns over the toxicity, human health, and bioaccumulation of long-chain PFAS began surfacing237 – have been particularly difficult to destroy via combustion, some “requiring temperatures over 1,400°C (2,550°F).”238 Despite this uncertainty, incinerators are still allowed to emit unknown amount of PFAS into the air. While these emissions will have a profound and primary impact on those closest to the source, PFAS can travel thousands of miles from their original release site by air or water, meaning their impact is borderless and all the more dangerous. 239 There is overwhelming evidence that PFAS are a critical and persistent ambient threat to public health, and the Clean Air Act mandates that EPA set standards and monitor the emissions to protect people from toxic air pollutants that can cause dire health effects like the numerous serious risks PFAS pose. 240 EPA agrees that “exposure to PFAS is an urgent public health and environmental issue in the United States” because they are “highly persistent in the environment” and “have the ability to bioaccumulate.”241 In light of the well-established body of scientific evidence demonstrating that PFAS air pollution poses a threat to public health and EPA’s own acknowledgments, the Agency has an obligation to regulate the burning of PFAScontaining materials in LMWCs. When setting PFAS emission limits and monitoring requirements in the LMWC Standards, EPA should list the entire class as a regulated pollutant. As stated during a Senate Committee hearing by Linda Birnbaum, then-Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and The National Toxicology Program, “Approaching PFAS as a class, rather than as thousands of individual compounds, is the best approach for assessing exposure and biological impact, and for protecting public health.”242 Regulating PFAS as a class is especially important considering the breadth of the PFAS category, the ability of PFAS to spread thousands of miles beyond their point of origin, the risk of bioaccumulation, the creation of more PFAS by burning PFAS, and the fact that there remain many unknowns regarding the emissions levels and toxicity most types of PFAS.243 235 Premanufacture Notification Exemption for Polymers; Amendment of Polymer Exemption Rule to Exclude Certain Perfluorinated Polymers, 75 Fed. Reg. at 4,298 (Jan. 27, 2010). 236 EPA, Interim Guidance on the Destruction and Disposal of PFAS, supra note 233 at 41 (attach. 65). 237 Stephen K. Ritter, Fluorochemicals Go Short, C&EN (Feb. 1, 2020), https://cen.acs.org/articles/88/i5/Fluorochemicals-Short.html (attached as Attachment 68). 238 EPA, Interim Guidance on the Destruction and Disposal of PFAS, supra note 233 at 39 (attach. 65). 239 Id. at 11; ATSDR, Toxicological Profile for Perfluoroalkyls, supra note 229 at 669-675 (attach. 63). 240 See 42 U.S.C. § 7429(c). 241 Pesticides; Proposed Removal of PFAS Chemicals From Approved Inert Ingredient List for Pesticide Products, 87 Fed. Reg. at 56,052 (Sept. 13, 2022). 242 PFAS Hearing, 116th Cong., supra note 233 at 32 (attach. 66) (testimony of Dr. Linda Birnbaum).
[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-1899033585351941472023-08-19T22:50:00.007-07:002023-08-19T22:52:26.563-07:00join Manna Jo Greene Tues. 8 pm w/Shabazz Jackson, Neil Seldman, Brenda Platt, Mike Ewall, Vanessa Agudelo-- Zero Waste Zoom-- close incinerator, contract expert, move Dutchess SWMP to zero waste!Hi all--
Update(!): this Tues. 8 pm (Aug. 22nd)-- join Manna Jo Greene, Ulster County Legislator and former Hudson River Sloop Clearwater Environmental Director, Shabazz Jackson and Josephine Papagni of Greenway Environmental Services, Mike Ewall, Founder/Director of the Energy Justice Network, Neil Seldman, Director of the Recycling Cornucopia Program at Zero Waste USA and Cofounder of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and Brenda Platt, Director of the Composting for Community Project at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Vanessa Agudelo of the Westchester Alliance for Sustainable Solutions (NYS Director for the Energy Justice Network), and yours truly for our Emergency Zero Waste Zoom to educate and mobilize y'all to come out and speak up Thurs. Sept. 7th (at about 5:30 pm during the Co. Leg. Environmental Committee mtg.) and Mon. Sept. 11th (at 7 pm at start of Co. Leg. full board mtg.)-- to weigh in on county GOP-backed "Solid Waste Management Plan" for Dutchess-- which prolongs life of county incinerator!
For Shabazz' and Josephine's amazing work composting food waste see:
https://www.greenwayny.com
For Mike's amazingly effective work fighting incineration see:
http://www.energyjustice.net
For Vanessa's amazing work fighting incineration in Westchester see:
https://wasspeekskill.org
For Brenda's amazing work promoting composting across US see:
https://ilsr.org/composting/
For Neil's amazing work promoting zero waste across US see:
https://zerowasteusa.org/author/cornucopia/
https://ilsr.org/waste-to-wealth/
Zoom link/info here: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84845515331?pwd=OWo2WXpDMTBUMXgyZzVBL0xNNUxEdz09
(meeting ID: 848 4551 5331; passcode: 446589) ]
Rsvp/share FB event link for Tues. 8 pm Zoom session here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1340801479848046
[pls also put Tues. Sept. 29th 8 pm and Tues. Sept. 5th 8 pm on your calendars as well-- Mike Ewall of the Energy Justice Network and I will be holding follow-up weekly Zero Waste Dutchess Zoom meetings on those days at those times-- pass it on]
Neil Seldman will be sharing with us two recent reports that he worked on with Mike Ewall-- they are transition plans for Minneapolis, MN and Montgomery County, MD-- they developed Zero Waste plans to show how to move forward without incineration and both of those plans are actually being implemented in those two places locally-- IT CAN BE DONE.
[Neil will also share at our Tues. Zoom his updated analysis of the newly proposed Solid Waste Management Plan for Dutchess; note as well-- Neil is working with Warren County on "direct marketing of materials to regional mills to earn mill prices and not pay processing fees to save rural counties money"-- over a year ago I shared with many Dutchess County Legislators how/why Neil was doing this with Warren County-- and unfortunately was met with crickets-- why?...see:
https://www.waste360.com/recycling/zero-waste-usa-announces-recycle-cornucopia-program ]
Shabazz Jackson will be sharing his slide presentation on how tourism can and should provide the funding for Ulster County to move towards zero waste.
https://hudsonvalleyone.com/2023/07/22/great-youre-composting-but-are-you-doing-it-correctly/
[I started working with Shabazz and Neil on moving Dutchess towards zero waste back in 2009 after I attended a conference on zero waste in Albany; Neil helped me get a resolution passed unanimously in Mar. 2009 for Dutchess to seek out funding for zero-waste planning-- of course there was no follow-thru on this from Steinhaus, Molinaro, Serino, Rolison, Pulver, et. al. in spite of 11 GOP county legislators voting for it:
https://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2009/07/re-zero-waste-for-dutchess-missed.html ]
Fact: Dutchess County's contract with Wheelabrator to run the county incinerator in Poughkeepsie runs out in 2027-- see examples here of counties across the US that are in the process of ending their incineration contracts w/Wheelabrator and moving towards zero waste:
https://www.epa.gov/transforming-waste-tool/how-communities-have-defined-zero-waste
[there is absolutely no excuse for Dutchess County not to follow these!]
Fact: Montgomery County's contract with Wheelabrator to run the incinerator there runs out in April 2026-- so they've implemented a zero-waste plan to make incineration there obsolete.
http://www.energyjustice.net/md/beyond.pdf
https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/SWS/master-plan.html
Fact: Minneapolis' contract with Great River Energy to run the incinerator there runs out at the end of 2025-- so they've implemented a zero-waste plan to make the incinerator there obsolete.
https://www.minneapolismn.gov/media/-www-content-assets/documents/Zero-Waste-Plan_November-2017---clean---no-hyperlinks.pdf
Fact: Westchester County's contract with Wheelabrator to run their incinerator in Peekskill runs out in 2029-- so Vanessa Agudelo, Mike Ewall, WASS, and the Energy Justice Network are developing a zero-waste plan to make incineration there obsolete-- and publicly recognizing current local elected officials and candidates who are working with them.
https://www.facebook.com/WASSPeekskill
Fact: The Wheelabrator incinerator in Portsmouth/VA shut down before its contract was done(!).
https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/local/mycity/portsmouth/large-fire-damages-wheelabrator-waste-facility-portsmouth-virginia/291-57b0b85d-1cbe-4e18-8da3-a9b5ab44b74e
Fact: The Dutchess County incinerator in Poughkeepsie was constructed in the 80's and started operation in 1989-- it's 34 years old. According to Mike Ewall, "Between 2000 and 2022, 48 trash incinerators in the U.S. closed for good. Their average age when they closed was just 24. Despite hundreds of attempts to build new waste incinerators, no new incinerator has been built at a new site since 1995. However, one major new incinerator was built adjacent to an existing incinerator in West Palm Beach, Florida, and a handful of others were rebuilt or expanded. The trend is toward incinerators closing as they age. Few have made it to or past their 40th birthday."
http://www.energyjustice.net/incineration/closures.pdf
Save Tax Dollars - Green Jobs - Clean Air- Less Carbon - Recycling/Composting to End Incineration
Dutchess County’s Solid Waste Management Plan Should Not Prolong the Life of the Incinerator(!)
Fact: The Dutchess/Poughkeepsie incinerator emits 100,000 tons of global warming pollution yearly (DEC).
Fact: That incinerator also emits 7 lb.’s of mercury yearly– enough to contaminate 60,000+ lakes (DEC).
Fact: Incineration is more polluting than landfilling, burning coal, or any other energy (EnergyJustice.net).
Fact: Incineration costs more taxpayers than landfilling and creates less jobs than recycling (ILSR.org).
Fact: Dutchess’ recycling rate is 35%; San Francisco has a rate over 80%; Los Angeles has an 80% rate.
Email countylegislators@dutchessny.gov, countyexec@dutchess.ny.gov.
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[Again-- pls sign/fwd our brand-new petition here if you agree with Working Class Dutchess, Breathe Free Dutchess, Zero Waste Dutchess and the 2023 Zero Waste Dutchess County Candidate Pledge-- candidates for county and local office vowing to adopt a zero waste goal for Dutchess, contract out an expert to map out a comprehensive county-wide plan to rapidly move towards zero waste, and end the harmful practice of garbage incineration in the county(!):
https://www.change.org/p/adopt-zero-waste-goal-for-dutchess-contract-zero-waste-expert-close-county-incinerator (pass it on)]
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Fact: The county GOP-backed "Solid Waste Management Plan" for Dutchess (which unfortunately currently is looking to prolong indefinitely and/or expand the county incinerator)- recall https://conta.cc/3OArPgL -- the Dutchess County incinerator literally emits 100,000 tons of global warming pollution (CO2 equivalents) annually-- this is a climate issue, folks! We know that there will be opportunities for public comment on all this on 9/7 and 9/11 because of recent Albany Times-Union article that Doreen Tignanelli passed along:
https://www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley/news/article/dutchess-county-solid-waste-management-plan
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Click here to read proposed SWMP filled w/misinfo & omissions:
https://www.dutchessny.gov/Departments/Solid-Waste-Management/Docs/Draft-Dutchess-County-LSWMP-Plan.pdf
https://www.dutchessny.gov/Departments/Solid-Waste-Management/Solid-Waste-Management-Plan-Rethinking-Waste.htm
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Again-- in case you're wondering about who Mike Ewall is-- or about his Energy Justice Network organization-- last October Mike actually convinced 273 other organizations-- including the Sierra Club, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Food & Water Watch, Democratic Socialists of America (Lower Hudson Valley), KingstonCitizens.org, Don't Trash the Catskills, Judith Enck's Beyond Plastics organization, Sane Energy Project, Coaltion to Protect NY, Syracuse Cultural Workers, The Story of Stuff Project-- to sign on to Mike's letter to the White House Council on Environmental Quality about EPA's bad policies relating to waste incineration-- this is crucial in Dutchess because DCRRA and Dutchess GOP for decades now have hidden behind the EPA's pathetic standards re: incineration; click here(!):
http://www.energyjustice.net/incineration/2022CEQletter.pdf
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Recall: Paul Connett's The Zero Waste Solution (2013) definitively laid out ten definitive steps that any community can take to reach a recycling rate of at least 90 percent.
https://wasteadvantagemag.com/the-top-15-greenest-cities-in-the-world-for-recycling/
https://www.zabbleinc.com/blog-post/11-u-s-cities-leading-the-way-to-zero-waste
https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/the-zero-waste-solution
https://www.zerowasteeurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/San-Sebastian.TEN-STEPS-Short-Zero-Waste-Paul-Connett.pdf ]
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It would seem from the DCRRA website that "other operating expenditures" for this year there will amount to $14,939,675 (over 87% of $16,986,000 in total expenditures)-- is all of that $14.9 million-plus going to Wheelabrator to run the county incinerator-- and why will there be no million-dollar surplus at the DCRRA this year unlike the previous two years?
http://www.dcrra.org/reports/budget_2023.pdf
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Indeed four years ago Joe Ruggiero hit the nail on the head when he said this: “The incinerator has a capacity and, right now, there are other methodologies that are being used. There are only 73 incinerators left in the United States, and they’re being closed. And, right now, the operator of our incinerator, Wheelabrator, just recently had their incinerator in Maryland closed.” Ruggiero says. “So you need to relocate where the garbage goes, and there’s no law requiring that it has to be burned.”
https://www.wamc.org/hudson-valley-news/2019-10-18/dutchess-county-executive-candidates-bring-differing-views-to-a-forum
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Note, too-- the same Times-Union piece also reports: "A 2019 report by the Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School ranked the Dutchess County incinerator as among the most polluting in the U.S."
https://ww2.newschool.edu/pressroom/pressreleases/2020/TishmanCenterWasteIncinerators.htm?fbclid=IwAR3VaB6fGLG0X-8nj3bfFruk75BkmxVy3UB8CObhbzkKGeT1ZH2TgeawZCg
Perhaps the most important thing, though, that Mike Ewall of the Energy Justice Network ( http://www.energyjustice.net ) recently confirmed with us was that seven (7) pounds of mercury each year is emitted by the Dutchess Incinerator in Poughkeepsie-- enough to contaminate literally 63,420 20-acre lakes-- one gram can contaminate a 20-acre lake; one pound is 453 grams.
https://www.newmoa.org/prevention/mercury/mercurylake.pdf
Ewall also sent us these numbers too-- based on data reported to the state, the county-owned incinerator run by Wheelabrator in Poughkeepsie releases more pounds of health-damaging air pollution than any other facility in the county (2017 emissions data listed first-- then 2018 data):
Global Warming Pollution (in tons of CO2 equivalents): 109,085; 93,554
[rest of data listed here below in pounds]
Nitrogen Oxides: 296,925; 272,523
[triggers asthma attacks, chronic respiratory disease and stroke]
Sulfur Dioxide: 12,890; 4,310
[triggers asthma attacks; chronic respiratory and heart diseases; stroke]
Carbon Monoxide: 180,912; 137,808
Hydrochloric Acid: 4,112; 13,977
Volatile Organic Compounds: 46,418; 45,571
Particulate Matter: 589; 5,669
Chromium: 6.4; 6.2
Lead: 5.8; 4.3
Arsenic: 0.4; 0.4
Cadmium: 0.4; 0.5
[Lead and dioxins also have no “safe” level; dioxins are the most toxic chemicals known to science – 140,000 times more toxic than mercury – and incinerators are a major source: http://www.ejnet.org/dioxin/ .]
One of the most alarming things I found out about was the fact that the Baltimore incinerator was found to be the cause of literally $55 million a year in health problems.
Do the math folks-- the Baltimore incinerator burns 2250 tons of garbage a day-- that's 821,250 tons of trash each year. The Dutchess County incinerator, according to page 19 of the "Plan" burns 149,036 tons of garbage each year-- so the Baltimore incinerator burns about five and a half times what the Dutchess incinerator burns. If the Baltimore incinerator causes $55 million worth of health problems annually and burns 5.5 times as much trash as the county incinerator in Poughkeepsie, it seems logical to deduce that the Dutchess County incinerator causes literally $10 million worth of health problems each year(!). [think Dutchess incinerator is cleaner? it isn't]
https://chesapeakebaymagazine.com/study-baltimore-trash-incinerator-causes-55-million-in-health-problems/
https://www.cbf.org/news-media/newsroom/2017/maryland/cbf-study-baltimore-incinerator-causes-55-million-in-health-problems-per-year.html
https://blog.ucsusa.org/science-blogger/community-led-zero-waste-baltimore/
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/19022021/baltimore-continues-incinerating-trash-despite-opposition-from-its-new-mayor-and-city-council/
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/04/25/baltimore-waste-incinerator-garbage
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/environment/bs-md-trash-incineration-20171107-story.html
Ewall also reminded us that if we're serious about moving Dutchess County towards zero waste, the county incinerator needs to be confronted directly-- and shut down-- due to the "put or pay clause" in the current DCRRA contract with Wheelabrator to run the incinerator. To wit-- page 20 of that contract states: "Section 3.03. Obligation of County to Deliver Solid Waste. The County shall deliver or cause to be delivered to the Facility a minimum of 120,000 tons of Solid Waste per year at a minimum weekly schedule of 2,000 tons, and at a maximum weekly schedule of 2,800 tons or such lesser amounts as may be determined to be applicable pursuant to Article 9 of the Construction Agreement." In 2020, Dutchess County sent about 150,000 tons to the incinerator, so if they reduce waste by more than 20%, the county is penalized. The current contract that the Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency has with Wheelabrator to run the county incinerator in Poughkeepsie ends 12/31/27 (with possible extensions for one year, then another, then six years, then five years, to go all the way up to 2039)
Mike also convincingly made the case to pass stringent local-level air quality legislation for the plant to clean up or shut down (similar to bills already passed on a local level in Baltimore and the Albany County Legislature; see:
https://www.cleanairbmore.org ).[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-78750042909456779652019-03-30T07:27:00.001-07:002019-03-30T07:27:57.234-07:00smart meter opt-out form here from Central Hudson-- forums Sunday in Kingston, next Saturday in Woodstock-- get the facts, then act<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Live in Hudson Valley/Catskills region and want to opt out from having dangerous "smart meter" @ your home?...Do what we did on Browns Pond Road in Clinton-- spend $49 and fill out this Central Hudson form to replace EMF-radiation-emitting "smart meter" with a meter that doesn't emit radiation-- click on link here for more:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">https://www.cenhud.com/static_files/cenhud/assets/pdf/ERT_optoutapplication.pdf</span></div>
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[thx to Steve Romine of the Truthsayers below for coming by our house with his EMF radiation detector-- he found a TON of dirty EMF radiation at our home from Central Hudson electric meter we had!]</div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[see </span><a href="http://www.bioinitiative.org/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.Bioinitiative.org</a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">& this url-- more re: dangers and opt-outs all over:</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.stopsmartmetersbc.com/wp-content/uploads/OPT-OUT-FEES.pdf" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.stopsmartmetersbc.com/wp-content/uploads/OPT-OUT-FEES.pdf</a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[this is not a new issue for me-- call Cuomo and state legislators @ 877-255-9417:</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2014/January/17/DCL_smartmeters-17Jan14.html" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2014/January/17/DCL_smartmeters-17Jan14.html</a> <span style="font-weight: bold;">; </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKns1FFy9YU" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKns1FFy9YU</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1554825567918303/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/events/1554825567918303/</a> <span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">-- newish articles here:</span></div>
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<a href="https://wlos.com/news/local/news-13-investigates-the-health-effects-with-smart-utility-meters" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://wlos.com/news/local/news-13-investigates-the-health-effects-with-smart-utility-meters</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/harvard-medical-doctor-warns-against-smart-meters/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/harvard-medical-doctor-warns-against-smart-meters/</a></div>
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<a href="http://emfsafetynetwork.org/smart-meters/smart-meter-health-complaints/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://emfsafetynetwork.org/smart-meters/smart-meter-health-complaints/</a> <span style="font-weight: bold;">-</span> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">- and if you haven't seen h</span> <a href="http://www.takebackyourpower.net/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">ttp://www.TakeBackYourPower.net</a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">documentary-- WATCH IT!]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Barb Stemke recently posted this to FB:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">5G: Why We Should All Be Concerned – Sunday, March 31 at Noon Presentation by Abbey Mitchel and Ethan Campbell with plenty of time for questions and answers.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Sunday, March 31 at the Pickett Room in the Farmhouse @ UU Catskills, 320 Sawkill Rd., Kingston led be Dana Mitchell & a guest who was harmed by WIFI from a cell tower, Ethan Campbell, a local folksinger. All are welcome to learn the facts re: 5G, smart meters, cell towers & other WIFI devices. Goal is to educate the public re: WIFI and 5G. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">We will have folks very familiar with the facts re: 5G and WIFI technology; as well as handouts of peer reviewed scientific reports re: the harms of 5G. and WIFI. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">You can find out what a growing number of cities in the USA and internationally are doing to prohibit and limit smart meters, Wi-Fi and 5G.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">You can see the meters that are used to measure electromagnetic radiation in homes, as well as dirty electricity in homes. You will meet folks who have experienced illness from digital electronic utility meters AKA, smart meters, on and in their homes.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">You will meet knowledgeable members of Stop Smart Meters Woodstock, now known as The Truthsayers. You may also meet members of </span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Stop Smart Meters NY and members of NYSUMA - New York Safe Utility Meter Association. These groups are working to educate and protect the health and safety of NY state residents.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Please plan to attend next Sunday, March 31st at noon. Also check out </span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetruthsayerswoodstock.com%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0PPOLKK3ST5xWa2IGXvJnAGi_cz8CzcmdVjEcb1L7ePG6UzSKZGvLwxDc&h=AT2lKG2NwIKeHFMu1B3KpawMG2PGuF-traGDUlGiRS_tq1WqgFlY5Mblr6JlNulOvfr7pqdC2RKsSQD-Y-0MkdjcIGAX0Fk7uoiQG04qbDUPFJmrXOFJEIxmMXLIn3YalFkm_X8p2ffp1gEu6h-e5a4edOGCApBiKBnGjVvz" style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.thetruthsayerswoodstock.com/</a></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stopsmartmetersny.org%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0iiBa-ulOUo_N6TYQE5DKK_Nu47uKl8xb-F3SMh3mFNAfezHzbJVPHhhM&h=AT0yGUtdGdgTizvYQCdNfvURkmQFpMe7LzBD_nTq0JYf3zAguJ0XEqQFZ8zaM5-P1qnzbz4qPalhiSvfSRCS7ztGXfwCsVii-HvMI-b8PM-44xp_UEq22WDayPl2wQfuh3ZOUHAI4ycPpHbn2qSJ9MhmhGpAmI0m6DzojtR-" style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.stopsmartmetersny.org/</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">From Steve Romine-- "Next Saturday, April 6th, 7:00 p.m. ,The Truthsayers aka Stop Smart Meters Woodstock NY ( </span><span style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">https://www.thetruthsayerswoodstock.com </span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">) </span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">will be hosting an event at the Mtn. View Studio. The speaker will be Dr. Carlos Sosa MD, surgeon and electrosensitive. He is from Medellin, Columbia and was friend and patient of the recently passed William Shea, past president of the American Academy of Environmental Science (AAEM).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Dr. Sosa will be doing a slide presentation on electrosensitivity and the harm of wireless devices to the public. Admission is free but donations will be accepted to help pay for studio rental. I had Dr Sosa on my radio show for 2 hours and 45 minutes and it was an incredible experience as I am sure this event will be.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Please come out next Saturday and join in welcoming Dr Sosa to Woodstock and listening to his abundant knowledge on this very important issue of being harmed by wireless devices and how you can heal from it. For info on Dr. Sosa please visit: </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.electrosensitivesociety.com/uncategorized/the-dr-carlos-sosa-m-d-story/?fbclid=IwAR3YIYiapDxbp0_98vlNuVmeDNB6Kwoh10do58vc1oiEKvGU7aSp83BVlys" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.electrosensitivesociety.com/uncategorized/the-dr-carlos-sosa-m-d-story</a></div>
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[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-87788601460566492962019-02-22T17:09:00.000-08:002019-02-22T17:09:24.536-08:00WHVW 950 AM tomorrow 8-11 am-- help shine light on darkness here in Dutchess-- much work left to be done exposing corruption, standing up/fighting for working class<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[yes I'm back to doing my Saturday morning 8-11 shows on WHVW 950 AM-- call in @ 845-345-0163 to be part of mix on air with me (and my bud Dave Heller)-- talking about ISSUES (not personal life; contact me separately if you want to talk re: that)]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[pls read issues/facts below-- and speak up Mon. Mar. 11th 7 pm @ next Co. Leg. meeting on sixth floor of the Dutchess County Office Building in Poughkeepsie(!):</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.dutchessny.gov/Departments/County-Legislature/County-Legislature-Meeting-Dates.htm" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.dutchessny.gov/Departments/County-Legislature/County-Legislature-Meeting-Dates.htm</a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">(note as well-- AME Zion Church has cancelled MLK event Sat.)]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[here's a prediction-- that Molinaro glosses over all the issues below at his upcoming annual State of the County address this Weds. Feb. 27th 5:30 pm @ CIA:</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.theharlemvalleynews.net/?p=47908" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.theharlemvalleynews.net/?p=47908</a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">-- example-- y'all saw/heard big Schumer/Molinaro/Rolison press conference re: opiates in Poughkeepsie this week right?...but fact of matter is that until stigma is removed by stopping arrest/jailing of nonviolent folks with substance abuse issues, there will remain consistently dozens of people charged with nothing more than "criminal possession of a controlled substance" in the Dutchess County Jail-- their lives and families' lives needlessly traumatized, costing local taxpayers $125/day-- when shining examples exist here locally in Hudson Valley of places like Chatham/Columbia County, Woodstock/Ulster County, and Sullivan County-- who ensure TREATMENT for nonviolent drug addicts (not jail)-- see </span><a href="http://www.paariusa.org/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.PAARIUSA.org</a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">!!!]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">UNFINISHED BUSINESS-- DUTCHESS COUNTY'S EPIC FAIL-- FIX THIS IN 2019</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[yes Dems can win Co. Leg. majority if activists speak up/publicize these issues; no I'm not running for Co. Leg. folks-- I think Brennan Kearney is great Co. Leg. pick]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">County Legislators Kris Munn, Rebecca Edwards, Nick Page, Frits Zernike and I all voted no this past Dec. to Molinaro/GOP county budget proposed for 2019 for a variety reasons-- perhaps tho our top reason might be that we set the bar high-- we know what our county government is capable of-- what our county government should be-- and epic fail of just how many different ways Molinaro/GOP budget sux.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Again-- yes I'm happy that four things I spent the better part of the last decade fighting for were included in the budget-- restoration of 5-day week for senior centers, expansion of DART (Domestic Abuse Response Team) to cover entire county, $300,000 more for county Agency Partnership Grant nonprofit program, and legislation to ban plastic bags here in county (without paper-bag amendment tho)...</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Speaking for myself however here's why I voted no in Dec. to 2019 county budget...</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">...here are the amendments I proposed in December (GOP voted no to all of these):</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Reason #1: Failure to restore county sales tax revenue to municipalities like Rhinebeck and Clinton in spite of third year in a row of $55 million county fund balance (budget surplus almost triple what it was from 1996 thru 2012).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Reason #2: Third year in a row of $4.8 million overtime for staff at our county jail.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Reason #3: Failure to restore county Office of Consumer Affairs to county budget-- in spite of fact that Putnam, Rockland, Orange, and Westchester counties all have one of these-- even Dutchess County 8 years ago had Office of Consumer Affairs(!).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[thx to a surprising amount of significant support from Co. Leg. Dems on this one]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Reason #4: Failure to fully fund county Agency Partnership Grant program-- adding only $300,000 to APG still means $700,000 worth of nonprofit requests rejected...</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Black, Munn, Edwards, Llaverias, Johnson, Page, Zernike voted for my amendment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Reason #5: Failure to fund Medication Assisted Treatment in our county jail.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Reason #6: Failure to restore classes/funding in resume-writing, trauma skills, critical thinking, & creative writing at county jail-- Al Ragucci/Pam Wright testimony: Black, Munn, Llaverias, Johnson, Brendli, Page voted for my $200,000 amendment. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Reason #7: No bail loan fund for those charged with nonviolent misdemeanors...</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Black, Munn, Edwards, and Brendli voted for my amendment for $20,000 for this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Reason #8: Failure to include than $495,000 in county budget for summer jobs for at-risk youth (proven to cut crime 43%)-- in contrast to $274 million jail expansion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Reason #9: Failure to include even just $50,000 to issue 5 RFP's for county to hire consultants/experts to move Dutchess towards municipal broadband, public bank, </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">worker-owned co-op’s, zero waste, and actual plan: county fossil-fuel-free by 2035.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Reason #9: Failure to include even just $30,000 for our county Board of Elections to hand-count votes as Columbia County has been doing for the last seven years...</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">entire Co. Leg. Dem caucus voted for my amendment on this in December(!).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Reason #10: Failure to include even just $40,000 for XRF analyzer to test local toys for toxins; this law passed unanimously in Rockland/Suffolk/Westchester counties:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Munn, Amparo, Edwards, Brendli, Page, Johnson, Zernike all voted yes to this one.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Reason #11: Failure to include even just $5000 for our county Human Rights Commission to prepare a report on discrimination of all kinds here in Dutchess Co.:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Criminal Justice System, Workplace, Education, Housing, and Lending in Dutchess:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Black, Munn, Amparo, Llaverias, Jeter-Jackson, Brendli, Johnson, Page voted yes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Reason #12: Failure to include even just $5000 for a county-level version here in Dutchess of state-level Project Sunlight website in Albany-- searchable online database of de-facto pay-to-play matching county contracts to political donations...</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Black, Munn, Amparo, Llaverias, Edwards, Brendli, Johnson, Page all voted yes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[scroll down a bit to click on websites/links that explain in detail everything above]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Email your outrage to all at countylegislators@dutchessny.gov...</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[12 issues above are good goals for us progressives to focus our work on in 2019!]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">....and yes-- you better bet letters to editor needed to local papers to get truth out!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">p.s. Reason #13: Failure to restore Household Hazardous Waste Collection Days!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[again just scroll down a tiny bit to see comprehensive Vicky Kelly/EMC letter folks]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[recall here-- letters below Vicky Kelly of Environmental Management Council;</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Virginia Martin (Columbia County Democratic Elections Commissioner);</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Joanne Lukacher (of Election Transparency Coalition of Dutchess County/US);</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Al Ragucci (Starr Library Board Pres./Prof) and Pam Wright (Jail Volunteer/Prof); recall great testimony last Dec. @ annual county budget hearing from Al, Pam, and many others-- curiously, sadly (and frankly quite alarmingly) this is the first time ever in my memory that I can recall absolutely no local news media coverage whatsoever of the annual county budget hearing-- nothing in MidHudsonNews.com, Poughkeepsie Journal, or the Daily Freeman re: county budget hearing-- why?... quite disturbing frankly-- watch: </span> <a href="https://totalwebcasting.com/view/?id=dutchess" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://totalwebcasting.com/view/?id=dutchess</a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Extra $2 million for municipalities < county in sales tax revenue-sharing is an insult</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.dutchessny.gov/ConCalAtt/2/2018304.pdf" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.dutchessny.gov/ConCalAtt/2/2018304.pdf</a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">(yes this is a separate resol.!).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: Molinaro himself promised at his Nov. 20th Rhinebeck/Starr Library forum that our county government has plans for solar at various different buildings across Dutchess (he stated this publicly in response to great question/statement from Marcia Slatkin that night)-- recall: </span> <a href="https://conta.cc/2R1WnZQ" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://conta.cc/2R1WnZQ</a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">-- yet neither resolution 2018289 or resolution 2018294 (both on agenda in Dec.) contain any references whatsoever to solar-- despite $6.7 million being allocated in the first for county building/roof renovations-- with only a passing mention of the possibility of solar car charging ports in Molinaro's proposed 2019-2023 Capital Improvement Program for Dutchess County-- but don't believe me folks-- see for yourself here:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">http://dutchessny.gov/CountyGov/Departments/Budget/2018-Budget/Capital-Improvement-Program-2018-2022.pdf</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.dutchessny.gov/ConCalAtt/2/2018294.pdf" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.dutchessny.gov/ConCalAtt/2/2018294.pdf</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.dutchessny.gov/ConCalAtt/2/2018289.pdf" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.dutchessny.gov/ConCalAtt/2/2018289.pdf</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: 20 Ways Molinaro/GOP's 2019 Proposed Dutchess County Budget Is Epic Fail:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[......esp. given $502 million county budget, third year in a row of $55 million county funbalance (budget surplus)-- and $274 million already approved for unneeded jail expansion-- there's absolutely no excuse whatsoever for county to not fund these </span></div>
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<span style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">https://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2018/July/10/DCL_DCC_budget-10Jul18.html</span> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">]</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">1. No County Office of Consumer Affairs (unlike Putnam, Ulster, Orange, Rockland)</span></div>
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<a href="https://conta.cc/2EdGSeu" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://conta.cc/2EdGSeu</a> (needed here-- protection from cyberscams, IRS scams, ID theft, etc.)</div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">2. Third year in a row with wasteful/dangerous jail overtime over $4.8 million (dozens of nonviolent drug offenders now locked up behind bars charged with nothing more than "criminal possession of a controlled substance-- Chatham Police Chief Pete Volkmann has proven for a few years that treatment instead of incarceration is better option possible). </span> <a href="https://www.paariusa.org/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.PAARIUSA.org</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/04/how-one-small-town-ended-its-drug-war/557321/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/04/how-one-small-town-ended-its-drug-war/557321/</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">3. No guarantee of return of Al Ragucci/Pam Wright classes to county jail (resume-writing, trauma skills, critical thinking, creative writing-- Al and Pam spoke Mon.) </span></div>
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<a href="https://conta.cc/2RyPX4D" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://conta.cc/2RyPX4D</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">4. No funding of Medication Assisted Treatment in jail (unlike Rikers/CT/RI-- inmates now cruelly forced to detox behind bars needlessly traumatizing not healing them)</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.change.org/p/dutchess-county-executive-marcus-molinaro-opioid-replacement-option-inside-dutchess-county-jail-suboxone-methadone-narcan-vivitrol" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.change.org/p/dutchess-county-executive-marcus-molinaro-opioid-replacement-option-inside-dutchess-county-jail-suboxone-methadone-narcan-vivitrol</a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">(judge: denying inmates MAT a violation of Americans w/Disabilities Act(!):</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/28/us/inmate-methadone-opioid-addiction-ruling.html" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/28/us/inmate-methadone-opioid-addiction-ruling.html</a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">...so "Thinking Differently" here in Dutchess should take this seriously!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px;">[recall how 2012 Dutchess County Criminal Justice Council Needs Assessment pointed out that literally 80 percent of inmates have substance abuse or mental health issues]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">5. Continued funding: Correctional Medical Care for "mental/healthcare" in jail (inmate suicide after inmate suicide-- how many more before this contract ended?)</span></div>
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<a href="https://conta.cc/2DQ97Qq" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://conta.cc/2DQ97Qq</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">6. Nowhere near enough funding for summer jobs for at-risk youth (only less than half a million dollars allocated for this tho it's proven to cut crime rate 43%)</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/12/26/chicago-gave-hundreds-of-high-risk-kids-a-summer-job-violent-crime-arrests-plummeted/?utm_term=.8b57914dfbb1" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/12/26/chicago-gave-hundreds-of-high-risk-kids-a-summer-job-violent-crime-arrests-plummeted/?utm_term=.8b57914dfbb1</a> (recall as well-- Big Brothers Big Sisters shut doors in Pok. years ago)</div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[ten shootings so far this year in Poughkeepsie— with 13 victims and two deaths]</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">7. Not funding Hudson River Housing request to expand housing-first program (ongoing for several years now-- tho would save $, keeping homeless out of jail)</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/housing-first-solution-to-homelessness-utah/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/housing-first-solution-to-homelessness-utah/</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">8. Hypocritical lip service re: "Think Differently"-- nowhere near enough $$$ for county Agency Partnership Grant program-- nonprofits still way underfunded-- even after amendment $900,000 short-- all these local nonprofit agency funding requests thru county APG program rejected this year-- </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">$40,000 for bike camp, reading tutors, behaviorist-- Down Syndrome Association of HV; $42,000-- Workforce Training: Physically/Mentally Handicapped: Mid-Hudson Workshop; $25,500 for Supportive Environments for Special Needs Patrons: Poughkeepsie Library;</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">$50K for Coalition/Elder Abuse/Mediation Center; $50K Dutchess Outreach; $23,750 for expanded needle exchange-- through Hudson Valley Community Services; $153,000 for organics recycling and composting-- sustainable farming: Cornell Coop. Ext. of DC; $75,000 for Re-Entry Work Readiness: Exodus Transitional Community (cut recidivism); $120,000 for YouthBuild/Nubian Directions; $25,000-- Power Up Youth/Mill Street Loft, more(!).</span></div>
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<a href="https://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2018/09/re-agpnonprofit-funding-kris-francena.html" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2018/09/re-agpnonprofit-funding-kris-francena.html</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">9. No additional funding for county Child Protective Services (Kris Munn's amendment-- CSEA has long called for 15-case limit-- ave. here locally now: 25!)</span></div>
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<a href="https://cseany.org/workforce/child-protective-services-caseloads/risk-of-child-abuse-growing/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://cseany.org/workforce/child-protective-services-caseloads/risk-of-child-abuse-growing/</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">10. No checks on Local Development Corporation or DCIDA (Hannah Black/Rebecca Edwards amendment-- recall recent blistering Robin Lois audit on all this)</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.dutchessny.gov/CountyGov/Departments/Comptroller/Audit-Report-on-Dutchess-County-LDC-IDA-September-27-2018.PDF" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.dutchessny.gov/CountyGov/Departments/Comptroller/Audit-Report-on-Dutchess-County-LDC-IDA-September-27-2018.PDF</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">11. No funding for hired car fare for elderly resident travel (Nick Page's amendment)</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.payingforseniorcare.com/longtermcare/resources/transportation-elderly.html" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.payingforseniorcare.com/longtermcare/resources/transportation-elderly.html</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">12. No funding to expand Household Hazardous Waste Collection (Nick Page's amendment-- I've also raised this for years as well-- see V.Kelly/EMC letter below)</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.rocklandrecycles.com/page/household-hazardous-waste-24.html" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.rocklandrecycles.com/page/household-hazardous-waste-24.html</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">13. No funding for County Climate Smart Coordinator (Nick Page's amendment)</span></div>
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<a href="https://ulstercountyny.gov/environment/department-environment" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://ulstercountyny.gov/environment/department-environment</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">14. No funding for county to seriously ramp up composting/recycling (</span> <a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2FILSR.org%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0GMphoZ8Wh2-BcjZcHnBaxNo0T1kNxE4LzJRmRsCmJ_TvOM9gKn8cAjo8&h=AT271NdEsA8NoRdbDIFiSeP72flkgZeOn8XuAWlEGx4YS_BceXT3uQLYlTCHtDGUlY6o9fVjty2VPlW2S9pJvasD6e2nUGL6YnkFgiKNT7qkOnMSj2c2oH3sPvnWSi09hCiK2Ot1WULfR-0o83tCLPN1mRoB1VmNKA" style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">ILSR.org</a> <span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">)</span></div>
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<a href="https://ilsr.org/waste-to-wealth/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://ilsr.org/waste-to-wealth/</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">15. Still not enough county sales tax revenue-sharing with municipalities</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.change.org/p/dutchess-county-executive-marcus-molinaro-make-dutchess-county-s-sales-tax-revenue-sharing-formula-more-fair" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.change.org/p/dutchess-county-executive-marcus-molinaro-make-dutchess-county-s-sales-tax-revenue-sharing-formula-more-fair</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">16. No funding for county to move towards municipal broadband like NW CT</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.muninetworks.org/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.MuniNetworks.org</a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">; </span> <a href="http://www.northwest-connect.org/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.Northwest-Connect.org </a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">17. No $ for XRF analyzer to test toxic toys (like Rockland/Suffolk/Alb./West. co.'s)</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.change.org/p/dutchess-county-legislators-ban-toxic-toys-in-dutchess-county" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.change.org/p/dutchess-county-legislators-ban-toxic-toys-in-dutchess-county</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">18. GOP Co. Leg. majority voted down my/Nick's amendment last Weds. to hand-count votes here as in Columbia County; no $$$ for public banking study either</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.handcountedpaperballots.org/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.handcountedpaperballots.org</a> <a href="https://www.publicbankinginstitute.org/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.PublicBankingInstitute.org </a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">19. Millions in county budget used annually for pay-to-play-- completely ignored</span></div>
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<a href="https://myemail.constantcontact.com/awesome-that-PoJo-did-finally-end-up-printing-my-LTE-yesterday-detailing-Marc-s-pay-to-play-with-firms-from-outside-Dutchess---n.html?soid=1121263824363&aid=q33chFUhu88" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://myemail.constantcontact.com/awesome-that-PoJo-did-finally-end-up-printing-my-LTE-yesterday-detailing-Marc-s-pay-to-play-with-firms-from-outside-Dutchess---n.html?soid=1121263824363&aid=q33chFUhu88</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">20. $150 million annual county account w/JPMorgan Chase (county Finance Dept. AWOL-- JPMC funds jails for immigrant children and fossil-fuel pipelines)</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.co.dutchess.ny.us/CountyGov/Departments/CountyExecutive/Executive-Order-1-of-2018.pdf" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.co.dutchess.ny.us/CountyGov/Departments/CountyExecutive/Executive-Order-1-of-2018.pdf</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/morgansimon/2018/09/25/what-do-big-banks-have-to-do-with-family-detention-familiesbelongtogether-explains/#156aebb62b6a" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.forbes.com/sites/morgansimon/2018/09/25/what-do-big-banks-have-to-do-with-family-detention-familiesbelongtogether-explains/#156aebb62b6a</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">p.s. 4 homeless die Monday in fire in abandoned home on Academy Street Dec. in Poughkeepsie. 540 abandoned properties in Poughkeepsie. No county land bank (as in Albany County) to remedy this (tho I’ve asked for this for many years)</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.albanycountylandbank.org/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.AlbanyCountyLandBank.org</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">From: Vicky Kelly <kellyv caryinstitute.org=""></kellyv></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Subject: HHW letter</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Date: Dec 5, 2018 8:36 PM</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">October 29, 2018</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Dear Dutchess County Legislature and County Executive Molinaro,</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">It has come to our attention that, at recent County Hazardous Waste Drop Off events, many residents have waited over 2 hours to drop off hazardous waste and/or electronics. We understand that the County offered one half-day event in 2018, two full day events in 2017 and one event in 2016. In previous years, the County offered up to 6 days per year for this service at various locations throughout the County. While we understand that there is a cost for this service, we strongly urge the County to add more dates and locations for residents to drop off hazardous waste. The prohibitively long wait times could discourage residents from properly disposing of hazardous waste and these dangerous compounds could increasingly end up in the regular waste stream, or worse, discarded on the side of a road.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">By comparison, Rockland County with a population roughly the same as Dutchess, offers 10 half-day hazardous waste drop off events per year. Orange County with a population 1.3 times the size of Dutchess, holds four household hazardous waste events per year. Ulster County with 60% of the population of Dutchess, offers 3 household hazardous waste collection events per year. Putnam County, with one third the population of Dutchess, offers 2 half day events per year. And Columbia County, with only 60,000 residents, 20% the population of Dutchess, offers one full-day event per year. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">The Dutchess County Environmental Management Council strongly urges Dutchess County to return to the model of providing hazardous waste drop off events at various locations on at least 4 days per year.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Thank you for your time and consideration.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Sincerely,</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Dutchess County Environmental Management Council</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px;">[update re: hand-count-vote issue Columbia County Elections Commissioner V. Martin!]</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">From: </span> <a href="http://webmail.earthlink.net/wam/MsgReply?msgid=36065&action=reply&style=html&title=Reply&x=96792143" style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Virginia Martin <virginiamartin2010 gmail.com=""></virginiamartin2010></a> <span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">To: Joel Tyner <joeltyner earthlink.net=""></joeltyner></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Subject: Re: Election Security & the 2019 Dutchess County Budget</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Date: Dec 4, 2018 8:14 AM</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Joel, a few points:</span></div>
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<li style="color: black; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I am unaware that any county BOEs have ever escalated an audit. Maybe they have, but I know that one person very interested in this subject has not been provided an answer on this question. The reason that BOEs haven’t escalated an audit is that it takes not only an observed “discrepancy” but the agreement of both commissioners to do so. An escalation is generally focused on a close race, right? Why would the winning commissioner agree to escalate that audit? I don’t think they do. This is made easy by the confusing language in the law concerning “discrepancies” and the fact that the number of election districts that are audited is insufficient. I don’t think anyone knows what a discrepancy is. I know I don’t. In my mind it includes a vote that the machine couldn’t count but that a human can, but the law doesn’t say that. In a close race, enough of those votes could change the outcome. But such a race would only be escalated if enough of those votes were discovered (by auditing a sufficient number of districts) and the winning commissioner agreed that there were such discrepancies.</span></li>
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<li style="color: black; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I don’t think anyone will agree to hand counting at the polls. I don’t even want to do it. Instead, we ensure an airtight chain of custody between poll site and the BOE and make sure all materials are secured in a double-locked room. Then we hand count in full public visibility. </span></li>
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<li style="color: black; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">And we don’t hand count everything, which is what would be done at the poll sites. The task is much smaller yet satisfies everyone.</span></li>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">From: </span> <a href="http://webmail.earthlink.net/wam/MsgReply?msgid=36015&action=reply&style=html&title=Reply&x=-877592123" style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Joanne Lukacher <lukacher hvc.rr.com=""></lukacher></a> <span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;"> of Dutchess</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">To: countylegislators@dutchessny.gov</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Subject: Election Security & the 2019 Dutchess County Budget</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Date: Dec 3, 2018 5:34 PM</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Dear Legislator:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">I am writing to request that you include in the county budget a sum sufficient fund a committee to evaluate the security and verifiability of our electronic election systems</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">—</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;"> optical scanners, tabulators, and election management systems</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">—</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">and to suggest specific recommended reforms, including hand-counted paper ballots & risk-limiting audits that can be implemented safely before the 2020 elections. Such a committee should include bi-partisan and non-partisan members of the community and should budget for the consulting services of experts in computer security and risk-limiting audits. I would be happy to provide bibliography and a list of election integrity consultants. </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">1.</span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 9px; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Even though Dutchess County has chosen one of the least vulnerable of electronic voting systems, all electronic election systems can be hacked through the internet (and otherwise), even if not directly connected to it. During the 2018 elections illegal wireless transmission capabilities were also detected in ES&S electronic scanners. (FN 1.) In addition, electronic voting is subject to frequent programming errors and other malfunctions (FN 2) and requires climate controlled storage, special transportation & special security. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">2.</span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 9px; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Unbeknownst to most members of the public, states have used tax-payer money to buy electronic election systems from vendors owned or controlled by foreign nations, convicted felons, and partisan politicians. These vendors successfully claim their “proprietary” hardware and software preclude public oversight and forensic analysis of their tax-payer funded systems. (FN 3.)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;"> 3. </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 9px; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">While the Dutchess County Op-Scan system does provide a so-called Verifiable Paper Trail for potential audit, most states require a recount, if at all, only if the margin of victory is less than a small percent. Thus, potential hackers can avoid a mandatory recount by making sure to flip enough votes to exceed that margin. In New York State, </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">N.Y. Comp. Rules & Regs. 6210.18(c)(3) through (g), describe a staged escalation protocol for expanding the audit. At each stage, the audited is expanded if discrepancies of a certain magnitude are found. New York permits recounts only for village elections and this recount must be candidate initiated and court ordered.</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">These protocols are expensive & time-consuming & could rarely be completed in time to reverse or alter an election with questionable results, since the election would have already been certified within the mandated period. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;"> 4.</span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 9px; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Even when hand audits or recounts are conducted, chain-of-custody concerns between Election Night and any post-election audit or recount (when the public loses sight of the ballots) undermine public confidence in the process. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">5. Hand-marked paper ballots, publicly hand-counted at each polling place is the gold standard for ensuring public confidence and verifiability. Other options for exploration include the use of the digital ballot images, which all scanners in use in New York State are capable of generating, in carrying out risk-limiting audits as recommended by Audit Election USA (FN 4 .) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">5.</span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 9px; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Thus I would request that the Dutchess County Legislature convene a committee of bi-partisan & non-partisan citizens to examine the feasibility of conducting our elections with paper ballots (hand-marked unless precluded by the voter</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 21px; font-weight: bold;">’s disability). These ballots </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">to be publicly hand-counted at each polling place at the close of the polls according to best practices as established by experts and the results to be publicly posted at each precinct. The committee should further establish additional options for public scrutiny of the paper ballots, especially in instances where hand-counting might be determined to not be feasible. Options to be considered should include, but not be limited to, public release of ballot images by district via the internet. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">6.</span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 9px; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">The committee report should be released in a timely manner that will allow time to initiate the recommendations before the 2020 elections.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Many thanks for your prompt attention to this important matter. I look forward to your response.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Yours Sincerely,</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Joanne Lukacher</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">FN 1 </span> <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/2018/11/14/new-video-provides-proof-of-cellular-modems-in-fl-voting-machines/?fbclid=IwAR2QlwtGsMi8ieh73QvTrHYvdP6gD0dNu5imFXE9VdYqg68CtdSgedq_Gi8" style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://whowhatwhy.org/2018/11/14/new-video-provides-proof-of-cellular-modems-in-fl-voting-machines/?fbclid=IwAR2QlwtGsMi8ieh73QvTrHYvdP6gD0dNu5imFXE9VdYqg68CtdSgedq_Gi8</a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">FN 2</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <a href="https://medium.com/@jennycohn1/all-voting-machines-can-be-hacked-including-through-the-internet-8d054645e860" style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://medium.com/@jennycohn1/all-voting-machines-can-be-hacked-including-through-the-internet-8d054645e860</a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">FN3</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <a href="https://medium.com/@jennycohn1/states-have-bought-voting-machines-from-vendors-controlled-and-funded-by-religious-fanatics-1773f0b5f83e" style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://medium.com/@jennycohn1/states-have-bought-voting-machines-from-vendors-controlled-and-funded-by-religious-fanatics-1773f0b5f83e</a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 21px; font-weight: bold;">FN4 </span> <a href="http://auditelectionsusa.org/" style="color: black; font-size: 21px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">auditelectionsusa.org</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =</span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 36px; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px;">Here's the text of Al Ragucci's testimony @ annual county budget hearing this past Dec.:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">"My name is Al Ragucci and I reside in Rhinebeck, and I have for the past couple of years run a program in the Dutchess County Jail to assist inmates to prepare a resume. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">I get information from the Department of Labor right here on Main Street. I use the information from this booklet (holding it up). I spend four weeks with them, an hour each time, and at the end of the fourth week, I have a hard-copy resume that I can hand to them, and if they give me an email address, I send them an electronic copy of the resume as well. I then encourage them to go to the Department of Labor which has counselors available to further their search process for a job, starting with the resume that we’ve prepared. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The problem has been in the last two months the resume workshops have been cancelled. The corrections officer who usually spends the time in the room with me has told me a number of times that she gets pulled away all the time for other duties for other work. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">This program has been going on for years— there was a person before me who ran the program. I took over for him, and we’ve never had this kind of gap where the corrections officers weren’t available to sit down with us as we were preparing the resume. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">So I ask the County Legislature to look into this issue of staffing at the jail. I don’t know much about the staffing— all I know is that I’ve never had two months go by where a corrections officer wasn’t available to sit in the room while we were preparing these resumes."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =</span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 36px; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px;">Here's the text of Pam Wright's testimony @ annual county budget hearing this past Dec.:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">"My name is Pam Wright. I live in Rhinebeck. For 12 years I have been a volunteer at DCJ, teaching a creative writing and critical thinking class and a trauma skills class. I have come to have the utmost respect for the correctional officers at DCJ. I am here to advocate for funding for additional full-time staff at the jail in the new budget.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">In the last year I have often not been able to meet my classes because the staff is so stretched that there is no officer available for programs. Recently I have had to make the heart wrenching decision to stop teaching at the jail because, despite the best intentions of the staff, my classes have regularly been cancelled for lack of coverage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">I have long experience working as a volunteer in corrections and there is one rule – show up. It is impossible to build the trust and community that is essential for learning and that fosters growth if neither you nor the students know if you will be there. It is impossible to have appropriate follow up or continuity. I am not the only volunteer in this position. There are many days when all volunteer programming is cancelled. On most of those days the inmates who ordinarily would be going to program are locked in their cells for the whole or significant parts of their day. As you know, many inmates have mental health issues. Such confinement is particularly difficult for them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The amount of overtime the officers are doing is extraordinary. Much overtime is mandated and there are officers who are doing up to 30 and 40 hours overtime a week. They are exhausted and stressed and have little repair time with their families. When I attended the budget meeting in Rhinebeck, I was told that the average overtime per pay period is 4.5 hours. That number can only be correct if all union staff including secretarial and maintenance are included and average out the actual number of hours correctional officers are working.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">I have been told that many of these problems will be solved with the new jail. That may or may not be true, but I have to wonder if the prospect of hiring staff that is needed now but may not be needed in three years is playing a part in the decisions that are resulting in what may be a dangerous amount of overtime for the correctional staff. Are we sacrificing the well being of all those, inmate and officer alike, who are currently in the system? I would like to add that I know that more than one inmate has written to express their concern about this situation. They received no answer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">This county has for several years had amazing human capital in the volunteers who offer classes and supportive services in the jail. While this is collateral damage compared to what the officers are shouldering, it is a significant loss. And for me, it is a very personal one.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Thank you for your attention.</span></div>
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[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-29726540428021478922019-02-22T17:07:00.001-08:002019-02-22T17:07:59.142-08:00I've been a flirt yes-- too much-- but never sexually harassed anyone (or did any of the other much more horrible things I've been accused of)<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="galileo-ap-layout-editor" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black; min-width: 100%; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Attorney Celeste Tesoriero of New Paltz posted these comments recently to Michael Sussman's Facebook page after he first posted his comments below:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">"What Sussman is saying is that the time it takes to come forward is a factor. One of many. These women didn't say they were made to feel uncomfortable, they labelled their experience with the terms of legal crimes. Any prosecutor or legal advocate would take into account various factors. To say that time delay in reporting should not even be considered a factor is a belief, but it is certainly not one adopted by many, including legal and psychological experts. I have done intake on sexual harassment cases, and time IS a factor. Any lawyer would point that out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">I am also an attorney, I have represented women in sexual harassment cases. I am a woman, I minored in women studies, I started the feminist union at my law school, am a sexual assault survivor, and by all accounts, pro-women. It took me some time to read the accounts and compose my thoughts, but now taken, I do feel (as a lawyer and feminist), I have issues with what has happened.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Eight women came forward to say, at various points over the past 30 years, they became socially acquainted with Joel Tyner through his volunteerism. He expressed a romantic interest in them via electronic communication which was not graphic, coercive, or offensive in nature. They responded that they were not interested. He did not further pursue communication or contact. These people did not work with him. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Sexual harassment is a legal phrase for sexual conduct in a place of employment such as to interfere with that employment. By no stretch of the legal mind is what was described by these women sexual harassment. Labelling it such robs the reader of the opportunity to decide, for themselves, if this conduct (which is much more common and with less serious consequences) deserves the same condemnation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Sexual Assault is a legal term for a grave, violent, and serious criminal injury. A former girlfriend of Mr. Tyner’s who is and was a feminist activist, and capable adult, relates that the first time she was alone with Mr. Tyner he sexually assaulted her by making an advance which was unwelcome. She then proceeded to enter into a three year consensual relationship with him, including an engagement for marriage. Mr. Tyner has never been accused of physical violence or intimidation. He is not rich or powerful or famous. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">I think this IS something. But frankly, it is not sexual assault, again, a legal term being misused. Listen I was sexually assaulted and it was violent and terrible and nothing in this world would make me ever see or touch the man who did that. So by calling THIS sexual assault, they are co-opting a word which is reserved for the most serious of crimes. And yes, I think it will dilute the seriousness of what people like me went through. I called the police and made a report because I was attacked. Yes, I understand other people not calling the police, or staying in a relationship, but not if that person is of equal standing and it happens on the first date. No."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Jerry Ebert (Teamsters #445 Recording Secretary/Business Agent/Director of Organizing): "I know both Joel Tyner and Michael Sussman, and believe both are of the highest integrity. Ms. Tesoriero's analysis above seems very impressive. It's a GREAT thing that women are speaking out regarding sexual harassment. However, we must be careful that the innocent aren't carried off along with the guilty. We must also be careful that right-wing nut-jobs don't create a fire where there is little smoke."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Here below are the comments that attorney Michael Sussman posted to his Facebook page:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">it did not take much for me to incite profound division among allegedly progressive people, including former friends or to have former friends denounce me in one of many ways. let me explain some things which seem pretty clear to me about the last three days face booking and messaging:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">1. lawyers represent people; however, lawyers are not their clients. when i won the Yonkers case, people confused me with my clients and with the Judge. I represented a class of 40,000 people of color though I was neither from Yonkers nor a person of color. my job was to assimilate and express their experiences with racial discrimination and segregation in a court of law. By doing this, I never became my clients. Likewise, Joel and I are two different people. I have not become him nor has he become me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">2. I studied the claims made against Joel and concluded that while he had already resigned, he needed guidance from a person who has brought many sexual harassment cases n behalf of women and could bring some understanding to the situation, which, of course, was deeply emotional for him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">3. I found the following: 32 years after she "believes" she was sort of propositioned by a man 10 years older, a female came forward and told her story about Mr. Tyner. If this woman was deeply concerned that Joel was some sort of pedophile [she says she was 13 when this happened], I wonder why she took 32 years to come forward. Most everyone in the region who follows these things knows that Joel worked at schools for much of the time since. This same woman never claims Joel touched her or tried to touch her. Her "belief" as to his intention contradicts her own account of events because, by her account, Joel never did anything to her nor tried to and yet she account suggests he sexually assaulted or harassed her. As a lawyer, I found and find her account flimsy and her behavior radically inconsistent with her claim. And, since she attacked my client, I said so.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">4. Another woman was in a long-term relationship with Joel. The relationship ended about a decade ago. From what I can tell, the woman participated quite consensually in this relationship long after she claims Joel assaulted her; indeed, she claims this event happened at the beginning of their relationship. Again, this person made no contemporaneous report of any kind after this alleged assault and Joel was entirely deprived of any chance to defend himself in real time. This may seem strange to some, but a person accused of sexual assault does retain the right to defend him or herself. The woman making this allegation is not a new convert to feminism; she has been involved for years in important work. I again find difficult to understand the years of silence while Joel repeatedly ran for and gained important political offices and was deeply involved in all sorts of community issues.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">5. A third woman states that she stopped participating in some political events of mutual interest because Joel made a comment to her about a car ride which suggested to her that he thought something had transpired between them in the car when in fact nothing did transpire. If you really believe this amounts to sexual harassment, you are reading different cases than I am. I do not know the person making this claim and am upset that she stopped involving herself in events representing her belief.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">6. Another women has written me about Joel. She was also in a very long-term relationship with him. She wrote me that Joel told her something about some past act he did - she did not explain what he told her - and this disgusted her. She continued the relationship. Joel denies he either told her or did anything of the sort suggested. Again,as she acknowledged to me, this woman, who is highly accomplished and connected, did not report Joel's allegedly heinous act to anyone in law enforcement though her description, albeit vague, suggests an obligation to do just that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">7. Concurrent with the release of some of this information publicly, Joel's wife left the marital residence, a home they shared with Joel's mother for nearly two years. Both made allegations against the other. Yesterday, in a public proceeding in Poughkeepsie, they both choose to drop their claims/ counterclaims and the orders of protection each had obtained in Family Court. They will now decide, together or separately, their future course.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">8. As a long-time trial lawyer, I have an abiding confidence in our adversarial system and in restorative justice, which is far more emerging. Both approaches have their place. Both are flawed. But, that system has no real relationship to this week's events. No one filed a lawsuit. No one is in court. So, no one is assured of any modicum of due process, however imperfect we can agree our civil justice system may be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">9. For me, the public outcry against Joel and against me is one in a long line of examples of everyone having a very firm opinion about something that most opining know very little about. We bring our own world view and stereotypes to the table and announce judgments. As a lawyer, I have access [often] to only one side of a dispute until a case has been joined. But, I am announced or self-announce as an attorney for x person and all can understand my allegiance.. Indeed, that is our system. My job at this stage is to understand my client's perspective, test it with hard questions and assist him in defending himself against devastating allegations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">10. I have known Joel Tyner for several decades. I value his work very highly. But, I am not defending him because he has done great work with unusual vigor and persistence. I am defending him because he asked for my help and spent hours explaining in detail his version of disputed events. I do not believe Joel is perfect. I would make the same statement about everyone else, certainly including myself. But, no one deserves to be villified absent facts, not simply allegations, and no one should be deprived of committed counsel. I certainly feel the same way for each woman involved.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">11. Joel is NOT the Governor of Virginia, a man who plainly posted on his yearbook page highly racist photos and so identified himself. To me, analogizing the two is faulty and illogical. Allegations against Joel are not photos a person has selected for display on his/her own yearbook page. I do note that one of the women who has spearheaded the campaign against Joel announced that there were many screenshots establishing Joel's misogynist conduct. I would like to see these; please send them to me at sussman1@frontiernet.net.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">12. Finally, none of these "parties" will have due process unless Joel Tyner decides to bring a defamation suit against those who slandered or libeled him. I cannot tell you whether he will do that, but, he has every right to do so if the statements made against him are false.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">For those who have differing view or who agree with whole or parts of what I have written, I value your comments. However, as I noted in a prior email, take your personal attacks somewhere else. Best to all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[recall info below on all this sent out by yours truly this past Friday a.m.: all fact]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 22px;">I'm sending this info below out in response to article that appeared on Poughkeepsie Journal website earlier today.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Re: Jillian Egan—- I’m the one that was forced to call NYS Troopers in December 2012 to get an order of protection from her after she was threatening to come to my house late that month with another man to “get her white coat”— only there was no white coat here of hers. To Jillian’s credit, she’s the one who taught me the term “rape culture” (and how toxic/pervasive it is in our society) during our engagement in 2010— the fact is that she was a fully woke, enlightened, empowered woman back then and spoke about those issues often on the Saturday morning WHVW 950 AM shows we co-hosted together. I never sexually assaulted her (or even tried to); all our sex was consensual— from the very beginning. She’s the one who emotionally abused me (often) during that time— at times in public in front of others, believe it or not. I never committed “birth control sabotage”, never “held her down to place my head between her legs while questioning if she slept with other men"— and she never screamed or kicked me— none of that ever happened with me (she either has very vivid imagination or that unfortunately happened to her w/someone else— but not me). Shame on her for piling on here. Period.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Re: Susan Linich— I never sexually harassed her, she was not a constituent of mine, and she’s the one who reached out to me after she had asked for a ride to Bard (not I to her). She was the one from the beginning to introduce herself to me (I hadn’t known her), educating me about how she was the sister of a former fellow WVKR DJ colleague of mine. Once it became clear she wasn’t interested in me I backed off quickly (as always). Those are the facts. Period.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Re: Betsy Kraat-- I never indicated an interest in having sex or a relationship with her-- yes 32 years ago in 1987 when a super-depressed teenage girl was desperate for friendship I took pity on her and stupidly accepted her calls for a couple weeks. I certainly never put any pressure on her for sex—- or to be her boyfriend for that matter. We never even hung out together. Those are the facts. Period. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Re: Ashley Casale— yes I flirted briefly initially a few years ago with her— she made it clear she wasn’t interested in me…and then for some reason (entrapment anyone?) she voluntarily decided to contact me and tell me she wanted to work with me closely to organize a big event in the summer of 2017-- sending me mixed messages. At least the Poughkeepsie Journal website article today states this about me— “He said he and his wife have separated many times and during one of these separations he said he flirted with Casale until she showed she wasn't interested and he backed off”…however today’s PoJo also sadly publishes this blatant lie from Casale— that I’m “willing to use his platform and his network to lift up the work of young female organizers, but only so long as he can keep them as sexual prospects and continue to make advances upon them"— that’s quite inaccurate; for the last 25 years I’ve been a community activist I’ve promoted the work of thousands of women and men, regardless of their interactions with me (and frankly I continued to publicize local Planned Parenthood events in spite of Ashley’s attacking me— that’s a fact). Look at my past emails and Facebook re: this.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: Regarding the “young college-aged woman” mentioned in The Hudson Valley News article that came out a few weeks ago, the fact of the matter is not only that she strongly indicated an interest me well over a decade ago— but also that there were no “aggressive unwanted romantic advances” from me towards her. Period.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: The NYS Board of Elections recently decided to move up the political calendar so that county legislators running for re-election like myself would have to start gathering petition signatures in February instead of June— meaning now the opportune time to smear and destroy someone like me-- making it difficult to keep support of local Democratic Committee members necessary to run a winning campaign (wake up folks—this whole thing is politically motivated drive-by shooting, hit-and-run job— no more no less…”coincidence”?...I think not).</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: The Dutchess County Democratic Committee power structure clearly showed its hand in the summer of 2017, going out of its way to try to publicly try to destroy me then after I had been literally the only person in our county government willing to boldly/openly challenge the Molinaro administration regarding its illegal, unethical, immoral, and unneeded plan to decimate bus service for Section 8 residents of Thurgood Marshall Terraces apartments on Delafield Street and dozens of other streets for all of that summer—cruelly forcing poor folks of color and many with disabilities to walk many extra blocks during the hottest months of the year (outrage WAS the proper response if you had a heart/mind/soul to question Molinaro/GOP on this).</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: Various and sundry Democrats in northern Dutchess have told me for over a decade now that the Dutchess County Democratic Committee power structure has desperately been looking for someone to primary me.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: I resigned in late Jan. because it became crystal-clear to me very quickly early last week that the Dutchess County Democratic Committee power structure and its many supporters throughout northern Dutchess would be doing all they could to make my innocent flirting look evil and instead amplify and publicize the lying attacks on me, declaring me guilty before proven innocent (and yes I have the emails to prove this).</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: I’m used to powerful GOP out to get me and crush/kill/destroy/maim me at all costs— I’m used to that—that’s their M.O.—that’s what Dutchess Republicans have been up to for decades now, with the local media often aiding and abetting their attacks on me (all that is nothing new)— what I’m not used to is Dutchess County Democratic Committee power structure folks being obsessively brazen in their attempts to smear and destroy me.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: So I resigned last month, believe it or not, to clear my name— I recognized that this whole thing would descend into a circus blame game, fueled by powerful Dems and GOP (with their friends in the media)— but that by my stepping down it would become manifest more quickly, actually-- that those out to destroy me had way overplayed their hand.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: I haven’t been legally charged for sexual harassment, sexual assault, or trying to have sex with a minor-- I haven’t been charged legally for any of those things-- because I’m not guilty of any of those things— it’s all just a bunch of disgusting trash talk that I’ve become the victim of (even The Hudson Valley News piece got this part correct—“to be fair, Tyner has not been charged with any criminal activity”).</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: There’s just one thing about the truth— you can pretend it’s not there, you can try to sweep it under the carpet, you can try to hide it— but it has a funny little way of coming out.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: The whole truth about all this will come out—and my name will be cleared. Sooner than y’all think. Those out to destroy me have way overplayed their hand and jumped the shark. Period. Watch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Re: Samantha Tseng of Beacon (who btw gave a glowing speech nominating me for state Senate last Mar. 1st in front of a few hundred folks @ Dutchess Democratic Committee Convention)—these are the facts (according to screenshots she herself posted on her FB wall recently)— on 10/15/16 (before I was married) yes I did flirt with her, telling her I was a big fan of hers; her response was “thank you (with smiley face emoji) I appreciate it” (she was 20 at the time; for 18 months a decade ago I had been engaged to someone 20 years younger than me who was 25 at the time of the beginning of our relationship)…then on 10/29/16 Samantha proceeded to engage in conversation with me, texting me “what are you up to?”…I told her what I was up to— that I was planning to go to a Halloween party later that day (she had asked what I was up to; I told her); when I asked if she might be interested in joining me to hang out at that party, her response was “let me sleep on it”…my response to her was “yay ok I’ll accept that as a definite maybe lol”…to which she responded “yeah totally”…I then texted her this—“I would love to hangout with u” (with a smiley face emoji)…her response to that was a smiley face emoji; in Nov. 5th 2016 we started chatting again, I sent her a “kiss” emoji, texted her “kiss on </span><span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">cheek n hug for u”; her response to this was a smiley face-- and then, again, as stated above, Samantha gave an amazing speech on my behalf 3/1/17 at county Dem convention nominating me for state Senate; none of that = sexual harassment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[ironically Tseng ended her FB post thanking Molinaro, GOP Co. Leg. Chair Pulver, and county Dem Chair Elisa Sumner for all their support for the women who have come fwd to try to attack me with lies/exaggeration-- I kid you not; wake up-- Molinaro, Pulver, Sumner also been obsessed w/destroying me for years]</span></div>
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[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-12650861051229046172019-01-09T22:04:00.000-08:002019-01-09T22:04:01.717-08:00join Jessica Fowler (Chair of Northwest-Connect.org) @ Rhinebeck Town Hall Tues. Jan. 15th 6 pm re: municipal broadband-- her coalition of 25 towns in northwest CT is model we here in Dutchess should seriously consider-- see MuniNetworks.org!<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="galileo-ap-layout-editor" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black; min-width: 100%; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Join Jessica Fowler, Board Chair of </span> <a href="http://www.northwest-connect.org/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.Northwest-Connect.org</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">(third-term Selectwoman for the Town of Sharon), Rhinebeck Deputy Supervisor Allan Scherr, Clinton Town Boardmember Michael Whitton, and yours truly next Tuesday January 15th 6 pm for our forum “Cost-Saving Municipal Broadband for Dutchess" at Rhinebeck Town Hall (80 East Market Street)!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px;">[we're trying to get as many elected officials from across Dutchess as possible to this-- so pls if you can fwd this email to every local elected official you know in your town/city: thx!]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Rsvp/share FB event here: </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/362002927908180/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/events/362002927908180/</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Thanks again to County Legislators Kris Munn, Francena Amparo, Rebecca Edwards, Randy Johnson, and Nick Page for signing on to my letter in November calling on our county government to replicate efforts here of the Northwest Connect coalition of 25 towns in northwestern Connecticut effectively working towards the goal of municipal broadband to revitalize their economy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">As Northwest-Connect.org itself notes-- “A fiber optic network costs about 10% of what it costs to build a new road or sewer system. Under our business model it could cost our rural region around $6 a month per home to connect everyone. If the state decided to do it, wire the whole state, the figure is more like $3 a home.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Last summer I asked Chris Mitchell of </span><a href="http://www.muninetworks.org/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.MuniNetworks.org</a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance to analyze us in Dutchess-- he found that almost half of all households here in our county have virtually no choice for broadband provider. Note-- high-quality connectivity needs to be fast, affordable, and reliable-- satellite is none of the three.</span></div>
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<a href="https://ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/fact-sheet-satellite-not-broadband.pdf" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/fact-sheet-satellite-not-broadband.pdf</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Chris Mitchell: "The vast majority of municipal networks have not used taxpayer dollars for a variety of reasons. Hundreds of local governments across the U.S. are offering Internet access to local businesses and/or residents, often in reaction to a lack of fast, affordable, and reliable connections in their community. Contrary to popular belief, none of the most common means of financing the network involves increasing local taxes. For instance, with the revenue bond method, a local government or utility issues bonds to private investors that are repaid over many years with revenues from the network. Certificates of Participation work along similar principles. Fewer than 2% of municipal networks have defaulted on bonds; examples where revenue bonds have been successfully used to build inexpensive, high-quality, high-speed municipal broadband include Lafayette, Louisiana, Cedar Falls, Iowa, and Longmont, Colorado."</span></div>
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<a href="https://ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/financing-munis-fact-sheet.pdf" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/financing-munis-fact-sheet.pdf</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: At a packed town meeting Dec. 6th, residents of Charlemont, MA showed up to express their support for a publicly owned fiber optic network, defeating a proposal from Comcast.</span></div>
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<a href="https://muninetworks.org/content/charlemont-chooses-muni-fiber-over-comcast-cartel" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://muninetworks.org/content/charlemont-chooses-muni-fiber-over-comcast-cartel</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: Windsor, MA plans to connect all residents and businesses with publicly owned Internet infrastructure before the end of 2019. The town has fewer than 1,000 residents: great small town success story. [and perhaps model for us here locally!]</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/leaders-on-a-mission-to-close-gender-wage-gap-in-wny_2018031409251894/1042916350" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/leaders-on-a-mission-to-close-gender-wage-gap-in-wny_2018031409251894/1042916350</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[check out </span><a href="https://wiredwest.net/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://wiredwest.net</a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">too-- Mass. towns banding together for this(!)]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Click here to download Dec. 11th Community Broadband Bits podcast-- hear what it takes to rally a community around municipal broadband. Chicopee/MA City Counselor Joel McAuliff talks about educating both his constituents and fellow elected officials: "Possibilities, Challenges, Risks : Chicopee, Massachusetts, Considers A Muni" - Community Broadband Bits Podcast 335:</span></div>
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<a href="https://muninetworks.org/content/possibilities-challenges-risks-chicopee-massachusetts-considers-muni-community-broadband" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://muninetworks.org/content/possibilities-challenges-risks-chicopee-massachusetts-considers-muni-community-broadband</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">12/11: Roanoke Valley Broadband Authority Progress Made All Indicators Favorable</span></div>
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<a href="https://muninetworks.org/content/roanoke-valley-broadband-authority-progress-made-all-indicators-favorable?fbclid=IwAR2qu4LzW_RlLOrpKWRpB41yiWZlYK7zIjbHiy1lbNwb2BuGEPqm-fyjUVs" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://muninetworks.org/content/roanoke-valley-broadband-authority-progress-made-all-indicators-favorable</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[pass it on!]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Joel </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[check out info here below from ILSR/MuniNetworks: various models to investigate]</span></div>
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<a href="https://muninetworks.org/sites/www.muninetworks.org/files/2017-07-Muni-Fiber-Models-Fact-Sheet-FINAL.pdf" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://muninetworks.org/sites/www.muninetworks.org/files/2017-07-Muni-Fiber-Models-Fact-Sheet-FINAL.pdf</a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 45px;">Muni Fiber Models</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 15px;">Community networks have a variety of models, from offering full retail services to dark fiber approaches. Each comes with its own strengths and weaknesses and will appeal differently to different communities. Below are some common approaches, though communities often tweak these models in various ways.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 32px;">Full Retail Service</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px;">The city network offers services directly to the public just like a private cable company — telephone, Internet access, and television are common. Most, but not all, of the cities that have used this model already had a municipal electric utility. This is the most common model to date for citywide networks.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 15px;">Examples</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 32px;">Dark Fiber and Conduit</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px;">This is one of lowest cost, lowest risk options — installing conduit and fiber optics, often as part of other capital projects, and making it easily available for lease to ISPs (or available for future municipal use). Cities generally do this in limited parts of the city, often business districts, but Stockholm used it to supercharge Internet access everywhere and Huntsville is running dark fiber near every premise in the city. This approach can lay the foundation for a partnership.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px;">Chattanooga, Tenn.; Wilson, N.C.;</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px;">Lafayette, La.; and Sandy, Ore.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px;">Stockholm, Sweden;</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px;">Huntsville, Ala.; Rockport, Maine; Lincoln, Neb.; and Sonic</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 15px;">Examples</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 32px;">Open Access</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px;">The city builds and operates the fiber network, making it available to multiple independent ISPs that compete for subscribers. The city generally does not offer services directly to subscribers in this model. Learn more with this resource.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 15px;">Examples</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 32px;">I-Net ‘n’ More</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px;">The city begins by connecting its own anchor institutions — schools, libraries, public safety, water department, etc. Then it begins offering services to businesses and residents near those locations and expands incrementally. This approach often blends the others — for example Santa Monica offers retail services and dark fiber leases.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 15px;">Examples</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 32px;">Partnerships</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px;">There is more enthusiasm than examples of success, but this approach is nonetheless growing. Ideally, the city and a partner share both risk and reward. Cities that can partner with infrastructure co-ops may have the best luck. More guidance on partnerships here.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 15px;">Example </span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 16px;">Westminster, Md.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px;">UTOPIA, Utah; NoaNet, Wash.;</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px;">and Ammon, Idaho</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">From </span><a href="http://www.northwest-connect.org/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.Northwest-Connect.org</a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">...</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[granted info below is re: northwest CT-- but pertinent to us here in Dutchess too!]</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">A universal gigabit highway made up of a Fiber to the Home (FTTH) network connecting everyone within a region of 25 towns and 75,000 homes in northwest Connecticut.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">It is much like our existing telephone and cable tv networks except it uses glass fibers sending light signals instead of copper lines that send electrical signals. Copper lines are inherently limited; fiber optic lines are not. It is the network of the future. As with existing networks, a fiber network comprises trunk wiring mounted on telephone poles or installed in underground conduits, drop wiring from poles into a home or business, home electronics for signal conversion and WiFi distribution within the premises, and a back-haul network consisting of switches and interconnecting fiber optic cables that link to the Internet, the public switched telephone network, and other potential resources such a broadcast television feeds.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold;">Why do we need it? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Speed, universal access, latency. Unlike telephone and cable television networks now, it will serve everyone, it will be fast enough for all future applications, and it will have the low round trip delays required for many new applications. It is the network of the future.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">Our current networks from television and telephone companies were designed and built decades ago; they are on their dying legs. Each has been adapted to create digital networks that share lines with legacy telephone and television channels. Each has been augmented by installing fiber optic nodes in the “last mile” to shrink the length of copper lines and the number of users sharing them. But they are the past, helpless really before the needs of the future. But none of the incumbents can afford to upgrade their networks to fiber optics nor can they afford to connect everyone. The only way we are getting the network of the future that connects everyone, like roads and electricity, is municipal participation in their construction and management.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">The network future is about more than just speed. Speed of course is critical. Twenty years ago the only way most people reached the Internet was through dial-up modems running at 56 kbps or less; today the average Internet access rate is 26 mbps, reflecting the circumstance that more than half of current Internet connections go over CATV networks. Things in the pipeline such as 4K and 8K television, the Internet of Things, and Virtual Reality will continue to push speed requirement up, soon pushing CATV networks into the dust bin. But the network future also requires universal access and very low latencies.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">Universal access means passing every home and business with a new network to which anyone can subscribe at affordable rates. This is the way we think about roads and electricity. In the present regulatory landscape in telecommunications our incumbent carriers are not obliged to connect everyone, and competitive pressures render the prospect all but impossible from a commercial point of view. Communities will have to take charge of their own network destiny.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">Latency, or round trip delay, looms large on the horizon of some new applications. Remote Virtual Reality requires latency below 10 ms; most networks today do well to be under 50 ms, and many mobile connections are around 150 ms. Latency comes down by increasing speed and decreasing the distance to a data center. Neither are coming from legacy carriers; a new network is required.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold;">Why do our communities need it? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Economic development, restoral of our young population, education, safety, health care, government information, quality of life. Broadband has become as necessary as roads, water, electricity. Every day we are denied broadband on a universal basis at speeds required for future applications is a day longer in our drift downward.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">A new fiber-optic network will become the nerve system of our region. It will be the basis for new economic development for businesses requiring reliable communications, from farms to health care facilities to web and software developers to IT departments to small manufacturers using the Internet to sell their products. Economic development will encourage young people to move here and stay here, with all the benefits a resurgence of youth engenders. It will promote safety, education, health care, government information, real estate values and sales, and other community features affecting our quality of life. Fiber to the Home will allow individuals to migrate to the entertainment and household future, a future less expensive than what they have now and more capable as the world becomes increasingly digital and demands network capacity. It is the future. At some point everyone will have it. We can build out competitive community assets if we have it first.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold;">What is our business model? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Municipalities own the trunk wiring on poles (think roads) and a private partner provides the wiring from the poles into homes and all network electronics (think driveways and garages).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">Out thin housing footprint and small town size prevent any sensible business case for a private partner if the partner builds the entire network. But if we install and own the wiring on the poles, the largest cost in our region for a new network, and the private partner provides the rest—drop wiring from the pole to the home or business, home electronics and wiring, and network switches—the business case for the private partner becomes very attractive—after some initial infrastructure he only commits capital when he has a customer. This model greatly eases the risk burden for the private partner and creates the conditions for good working relationships between the public and private parties. The model is unique in America as far as we know despite it making a great deal of sense.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold;">How much will it cost - total? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Depends on way too many factors to give a simple number, but estimated total cost comes to $212 million for the region if everyone subscribes, or $2830 per home more or less worst case with aerial wiring.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">Construction costs depend upon a number of variables and cannot be determined exactly without conducting engineering studies. Trunk wiring along poles or under grounded range from $30,000 to $200,000 a mile, with $40,000 a mile for aerial wiring a decent estimate. Drop wiring from pole to the home and all home electronics run around $1000 per home, with homes longer than normal distance from a poles sometimes adding significant costs. Distribution hubs and switches can be guessed at by adding 10% to the costs of wiring. Back-haul connections to an Internet point of presence will likely be leased from an existing network at something like $1000 per gigabit per month. If all 75,000 homes subscribe to the new network, creating enough traffic to justify a 100 gigabit back-haul rate, the costs per home for back-haul figures to be less than $1.50 per month.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">Recurring costs depend upon the number of actual subscribers. Fiber optic networks are more reliable than copper-based networks and therefore require lower maintenance costs. However, in our business model recurring costs will be fully absorbed by the private partner and be requited through subscriber fees.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold;">How much will it cost our communities? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">A precise figure cannot be given, but a reasonable estimate for trunk wiring that is largely aerial is $113 million, or about $1500 per home, which would be $5.38 per month per home under favorable financing.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">Under our business model our communities will only pay for the trunk wiring, and of that just the wire, not terminating electronics. The wire will last forty years or more without possible replacement, providing communities with an asset that will attract very favorable borrowing terms. Trunk wiring depends largely on road miles. We have 2256 miles of maintained roads miles in our region. If we assume predominantly aerial wiring on telephone poles with mandatory under grounding where other wiring is already underground, we can estimate construction costs at $50,000 per mile, or $113 million for our region. While this seems like a large number, a network that does not need replacement or upgrading for forty years can attract 40-year financing terms. At today’s interest rates over forty years the cost per home in our region for trunk wiring would be $5.50 per month.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold;">If the communities must pay, do they get a return? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Some, but not enough to pay for the infrastructure or make money in the long run.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">Our thin housing footprint makes the cost per home of trunk wiring the dominant cost of the network (in urban areas it is the drop wiring). Any arrangement with a private partner will involve some lease payments back to the communities, but we will suggest that such payments go to support those on the economic margins. Even though fiber optic wiring lasts decades, anything on a pole will be subject to storm damage (although the power lines usually catch falling limbs before they reach the communications space on a pole), so some maintenance costs will have to be considered.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold;">Will communities be directly involved, or will some utility-like agency be established to work with the private party? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Almost certainly the latter.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">Most of our communities have no skill sets related to networks or their management, and getting all communities united under one plan through a confederation has almost no chance of working well. We imagine the entity to function much like our 911 call and dispatch service that supports 20 towns in Litchfield County through a non-profit corporation, paid for by the state and the member communities, and deploying through the call center a fiber optic network for reaching remote information and dispatch locations. The model may need some legislative tweaking, but we are not carving new stones.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold;">Can we get federal or state subsidies as rural communities? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Very unlikely, but we may be able to borrow money from the federal government at very favorable terms.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">Connecticut presently faces significant budgetary constraints. The federal government has several programs from several departments devoted to broadband improvements in rural areas, but they usually go to DSL upgrades by legacy telephone companies in census tracts where CATV does not offer broadband. Every census tract in our region has CATV with broadband service. We are ironically too advanced compared to most rural communities to be a recipient of federal monies.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">However, installing a fiber optic network may have collateral benefits in this respect. There are numberless resources now for subsidies involving health care, the digital divide, other educational advances for those from the economic margins, agriculture, developing government efficiencies, aging at home, and combatting poverty, any of which will be promoted in our region by a fiber-optic nerve center linking everything together. The existence of the network will make us a more attractive opportunity for these related concerns.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold;">Will everyone be connected? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Anyone who wishes to subscribe will be connected with the same service pricing as everyone else, the meaning of universal service.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">However, any home a very long distance from a telephone pole may require a contribution from the homeowner. Unlike CATV networks, every home will be passed by the network, making the costs for a very long “drop” at least the smallest it can be.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold;">What services will be offered? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Internet access at 1 gigabit, full telephone service, access to a local data center for specialized applications, and secure private lines for access to remote IT functions within large corporations.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">We do not imagine a full television suite (the costs of which are high for construction and complicated for procuring content).</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold;">How will the services be priced? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Competitively, for some services quite a bit lower.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">We cannot set prices before a deal with a private partner, who will decide prices based upon the business model and local competition. However, we can say with certainty that neither we nor any partner would enter into an agreement unless prices were “competitive,” meaning that the new network will be less expensive than existing CATV for the same service and services unobtainable from CATV, such as 1 gigabit Internet access, which would be priced where CATV currently has 100 mbps access. We know from experiences in other communities with fiber-optic networks that competitive prices are realizable.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold;">Why will residential users want this over cable television with cable modems for Internet? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Much higher data rates for a given Internet access fee, lower telephone costs, packages for cord cutting, but perhaps most important, a local call center with a human being answering the phone instead of a robot.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">For the individual, a fiber-optic network sails past cable television (CATV). It can be cheaper, even after accounting for individual contributions to the network. (How much will depend greatly upon the services taken by any given user.) It creates the fully digital home—no more cables, televisions can be anywhere in the home, any number of devices can be operating at the same time. Our call center will be local, not outside the country; a service call will be answered immediately by someone living in Litchfield County. Data rates will be upgradable to fit user needs forever. Upstream rates will be the same as downstream, enabling full video sharing and a host of applications CATV cannot support. Houses will be worth more, people can work at home with all the capabilities they have at the office, and future applications will be supported. CATV is the past; the future is fiber.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold;">What is ``mobile enhancement``? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Using the fiber optic lines installed under this program to connect small antennas on telephone poles to fill in many gaps in current mobile coverage.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">The mobile network connects mobile phones to a nearby antenna through the air. Hills, trees, and other impediments block the path, creating dead spots. Small antennas can be installed on telephone poles or light poles to augment the large antenna towers where signals are weak or non-existent. These antennas are connected back into the mobile network through fiber-optic lines. It is our intention to use the fiber network constructed for our communities for this purpose, installing antennas at strategic locations to improve reception. The communities will bear the costs, which are not trivial. As some communities may not need any antennas and some will need quite a few, how to allocate the costs remains to be determined.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold;">Isn't 5G the future, all we will need once we get it? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">No. 5G will both requite and drive fiber to the home networks.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">First, 5G will not materialize in our region for years; it is in very small trials now and the standards for some of its features have not even be set yet. Second, 5G requires small antennas on utility poles or new poles spaced every half-mile or so; the frequencies are too high for tower-based antennas. Installing these poles everywhere will be expensive, time consuming, and opposed by many communities. Three, many people will beat the antenna problem by putting a small antenna in their attic or elsewhere, which will need a fiber optic connection back into the network. Four, 5G is not necessary for today’s applications; it depends crucially on new applications around the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, virtual reality, telemedicine, and 8K video screens among others. As these develop and mature, they will require fiber optic networks in the home to augment or be the primary communications resource serving the applications. 5G will drive fiber optics to the home, not replace it.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold;">Why a region instead town by town? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">We need the economies of scale to attract a private partner and provide an adequate base for local service and maintenance.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">The principal reason for collecting ourselves into a region is to attract a private partner. A private enterprise will not take on a town with fewer than 20,000 homes because of fixed capital and recurring costs for maintenance. The largest town in our region has 16,000 homes; some have less than 800. If we work together, we amass 75,000 homes, larger than any one city in the state. Together, we become a very attractive opportunity. A secondary but equally important reason is that economic development, the principle driver from a community point of view, will be hard to realize for smaller communities working alone. Even our larger communities are missing some features needed to attract Millennial professionals when considered alone. However, as a region, we can develop compelling incentives for new businesses and new people to work and live here.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold;">Why this particular region? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">We have natural arrangements with the Northwest Hills Council of Governments (NHCOG) for 21 towns; the other four asked to be involved.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">Our target region comprises the 21 towns within the Northwest Hills Council of Governments (NHCOG) and four towns south of that region who asked to be included in the enterprise. They are contiguous and form a geographic unit that has sufficient common features with sufficient diversity to be considered a single entity. We can do the network with fewer towns, and we could add towns as the network decisions come closer. However, as getting any 25 towns on the same page is difficult, we want to stay with the current group and the relationships formed, leaving addition or subtraction to a more appropriate time.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold;">Is this the same as the CEN network? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">No. The Connecticut Education Network (CEN) and the Public Safety Data Network (PSDN), which taken together have been called the Nutmeg Network, are state-wide fiber-optic networks connecting schools and libraries (CEN) as well as police and fire stations (PSDN). We will likely use CEN for back-haul to the Internet, but we are basically proposing a “last mile network.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">By its very nature, the PSDN will not expand its services to clients outside the public safety arena. CEN is looking for business, but it only connects to homes or businesses under special and expensive circumstances. Neither network was ever intended for the “last mile.” Furthermore, neither supplies telephone or television services. However, our network may lease space from the CEN network to connect our network to the Internet, a so-called “back-haul” connection. As the state of Connecticut has suspended funding for CEN, it is seeking new customers.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold;">What have other communities done? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Many diverse options have been implemented and explored around the country for municipal-based fiber networks. Because we have widespread access to CATV networks and no electric utilities, we are proposing a business model that is unique in America for networks, but completely consistent with the way we treat roads.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 16px;">Many different scenarios have been and are being played out now in the country. Verizon, CenturyLink, AT&T, and Frontier offer FTTH in select cities, but they are moving very slowly. Google wired up some parts of Kansas City, but they are now trying much leaner approaches. Around 100 smaller communities have installed fiber-optic networks through a municipal electric utility, the most well known being Chattanooga, Tennessee. Several communities in western Massachusetts are going it alone, but only for data services, in towns with no CATV, and with the state supplying half the costs. Here in Connecticut, the city of East Hartford has reached an agreement with a private firm named SiFi to install and maintain a FTTH network that SiFi will finance but with certain financial guarantees from East Hartford. An intriguing option is at work in Westminster, Md, in which Westminster installs and owns the fiber but then leases it to a private partner installs all electronics, provides services, and markets all services. Unfortunately, there is no example in the country of a number of municipalities forming a collective, building out a network, using it to enhance its mobile network fabric, and offering all conceivable services over it. We will be the first. The advantage of being first in the contest for new businesses devoted to information technologies cannot be overstated.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold;">Will Frontier or any CATV company contest the effort? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Yes. They have already interfered through the Public Utility Regulatory Authority (PURA), getting them to rule that Connecticut communities cannot use their legal space on the pole for commercial broadband. We are appealing this through the court, but it will take a long time to settle. We are meanwhile mounting a legislative campaign to secure the legal power to proceed regardless of how connected PURA seems to be to incumbent carriers. In the end we will prevail. Stay tuned.</span></div>
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[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-77885801256269702992018-12-18T19:30:00.003-08:002018-12-18T19:30:56.874-08:00join Rev. Edwrin Sutton, Rabbi Renni Altman, Rev. Gail Burger, Co. Leg. Giancarlo Llaverias, Mae Parker-Harris, Ann Perry, Karen Dipnarine-Saroop, Pat Lamanna, Colleen Hemmings, Fred Nagel tomorrow 5:30 pm-- our 23rd Vigil for Economic Justice(!)<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="galileo-ap-layout-editor" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black; min-width: 100%; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/341105259809311/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/events/341105259809311/</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold;">Working Class Dutchess' 23rd Annual Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa Candlelight Vigil for Economic Justice with Rabbi Renni Altman, Rev. Edwrin Sutton, Rev. Gail Burger, Rev. Giancarlo Llaverias, and</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold;">Karen Dipnarine-Saroop (Du. Interfaith Council Ex. Dir.)--</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold;">with former Councilwoman Ann Perry, 1199SEIU Organizer Colleen Hemmings, and Folksingers/Activists Pat Lamanna/Fred Nagel -- Organized by Co. Leg. Joel Tyner </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold;">TOMORROW(!): Weds. Dec. 19th 5:30 pm</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold;">In front of County Office Bldg. 22 Market Poughkeepsie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Join Rabbi Renni Altman (of Vassar Temple), Rev. Edwrin Sutton (of Smith Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church), Karen Dipnarine-Saroop (Dutchess Interfaith Council Exec. Dir.) Rev. Gail Burger (of Presbyterian Church USA and decades-long former Dutchess Interfaith Council Executive Director), long-time community activist Mae Parker-Harris, former Poughkeepsie Councilmember Ann Perry, County Legislators Giancarlo Llaverias (Rev.) and Joel Tyner (with Laila), folksinger/activist Pat Lamanna of Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Poughkeepsie Social Justice Action Committee, 1199SEIU Organizer Colleen Hemmings, folksinger/activist Fred Nagel for their event tomorrow-- Weds. Dec. 19th 22nd at 5:30 pm-- in front of the Dutchess County Office Building at 22 Market Street in Poughkeepsie-- Joel's 23rd annual Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa Holiday Interfaith Candlelight Vigils for Economic Justice-- with their "We're All God's Children" theme this year-- making the point that our county government should be making sure all Dutchess residents can get jobs at a living wage, shelter, education, healthcare, treatment, etc.-- no exceptions-- BECAUSE WE ARE ALL GOD'S CHILDREN-- AND GOVERNMENT AT ALL LEVELS SHOULD ACT LIKE IT.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Black", Gadget, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; font-weight: bold;">time for some liberation theology here </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">- in radical social justice tradition of prophets of our faiths speaking truth to power - </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">living-wage jobs/housing/healthcare/education for all/treatment not jail for addicts</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">(click here for reminder on human rights degraded here:</span> <span style="font-size: 14px;"> </span> <a href="https://conta.cc/2RLPlJ9?fbclid=IwAR2ktY7sYVR9S_AwOd0bNOVrjmibOXN8K2QUhDbiQ_Ox0BKP9YRXHgWxgsE" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://conta.cc/2RLPlJ9</a> <span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"> )</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: "The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that’s wrong with the world." (Paul Farmer/Partners in Health)</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikiquote.org%2Fwiki%2FPaul_Farmer%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1K6M35IvEDKA-G0CGjpc074KejS-q5r1RvE5OH2y1XaS91B1dmIX_zc_s&h=AT1Nedf3J8E9xa-YSdJEd5h05cdpurR3ym4xwH5pD4d-mbJma0nWK6jmyxOsdyZXhsQ62TNgcmEBeJcoHMFvR2kNqmc5H-rygU7XFGdH0VR5G3RkLEcCJjq-1vW6JmImVlGdOWk" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Farmer</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Bring a candle and join us-- Renni, Edwrin, Karen, Mae, Gail, Giancarlo, Pat, Fred, Laila, Joel. et. al. will once again be circling up this year to honor how the ancient prophets of Israel, Jesus Christ himself, and, in fact, the prophets of all the world's great faiths all spoke out repeatedly against the economic injustices of their time-- and how, aside from all the pretty lights we all see around our valley now-- it wouldn't be a bad idea to start channeling and remembering true holiday meaning.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[Ched Myers' "God Speed Year of Jubilee: </span> <a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fsojo.net%2Fmagazine%2F1998%2F05%2Fgod-speed-year-jubilee%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0zYWFP3vCXNgahk3CxGajL2Zg8u66iH-otDr8y5hgiymteEC1YyRxMmkk&h=AT1ZTx-hzDsaemZEnm4nLpfFCnREe9B4ZzP7TQmxToxd8GPPB4viy8Q-1ftY0uEKdIsFHFlTWUDUfy-t77Btu35ll5-lWIvs9NPa_NJZ3mjVWN2fSmFakFvt64PKTFkaUIFDfeg" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://sojo.net/magazine/1998/05/god-speed-year-jubilee</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Myers' "Jesus' New Economy of Grace: </span> <a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fsojo.net%2Fmagazine%2F1998%2F07%2Fjesus-new-economy-grace%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1d6pSgUVF45ji0mKjzZQtQcBwOb4Wtn0KUDwdpHuNTeK_LZPX-v8-943Y&h=AT2ez8V7bZ0lkA0DmkMFdkF_rE_jjlhlodBc8ddo41Io7-yvKnS09stDQMzrgcmx74Cm79vQXAzR-r6VlPLb0KsI3hhuaXsPR72NoeSG6_4a-7GbYCJ-PoXFlECqxHXLp6kPUdA" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://sojo.net/magazine/1998/07/jesus-new-economy-grace</a> <span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"> ]</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[see Rev. Jim Wallis' </span> <a href="http://www.sojo.net/" style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.SoJo.net</a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">; Rabbi Lerner's </span> <a href="http://www.tikkun.org/esra" style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.Tikkun.org</a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"> --</span></div>
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<a href="https://sojo.net/articles/our-government-deliberately-inflicting-suffering-asylum-seekers" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://sojo.net/articles/our-government-deliberately-inflicting-suffering-asylum-seekers</a></div>
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<a href="https://sojo.net/articles/advent-manifesto-does-my-soul-still-sing" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://sojo.net/articles/advent-manifesto-does-my-soul-still-sing</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.tikkun.org/newsite/a-prayer-of-boundless-love" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.tikkun.org/newsite/a-prayer-of-boundless-love</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.tikkun.org/newsite/80-years-since-the-holocaust-began-can-we-stop-fascism-today" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.tikkun.org/newsite/80-years-since-the-holocaust-began-can-we-stop-fascism-today</a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">]</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Information: joeltyner@earthlink.net</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">845-464-2245/876-2488</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.DutchessDemocracy.blogspot.com%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1tsiH1mzl3CVdwmTbfRrU7NwcysyTjzu2izQ07d3x2O8Gc61xbUEPhLmk&h=AT2zIY_0uXM_TcZaPI_-V9ORVHSS7YwEo2mAYRH5QA1hHMvhHzvT_TAQ1XJV0vUz70ALaIgP_QYsQ90MM9Dk4txmC_C6jLCLFarQQDmvglWfXImrID8fST73t3K5Lt80t33VVhA" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.DutchessDemocracy.blogspot.com</a> <span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"> ...last year's:</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.midhudsonnews.com%2FNews%2F2017%2FDecember%2F15%2Fecon_justice_vigil-15Dec17.html%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1cq5-CrAecAVpPKlZHo_xVXU3g4geMxbtXM9Nu6Y044ylppak_eI2h_v0&h=AT2K6pwmM43ikgXR2-fHTHm1fnQKjloHWnkPBM3wG7GRnMQ0Jk6Y-50I_MlJs6o-GtbHe7QbGD8TI61ICuWH1D1DU-WqOQ_RdIIA8fxEXTPlPuHH6XA-dB5ptGq_C_LaqG-iuLg" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2017/December/15/econ_justice_vigil-15Dec17.html</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[still needed-- more support for a truly strong and vibrant Poor People's Campaign for Dutchess County-- inspired by the father of Moral Mondays across the U.S., Rev. William Barber and MLK's original Poor People's Campaign)-- see </span><a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2FPoorPeoplesCampaign.org%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1svQUrql_MRrFesCaRz1rwe_gwVw8A9zSp87mm29WgYGu0B99WGNClUPM&h=AT0hl-F10yXazIkG3oBzh6sPY1U_r4VEf2pSNBbA1MnIgJdM2zqu34q6VVRJyIs9yUpvsq5folzf_e70ICy6vbAwqJpYHpRkqIdq5EyKaFuVlLIjstYNETBYmhyOhuk-7Psdz6w" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://PoorPeoplesCampaign.org</a> <span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"> and let Joel know if you're interested in working with him and the other folks above to rev up a true Poor People's Campaign for Dutchess County to protect immigrants, Muslims, all people of color, women, LGBTQ, elderly, all of us from discrimination and speak out boldly for social and economic justice for all; LET'S MAKE POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN HAPPEN HERE:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">recall how Rev. Emily McNeill of NYS Poor People's Campaign was in Beacon 3/22:</span></div>
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<a href="https://highlandscurrent.org/2018/03/18/poor-peoples-campaign-to-beacon/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://highlandscurrent.org/2018/03/18/poor-peoples-campaign-to-beacon/</a> <span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">]</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Indeed....</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">What would Eleanor Roosevelt say today re: UDHR here in Dutchess-- on 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights she drafted all those years ago?</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.un.org%2Fen%2Fsections%2Funiversal-declaration%2Fhistory-document%2Findex.html%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0Qvx5bOttstCYVzC3yvCs4tay42rzdg67WmuWJAkX6PrnR7F_a08g4_SY&h=AT0C3IFbLC0KZGyMIkUWxJ0cGLdX3E_XcGMXVez_KwzViCjtFiiHTfuQHb6iZxyrWsvfVcIsZN1YaPTgMfqZNh0Ph1kn0QPWBfYUuzcOP2bicngc6ixmnFH5C5bbC_EvlY_TyX8" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.un.org/en/sections/universal-declaration/history-document/index.html</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">She'd remind us that "human rights begin close to home":</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: Four homeless folks burned alive last recently in Poughkeepsie. 540 abandoned properties/homes now in the City of Poughkeepsie. $10 million stolen from the City of Poughkeepsie by our county government due to cruel/unnecessary change in sales-tax revenue-sharing over last 5 years. 3 years now of Joel's pressing for Dutchess County government to follow example of </span><a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2FAlbanyCountyLandBank.org%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR2zry9321Z4zImcOwPucgY-7kGuWnZgYMHLJ8iPFVe6a6uGeAmr-ioaVKs&h=AT0nS6_wiH3yVgB11M77woIdjrw6rOWjM_qp0rjHvYQi4T-ajZPcFuptaxr4Xg_AGeidmX1cqkuvzCqkkRX3GvHf1IbpLxGAAcjEQ-OhMtIR8f1WqdcrZq1isvAxvjJwAxvgpCw" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">AlbanyCountyLandBank.org</a> <span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"> to launch land bank to fix up and sell abandoned properties/houses across county.</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.poughkeepsiejournal.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Flocal%2F2018%2F12%2F08%2Fpoughkeepsie-honors-four-deceased-building-fire%2F2254544002%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1-d9BTAEYMuXopxVLQ7oMDPsAscG0DgDMYmdUN2Rel-zkoJc8k85BOGgs&h=AT0t5MdT_iqTOzYXBL6fVi5fL-4BcT3rc9MidjNfrbxAttovencHG89iW506DxHwc0udmZT14VwQ_wpdDegNdUNWRXRnTehui8i7MNggStJj2Mo6w2KZZ26fLb3exvZSUwNzIE4" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/2018/12/08/poughkeepsie-honors-four-deceased-building-fire/2254544002/</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: African-Americans make up only one eleventh of Dutchess County's population yet over a third of our county's jail population-- due to unequal enforcement of drug laws in our cities compared to suburbs-- and pervasive racial discrimination for decades in our workplaces, schools, and housing in Dutchess.</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.census.gov%2Fquickfacts%2Fdutchesscountynewyork%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1x1nZS8PAIs_ZYlwKQTNioLPDn2A4VgYDc7AB8szafhczy98ZgXbDfVz4&h=AT02GocOPRdMzdUZVy79_-pcnf1LDkz-iOrCp6lUf9H5lGPYIC4vfHWJVW5r9jTaLYgpmAmMCUNxx76coQXLTRjfr-xfFGne63wUeHal3D7vUYUDNWTJkNYaGq-sZBoqjQkXGyg" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/dutchesscountynewyork</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: For the last eight months now Joel has proposed legislation here for Dutchess that would completely ban conversion therapy (cruelly/destructively attempting to force gay/lesbian youth to be straight) as in Ulster, Albany, and Westchester counties-- yet GOP Co. Leg. majority here in Dutchess (true to form on this as in other issues) has refused to even allow this on to agenda for a committee mtg.-- let alone a vote of the full board of all 25 of us county legislators (all of this ignored by local media).</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fgroups.google.com%2Fforum%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR12nVQFbPo4J9GGUKI_-J1-qEaHUVzjC4rmIN7bq4QvGt0Gi4y0_cUDIGM%23!topic%2Fmidhudsonprogressivealliance%2FxgH1vWraPvY&h=AT1EBEAeYblD4lI5WaF-qd7RFBmtYnWZBIh4dns55vkiOqMEbL0gclK_-IEUqsdCRzN_yzptyTHD2Uq20unRGk3ek4YxDgM0_GMxFTd_T-oGcSrZeYzenc1FrjT9_aOiO6GHkXk" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/midhudsonprogressivealliance/xgH1vWraPvY</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: Folks in our jail arrested for nonviolent substance abuse are regularly and cruelly forced to detox cold turkey in the Dutchess County Jail without Suboxone-- Medication Assisted Treatment in clear violation of Americans with Disabilities Act.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.change.org/p/dutchess-county-executive-marcus-molinaro-opioid-replacement-option-inside-dutchess-county-jail-suboxone-methadone-narcan-vivitrol?fbclid=IwAR0zYWFP3vCXNgahk3CxGajL2Zg8u66iH-otDr8y5hgiymteEC1YyRxMmkk" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://www.change.org/p/dutchess-county-executive-marcus-molinaro-opioid-replacement-option-inside-dutchess-county-jail-suboxone-methadone-narcan-vivitrol</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: Families of undocumented workers here in Dutchess County have often been too afraid to attend the food pantries here locally they've attended for years because of the Trump administration's ramped-up immigration enforcement w/ICE.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[this was revealed during open/public DCC forum on immigration in spring 2017]</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftheintercept.com%2F2018%2F06%2F27%2Fabolish-ice-alexandria-ocasio-cortez%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1tsiH1mzl3CVdwmTbfRrU7NwcysyTjzu2izQ07d3x2O8Gc61xbUEPhLmk&h=AT0U11XWDWlMH3zQRV4HiB8qaZykq7Ng6ag5QOH_-Crm5OmHlM_S0ufYregnmAK3pJNZHJwfv57lYNxrBEZ3ibi884Lp-aE8A9KA05o3sysdCEDO2FKq7c0GuFXu0SzoywJRP3Q" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://theintercept.com/2018/06/27/abolish-ice-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: County Exec Molinaro bragged openly and publicly at his 11/29/16 Milan Town Hall County Budget Forum that he was doing "everything possible" in his conversations with Church World Service to stop them from setting up an office here in Dutchess County to facilitate the local settlement of refugees from Syria.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[Joel knows-- Joel was there myself to witness this disgusting display of blatant racism.]</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dutchessny.gov%2Fconcalendar%2FEventDetail.aspx%3FEventID%3D4752%26fbclid%3DIwAR3TJy2KZ3OgLGoSqe8HJZWH25oh62kLcQoNn3heOFv8vC2scC9GZpxEixQ&h=AT2o0zc1unIvBlKxqv99CJMITds8bKodQmlKitawUjkMWGVQ-geRdS88lAglPVjxL0HrkM6jXYInGMWAhAwwDAEgmWQhR9Ikt9Y66plmLCu1fY0LStg4zYAVepCUjWayRrPdfWM" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.dutchessny.gov/concalendar/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=4752</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: Ulster Savings Bank just two years ago perpetrated massive discrimination in Poughkeepsie (and Kingston).</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wamc.org%2Fpost%2Fulster-savings-bank-faces-lawsuit-over-alleged-racial-discrimination-lending%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1svQUrql_MRrFesCaRz1rwe_gwVw8A9zSp87mm29WgYGu0B99WGNClUPM&h=AT0Y6a3I8ZaJiZGsK-N0xVpDoJhDwIeUtGcAEvgrGiKiLaGapB3-BvhrSwjMGJ_Tjk3BvG230Z5lI5f0kct_Tx0YSVCtIKEGogSK_XJwGWuQnaXG_BcVWwxOSijn_pUF__O1cw8" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://www.wamc.org/post/ulster-savings-bank-faces-lawsuit-over-alleged-racial-discrimination-lending</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: On Dec. 6th the GOP majority of our County Legislature voted against Joel's proposed county budget amendment to merely add $5000 to the 2019 budget for our county's Human Rights Commission so they could do a serious and comprehensive report on all sorts of discrimination rampant throughout our county.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Indeed. What would Eleanor say if she were here in Dutchess today?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[recall-- Westchester Human Rights Commission has subpoena power!...sign here:</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.change.org%2Fp%2Fdutchess-county-executive-marcus-molinaro-for-an-emboldened-empowered-human-rights-commission-in-dutchess-with-subpoena-power%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1-d9BTAEYMuXopxVLQ7oMDPsAscG0DgDMYmdUN2Rel-zkoJc8k85BOGgs&h=AT0k_VMqqOwLpXIJ9JQ09Qa7qXeqhbrSkUPXAtSoAdfWqWx-BnrC-q6kNv-XbR17JNqvwm8EHgNyEqdLwn0-VSmXSCf6ZnYT8pd5E-0pYzJeDlQhwMsvUNfjW_DKp9u5f5mR3zM" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://www.change.org/p/dutchess-county-executive-marcus-molinaro-for-an-emboldened-empowered-human-rights-commission-in-dutchess-with-subpoena-power</a> <span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"> (our county Human Rights Commission has also turned blind eye to ALL of this....)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Email countylegislators@dutchessny.gov for Eleanor today on all this-- she'd want you to.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[have been circulating this one below annually since it first appeared 20 yr.'s ago in "Sojourners"...</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fsojo.net%2Fmagazine%2F1998%2F07%2Fjesus-new-economy-grace%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR3if698uhtGZtG0n7gukXK-5rTClpYh0wC2ReKUbUNDy5cfndlUWSEChdo&h=AT2ez8V7bZ0lkA0DmkMFdkF_rE_jjlhlodBc8ddo41Io7-yvKnS09stDQMzrgcmx74Cm79vQXAzR-r6VlPLb0KsI3hhuaXsPR72NoeSG6_4a-7GbYCJ-PoXFlECqxHXLp6kPUdA" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://sojo.net/magazine/1998/07/jesus-new-economy-grace</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Jesus' New Economy of Grace</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">by Ched Myers | July-August 1998</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The biblical vision of Sabbath economics.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The Hebrew Bible's vision of Sabbath economics contends that a theology of abundant grace and a communal ethic of redistribution is the only way out of our slavery to the debt system, with its theology of meritocracy and private ethic of wealth concentration. The contemporary church, however, has difficulty hearing this as good news since our theological imaginations have long been captive to the market-driven orthodoxies of modern capitalism.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Our fears have persuaded us that the biblical Jubilee is at best utopian and at worst communistic. Yet we find it awkward simply to dismiss the biblical witness, so an alternative objection inevitably arises, as if on cue: "Israel never really practiced the Jubilee!" If genuine, and not simply a strategy of avoidance, this challenge is best addressed by considering both the "negative" and "positive" evidence.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">By "negative" evidence I mean the fact that Israel's prophets repeatedly and relentlessly criticized the nation's leadership for betraying the poor and vulnerable members of the community. This strongly suggests that the Sabbath vision of social and economic justice remained a measuring stick to which they could publicly appeal.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">There can be no question that the Sabbath disciplines of seventh-year debt release and Jubilee restructuring were regularly abandoned by those Israelites who wished to consolidate social advantages they had gained. The historical narratives in the Hebrew Bible indicate that as the tribal confederacy was eclipsed by centralized political power under the Davidic dynasty, economic stratification followed inexorably. Indeed, the prophet Samuel warned that a monarchy would be linked intrinsically to an economy geared to the elite through ruthless policies of surplus-extraction and militarism (1 Samuel 8:11-18).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Prophets and Jubilee</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Israel's betrayal of its Sabbath vocation became a central complaint of the prophets. When Isaiah charged the nation's leadership with robbery (Isaiah 3:14-15), he was echoing the manna tradition's censure of stored wealth in the face of community need (see also Isaiah 5:7-8; Malachi 3:5-12). Amos accused the commercial classes of regarding shabat as an obstacle to market profiteering, and of treating the poor as an exploitable class rather than guaranteeing their gleaning rights (Amos 8:5-6; see Exodus 23:10-11; Leviticus 19:9-10; Micah 7:1).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Hosea laments that fidelity to international markets had replaced Israel's allegiance to God's economy of grace (Hosea 2:5). Most telling of all, however, is the tradition that attributed the downfall of Jerusalem to the people's failure to keep Sabbath: "God took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped the sword...to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had made up for its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years" (2 Chronicles 36:20-21; see Leviticus 26:34-35).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">But there is also positive evidence that the Sabbath vision was practiced. Jeremiah blasts King Zedekiah when he reneges on his declaration of Jubilee manumission (Jeremiah 34:13-16). Naboth resists King Ahab's attempt to assert eminent domain by invoking his traditional "ancestral rights" to the land (1 Kings 21). And the reformer Nehemiah resurrects the Levitical prohibition of interest (Nehemiah 5:6-13) as well as the Sabbath strictures on commercial production, transaction, and finance (10:31).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">There are also eschatological visions of Jubilee. Sabbath redistribution is remembered by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 45:8; 46:17-18; 47:13-23), and the most well-known appropriation of the Jubilee vision is found in Isaiah 61:1-2: the prophetic commission that begins with a call to "bring good news to the oppressed poor" and ends with a proclamation of "the year of the Lord's favor." Of all the possibilities in his scriptures, it is this text that Jesus of Nazareth chose to define and inaugurate his mission, according to Luke's gospel (Luke 4:18-19). And it is in this latter-day Hebrew prophet that the vision of Sabbath economics is wholly rehabilitated.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Jesus and Jubilee</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">IT WAS THE LATE Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder, in his now classic work The Politics of Jesus, who popularized for my generation the notion of Jesus as a Jubilee practitioner. Yoder rightly pointed out that Luke's gospel is organized around Isaiah's proclamation of "good news for the poor" (Luke 7:22; see 14:13, 21). Only real debt-cancellation and land-restoration could represent good news to real poor people-unless we would spiritualize the entire tradition (against the specific advice of James 2:15-17). Similarly, a Jubilee gospel is usually unwelcome news to the wealthy (as in the Magnificat's annunciation that God "has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty," Luke 1:53; see Mark 10:22). But the evidence goes far beyond a few widely acknowledged texts. In fact, a revisioning of Sabbath economics defined Jesus' call to discipleship, lay at the heart of his teaching-and stood at the center of his conflict with the Judean public order.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The gospels agree that Jesus' first substantive clash with the authorities arose as a result of his practice of "unlicensed" forgiving of sins, which has clear Jubilee overtones (Mark 2:1-12; John 5:9-17). Although the words "sin" (hamartia) and "debt" (opheileema) are different in Greek, there are many indications of their semantic and social equivalence in the gospels. Most of us have noted it, for example, in the Lord's Prayer according to Luke: "Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us" (Luke 11:4). Their correlation is further suggested by the fact that here and throughout the New Testament the same verb (aphiemi) is used to "forgive" sin and "release" from debt. Unlike our society, which refuses to see the economic dimensions of moral and criminal dysfunction, the gospels do not spiritualize "sin" and ignore the realities of "debt," but rather see the two as fundamentally interrelated.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">We see this correlation in Luke's version of the story of the woman who washes Jesus' feet with her hair (Luke 7:36-50). Jesus prefaces his "absolution" of the woman's sins (verses 39, 48-50) with an object lesson describing how a creditor forgave debt (verses 41-43). Matthew does the same in his instructions on reconciliation within the community of faith: The exhortation to forgive sins "seventy times seven" (perhaps an allusion to the Jubilary "seven times seven" of Leviticus 25:8; but also to Genesis 4:24) is illumined by a thoroughly political-economic tale about the settling of accounts in the debt system (Matthew 18:15-35).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">In Mark's gospel Jesus identifies himself as the "Human One" who has the authority to forgive sins (debts) (Mark 2:10). Shortly thereafter Jesus instructs his disciples to help themselves to field produce, justifying it on the basis of a story about the right of hungry Israelites to food regardless of social convention (Mark 2:23-26). Then comes his punchline: "The Sabbath was created for humanity" (2:27). This is neither a proprietary statement nor a Messianic abrogation of the Sabbath discipline! Quite the contrary: It reiterates the Sabbath as part of the order of God's good creation (Genesis 2:2-3), and confirms that its purpose is to humanize us in a world where so much of our socioeconomic reasoning and practice is dehumanizing. Jesus then asserts his authority to interpret true Sabbath practice (Mark 2:28). In fact, Jesus' central struggle with the political leadership was not over theology, but over the meaning of Sabbath (Mark 3:1-6; Luke 13:10-17; John 7:22-24, 9:14-16). This "Human One," claiming the authority to cancel debts and restore the Sabbath, is a Jubilee figure indeed!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Jesus' Jubilee orientation is also seen in his efforts to rebuild community between socio-economically alienated groups. His "outreach" to tax collectors, who made their living exploiting debtors, is a case in point. Luke begins and ends his narrative of Jesus' ministry with such stories. Following Jesus' call to discipleship, Levi renounces his tax-collecting work and throws a banquet for Jesus and his clientele of "sinners" (5:27-32). Why does this provoke strenuous protests from the authorities? The answer is made explicit in the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10). This wealthy creditor is also invited to host Jesus-but he (rightly) understands this to mean he must first practice substantial economic reparation. It is to this program of socioeconomic "leveling" that the official adjudicators of debt object-in Jesus' day and our own.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Leave and Follow</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">But while Levi and Zacchaeus embrace Jubilee liberation through redistribution, another man with "much property" rejects it (Mark 10:21-23). Jesus expects his followers to enter into the new economy of grace. Interestingly, the formulaic discipleship phrase "they left and followed" (Mark 1:18-20; Luke 5:28) uses the verb aphiemi, which we have seen also means to forgive sin-cancel debt. Jesus promises that whoever leaves "house or family or fields" (the symbols of the basic agrarian economy: site of consumption, labor force, site of production) will receive the same back "hundredfold" (Mark 10:29-30).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Discipleship thus means forsaking the seductions and false securities of the debt system for a recommunitized economy of enough for everyone. In such an economy, which Jesus calls the "kingdom," there are no longer any rich and poor-by definition, therefore, the rich "cannot enter" it (Mark 10:23-25). So contrary is this vision to our accepted horizons of possibility, however, that disciples ancient and modern have difficulty truly believing (10:26).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Jesus' call for radical social restructuring at all levels, from the household (Mark 3:31-35) to the body politic (Mark 10:35-45), is summarized by the Jubilee ultimatum: "Many who are first will be last, and the last first" (Mark 10:31). He typically chooses the venue of table fellowship in order to both show and tell object lessons that illustrate this. Meals lay at the heart of ancient society: Where, what, and with whom you ate defined your social identity and status. Thus the table was a "mirror" of society, with its economic classes and political divisions.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">In the extended banquet story in Luke 14, Jesus systematically undermines prevailing conventions and proprieties, while advocating a new "table" of compassion and equality. The opening episode deals (not surprisingly) with a dispute over the Sabbath practice (Luke 14:1-6). Next comes Jesus' attack on the dominant system of meritocracy, with its hierarchies, prestige posturing, and ladder-climbing, and his invitation to "downward mobility" (verses 7-11). He then offends his host by criticizing his guest list, rejecting the reciprocal patronage system of the elite, and calling instead for a focus upon "those who cannot repay" (verses 12-14). The series concludes with Jesus' pointed little fable about an exemplary host who finally understands the bankruptcy of meritocracy and decides instead to build a Jubilee community with the poor and outcast (verses 15-24).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">There is no theme more common to Jesus' storytelling than Sabbath economics. He promises poor sharecroppers abundance (Mark 4:3-8, 26-32), but threatens absentee landowners (Mark 12:1-12) and rich householders (Luke 16:19-31) with judgment. In order to teach the incompatibility of the economy of grace with the dictates of "Mammon," Jesus spins a parable that portrays a hapless middleman caught in the brutal logic of the debt system who decides to "trade" instead in Jubilee-style debt release (Luke 16:1-13). When faced with a dispute over inheritance rights, Jesus counters with a parable about the folly of storing up wealth (remember the manna!), and then exhorts us to learn the lessons of grace and subsistence from the "great economy" of nature (Luke 12:13-34; see James 5:1-6).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The notorious parable of the talents (pounds) shows how Sabbath perspective as an interpretive key can rescue us from a long tradition of both bad theology and bad economics (Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:11-28). This story has, in capitalist religion, been interpreted allegorically from the perspective of the cruel master (= God!), requiring spiritualizing gymnastics to rescue the story from its own depressing conclusion that haves will always triumph over the have-nots (Matthew 25:29). But it reads much more coherently when turned on its head and read as a cautionary tale of realism about the mercenary selfishness of the debt system. This reading understands the servant who refused to play the greedy master's money-market games as the hero who pays a high price for speaking truth to power (Matthew 25:24-30)-just as Jesus himself did.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">In light of this evidence, it should come as no surprise that the archetypal manna story, which as we saw in part one represents the foundation for Sabbath economics, should have a central place in Jesus' consciousness. At the outset of his ministry, Jesus must face again the wilderness temptation concerning bread and sustenance (Matthew 4:1-4 = Deuteronomy 8:2-3 = Exodus 16). At key junctures he re-enacts that wilderness feeding-and all who participate "have enough" (Mark 6:42; 8:8). And at the heart of the prayer he teaches his disciples is the double petition: "Give us enough bread for today, and forgive us our debts as we forgive others'" (Matthew 6:11-12).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">These are some of the "Jubilee footprints" in the Jesus story. It is important to note that the early church which produced these gospels also practiced Sabbath economics. The most obvious example-similarly maligned or ignored by modern exegetes-is the Acts account of the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost-the Jubilee-tinged celebration of Shavuot (Acts 2). This occasions a portrait of the church's first experiment in wealth redistribution, echoing the manna story with the report that "assets were distributed to any as had need" (Acts 2:45, 4:35). Similarly, central to the itinerant ministry of the apostle Paul was his invitation to the new Gentile churches to learn Sabbath economics by practicing interchurch mutual aid. Significantly, in his most elaborate articulation of this commitment (2 Corinthians 8-9), the one scriptural justification Paul employs is a citation of the manna story: "As it is written, 'Those who had much did not have too much; and those who had little did not have too little" (2 Corinthians 8:14-15)!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">BIBLICAL INTERPRETERS SKEPTICAL of the Jubilee tradition have not found evidence for its practice because they have not been looking for it. But once we restore Sabbath economics to its central place in the Torah, we hear its echoes everywhere in the rest of scripture. The standard of economic justice is woven into the warp and weft of the Bible; pull this strand, and the whole fabric unravels.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">If we are going to dismiss the Jubilee because Israel practiced it only inconsistently, we should also ignore the Sermon on the Mount because Christians have rarely embodied Jesus' instruction to love our enemies. But it is time to move beyond such rationalizing theology in our churches. We must rediscover the gospel as good news for the poor, and the economic disciplines of shabat as the path of humanization.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fortunately, the "subversive memory" of Jubilee has kept erupting throughout church history, among early monks, medieval communitarians, and radical reformers. Even with the ascendancy of modern capitalism-with its fierce antipathy toward Sabbath economics-this vision has not been extinguished. We see it in tracts by the 18th-century "leveler" Thomas Spence in his struggle against the move to enclose (i.e. privatize) the Commons in early industrial England: "Since then this Jubilee/Sets all at Liberty/Let us be glad/Behold each man return to his possession." And we hear it in the 19th-century spirituals of African slaves sung in American fields: "Don't you hear the gospel trumpet sound Jubilee?"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Those of us who would insist that the Bible's ancient socioeconomic and spiritual disciplines remain relevant today have hard work to do. We must diligently and creatively explore what contemporary, concrete analogies might be to Jubilee practices of old. The task is as imperative as it is daunting; the alternative is the "capital-olatry" of the runaway global economy. In all of this, the church can help nurture commitment and creativity by promoting "Sabbath literacy," a spirituality of forgiveness and reparation, and practical economic disciplines for individuals, households, and congregations.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">"Who, then, can be saved?" (Mark 10:26). Mark's epilogue to the call of the rich man (Mark 10:17-25) anticipates our incredulity: Does Jesus really expect the "haves" (that is, us) to participate in Sabbath wealth redistribution as a condition for discipleship? Can we imagine a world in which there are no rich and poor? To the disciples' skepticism, and to ours, Jesus replies simply: "I know it seems impossible to you, but for God all things are possible" (10:27). In other words, economics is ultimately a theological issue. And this is why our churches must talk about it, and talk about it in light of our unique tradition of Sabbath economics.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Ched Myers was a writer, teacher, and activist based in Los Angeles, and a Sojourners contributing editor, when this article appeared.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">God Speed the Year of Jubilee!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">by Ched Myers | May-June 1998</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The biblical vision of Sabbath economics.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">God speed the year of jubilee, the wide world o'er!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">When from their galling chains set free,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Th' oppressed shall vilely bend the knee</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">And wear the yoke of tyranny, like brutes, no more-</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">That year will come, and Freedom's reign</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">To man his plundered rights again, restore.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">-William Lloyd Garrison, 19th-century abolitionist</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">"We read the gospel as if we had no money," laments Jesuit theologian John Haughey, "and we spend our money as if we know nothing of the gospel." Indeed, in most North American churches today, it is exceedingly difficult to talk about economics. This topic is more taboo than politics, more even than sex-a subject with which our churches have recently become all too preoccupied. Yet no aspect of our individual and corporate lives is more determinative than the economy. And few subjects are more frequently addressed in our scriptures.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The pre-eminent challenge to the human family today is the increasingly unequal distribution of wealth and power. Since statistics are wearisome, a few must suffice to capture this drift. The United Nations reported in 1992 that income disparities between the world's richest and poorest have doubled since 1960. Today the wealthiest 20 percent of the world's population receives almost 83 percent of the world's income, while the poorest 20 percent receive less than 2 percent! In 1965, the average U.S. worker made $7.52 per hour, while the person running the company made $330.38 per hour; today, the average worker makes $7.39 per hour, the average CEO $1,566.68 per hour-212 times more!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">This is "trickle up": the transfer of wealth from the increasingly poor to the increasingly rich. And neoliberal policies of "structural adjustment" are not only hardening this income polarization, they are deepening psychic and social alienation. Whether through plant closings, the demise of the local grocery store, or the crisis of the family farm, we in the First World are now witnessing the epidemic of communal displacement that has already devastated local culture, institutions, and environments in the Third and Fourth Worlds.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Any theology that refuses to reckon with these realities is both cruel and irrelevant. We Christians must talk about economics, and talk about it in light of the gospel. "Churches," asserts Cornel West, "may be the last places left in our culture that can engage the public conversation with non-market values." Yet those who would challenge postmodern capitalism and its self-reflexive market discourses are struggling to find an alternative language and practice, particularly with the apparent discrediting of state socialism. This ideological vacuum offers a unique opportunity for the church to rediscover a radically different vision of economic and social practice-and one that lies right at the heart of its scriptures.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The Bible recognizes that inequalities will inevitably arise in "fallen" society-a realism it shares with the worldview of modern capitalism. Unlike the social Darwinism of the latter, however, the biblical vision refuses to stipulate that injustice is therefore a permanent condition. Instead, God's people are instructed to dismantle, on a regular basis, the fundamental patterns and structures of stratified wealth and power, so that there is "enough for everyone." This socioeconomic vision is articulated in a variety of ways in both testaments: through Exodus storytelling (Exodus 16), Levitical legislation (Leviticus 25), Deuteronomic exhortation (Deuteronomy 15), prophetic pronouncement (Isaiah 5), gospel parable (Matthew 25), and apostolic pleading (2 Corinthians 8-9). This article will examine the Hebrew Bible roots of this tradition; the sequel will look at how Jesus appropriates and renews it.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Manna and the Sabbath</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The Biblical standard of social and economic justice is grounded in God's call to "keep the Sabbath." The word "Sabbath" comes from the Hebrew verb shabat, which means "to rest or stop working." It first appears in the Bible as the culmination of the story of creation: "God rested on the seventh day from all the work God did" (Genesis 2:2). Here a primal pattern is set: "Good" work (Genesis 1:31; Hebrew tob, better translated as "delightful") is followed by Shabat. This Shabat is "blessed" (2:3), just like the creation itself (1:22, 28). Richard Lowery points out that "in a delightful twist, 'rest' is signified as a verb in this passage and 'work' as a noun." Sabbath, he contends, captures the double theme of this creation story: abundance and limits.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Human beings are to imitate God in practicing Sabbath. The next place we encounter the term (now as a noun, not a verb) is in the archetypal story of hunger and bread in the wilderness (Exodus 16), sandwiched between two stories of thirst and water (Exodus 15:22-27 and 17:1-7). The people have been sprung from slavery, but must now face the harsh realities of life outside the imperial system. Their first test of character, not surprisingly, is how they will sustain themselves. The ancient Israelites-like modern North Americans-couldn't imagine an economic system apart from the Egyptian military-industrial-technological complex that enslaved them. "Would that we had died at the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you have led us into this desert to die of famine!" (Exodus 16:3).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The manna story is n</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">ot just a feeding miracle. It is a parable that illustrates Yahweh's alternative to the Egyptian economy (Exodus 16:6). God "raining bread from heaven" symbolizes cultivation as a divine gift, a process that begins with rain and ends with bread (see Isaiah 55:10 and the parallel between the wilderness manna and the produce of the settled land in Joshua 5:12). This story narrates a "test" to see if Israel will follow instructions on how to "gather"-a symbol in traditional societies for harvesting (Exodus 16:4). The people's first lesson outside of Egypt concerns economic production!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Moses' instructions give us the three defining characteristics of this alternative economic practice. First, every family is told to gather just enough bread for their needs (Exodus 16:16-18). In contrast to Israel's Egyptian condition of oppression and need, here everyone has enough: "Those who gathered more had no surplus, and those who gathered less had no shortage." In God's economy there is such a thing as "too much" and "too little." (This contrasts radically with modern capitalism's infinite tolerance for wealth and poverty.) Exodus 16's "theology of enough" is underlined by the (probably later) version of the manna story in Numbers 11, in which the people's persistent "cravings" are punished with a plague of "too much" (Numbers 11:33-34; see Psalm 78:20-31, 106:13-15).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Second, this bread should not be "stored up" (16:19-20). Wealth and power in Egypt was defined by surplus accumulation. It is no accident that Israel's forced labor consisted of building "store cities" (Exodus 1:11), into which the empire's plunder and the tribute of subject peoples was gathered. (This too prefigures capitalism, whose dictum, according to Marx, was: "Accumulate, accumulate, accumulate-this is the Law and the Prophets!"). The Bible understands that dominant civilizations exert centripetal force, drawing labor, resources, and wealth into greater and greater concentrations of idolatrous power (the archetypal biblical description of this is found in the story of the Tower of Babel, Genesis 11:1-9). So Israel is enjoined to keep wealth circulating through strategies of redistribution, not concentrating through strategies of accumulation.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The third instruction introduces Sabbath discipline (Exodus 16:22-30). "On the sixth day, when they distribute what they bring in, it will be twice as much....Six days you shall gather; but on the seventh, which is a Sabbath, there will be none" (Exodus 16:5, 26). We Christians regard the Sabbath at best as merely one of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8-11), at worst as a quaint Jewish custom. But here we see that it is instituted even before the covenant at Sinai. Indeed, it is reiterated in ultimate terms at the conclusion of the covenant code: If the people do not practice Sabbath, they will die (Exodus 31:12-17). Not only then is Shabat the crowning blessing of creation; it is also the "beginning and end of the law."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">We Christians therefore trivialize (and even "profane") the Sabbath if we regard it merely as a day when Jews do as little as possible, or as a code of nit-picking prohibitions. Torah's Sabbath regulations represent God's strategy for teaching Israel about its dependence upon the land as a gift to share equitably, not as a possession to exploit (see for example the rituals enjoined in harvest festivals, Leviticus 23:9-25). The prescribed periodic rest for the land and for human labor means to disrupt human attempts to "control" nature and "maximize" the forces of production. Because the earth belongs to God and its fruits are a gift, the people should justly distribute those fruits, instead of seeking to own and hoard them.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">"Sabbath observance requires a leap of faith, a firm confidence that the world will continue to operate benevolently for a day without human labor, that God is willing and able to provide enough for the good life," writes Lowery. "Sabbath promises seven days of prosperity for six days of work. It operates on the assumption that human life and prosperity exceed human productivity."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">This first lesson was fundamental: The people were instructed to keep a jarful of the manna in front of the covenant, so as never to forget Sabbath economics (see Hebrews 9:4). The manna story, in sum, illustrates human dependence upon the divine "economy of grace." Sabbath observation means to remember every week this economy's two principles: the goal of "enough" for everyone, and the prohibition on hoarding. This vision is, of course, utterly contrary to economics as we know it. And our incredulity is rather humorously anticipated in the story itself: "Manna" means "What is this?" (Exodus 16:15).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">THE SOCIAL JUSTICE CODE of Exodus 23 extends the Sabbath cycle to a seventh year: "You shall let the land rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild animals may eat" (Exodus 23:10-11). The Sabbath year restores equilibrium by restraining the activity of "productive" members of the economy and freeing constraints upon those the economy has marginalized, both the disenfranchised (the poor) and the undomesticated (wild animals)!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The ecological and social wisdom of the Sabbath year goes beyond the agricultural good sense of letting land lie fallow. Kentucky philosopher-farmer Wendell Berry articulates Sabbath economics in his notion of the "two economies." He believes the all-encompassing and integrated system of nature should be understood as the "Great Economy," upon which human systems ("little economies") by necessity depend. The problem, Berry writes, is that our modern industrial economy, with its managerial penchant for control and its lack of limits, "does not see itself as a little economy; it sees itself as the only economy. It makes itself thus exclusive by the simple expedient of valuing only what it can use-that is, only what it can regard as 'raw material' to be transformed mechanically into something else.... The industrial economy is based on invasion and pillage of the Great Economy."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The Sabbath rest commanded for the land and the laborer restores the primacy of the Great Economy, and forces humans to re-adapt to its limits. As Rabbi Arthur Waskow puts it, "This shabat betokens the peace agreement ending the primordial war between ourselves and earth which began as we left Eden-which came from a misdeed of eating and brought us painful toil and turmoil in our eating."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The Deuteronomist goes even further, interpreting the Sabbath year to include debt release (Deuteronomy 15:1-18). This was intended as a hedge against the inevitable tendency of human societies to concentrate power and wealth in the hands of a few, creating hierarchical classes with the poor at the bottom. In agrarian societies such as biblical Israel (or parts of the Third World today), the cycle of poverty began when a family fell into debt, deepened when it had to sell off its land in order to service the debt, and reached its conclusion when landless peasants could only sell their labor, becoming bond-slaves. Since there were no banks in antiquity, it was larger landowners who acted as creditors-and who foreclosed, adding to their holdings.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The prophet Isaiah railed against precisely this process of economic stratification by which wealthy creditors "add house to house and field to field, until there is room for no one but you" (Isaiah 5:8). He saw it as a betrayal of Israel's vocation to be "God's pleasant planting; God expected justice, but saw bloodshed" (Isaiah 5:7).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The Sabbath year debt release intends to safeguard both social justice ("there will be no one in need among you") and sound fiscal policy ("creditor nations will not rule over you," Deuteronomy 15:4-6). But anticipating the human tendency toward selfishness, the practical Deuteronomist specifically forbids people from tightening credit in the years immediately prior to the Sabbath remission (15:7-11). The remission applies to debt slaves as well, not only freeing them but demanding that they be sent away with sufficient resources to make it on their own (15:12-17). Whether or not the community will enjoy the blessing of the land is contingent on its fidelity of this Sabbath discipline, which Deuteronomy, like Exodus, grounds in the memory of being liberated from Egyptian slavery (Deuteronomy 15:15; see 5:15).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">THE FULLEST EXPRESSION of Sabbath logic is the Levitical "Jubilee": a comprehensive remission to take place every "Sabbath's Sabbath," or 49th-50th year (Leviticus 25). The Jubilee (named after the jovel, a ram's horn that sounded to herald the remission) aimed to dismantle structures of social-economic inequality by: releasing each community member from debt (Leviticus 25:35-42); returning encumbered or forfeited land to its original owners (25:13, 25-28); freeing slaves (25:47-55). The rationale for this unilateral restructuring of the community's assets was to remind Israel that the land belongs to God (25:23) and that they are an Exodus people who must never return to a system of slavery (25:42).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The Jubilee was perhaps already prefigured in the "Feast of Weeks" (Shavuot, later the feast of Pentecost), a celebration of the first fruits of the harvest (Exodus 23:16; Leviticus 23:15-25; Deuteronomy 16:9-12):</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Feast of Weeks: "From the day after the Sabbath, from the day on which you bring the sheaf of the elevation offering, you shall count off seven weeks....You shall count until the day after the seventh Sabbath, fifty days; then you shall present an offering of new grain to the Lord" (Leviticus 23:15-16).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Jubilee: "You shall count off seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the period...gives forty-nine years....And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants" (Leviticus 25:8, 10).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">This suggests that "Sabbath economics" applied at each harvest, not just every other generation.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Lowery acknowledges that the Sabbath vision is diametrically opposed to our modern assumptions about economics. The two main assumptions of classical economics are: 1) scarcity; and 2) unlimited need. These, he writes, "breed resignation to systems of distribution so unequal as to guarantee homelessness and starvation. On the other hand, they create an imperative toward unlimited economic growth." Sabbath economics, however, based on "the principles of abundance and self-restraint, turn this classical economic approach on its head. If you assume that resources are abundant, sufficient for the survival and prosperity of human life, and that human needs and wants are limited, then no one need starve or suffer the elements through lack of housing or clothing." The conclusion we must draw, says Lowery, is that "long-term, systemic hunger, homelessness, and poverty can be viewed only as a failure of human will."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">If Sabbath economics is an unfamiliar notion to North American churches it is not because it is obscure or incidental to the scriptures. Rather, it has been marginalized by interpreters who seek to legitimate the very concentrations of wealth and power that the biblical tradition denounces. It is important to point out that many of the texts cited above probably did not take their final Torah form until after the Babylonian Exile (sixth century B.C.E.). This means that the ancient vision of Sabbath economics that originated among tribal Israel was revisioned almost half a millennium later, under very different circumstances. It is a radical vision that has continued to surface among justice-seeking Jews and Christians ever since.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Ched Myers, the author of The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics (Church of the Savior, 2001), worked with Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries in Los Angeles when this article appeared</span></div>
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[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-27048024688735070942018-12-12T18:34:00.003-08:002018-12-14T07:04:26.013-08:00join Rabbi Renni Altman, Rev. Edwrin Sutton, Rev. Gail Burger, Karen Dipnarine-Saroop, Co. Leg. Giancarlo Llaverias, Mae Parker-Harris, singer/activists Pat Lamanna and Fred Nagel for our 23rd annual Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa Candlelight Vigil for Economic Justice next Weds. 5:30 pm!<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[note-- pls let us know if a rep from your organization can speak at this next Weds.!]</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/341105259809311/" style="color: #48a199; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/events/341105259809311/</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold;">Working Class Dutchess' 23rd Annual Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa Candlelight Vigil for Economic Justice with Rabbi Renni Altman, Rev. Edwrin Sutton, Rev. Gail Burger, Karen Dipnarine-Saroop, and Rev. Giancarlo Llaverias </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold;">Weds. Dec. 19th 5:30 pm</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold;">In front of County Office Bldg. 22 Market Poughkeepsie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px;"><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; text-align: start;">Join Rabbi Renni Altman (of Vassar Temple), Rev. Edwrin Sutton (of Smith Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church), Karen Dipnarine-Saroop (Dutchess County Interfaith Council Executive Director), Rev. Gail Burger (of Presbyterian Church USA and decades-long former Dutchess Interfaith Council Executive Director), County Legislators Giancarlo Llaverias and Joel Tyner, long-time community activist Mae Parker-Harris, folksinger/activist Pat Lamanna of Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Poughkeepsie Social Justice Action Committee, and folksinger/activist Fred Nagel (host of "Class Wars" on WVKR 91.3 FM Thurs. 5-6 pm) Weds. Dec. 19th at 5:30 pm in front of the Dutchess County Office Building at 22 Market Street in Poughkeepsie for their 23rd annual Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa Holiday Interfaith Candlelight Vigils for Economic Justice-- with their "We're All God's Children" theme this year-- making the point that our county government should be making sure that ALL Dutchess residents can get jobs at a living wage, shelter, education, healthcare, treatment, etc.-- no exceptions-- BECAUSE WE ARE ALL GOD'S CHILDREN. (see: </span><a data-lynx-mode="hover" data-lynx-uri="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fconta.cc%2F2RLPlJ9%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1Pj7jW1oEC4wkzWiRUUkXjEsW87TKdiZUdJfbVXQNrTnC1bOIPU7NqOEQ&h=AT359DwnPXJU0myMdG4zyiInAg8KUb8q9cmGAa8Qx9kOL-wl_gTmyWOU-GUFw6ygBWQWRX84KpsvDFvFcSlEub17grimxTy6QKTmzjmgrKkdXkzsZTN56TuFX4PLKiiPKcKC8MY" href="https://conta.cc/2RLPlJ9?fbclid=IwAR1Pj7jW1oEC4wkzWiRUUkXjEsW87TKdiZUdJfbVXQNrTnC1bOIPU7NqOEQ" rel="nofollow noopener" style="color: #0d54af; cursor: pointer; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; text-align: start; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://conta.cc/2RLPlJ9</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; text-align: start;"> )</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: "The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that’s wrong with the world." (Paul Farmer/Partners in Health)</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikiquote.org%2Fwiki%2FPaul_Farmer%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1K6M35IvEDKA-G0CGjpc074KejS-q5r1RvE5OH2y1XaS91B1dmIX_zc_s&h=AT1Nedf3J8E9xa-YSdJEd5h05cdpurR3ym4xwH5pD4d-mbJma0nWK6jmyxOsdyZXhsQ62TNgcmEBeJcoHMFvR2kNqmc5H-rygU7XFGdH0VR5G3RkLEcCJjq-1vW6JmImVlGdOWk" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Farmer</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Bring a candle and join us-- Mae, Gail, Joel. et. al. will once again be circling up this year to honor how the ancient prophets of Israel, Jesus Christ himself, and, in fact, the prophets of all the world's great faiths all spoke out repeatedly against the economic injustices of their time-- and how, aside from all the pretty lights we all see around our valley now-- it wouldn't be a bad idea to start channeling and remembering true holiday meaning.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[Ched Myers' "God Speed Year of Jubilee: </span> <a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fsojo.net%2Fmagazine%2F1998%2F05%2Fgod-speed-year-jubilee%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0zYWFP3vCXNgahk3CxGajL2Zg8u66iH-otDr8y5hgiymteEC1YyRxMmkk&h=AT1ZTx-hzDsaemZEnm4nLpfFCnREe9B4ZzP7TQmxToxd8GPPB4viy8Q-1ftY0uEKdIsFHFlTWUDUfy-t77Btu35ll5-lWIvs9NPa_NJZ3mjVWN2fSmFakFvt64PKTFkaUIFDfeg" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://sojo.net/magazine/1998/05/god-speed-year-jubilee</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Myers' "Jesus' New Economy of Grace: </span> <a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fsojo.net%2Fmagazine%2F1998%2F07%2Fjesus-new-economy-grace%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1d6pSgUVF45ji0mKjzZQtQcBwOb4Wtn0KUDwdpHuNTeK_LZPX-v8-943Y&h=AT2ez8V7bZ0lkA0DmkMFdkF_rE_jjlhlodBc8ddo41Io7-yvKnS09stDQMzrgcmx74Cm79vQXAzR-r6VlPLb0KsI3hhuaXsPR72NoeSG6_4a-7GbYCJ-PoXFlECqxHXLp6kPUdA" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://sojo.net/magazine/1998/07/jesus-new-economy-grace</a> <span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"> ]</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Information: joeltyner@earthlink.net</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">845-464-2245/876-2488</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.DutchessDemocracy.blogspot.com%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1tsiH1mzl3CVdwmTbfRrU7NwcysyTjzu2izQ07d3x2O8Gc61xbUEPhLmk&h=AT2zIY_0uXM_TcZaPI_-V9ORVHSS7YwEo2mAYRH5QA1hHMvhHzvT_TAQ1XJV0vUz70ALaIgP_QYsQ90MM9Dk4txmC_C6jLCLFarQQDmvglWfXImrID8fST73t3K5Lt80t33VVhA" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.DutchessDemocracy.blogspot.com</a> <span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"> ...last year's:</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.midhudsonnews.com%2FNews%2F2017%2FDecember%2F15%2Fecon_justice_vigil-15Dec17.html%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1cq5-CrAecAVpPKlZHo_xVXU3g4geMxbtXM9Nu6Y044ylppak_eI2h_v0&h=AT2K6pwmM43ikgXR2-fHTHm1fnQKjloHWnkPBM3wG7GRnMQ0Jk6Y-50I_MlJs6o-GtbHe7QbGD8TI61ICuWH1D1DU-WqOQ_RdIIA8fxEXTPlPuHH6XA-dB5ptGq_C_LaqG-iuLg" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2017/December/15/econ_justice_vigil-15Dec17.html</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[still needed-- more support for a truly strong and vibrant Poor People's Campaign for Dutchess County-- inspired by the father of Moral Mondays across the U.S., Rev. William Barber and MLK's original Poor People's Campaign)-- see </span><a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2FPoorPeoplesCampaign.org%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1svQUrql_MRrFesCaRz1rwe_gwVw8A9zSp87mm29WgYGu0B99WGNClUPM&h=AT0hl-F10yXazIkG3oBzh6sPY1U_r4VEf2pSNBbA1MnIgJdM2zqu34q6VVRJyIs9yUpvsq5folzf_e70ICy6vbAwqJpYHpRkqIdq5EyKaFuVlLIjstYNETBYmhyOhuk-7Psdz6w" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://PoorPeoplesCampaign.org</a> <span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"> and let Joel know if you're interested in working with him and the other folks above to rev up a true Poor People's Campaign for Dutchess County to protect immigrants, Muslims, all people of color, women, LGBTQ, elderly, all of us from discrimination and speak out boldly for social and economic justice for all!]</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Indeed....</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">What would Eleanor Roosevelt say today re: UDHR here in Dutchess-- on 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights she drafted all those years ago?</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.un.org%2Fen%2Fsections%2Funiversal-declaration%2Fhistory-document%2Findex.html%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0Qvx5bOttstCYVzC3yvCs4tay42rzdg67WmuWJAkX6PrnR7F_a08g4_SY&h=AT0C3IFbLC0KZGyMIkUWxJ0cGLdX3E_XcGMXVez_KwzViCjtFiiHTfuQHb6iZxyrWsvfVcIsZN1YaPTgMfqZNh0Ph1kn0QPWBfYUuzcOP2bicngc6ixmnFH5C5bbC_EvlY_TyX8" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.un.org/en/sections/universal-declaration/history-document/index.html</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">She'd remind us that "human rights begin close to home":</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: Four homeless folks burned alive last recently in Poughkeepsie. 540 abandoned properties/homes now in the City of Poughkeepsie. $10 million stolen from the City of Poughkeepsie by our county government due to cruel/unnecessary change in sales-tax revenue-sharing over last 5 years. 3 years now of Joel's pressing for Dutchess County government to follow example of </span><a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2FAlbanyCountyLandBank.org%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR2zry9321Z4zImcOwPucgY-7kGuWnZgYMHLJ8iPFVe6a6uGeAmr-ioaVKs&h=AT0nS6_wiH3yVgB11M77woIdjrw6rOWjM_qp0rjHvYQi4T-ajZPcFuptaxr4Xg_AGeidmX1cqkuvzCqkkRX3GvHf1IbpLxGAAcjEQ-OhMtIR8f1WqdcrZq1isvAxvjJwAxvgpCw" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">AlbanyCountyLandBank.org</a> <span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"> to launch land bank to fix up and sell abandoned properties/houses across county.</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.poughkeepsiejournal.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Flocal%2F2018%2F12%2F08%2Fpoughkeepsie-honors-four-deceased-building-fire%2F2254544002%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1-d9BTAEYMuXopxVLQ7oMDPsAscG0DgDMYmdUN2Rel-zkoJc8k85BOGgs&h=AT0t5MdT_iqTOzYXBL6fVi5fL-4BcT3rc9MidjNfrbxAttovencHG89iW506DxHwc0udmZT14VwQ_wpdDegNdUNWRXRnTehui8i7MNggStJj2Mo6w2KZZ26fLb3exvZSUwNzIE4" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/2018/12/08/poughkeepsie-honors-four-deceased-building-fire/2254544002/</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: African-Americans make up only one eleventh of Dutchess County's population yet over a third of our county's jail population-- due to unequal enforcement of drug laws in our cities compared to suburbs-- and pervasive racial discrimination for decades in our workplaces, schools, and housing in Dutchess.</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.census.gov%2Fquickfacts%2Fdutchesscountynewyork%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1x1nZS8PAIs_ZYlwKQTNioLPDn2A4VgYDc7AB8szafhczy98ZgXbDfVz4&h=AT02GocOPRdMzdUZVy79_-pcnf1LDkz-iOrCp6lUf9H5lGPYIC4vfHWJVW5r9jTaLYgpmAmMCUNxx76coQXLTRjfr-xfFGne63wUeHal3D7vUYUDNWTJkNYaGq-sZBoqjQkXGyg" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/dutchesscountynewyork</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: For the last eight months now Joel has proposed legislation here for Dutchess that would completely ban conversion therapy (cruelly/destructively attempting to force gay/lesbian youth to be straight) as in Ulster, Albany, and Westchester counties-- yet GOP Co. Leg. majority here in Dutchess (true to form on this as in other issues) has refused to even allow this on to agenda for a committee mtg.-- let alone a vote of the full board of all 25 of us county legislators (all of this ignored by local media).</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fgroups.google.com%2Fforum%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR12nVQFbPo4J9GGUKI_-J1-qEaHUVzjC4rmIN7bq4QvGt0Gi4y0_cUDIGM%23!topic%2Fmidhudsonprogressivealliance%2FxgH1vWraPvY&h=AT1EBEAeYblD4lI5WaF-qd7RFBmtYnWZBIh4dns55vkiOqMEbL0gclK_-IEUqsdCRzN_yzptyTHD2Uq20unRGk3ek4YxDgM0_GMxFTd_T-oGcSrZeYzenc1FrjT9_aOiO6GHkXk" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/midhudsonprogressivealliance/xgH1vWraPvY</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: Folks in our jail arrested for nonviolent substance abuse are regularly and cruelly forced to detox cold turkey in the Dutchess County Jail without Suboxone-- Medication Assisted Treatment in clear violation of Americans with Disabilities Act.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.change.org/p/dutchess-county-executive-marcus-molinaro-opioid-replacement-option-inside-dutchess-county-jail-suboxone-methadone-narcan-vivitrol?fbclid=IwAR0zYWFP3vCXNgahk3CxGajL2Zg8u66iH-otDr8y5hgiymteEC1YyRxMmkk" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://www.change.org/p/dutchess-county-executive-marcus-molinaro-opioid-replacement-option-inside-dutchess-county-jail-suboxone-methadone-narcan-vivitrol</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: Families of undocumented workers here in Dutchess County have often been too afraid to attend the food pantries here locally they've attended for years because of the Trump administration's ramped-up immigration enforcement w/ICE.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[this was revealed during open/public DCC forum on immigration in spring 2017]</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftheintercept.com%2F2018%2F06%2F27%2Fabolish-ice-alexandria-ocasio-cortez%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1tsiH1mzl3CVdwmTbfRrU7NwcysyTjzu2izQ07d3x2O8Gc61xbUEPhLmk&h=AT0U11XWDWlMH3zQRV4HiB8qaZykq7Ng6ag5QOH_-Crm5OmHlM_S0ufYregnmAK3pJNZHJwfv57lYNxrBEZ3ibi884Lp-aE8A9KA05o3sysdCEDO2FKq7c0GuFXu0SzoywJRP3Q" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://theintercept.com/2018/06/27/abolish-ice-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: County Exec Molinaro bragged openly and publicly at his 11/29/16 Milan Town Hall County Budget Forum that he was doing "everything possible" in his conversations with Church World Service to stop them from setting up an office here in Dutchess County to facilitate the local settlement of refugees from Syria.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[Joel knows-- Joel was there myself to witness this disgusting display of blatant racism.]</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dutchessny.gov%2Fconcalendar%2FEventDetail.aspx%3FEventID%3D4752%26fbclid%3DIwAR3TJy2KZ3OgLGoSqe8HJZWH25oh62kLcQoNn3heOFv8vC2scC9GZpxEixQ&h=AT2o0zc1unIvBlKxqv99CJMITds8bKodQmlKitawUjkMWGVQ-geRdS88lAglPVjxL0HrkM6jXYInGMWAhAwwDAEgmWQhR9Ikt9Y66plmLCu1fY0LStg4zYAVepCUjWayRrPdfWM" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.dutchessny.gov/concalendar/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=4752</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: Ulster Savings Bank just two years ago perpetrated massive discrimination in Poughkeepsie (and Kingston).</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wamc.org%2Fpost%2Fulster-savings-bank-faces-lawsuit-over-alleged-racial-discrimination-lending%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1svQUrql_MRrFesCaRz1rwe_gwVw8A9zSp87mm29WgYGu0B99WGNClUPM&h=AT0Y6a3I8ZaJiZGsK-N0xVpDoJhDwIeUtGcAEvgrGiKiLaGapB3-BvhrSwjMGJ_Tjk3BvG230Z5lI5f0kct_Tx0YSVCtIKEGogSK_XJwGWuQnaXG_BcVWwxOSijn_pUF__O1cw8" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://www.wamc.org/post/ulster-savings-bank-faces-lawsuit-over-alleged-racial-discrimination-lending</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: On Dec. 6th the GOP majority of our County Legislature voted against Joel's proposed county budget amendment to merely add $5000 to the 2019 budget for our county's Human Rights Commission so they could do a serious and comprehensive report on all sorts of discrimination rampant throughout our county.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Indeed. What would Eleanor say if she were here in Dutchess today?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[recall-- Westchester Human Rights Commission has subpoena power!...sign here:</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.change.org%2Fp%2Fdutchess-county-executive-marcus-molinaro-for-an-emboldened-empowered-human-rights-commission-in-dutchess-with-subpoena-power%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1-d9BTAEYMuXopxVLQ7oMDPsAscG0DgDMYmdUN2Rel-zkoJc8k85BOGgs&h=AT0k_VMqqOwLpXIJ9JQ09Qa7qXeqhbrSkUPXAtSoAdfWqWx-BnrC-q6kNv-XbR17JNqvwm8EHgNyEqdLwn0-VSmXSCf6ZnYT8pd5E-0pYzJeDlQhwMsvUNfjW_DKp9u5f5mR3zM" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://www.change.org/p/dutchess-county-executive-marcus-molinaro-for-an-emboldened-empowered-human-rights-commission-in-dutchess-with-subpoena-power</a> <span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"> (our county Human Rights Commission has also turned blind eye to ALL of this....)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Email countylegislators@dutchessny.gov for Eleanor today on all this-- she'd want you to.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">[have been circulating this one below annually since it first appeared 20 yr.'s ago in "Sojourners"...</span></div>
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<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fsojo.net%2Fmagazine%2F1998%2F07%2Fjesus-new-economy-grace%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR3if698uhtGZtG0n7gukXK-5rTClpYh0wC2ReKUbUNDy5cfndlUWSEChdo&h=AT2ez8V7bZ0lkA0DmkMFdkF_rE_jjlhlodBc8ddo41Io7-yvKnS09stDQMzrgcmx74Cm79vQXAzR-r6VlPLb0KsI3hhuaXsPR72NoeSG6_4a-7GbYCJ-PoXFlECqxHXLp6kPUdA" style="color: #365899; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://sojo.net/magazine/1998/07/jesus-new-economy-grace</a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Jesus' New Economy of Grace</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">by Ched Myers | July-August 1998</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The biblical vision of Sabbath economics.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The Hebrew Bible's vision of Sabbath economics contends that a theology of abundant grace and a communal ethic of redistribution is the only way out of our slavery to the debt system, with its theology of meritocracy and private ethic of wealth concentration. The contemporary church, however, has difficulty hearing this as good news since our theological imaginations have long been captive to the market-driven orthodoxies of modern capitalism.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Our fears have persuaded us that the biblical Jubilee is at best utopian and at worst communistic. Yet we find it awkward simply to dismiss the biblical witness, so an alternative objection inevitably arises, as if on cue: "Israel never really practiced the Jubilee!" If genuine, and not simply a strategy of avoidance, this challenge is best addressed by considering both the "negative" and "positive" evidence.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">By "negative" evidence I mean the fact that Israel's prophets repeatedly and relentlessly criticized the nation's leadership for betraying the poor and vulnerable members of the community. This strongly suggests that the Sabbath vision of social and economic justice remained a measuring stick to which they could publicly appeal.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">There can be no question that the Sabbath disciplines of seventh-year debt release and Jubilee restructuring were regularly abandoned by those Israelites who wished to consolidate social advantages they had gained. The historical narratives in the Hebrew Bible indicate that as the tribal confederacy was eclipsed by centralized political power under the Davidic dynasty, economic stratification followed inexorably. Indeed, the prophet Samuel warned that a monarchy would be linked intrinsically to an economy geared to the elite through ruthless policies of surplus-extraction and militarism (1 Samuel 8:11-18).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Prophets and Jubilee</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Israel's betrayal of its Sabbath vocation became a central complaint of the prophets. When Isaiah charged the nation's leadership with robbery (Isaiah 3:14-15), he was echoing the manna tradition's censure of stored wealth in the face of community need (see also Isaiah 5:7-8; Malachi 3:5-12). Amos accused the commercial classes of regarding shabat as an obstacle to market profiteering, and of treating the poor as an exploitable class rather than guaranteeing their gleaning rights (Amos 8:5-6; see Exodus 23:10-11; Leviticus 19:9-10; Micah 7:1).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Hosea laments that fidelity to international markets had replaced Israel's allegiance to God's economy of grace (Hosea 2:5). Most telling of all, however, is the tradition that attributed the downfall of Jerusalem to the people's failure to keep Sabbath: "God took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped the sword...to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had made up for its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years" (2 Chronicles 36:20-21; see Leviticus 26:34-35).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">But there is also positive evidence that the Sabbath vision was practiced. Jeremiah blasts King Zedekiah when he reneges on his declaration of Jubilee manumission (Jeremiah 34:13-16). Naboth resists King Ahab's attempt to assert eminent domain by invoking his traditional "ancestral rights" to the land (1 Kings 21). And the reformer Nehemiah resurrects the Levitical prohibition of interest (Nehemiah 5:6-13) as well as the Sabbath strictures on commercial production, transaction, and finance (10:31).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">There are also eschatological visions of Jubilee. Sabbath redistribution is remembered by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 45:8; 46:17-18; 47:13-23), and the most well-known appropriation of the Jubilee vision is found in Isaiah 61:1-2: the prophetic commission that begins with a call to "bring good news to the oppressed poor" and ends with a proclamation of "the year of the Lord's favor." Of all the possibilities in his scriptures, it is this text that Jesus of Nazareth chose to define and inaugurate his mission, according to Luke's gospel (Luke 4:18-19). And it is in this latter-day Hebrew prophet that the vision of Sabbath economics is wholly rehabilitated.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Jesus and Jubilee</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">IT WAS THE LATE Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder, in his now classic work The Politics of Jesus, who popularized for my generation the notion of Jesus as a Jubilee practitioner. Yoder rightly pointed out that Luke's gospel is organized around Isaiah's proclamation of "good news for the poor" (Luke 7:22; see 14:13, 21). Only real debt-cancellation and land-restoration could represent good news to real poor people-unless we would spiritualize the entire tradition (against the specific advice of James 2:15-17). Similarly, a Jubilee gospel is usually unwelcome news to the wealthy (as in the Magnificat's annunciation that God "has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty," Luke 1:53; see Mark 10:22). But the evidence goes far beyond a few widely acknowledged texts. In fact, a revisioning of Sabbath economics defined Jesus' call to discipleship, lay at the heart of his teaching-and stood at the center of his conflict with the Judean public order.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The gospels agree that Jesus' first substantive clash with the authorities arose as a result of his practice of "unlicensed" forgiving of sins, which has clear Jubilee overtones (Mark 2:1-12; John 5:9-17). Although the words "sin" (hamartia) and "debt" (opheileema) are different in Greek, there are many indications of their semantic and social equivalence in the gospels. Most of us have noted it, for example, in the Lord's Prayer according to Luke: "Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us" (Luke 11:4). Their correlation is further suggested by the fact that here and throughout the New Testament the same verb (aphiemi) is used to "forgive" sin and "release" from debt. Unlike our society, which refuses to see the economic dimensions of moral and criminal dysfunction, the gospels do not spiritualize "sin" and ignore the realities of "debt," but rather see the two as fundamentally interrelated.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">We see this correlation in Luke's version of the story of the woman who washes Jesus' feet with her hair (Luke 7:36-50). Jesus prefaces his "absolution" of the woman's sins (verses 39, 48-50) with an object lesson describing how a creditor forgave debt (verses 41-43). Matthew does the same in his instructions on reconciliation within the community of faith: The exhortation to forgive sins "seventy times seven" (perhaps an allusion to the Jubilary "seven times seven" of Leviticus 25:8; but also to Genesis 4:24) is illumined by a thoroughly political-economic tale about the settling of accounts in the debt system (Matthew 18:15-35).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">In Mark's gospel Jesus identifies himself as the "Human One" who has the authority to forgive sins (debts) (Mark 2:10). Shortly thereafter Jesus instructs his disciples to help themselves to field produce, justifying it on the basis of a story about the right of hungry Israelites to food regardless of social convention (Mark 2:23-26). Then comes his punchline: "The Sabbath was created for humanity" (2:27). This is neither a proprietary statement nor a Messianic abrogation of the Sabbath discipline! Quite the contrary: It reiterates the Sabbath as part of the order of God's good creation (Genesis 2:2-3), and confirms that its purpose is to humanize us in a world where so much of our socioeconomic reasoning and practice is dehumanizing. Jesus then asserts his authority to interpret true Sabbath practice (Mark 2:28). In fact, Jesus' central struggle with the political leadership was not over theology, but over the meaning of Sabbath (Mark 3:1-6; Luke 13:10-17; John 7:22-24, 9:14-16). This "Human One," claiming the authority to cancel debts and restore the Sabbath, is a Jubilee figure indeed!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Jesus' Jubilee orientation is also seen in his efforts to rebuild community between socio-economically alienated groups. His "outreach" to tax collectors, who made their living exploiting debtors, is a case in point. Luke begins and ends his narrative of Jesus' ministry with such stories. Following Jesus' call to discipleship, Levi renounces his tax-collecting work and throws a banquet for Jesus and his clientele of "sinners" (5:27-32). Why does this provoke strenuous protests from the authorities? The answer is made explicit in the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10). This wealthy creditor is also invited to host Jesus-but he (rightly) understands this to mean he must first practice substantial economic reparation. It is to this program of socioeconomic "leveling" that the official adjudicators of debt object-in Jesus' day and our own.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Leave and Follow</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">But while Levi and Zacchaeus embrace Jubilee liberation through redistribution, another man with "much property" rejects it (Mark 10:21-23). Jesus expects his followers to enter into the new economy of grace. Interestingly, the formulaic discipleship phrase "they left and followed" (Mark 1:18-20; Luke 5:28) uses the verb aphiemi, which we have seen also means to forgive sin-cancel debt. Jesus promises that whoever leaves "house or family or fields" (the symbols of the basic agrarian economy: site of consumption, labor force, site of production) will receive the same back "hundredfold" (Mark 10:29-30).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Discipleship thus means forsaking the seductions and false securities of the debt system for a recommunitized economy of enough for everyone. In such an economy, which Jesus calls the "kingdom," there are no longer any rich and poor-by definition, therefore, the rich "cannot enter" it (Mark 10:23-25). So contrary is this vision to our accepted horizons of possibility, however, that disciples ancient and modern have difficulty truly believing (10:26).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Jesus' call for radical social restructuring at all levels, from the household (Mark 3:31-35) to the body politic (Mark 10:35-45), is summarized by the Jubilee ultimatum: "Many who are first will be last, and the last first" (Mark 10:31). He typically chooses the venue of table fellowship in order to both show and tell object lessons that illustrate this. Meals lay at the heart of ancient society: Where, what, and with whom you ate defined your social identity and status. Thus the table was a "mirror" of society, with its economic classes and political divisions.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">In the extended banquet story in Luke 14, Jesus systematically undermines prevailing conventions and proprieties, while advocating a new "table" of compassion and equality. The opening episode deals (not surprisingly) with a dispute over the Sabbath practice (Luke 14:1-6). Next comes Jesus' attack on the dominant system of meritocracy, with its hierarchies, prestige posturing, and ladder-climbing, and his invitation to "downward mobility" (verses 7-11). He then offends his host by criticizing his guest list, rejecting the reciprocal patronage system of the elite, and calling instead for a focus upon "those who cannot repay" (verses 12-14). The series concludes with Jesus' pointed little fable about an exemplary host who finally understands the bankruptcy of meritocracy and decides instead to build a Jubilee community with the poor and outcast (verses 15-24).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Grace vs. Mammon</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">There is no theme more common to Jesus' storytelling than Sabbath economics. He promises poor sharecroppers abundance (Mark 4:3-8, 26-32), but threatens absentee landowners (Mark 12:1-12) and rich householders (Luke 16:19-31) with judgment. In order to teach the incompatibility of the economy of grace with the dictates of "Mammon," Jesus spins a parable that portrays a hapless middleman caught in the brutal logic of the debt system who decides to "trade" instead in Jubilee-style debt release (Luke 16:1-13). When faced with a dispute over inheritance rights, Jesus counters with a parable about the folly of storing up wealth (remember the manna!), and then exhorts us to learn the lessons of grace and subsistence from the "great economy" of nature (Luke 12:13-34; see James 5:1-6).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The notorious parable of the talents (pounds) shows how Sabbath perspective as an interpretive key can rescue us from a long tradition of both bad theology and bad economics (Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:11-28). This story has, in capitalist religion, been interpreted allegorically from the perspective of the cruel master (= God!), requiring spiritualizing gymnastics to rescue the story from its own depressing conclusion that haves will always triumph over the have-nots (Matthew 25:29). But it reads much more coherently when turned on its head and read as a cautionary tale of realism about the mercenary selfishness of the debt system. This reading understands the servant who refused to play the greedy master's money-market games as the hero who pays a high price for speaking truth to power (Matthew 25:24-30)-just as Jesus himself did.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">In light of this evidence, it should come as no surprise that the archetypal manna story, which as we saw in part one represents the foundation for Sabbath economics, should have a central place in Jesus' consciousness. At the outset of his ministry, Jesus must face again the wilderness temptation concerning bread and sustenance (Matthew 4:1-4 = Deuteronomy 8:2-3 = Exodus 16). At key junctures he re-enacts that wilderness feeding-and all who participate "have enough" (Mark 6:42; 8:8). And at the heart of the prayer he teaches his disciples is the double petition: "Give us enough bread for today, and forgive us our debts as we forgive others'" (Matthew 6:11-12).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">These are some of the "Jubilee footprints" in the Jesus story. It is important to note that the early church which produced these gospels also practiced Sabbath economics. The most obvious example-similarly maligned or ignored by modern exegetes-is the Acts account of the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost-the Jubilee-tinged celebration of Shavuot (Acts 2). This occasions a portrait of the church's first experiment in wealth redistribution, echoing the manna story with the report that "assets were distributed to any as had need" (Acts 2:45, 4:35). Similarly, central to the itinerant ministry of the apostle Paul was his invitation to the new Gentile churches to learn Sabbath economics by practicing interchurch mutual aid. Significantly, in his most elaborate articulation of this commitment (2 Corinthians 8-9), the one scriptural justification Paul employs is a citation of the manna story: "As it is written, 'Those who had much did not have too much; and those who had little did not have too little" (2 Corinthians 8:14-15)!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">BIBLICAL INTERPRETERS SKEPTICAL of the Jubilee tradition have not found evidence for its practice because they have not been looking for it. But once we restore Sabbath economics to its central place in the Torah, we hear its echoes everywhere in the rest of scripture. The standard of economic justice is woven into the warp and weft of the Bible; pull this strand, and the whole fabric unravels.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">If we are going to dismiss the Jubilee because Israel practiced it only inconsistently, we should also ignore the Sermon on the Mount because Christians have rarely embodied Jesus' instruction to love our enemies. But it is time to move beyond such rationalizing theology in our churches. We must rediscover the gospel as good news for the poor, and the economic disciplines of shabat as the path of humanization.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Fortunately, the "subversive memory" of Jubilee has kept erupting throughout church history, among early monks, medieval communitarians, and radical reformers. Even with the ascendancy of modern capitalism-with its fierce antipathy toward Sabbath economics-this vision has not been extinguished. We see it in tracts by the 18th-century "leveler" Thomas Spence in his struggle against the move to enclose (i.e. privatize) the Commons in early industrial England: "Since then this Jubilee/Sets all at Liberty/Let us be glad/Behold each man return to his possession." And we hear it in the 19th-century spirituals of African slaves sung in American fields: "Don't you hear the gospel trumpet sound Jubilee?"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Those of us who would insist that the Bible's ancient socioeconomic and spiritual disciplines remain relevant today have hard work to do. We must diligently and creatively explore what contemporary, concrete analogies might be to Jubilee practices of old. The task is as imperative as it is daunting; the alternative is the "capital-olatry" of the runaway global economy. In all of this, the church can help nurture commitment and creativity by promoting "Sabbath literacy," a spirituality of forgiveness and reparation, and practical economic disciplines for individuals, households, and congregations.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">"Who, then, can be saved?" (Mark 10:26). Mark's epilogue to the call of the rich man (Mark 10:17-25) anticipates our incredulity: Does Jesus really expect the "haves" (that is, us) to participate in Sabbath wealth redistribution as a condition for discipleship? Can we imagine a world in which there are no rich and poor? To the disciples' skepticism, and to ours, Jesus replies simply: "I know it seems impossible to you, but for God all things are possible" (10:27). In other words, economics is ultimately a theological issue. And this is why our churches must talk about it, and talk about it in light of our unique tradition of Sabbath economics.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Ched Myers was a writer, teacher, and activist based in Los Angeles, and a Sojourners contributing editor, when this article appeared.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">God Speed the Year of Jubilee!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">by Ched Myers | May-June 1998</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The biblical vision of Sabbath economics.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">God speed the year of jubilee, the wide world o'er!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">When from their galling chains set free,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Th' oppressed shall vilely bend the knee</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">And wear the yoke of tyranny, like brutes, no more-</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">That year will come, and Freedom's reign</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">To man his plundered rights again, restore.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">-William Lloyd Garrison, 19th-century abolitionist</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">"We read the gospel as if we had no money," laments Jesuit theologian John Haughey, "and we spend our money as if we know nothing of the gospel." Indeed, in most North American churches today, it is exceedingly difficult to talk about economics. This topic is more taboo than politics, more even than sex-a subject with which our churches have recently become all too preoccupied. Yet no aspect of our individual and corporate lives is more determinative than the economy. And few subjects are more frequently addressed in our scriptures.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The pre-eminent challenge to the human family today is the increasingly unequal distribution of wealth and power. Since statistics are wearisome, a few must suffice to capture this drift. The United Nations reported in 1992 that income disparities between the world's richest and poorest have doubled since 1960. Today the wealthiest 20 percent of the world's population receives almost 83 percent of the world's income, while the poorest 20 percent receive less than 2 percent! In 1965, the average U.S. worker made $7.52 per hour, while the person running the company made $330.38 per hour; today, the average worker makes $7.39 per hour, the average CEO $1,566.68 per hour-212 times more!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">This is "trickle up": the transfer of wealth from the increasingly poor to the increasingly rich. And neoliberal policies of "structural adjustment" are not only hardening this income polarization, they are deepening psychic and social alienation. Whether through plant closings, the demise of the local grocery store, or the crisis of the family farm, we in the First World are now witnessing the epidemic of communal displacement that has already devastated local culture, institutions, and environments in the Third and Fourth Worlds.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Any theology that refuses to reckon with these realities is both cruel and irrelevant. We Christians must talk about economics, and talk about it in light of the gospel. "Churches," asserts Cornel West, "may be the last places left in our culture that can engage the public conversation with non-market values." Yet those who would challenge postmodern capitalism and its self-reflexive market discourses are struggling to find an alternative language and practice, particularly with the apparent discrediting of state socialism. This ideological vacuum offers a unique opportunity for the church to rediscover a radically different vision of economic and social practice-and one that lies right at the heart of its scriptures.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The Bible recognizes that inequalities will inevitably arise in "fallen" society-a realism it shares with the worldview of modern capitalism. Unlike the social Darwinism of the latter, however, the biblical vision refuses to stipulate that injustice is therefore a permanent condition. Instead, God's people are instructed to dismantle, on a regular basis, the fundamental patterns and structures of stratified wealth and power, so that there is "enough for everyone." This socioeconomic vision is articulated in a variety of ways in both testaments: through Exodus storytelling (Exodus 16), Levitical legislation (Leviticus 25), Deuteronomic exhortation (Deuteronomy 15), prophetic pronouncement (Isaiah 5), gospel parable (Matthew 25), and apostolic pleading (2 Corinthians 8-9). This article will examine the Hebrew Bible roots of this tradition; the sequel will look at how Jesus appropriates and renews it.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Manna and the Sabbath</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The Biblical standard of social and economic justice is grounded in God's call to "keep the Sabbath." The word "Sabbath" comes from the Hebrew verb shabat, which means "to rest or stop working." It first appears in the Bible as the culmination of the story of creation: "God rested on the seventh day from all the work God did" (Genesis 2:2). Here a primal pattern is set: "Good" work (Genesis 1:31; Hebrew tob, better translated as "delightful") is followed by Shabat. This Shabat is "blessed" (2:3), just like the creation itself (1:22, 28). Richard Lowery points out that "in a delightful twist, 'rest' is signified as a verb in this passage and 'work' as a noun." Sabbath, he contends, captures the double theme of this creation story: abundance and limits.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Human beings are to imitate God in practicing Sabbath. The next place we encounter the term (now as a noun, not a verb) is in the archetypal story of hunger and bread in the wilderness (Exodus 16), sandwiched between two stories of thirst and water (Exodus 15:22-27 and 17:1-7). The people have been sprung from slavery, but must now face the harsh realities of life outside the imperial system. Their first test of character, not surprisingly, is how they will sustain themselves. The ancient Israelites-like modern North Americans-couldn't imagine an economic system apart from the Egyptian military-industrial-technological complex that enslaved them. "Would that we had died at the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you have led us into this desert to die of famine!" (Exodus 16:3).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The manna story is n</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">ot just a feeding miracle. It is a parable that illustrates Yahweh's alternative to the Egyptian economy (Exodus 16:6). God "raining bread from heaven" symbolizes cultivation as a divine gift, a process that begins with rain and ends with bread (see Isaiah 55:10 and the parallel between the wilderness manna and the produce of the settled land in Joshua 5:12). This story narrates a "test" to see if Israel will follow instructions on how to "gather"-a symbol in traditional societies for harvesting (Exodus 16:4). The people's first lesson outside of Egypt concerns economic production!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Moses' instructions give us the three defining characteristics of this alternative economic practice. First, every family is told to gather just enough bread for their needs (Exodus 16:16-18). In contrast to Israel's Egyptian condition of oppression and need, here everyone has enough: "Those who gathered more had no surplus, and those who gathered less had no shortage." In God's economy there is such a thing as "too much" and "too little." (This contrasts radically with modern capitalism's infinite tolerance for wealth and poverty.) Exodus 16's "theology of enough" is underlined by the (probably later) version of the manna story in Numbers 11, in which the people's persistent "cravings" are punished with a plague of "too much" (Numbers 11:33-34; see Psalm 78:20-31, 106:13-15).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Second, this bread should not be "stored up" (16:19-20). Wealth and power in Egypt was defined by surplus accumulation. It is no accident that Israel's forced labor consisted of building "store cities" (Exodus 1:11), into which the empire's plunder and the tribute of subject peoples was gathered. (This too prefigures capitalism, whose dictum, according to Marx, was: "Accumulate, accumulate, accumulate-this is the Law and the Prophets!"). The Bible understands that dominant civilizations exert centripetal force, drawing labor, resources, and wealth into greater and greater concentrations of idolatrous power (the archetypal biblical description of this is found in the story of the Tower of Babel, Genesis 11:1-9). So Israel is enjoined to keep wealth circulating through strategies of redistribution, not concentrating through strategies of accumulation.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The third instruction introduces Sabbath discipline (Exodus 16:22-30). "On the sixth day, when they distribute what they bring in, it will be twice as much....Six days you shall gather; but on the seventh, which is a Sabbath, there will be none" (Exodus 16:5, 26). We Christians regard the Sabbath at best as merely one of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8-11), at worst as a quaint Jewish custom. But here we see that it is instituted even before the covenant at Sinai. Indeed, it is reiterated in ultimate terms at the conclusion of the covenant code: If the people do not practice Sabbath, they will die (Exodus 31:12-17). Not only then is Shabat the crowning blessing of creation; it is also the "beginning and end of the law."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">We Christians therefore trivialize (and even "profane") the Sabbath if we regard it merely as a day when Jews do as little as possible, or as a code of nit-picking prohibitions. Torah's Sabbath regulations represent God's strategy for teaching Israel about its dependence upon the land as a gift to share equitably, not as a possession to exploit (see for example the rituals enjoined in harvest festivals, Leviticus 23:9-25). The prescribed periodic rest for the land and for human labor means to disrupt human attempts to "control" nature and "maximize" the forces of production. Because the earth belongs to God and its fruits are a gift, the people should justly distribute those fruits, instead of seeking to own and hoard them.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">"Sabbath observance requires a leap of faith, a firm confidence that the world will continue to operate benevolently for a day without human labor, that God is willing and able to provide enough for the good life," writes Lowery. "Sabbath promises seven days of prosperity for six days of work. It operates on the assumption that human life and prosperity exceed human productivity."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">This first lesson was fundamental: The people were instructed to keep a jarful of the manna in front of the covenant, so as never to forget Sabbath economics (see Hebrews 9:4). The manna story, in sum, illustrates human dependence upon the divine "economy of grace." Sabbath observation means to remember every week this economy's two principles: the goal of "enough" for everyone, and the prohibition on hoarding. This vision is, of course, utterly contrary to economics as we know it. And our incredulity is rather humorously anticipated in the story itself: "Manna" means "What is this?" (Exodus 16:15).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">THE SOCIAL JUSTICE CODE of Exodus 23 extends the Sabbath cycle to a seventh year: "You shall let the land rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild animals may eat" (Exodus 23:10-11). The Sabbath year restores equilibrium by restraining the activity of "productive" members of the economy and freeing constraints upon those the economy has marginalized, both the disenfranchised (the poor) and the undomesticated (wild animals)!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The ecological and social wisdom of the Sabbath year goes beyond the agricultural good sense of letting land lie fallow. Kentucky philosopher-farmer Wendell Berry articulates Sabbath economics in his notion of the "two economies." He believes the all-encompassing and integrated system of nature should be understood as the "Great Economy," upon which human systems ("little economies") by necessity depend. The problem, Berry writes, is that our modern industrial economy, with its managerial penchant for control and its lack of limits, "does not see itself as a little economy; it sees itself as the only economy. It makes itself thus exclusive by the simple expedient of valuing only what it can use-that is, only what it can regard as 'raw material' to be transformed mechanically into something else.... The industrial economy is based on invasion and pillage of the Great Economy."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The Sabbath rest commanded for the land and the laborer restores the primacy of the Great Economy, and forces humans to re-adapt to its limits. As Rabbi Arthur Waskow puts it, "This shabat betokens the peace agreement ending the primordial war between ourselves and earth which began as we left Eden-which came from a misdeed of eating and brought us painful toil and turmoil in our eating."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The Deuteronomist goes even further, interpreting the Sabbath year to include debt release (Deuteronomy 15:1-18). This was intended as a hedge against the inevitable tendency of human societies to concentrate power and wealth in the hands of a few, creating hierarchical classes with the poor at the bottom. In agrarian societies such as biblical Israel (or parts of the Third World today), the cycle of poverty began when a family fell into debt, deepened when it had to sell off its land in order to service the debt, and reached its conclusion when landless peasants could only sell their labor, becoming bond-slaves. Since there were no banks in antiquity, it was larger landowners who acted as creditors-and who foreclosed, adding to their holdings.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The prophet Isaiah railed against precisely this process of economic stratification by which wealthy creditors "add house to house and field to field, until there is room for no one but you" (Isaiah 5:8). He saw it as a betrayal of Israel's vocation to be "God's pleasant planting; God expected justice, but saw bloodshed" (Isaiah 5:7).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The Sabbath year debt release intends to safeguard both social justice ("there will be no one in need among you") and sound fiscal policy ("creditor nations will not rule over you," Deuteronomy 15:4-6). But anticipating the human tendency toward selfishness, the practical Deuteronomist specifically forbids people from tightening credit in the years immediately prior to the Sabbath remission (15:7-11). The remission applies to debt slaves as well, not only freeing them but demanding that they be sent away with sufficient resources to make it on their own (15:12-17). Whether or not the community will enjoy the blessing of the land is contingent on its fidelity of this Sabbath discipline, which Deuteronomy, like Exodus, grounds in the memory of being liberated from Egyptian slavery (Deuteronomy 15:15; see 5:15).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">THE FULLEST EXPRESSION of Sabbath logic is the Levitical "Jubilee": a comprehensive remission to take place every "Sabbath's Sabbath," or 49th-50th year (Leviticus 25). The Jubilee (named after the jovel, a ram's horn that sounded to herald the remission) aimed to dismantle structures of social-economic inequality by: releasing each community member from debt (Leviticus 25:35-42); returning encumbered or forfeited land to its original owners (25:13, 25-28); freeing slaves (25:47-55). The rationale for this unilateral restructuring of the community's assets was to remind Israel that the land belongs to God (25:23) and that they are an Exodus people who must never return to a system of slavery (25:42).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">The Jubilee was perhaps already prefigured in the "Feast of Weeks" (Shavuot, later the feast of Pentecost), a celebration of the first fruits of the harvest (Exodus 23:16; Leviticus 23:15-25; Deuteronomy 16:9-12):</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Feast of Weeks: "From the day after the Sabbath, from the day on which you bring the sheaf of the elevation offering, you shall count off seven weeks....You shall count until the day after the seventh Sabbath, fifty days; then you shall present an offering of new grain to the Lord" (Leviticus 23:15-16).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Jubilee: "You shall count off seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the period...gives forty-nine years....And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants" (Leviticus 25:8, 10).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">This suggests that "Sabbath economics" applied at each harvest, not just every other generation.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Lowery acknowledges that the Sabbath vision is diametrically opposed to our modern assumptions about economics. The two main assumptions of classical economics are: 1) scarcity; and 2) unlimited need. These, he writes, "breed resignation to systems of distribution so unequal as to guarantee homelessness and starvation. On the other hand, they create an imperative toward unlimited economic growth." Sabbath economics, however, based on "the principles of abundance and self-restraint, turn this classical economic approach on its head. If you assume that resources are abundant, sufficient for the survival and prosperity of human life, and that human needs and wants are limited, then no one need starve or suffer the elements through lack of housing or clothing." The conclusion we must draw, says Lowery, is that "long-term, systemic hunger, homelessness, and poverty can be viewed only as a failure of human will."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">If Sabbath economics is an unfamiliar notion to North American churches it is not because it is obscure or incidental to the scriptures. Rather, it has been marginalized by interpreters who seek to legitimate the very concentrations of wealth and power that the biblical tradition denounces. It is important to point out that many of the texts cited above probably did not take their final Torah form until after the Babylonian Exile (sixth century B.C.E.). This means that the ancient vision of Sabbath economics that originated among tribal Israel was revisioned almost half a millennium later, under very different circumstances. It is a radical vision that has continued to surface among justice-seeking Jews and Christians ever since.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Ched Myers, the author of The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics (Church of the Savior, 2001), worked with Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries in Los Angeles when this article appeared</span></div>
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[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-84992387183293317622018-11-23T19:08:00.000-08:002018-11-23T19:08:33.245-08:00re: opiate crisis-- thx to Munn, Amparo, Edwards, Llaverias for signing my letter-- email countylegislators@dutchessny.gov to get resolution on to Co. Leg. mtg. agenda and passed!<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Hi all...</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Update-- thx tons to four of my Dem Co. Leg. colleagues-- Kris Munn, Francena Amparo, Rebecca Edwards, and Giancarlo Llaverias-- for agreeing at June 11th Co. Leg. full board mtg.-- to sign on to my new comprehensive letter re: opiates...</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">....so pls email all 25 of us at countylegislators@dutchessny.gov to build support!..</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Two interesting pieces on front page of Poughkeepsie Journal re: opiates...</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Click on first two links for Poughkeepsie Journal pieces, much more on this:</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/2018/06/07/after-opioids-dutchess-resident-lauren-ruark-gets-her-life-back/661356002/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/2018/06/07/after-opioids-dutchess-resident-lauren-ruark-gets-her-life-back/661356002/</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/politics/albany/2018/06/06/heroin-epidemic-funding-new-york-state-200-million-addiction-resources/619817002/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/politics/albany/2018/06/06/heroin-epidemic-funding-new-york-state-200-million-addiction-resources/619817002/</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/04/how-france-reduced-heroin-overdoses-by-79-in-four-years/558023/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/04/how-france-reduced-heroin-overdoses-by-79-in-four-years/558023/</a></div>
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<a href="https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/effective-addiction-treatment/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/effective-addiction-treatment/</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.ashwoodrecovery.com/blog/length-stay-addiction-rehab-matter/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.ashwoodrecovery.com/blog/length-stay-addiction-rehab-matter/</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15540492" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15540492</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.rehabs.com/pro-talk-articles/whats-the-harm-in-using-harm-reduction/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.rehabs.com/pro-talk-articles/whats-the-harm-in-using-harm-reduction/</a></div>
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<a href="https://americanaddictioncenters.org/rehab-guide/success-rates-and-statistics/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://americanaddictioncenters.org/rehab-guide/success-rates-and-statistics/</a></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Don't forget-- from Lisa Bennett and Friends of Recovery Dutchess(!)..."Chatham Police Chief Peter Volkmann and Lieutenant Alessi are coming to speak with us on Tuesday June 19th. From 7-9 pm. Location 230 North Road, Poughkeepsie Ny.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Chief Volkmann will be speaking on how his CC4U system works when folks struggling with Substance Use Disorder are ready to ask for help. Chief Volkmann and his staff of Angels have successfully placed approximately 185 souls into the appropriate treatment and recovery services based on the unique needs of the individual. Come hear how they navigate the complexities of insurance and treatment centers. Come prepared with any questions or challenges you have been experiencing. This is a learning opportunity for our community to take best practices from Chief Pete Volkmann and apply them here in Dutchess, Putnam and Ulster. As a community we WILL make a difference." (for more re: Volkmann/PAARI:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">http://www.PAARIUSA.org </span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">; </span> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/chathamcares4u" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/chathamcares4u</a> )</div>
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[pass it on]</div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Joel</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Governor Andrew Cuomo</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">NYSDOH Commissioner Howard Zucker</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">State Senators Terrence Murphy and Sue Serino</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Assemblymembers Didi Barrett and Kevin Cahill</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Assemblymember Kieran Michael Lalor</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dr. A.K. Vaidian, Dutchess County Commissioner of Behavioral and Community Health</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dear State and County Leaders:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">We, the various undersigned members of the Dutchess County Legislature, ask that you make sure that sufficient state and county resources are devoted to drug treatment to deal with the opiate epidemic; 67 Dutchess County residents overdosed and died from the opiate epidemic in 2016, an increase from the previous year.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">As yesterday’s Poughkeepsie Journal reported on its front page— “In April 2017, Gov. Andrew Cuomo held a ceremonial bill signing on Long Island proclaiming the state would now invest $200 million a year to fight the scourge of opioid addiction in New York. There was just one missing point: The state was already spending that much money on the epidemic. A review by the USA TODAY Network's Albany Bureau found that despite New York's insistence that it is adding significantly more money to fight the abuse of heroin and other dangerous drugs, the state has largely just shifted funds from other addiction programs to pay for it. ‘There was no infusion of $200 million in new dollars,’ said John Coppola, executive director of the Alcoholism & Substance Abuse Providers of New York State. ‘Most of the dollars were already there, already being utilized by prevention and treatment programs, but now their emphasis shifted to address the opioid epidemic.’ New York's spending on heroin and opioid treatment has, in fact, doubled since 2011, but the numbers are tricky. It's mainly redirected funding from other treatment programs, leaving other services neglected, critics said. The budget for the agency overseeing the programs grew just 1 percent between 2012 and 2018 — in part because of new federal aid. The number of opioid deaths in New York skyrocketed 135 percent between 2013 and 2016. In 2016 alone, the state had nearly 3,800 opioid deaths, yet the state has increased its number of treatment beds only by 4 percent since 2014 — to about 11,000 overall.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Yesterday’s Poughkeepsie Journal continued— “A 2016 law banned prior insurance authorization before a patient could get 14 days of care for substance abuse. But that only led to another issue: After 14 days, addicts can end up back on the streets, creating a ‘revolving door’ of care, as one provider said. Stephen Hill explained his battle with recovery in a recent interview with The Journal News/lohud as part of the USA TODAY Network's review of New York's spending. ‘All of these treatment programs were 28 days long, and I was addicted to opiates and prescription painkillers and later on heroin … and 28 days just is not enough for an opiate addict,’ said Hill, 30, who is from Rockland County. Hill has bounced from state-run treatment to costly private rehabs and sober homes, but he continues to struggle with recovery. ‘Every time I would come out of treatment and I would say to myself, ‘I’m just going to drink alcohol,' or maybe 'I’m going to smoke marijuana every now and again,' he said, recalling the inevitable return to his drug of choice, OxyContin. ‘Every single time I would drink I would get that thought in my head, ‘This is not what I’m looking for, I need opiates.' That’s what my body wants, that’s what my brain wants.’”</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Health-care experts said that New York has improved immediate access to care for opioid abusers. But the system hasn't added enough services for people needing months of inpatient help — leading them to return for short-term treatment time and again. "We’re clogging the system because it becomes such a revolving door," said Jonathan Westfall, program director of the Find Your Path community outreach program in Rochester. The law requiring 14 days of care is helpful for getting addicts into the system, but then there aren't enough resources to give them adequate care thereafter, Westfall said. "Fourteen days, that is not even nearly enough time to get the drugs out of your system, much less have your head on straight," he said. "And they’re throwing people back on the streets again because there’s no halfway housing or supportive living situations." Critics said there may be beds, but they could be far away from a person's home and not easily gotten to. And some facilities have better reputations than others. Susan Salomone, founder of Drug Crisis in our Backyard in Carmel, Putnam County, also referred to New York's system as a "revolving door." Her son died of a heroin overdose. "You’re in and you're out, and it’s really no more than an interruption of use," she said.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Though treatment for any period of time is a step in the right direction, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) recommends residential rehab for a period of 90 days or more. Research Psychologist Bennett Fletcher from NIDA conducted a study of 1,605 users of cocaine. The research, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry in 1999, analyzed relapse rates a year after treatment. Results showed that 35 percent of individuals treated for 90 days and below relapsed while only 17 percent of those treated for longer than 90 days did. A similar study funded by NIDA studied 549 patients being treated in a residential facility for addiction. Results showed that patients who left before 90 days passed had similar relapse rates to individuals who only stayed in rehab for a day or two. According to the study, longer rehabilitation stays resulted in lower relapse rates. A 2001 study by the University of California, Los Angeles followed 1,167 adolescents undergoing treatment for substance abuse. Results showed that adolescents who stayed in rehab longer than 90 days were less likely to re-indulge in heavy drinking, marijuana and illicit drugs as compared to adolescents who only stayed 21 days. Because addiction is a chronic disease, rehabilitation will take more than overcoming a substance addiction. Rehabs, therefore, do more than just help addicts overcome a physical addiction, they provide the tools to overcome the psychological causes and effects of addiction. According to NIDA, substance abuse actually affects the brain’s functioning, specifically the parts of the brain responsible for: perceiving risk and reward, learning and memory, and behavioral control.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">The Poughkeepsie Journal yesterday also highlighted the story of Lauren Ruark, sadly incarcerated initially for nothing more than criminal possession of a controlled substance— unfortunately, there continues to be dozens of folks inside our county jail here in Dutchess, charged with nothing more than nonviolent drug addiction (not drug dealing or violence)— they could be healed more quickly on the outside and for less taxpayer expense through drug treatment, as the Chatham Police Department and the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative have proven. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Moreover, Suboxone should be much more readily available immediately to all who need it here in Dutchess County. As Olga Khazan wrote for The Atlantic this April, echoed by a recent New York Times editorial-- “In the 1980s, France went through a heroin epidemic in which hundreds of thousands became addicted; the rate of overdose deaths was rising 10 percent a year, yet treatment was mostly limited to counseling at special substance-abuse clinics. In 1995, France made it so any doctor could prescribe buprenorphine (Suboxone) without any special licensing or training. Buprenorphine, a first-line treatment for opioid addiction, is a medication that reduces cravings for opioids without becoming addictive itself. With the change in policy, the majority of buprenorphine prescribers in France became primary-care doctors, rather than addiction specialists or psychiatrists. Suddenly, about 10 times as many addicted patients began receiving medication-assisted treatment, and half the country’s heroin users were being treated. Within four years, overdose deaths had declined by 79 percent.” </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Finally, according to the Dutchess County Department of Behavioral and Community Health, in response to public input at the April 19</span> <sup style="color: black; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 0;">th</sup> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> public forum hosted by the Chemical Dependency Subcommittee to the Mental Hygiene Board, the Mid-Hudson Addiction Recovery Center is the only entity in Dutchess County that will take an individual without the ability to pay— that situation needs to be addressed more fully.</span></div>
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[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-45479312567062764622018-11-23T19:04:00.001-08:002018-11-23T19:04:14.476-08:00re: Agency Partnership Grants-- Kris, Francena, Rebecca agree-- cruel hunger games need to end<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="galileo-ap-layout-editor" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black; min-width: 100%; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[update-- thx tons to four of my Co. Leg. colleagues-- Kris Munn, Francena Amparo, Rebecca Edwards, and Giancarlo Llaverias-- for agreeing at our June 11th Co. Leg. full board mtg. earlier tonight-- to sign on to the letter below I circulated on all this!]</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Recall-- early in June it was announced by the Dutchess County Budget Director Jess White at the Dutchess County Legislature’s Budget, Finance, and Personnel Committee meeting that Dutchess County ended 2017 with $55 million left over in the fund balance (note-- curiously, this has been ignored by local media); click here on either of these two links to see her presentation:</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/joel.tyner/videos/10157472074740744" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/joel.tyner/videos/10157472074740744</a></div>
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<a href="https://totalwebcasting.com/view/?id=dutchess" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://totalwebcasting.com/view/?id=dutchess</a></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Fact: For the last two years in a row there has been tons of media coverage on Dutchess County Budget Director Jess White announcing annual county fund balances (budget surpluses) in May that have literally been triple what they were, on average, from 1996 through 2012-- $59 million last May and $57 million the year before that.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2017/May/04/DC_2016_fiscal-04May17.html" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2017/May/04/DC_2016_fiscal-04May17.html</a></div>
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<a href="https://hudsonvalleynewsnetwork.com/2016/05/02/molinaro-announces-year-end-2015-financial-condition/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://hudsonvalleynewsnetwork.com/2016/05/02/molinaro-announces-year-end-2015-financial-condition/</a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Fact: Over $770,000 worth of requests for funding from worthy nonprofit agencies were rejected this March by the Dutchess County Agency Partnership Program-- and over a million dollars’ worth of similar requests denied the year before; $878,000 in requests denied in 2016. This is all true despite a county fund balance reported to be over $59 million last May and a county fund balance over $57 million in 2016-- cruel austerity unnecessarily forced on local nonprofit agencies not just as an unfair burden on them with a very real and harmful impact on local victims of domestic violence, seniors affected by elder abuse, at-risk youth, those with disabilities, homeless, formerly incarcerated, and those of low income.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[this is not a new point for me; click here for missive I sent out last fall on this:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">https://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2017/09/rhinebecks-joanne-gelb-is-right-and-so.html</span>]</div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[...let's reflect on true Molinaro/GOP funding priority: $274 million jail expansion</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/2016/03/22/county-legislators-approve-bond-fund-jail-construction-project/82081136/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/2016/03/22/county-legislators-approve-bond-fund-jail-construction-project/82081136/</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.change.org/p/marcus-molinaro-stop-274-million-gop-jail-expansion-in-duchess-county-fund-cost-saving-alternatives" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.change.org/p/marcus-molinaro-stop-274-million-gop-jail-expansion-in-duchess-county-fund-cost-saving-alternatives</a> ]</div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[click on link here for even more info re: Dutchess County AGP Program:</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.dutchessny.gov/CountyGov/Departments/Planning/22115.htm" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.dutchessny.gov/CountyGov/Departments/Planning/22115.htm</a> <span style="font-weight: bold;">]</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Pass it on...</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Joel</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">845-464-2245/876-2488</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[again-- also below in this email-- list of nonprofits denied AGP funding in 2016(!)]</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dutchess County Office Building</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">22 Market Street</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Poughkeepsie, NY 12601</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dear County Executive Molinaro:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">We, the various undersigned members of the Dutchess County Legislature, ask that you allocate a million dollars more annually to the Dutchess County Agency Partnership Program. On June 7th it was announced by the Dutchess County Budget Director at the Dutchess County Legislature’s Budget, Finance, and Personnel Committee meeting that Dutchess County ended 2017 with $55 million left over in the fund balance. Over $770,000 worth of requests for funding from worthy nonprofit agencies were rejected this March by the Dutchess County Agency Partnership Program-- and over a million dollars’ worth of similar requests denied the year before; $878,000 in requests denied in 2016. This is all true despite a county fund balance reported to be over $59 million last May and a county fund balance over $57 million in 2016-- cruel austerity unnecessarily forced on local nonprofit agencies not just as an unfair burden on them with a very real and harmful impact on local victims of domestic violence, seniors affected by elder abuse, at-risk youth, those with disabilities, homeless, formerly incarcerated, and those of low income.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">According to the Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development, the following funding requests were rejected from receiving monies this year as part of the Agency Partnership Grant Program (a similar exists for each year of the last five years):</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Boy Scouts of America, Hudson Valley Council: Exploring Explosion in Dutchess County ($55,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County: Organics Recycling Education and Promotion ($38,579)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County: Agriculture/Horticulture/Farming Sustainability ($114,803)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Down Syndrome Association of HV: Behaviorist Specialized/Developmental Disabilities Workshop ($13,700)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Down Syndrome Association/HV (DSAHV): Balance Bike Camp for Individuals w/Down Syndrome ($7900)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Down Syndrome Association (DSAHV): Reading Tutor Program: Individuals with Down Syndrome ($18,500)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dutchess Outreach, Inc.: Community Based Development through Food Access Centers ($50,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Exodus Transitional Community: Exodus Poughkeepsie Reentry Work Readiness ($75,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Hudson Valley Community Services, Inc.: Syringe Exchange Program ($23,750)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Hudson Valley House of Hope: </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">House of Hope Case Management ($25,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">In My Mother's House Resource Center for Women: Giving All Girls Opportunities ($7500)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Legal Services of the Hudson Valley: Dutchess Eviction Prevention and Stabilization Program ($25,890)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Mediation Center of Dutchess County: Coalition on Elder Abuse ($50,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Mid-Hudson Workshop: Workforce Training for Physically and Medically Handicapped ($41,523)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Mill Street Loft: Power Up Youth Outreach Program ($25,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Nubian Directions II, Inc.: YouthBuild ($120,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Poughkeepsie Farm Project: Garden Education Manager ($50,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Poughkeepsie Public Library District: Public Library Service for All: Creating Supportive Environments for Special Needs Patrons ($25,500)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">United Way of the Dutchess-Orange Region: Hudson Valley CA$H Coalition 211 ($20,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Women's Enterprise Development Center Inc.: Entrepreneurial Training Program (ETP) and Business Support Service ($20,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Work Works, Inc.: BEGIN: Building and Renovation Job Skills Training & Employment Program ($186,635)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">According to the Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development, the following funding requests were rejected from receiving monies last year as part of the Agency Partnership Grant Program:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Anderson Center for Autism: Autism Spectrum Disorder Concierge Service ($19,998) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Bardavon 1869 Opera House, Inc.: Bardavon Cultural Access Initiative ($60,000) </span></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Child Abuse Prevention Center, Inc.: Human Trafficking Prevention & Education ($33,073) </span></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Child Abuse Prevention Center, Inc.: Teen Parenting Program ($20,000) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Community Action Partnership of Dutchess County: CAP DC Pathways to Kindergarten ($57,070) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC): Agriculture Emergency Preparedness Project ($13,257)</span></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC): Collaborative Efforts to Address Land Use Planning at a Watershed Scale ($24,324) Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC): Green Teen Planning Project ($10,578) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC): Kinship Caregivers: Relatives as Parents Program ($19,077) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC): Organics Recycling Education and Promotion ($25,499) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Council on Addiction Prevention and Education of Dutchess County (CAPE, DC): Marathon Project ($12,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dutchess Community College: Freedom Star Players-Anti-Bullying Awareness & Education Interactive Role Play ($23,140)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">El Centro De Abriendo Puertas Para Familias, Inc./Opening Doors for Families, Inc.: Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors Parent Engagement Program and Youth Camp ($25,544) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Epilepsy Foundation of Northeastern New York (EFNENY): Seizure Smart Community Project (Part 1 of 2: $26,642) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Epilepsy Foundation of Northeastern New York (EFNENY): Seizure Smart Community Project (Part 2 of 2: $26,642) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Hudson Valley Council, Boy Scouts of America: ScoutReach Year Round / Camp Programs for Inner City Youth ($48,915)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Mediation Center of Dutchess County, Inc.: Coalition on Elder Abuse in Dutchess County ($78,566) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Poughkeepsie United Methodist Church: Harriet Tubman Academic Skills Center ($10,000) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Ramapo for Children: Parents as Leaders - Support & Education Workshops to Inspire Behavioral Change ($25,000) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Taconic Resources for Independence, Inc.: Peer Housing Advocacy ($26,203) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">United Way of the Dutchess-Orange Region: United Way's 2-1-1 of the Hudson Valley Region ($54,892) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Women's Enterprise Development Center (WEDC): Entrepreneurial Training Program (ETP) and Business Support Services ($27,271) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Work Works, Inc. - The Tarver Training Academy: Begin Employment Gain Independence Now(BEGIN) Carpentry Job Training ($92,280) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Poughkeepsie Farm Project: Farming for the City ($32,021) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Poughkeepsie Public Library District (on behalf of all public libraries): Dutchess County Teen Geeks ($38,831) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, St. Mary's Conference Poughkeepsie: Ongoing Project Title, or purpose, is helping people in need ($2500) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Women's Enterprise Development Center Inc.: Entrepreneurial Training Program (ETP) and Business Support Services ($45,090)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.dutchessny.gov/CountyGov/Departments/Planning/22115.htm" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank"> </a></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">2016 Agency Partner Grant Program Funding Summary</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">$878,413 in Funding Requests Denied from these Organizations for the following Activities:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Anderson Center for Autism</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: Autism Spectrum Disorder Concierge Service ($19,998)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Bardavon 1869 Opera House, Inc.: Bardavon Cultural Access Initiative ($60,000) </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Child Abuse Prevention Center, Inc.</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: Human Trafficking Prevention & Education ($33,073)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Child Abuse Prevention Center, Inc.</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: Teen Parenting Program ($20,000) Community Action Partnership of Dutchess County: CAP DC Pathways to Kindergarten ($57,070) </span></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC): Agriculture Emergency Preparedness Project ($13,257)</span></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: Collaborative Efforts to Address Land Use Planning at a Watershed Scale ($24,324) </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: Green Teen Planning Project ($10,578)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC): Kinship Caregivers: Relatives as Parents Program ($19,077)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC): Organics Recycling Education and Promotion ($25,499) </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Council on Addiction Prevention and Education of Dutchess County (CAPE, DC): Marathon Project ($12,000)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> Dutchess Community College: Freedom Star Players-Anti-Bullying Awareness & Education Interactive Role Play ($23,140) </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">El Centro De Abriendo Puertas Para Familias, Inc./Opening Doors for Families, Inc.: Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors Parent Engagement Program and Youth Camp ($25,544) </span></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Epilepsy Foundation of Northeastern New York (EFNENY)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: Seizure Smart Community Project (Part 1 of 2: $26,642) </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> Epilepsy Foundation of Northeastern New York (EFNENY)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: Seizure Smart Community Project (Part 2 of 2: $26,642) Hudson Valley Council, Boy Scouts of America: ScoutReach Year Round / Camp Programs for Inner City Youth: $48,915 Mediation Center of Dutchess County, Inc.: Coalition on Elder Abuse in Dutchess County ($78,566)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Poughkeepsie United Methodist Church</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: Harriet Tubman Academic Skills Center ($10,000)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Ramapo for Children: Parents as Leaders - Support & Education Workshops to Inspire Behavioral Change ($25,000) </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Taconic Resources for Independence, Inc.: Peer Housing Advocacy ($26,203)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">United Way of the Dutchess-Orange Region: United Way's 2-1-1 of the Hudson Valley Region ($54,892)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Women's Enterprise Development Center (WEDC)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: Entrepreneurial Training Program (ETP) and Business Support Services ($27,271) </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Work Works, Inc. - The Tarver Training Academy: Begin Employment Gain Independence Now(BEGIN) Carpentry Job Training ($92,280) </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Poughkeepsie Farm Project</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: Farming for the City ($32,021)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> Poughkeepsie Public Library District (on behalf of all public libraries)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: Dutchess County Teen Geeks ($38,831)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, St. Mary's Conference Poughkeepsie: Ongoing Project Title, or purpose, is helping people in need ($2500) </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Women's Enterprise Development Center Inc.: Entrepreneurial Training Program (ETP) and Business Support Services ($45,090)</span></div>
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[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-57418040675629924182018-11-23T19:02:00.001-08:002018-11-23T19:02:14.333-08:00Matthieu Ricard's right<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="main-width" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black; table-layout: fixed; width: 610px;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[email all 25 of us at countylegislators@dutchessny.gov to build support for these letters here below that I circulated @ June 2018 Co. Leg. full board mtg.]</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Honorable Marcus Molinaro</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Dutchess County Executive</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">22 Market Street</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Poughkeepsie, NY 12601</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Dear County Executive Molinaro:</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">We, the various undersigned members of the Dutchess County Legislature, ask that you add a new "Happy Healthy Dutchess" page to the official Dutchess County government webpage-- with clickable links so county residents can participate in Yale professor Laurie Santos' popular (and free now) "Happiness" course online (through the Coursera website), along with the national Happy Counts questionnaire, "Authentic Happiness" by Martin Seligman, "The Happiness Hypothesis" by Jonathan Haidt, "Happiness" by Thich Nhat Hanh, "Happiness" and "Altruism" by Matthieu Ricard-- and seriously consider help launching a new Center for the Study of the Mind at Dutchess Community College.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">It would appear that we here have much to learn from Finland, who has once again topped this year's World Happiness Report (along with other Scandinavian countries where solidarity among citizens is high along with a strong safety net), released annually by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. The report ranks 156 countries across six factors including GDP, life expectancy, social support, generosity, freedom and corruption. Well outside of the top ten, the US came in at 18th spot.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Moreover, as Matthieu Ricard wrote in his book Altruism, “psychologist Tim Kasser of the University of Rochester and Knox College in Illinois, author of The High Price of Materialism, and his colleagues have highlighted the high cost of materialist values. Thanks to studies spread over twenty years studying tens of thousands of people, they have demonstrated that within a representative sample of the population, individuals who concentrated their existence on wealth, image, social status, and other materialistic, extrinsic values promoted by consumer society are less satisfied with their existence. He researched the correlation between the tendency towards consumerism and living standards, social ties, health, and so on." </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Ricard continues: "With his team, Kasser established a questionnaire to assess the extent to which people are attached to consumerism, and the extent to which they are concerned by ‟external” values (wealth, material property, social image, and so on) compared to ‟inner” values (contentment with one's own life, friendship and social ties, ecological values, empathy). He found that the higher the score on the ‟consumerism” scale, the less contented the people felt. Those high on the scale search for constantly fluctuating hedonistic pleasures and feel less concerned by the eudemonic satisfaction derived from durable inner values. They are driven by material values and have many professional social relations, but few friends. They are less content in their family life, and are even in less good health. They are less concerned by global issues that affect society as a whole, such as the environment." </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Ricard went on: "Focused on themselves, they prefer competition to cooperation, contribute less to the general interest, and are unconcerned with ecological matters. Their social ties are weakened and they have fewer real friends. They show less empathy and compassion for those who suffer and have a tendency to use others for their own ends. They are in less good health than the rest of the population. Excessive consumption is closely linked to extreme self-centeredness and lack of empathy. Individualism, in its good aspects, can foster a spirit of initiative, creativity, and going beyond norms and old-fashioned and restrictive dogmas, but it can also very quickly degenerate into irresponsible selfishness and rampant narcissism, to the detriment of the well-being of all. Selfishness is at the heart of most of the problems we face today: the growing gap between rich and poor, the attitude of ‘everybody for himself,’ which is only increasing, and indifference about the generations to come.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[note re: wording below-- am completely/totally/utterly indebted to Cricket Valley Warriors Johanna Fallert, Joe Lowenbraun, Charlie Davenport, and Gina Klein]</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Governor Andrew Cuomo</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">State Senators Terrence Murphy and Sue Serino</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Assemblymembers Didi Barrett and Kevin Cahill</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Assemblymember Kieran Michael Lalor</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Dear State Leaders: </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">We, the various undersigned members of the Dutchess County Legislature, ask you to do what you can in your power to stop the 1100-megawatt Cricket Valley fracked-gas power plant now under construction in Dover.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">The fact of the matter is that Cricket Valley (CVE) was approved before the Paris Accord, before Governor Cuomo’s bold climate pledges. In the years since its approval, thousands of peer-reviewed research articles have only confirmed that fracked gas is the dirtiest fossil fuel on the planet. Its continued use has dire environmental and health impacts, but Cricket Valley will tie us to gas for the next 40 years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Cricket Valley will generate about ten million metric tons per year of carbon-dioxide-equivalent pollution which will exacerbate global warming and contribute to extreme weather events. In terms of the “social cost of carbon”, that’s half a billion dollars per year in flood damage, sickness, droughts, lost jobs, death. April marked the planet’s 400th consecutive month with above-average temperatures. The planet is cooking as we speak. “The cause for the streak is unquestionably climate change from humanity’s burning of fossil fuels.” (USA Today/Poughkeepsie Journal, 5/18/18, p. 1B) CVEC burns fossil fuel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Additionally, Cricket Valley will generate hundreds of tons of nitrous oxide - which causes ozone - and volatile organic compounds linked to cancers and respiratory illnesses. Fracked gas is touted as clean but the small particulates (PM2.5) generated by combustion can enter directly into human tissue.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Most at risk from VOCs and particulates are the 1400 students in the Dover/Wingdale School System. The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has stated that children are at increased risk from exposure to pollution. Also included in this group are senior citizens, pregnant women, developing fetuses, and individuals with chronic respiratory or cardiovascular disease." The American Lung Association reported in April that Dutchess County's air quality just fell to a "D" from a "C." There are already 5,157 children in Dutchess County with pediatric asthma, about 36,000 adults with chronic respiratory disease, and more than 19,000 residents with cardiopulmonary disease.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Governor Cuomo is suing the EPA for failing to enforce the standards that prevent pollution coming into New York from states to our west, and yet he is promoting gas infrastructure-- pipelines, compressor stations and microgrids--across New York. CVE will send part of its pollution load over Connecticut. And the infrastructure needed to support gas power plants fails every day: Nationwide, 2016 witnessed a dozen deaths and $125M in damages caused in part by 65 fires and 22 explosions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Over the three years of its construction, Cricket Valley will employ at peak about 1,500 workers. After construction, the plant will maintain a skeleton crew of about 28. Long term, there will be little addition to the labor force and no economic gain from jobs. The U.S. Department of Energy’s latest jobs report shows the country had nearly 3.2 million Americans working in wind, solar, energy efficiency and other clean energy jobs in 2017, outnumbering fossil fuel jobs 3-1. “The report is further reaffirmation that political leaders looking for ways to stimulate the economy should back policies that grow the clean energy sector, which also can help solve other problems in their communities by reducing unemployment, lowering harmful power plant emissions, and improving public health.” (“ Good News for Good Jobs: Clean Energy Soars,” Lara Ettenson, May 30, 2018.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Building renewables keeps money in New York. When we generate electricity locally we keep the money and the jobs here. CVEC is backed by foreign investment. We have many local solar businesses in our region that deserve support. Why aren’t our legislators doing more to utilize this technology that doesn’t harm health or the environment?</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">What kind of world will we leave for future generations? The Poughkeepsie Journal’s recent editorial states, “Traditional forms of energy, including oil and coal... have left a filthy legacy of water and air pollution and often have required expensive environmental clean-ups.” This being said, why are our elected leaders ignoring the obvious and continuing to use 20th-Century solutions to 21st-Century problems. Dollars spent on fossil fuel power stifle investment in renewables.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Poughkeepsie Journal says we should move to the next fight for where we get our energy because the Cricket Valley Energy Center is a “done deal.” Perhaps. In 1988, then Governor Mario Cuomo closed a fully operational Shoreham Nuclear Plant because thousands of people, educated to the threat it posed, fought back. Our goal is to create a similar groundswell of opposition, not only to Cricket Valley, but also to the continuing expansion of new fossil fuel infrastructure in New York State by educating people about the dangers these structures pose to the future of life on our planet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">We must reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We must phase out our dependency on fossil fuels. We must commit our will and our investment dollars to building a renewable-energy economy. Our history has shown us that we can overcome obstacles and meet challenges when we have the will to do it. Governor Cuomo has claimed that he will move us to 50% Clean Energy by 2030. We won’t get there unless we resist new fossil fuel infrastructure projects and hold our leaders accountable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Governor Andrew Cuomo</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;">Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;">State Senators Terrence Murphy and Sue Serino</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;">Assemblymembers Didi Barrett and Kevin Cahill</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;">Assemblymember Kieran Michael Lalor</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;">Dear State and Leaders:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;">We, the various undersigned members of the Dutchess CountyLegislature, ask that you delay no longer in passing and signing into law S.8301 with “no strings attached”, as common sense dictates and as New York State United Teachers has requested; unfortunately, it appears that the New York State Senate has already seen fit to dedicate $40 million of our public tax dollars for private charter schools and vouchers for charter schools as well; the priority of the New York State Legislature should not be to help already well-funded private schools but to help improve public education for all New York State students.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">S.8301 is legislation that would decouple standardized tests from teacher evaluations with “no strings attached." Fifty-five senators – including all Democrats and the vast majority of Republicans – are sponsoring S.8301, which would decouple standardized tests from teacher evaluations and go a long way toward fixing the state’s broken testing and evaluation system.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Parents and teachers want action. They want an immediate vote on this bill and they want it on its merits – with no strings attached. If Senate Majority Leader Flanagan wants to demonstrate to taxpayers the Senate is functioning effectively, we can think of no better way to do that than by passing a clean, bipartisan bill strictly on its merits. It’s time to let teachers teach; let students learn and let the Senate vote.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">The simple fact is that the New York State Assembly voted overwhelmingly in strong bipartisan manner (133-1) on May 2 to begin repairing the breach in trust between parents and educators on one side, and the state testing and evaluation system on the other. The legislation would allow school districts and unions to negotiate performance review systems that help teachers grow professionally while meeting the unique needs of their students. It also gives school districts needed flexibility to curtail testing, especially in the early grades, and bars standardized test scores from becoming a part of students’ permanent records.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">It's time for the New York State Senate to do the same-- allow a public vote up or down on S.8301-- the people, educators, taxpayers, and children of D</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Dutchess County deserve no less.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;">Dear National Leaders:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;">We, the various undersigned members of the Dutchess County Legislature, ask that you make sure that children are no longer taken from their parents at our border-- we are better than this; this is not civilized-- this is not who we are as a people.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">It was just reported recently that a Honduran immigrant took his own life while in custody after his wife and child were separated from him at the U.S.-Mexico border. Marco Antonio Muñoz, 39, killed himself in the cell of a Texas jail last month, according to the Starr County sheriff’s department incident report obtained by The Washington Post. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not publicly disclose the death, according to the Post. The Hill has reached out to DHS for comment. U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Starr County authorities did not respond to The Washington Post’s requests for comment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Muñoz’s death occurred just weeks after the Trump administration announced it would crack down on illegal border crossings by prosecuting more parents and separating them from their children at the border. Border Patrol agents familiar with the situation told the Post that Muñoz, his wife and 3-year-old son were taken into custody after crossing the border into the U.S. near Granjeno, Texas. One agent speaking to the paper on the condition of anonymity said that after the family said they wanted to apply for asylum, they were told they would be separated.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">“The guy lost his s---,” the agent told the Post. “They had to use physical force to take the child out of his hands.” Border Patrol staff labeled Muñoz as “pre-assault” after he became agitated and began violently shaking the chain-link detention cell, prompting agents to relocate him to a padded isolation cell at a local jail. Agents said that Muñoz attempted to escape twice during the transfer, and had to be restrained. “We had to get him out,” the agent told the Post. “Those cells are about as secure as a dog kennel. He could have hurt someone.” Guards checked on Muñoz twice an hour and said they observed him alive and praying the following morning. A guard discovered him unresponsive at 9:50 a.m., according to the sheriff’s report.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy has sparked significant outcry among the public and lawmakers. It was reported Friday that nearly 1,800 families have been separated at the border under the Trump administration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Moreover, as Claudia Flores of American Progress wrote June 4th-- "Last weekend, many Americans were overwhelmed with a torrent of news about the United States’ immigration system: There was the release of the ACLU report that documents years of abuse against children held in detention, the shooting of Claudia Patricia Gómez González by a Border Patrol agent, and the realization that a new Trump administration policy is resulting in the separation of children from their parents at the border. Twitter, in particular, was ablaze—first with pleas of #WhereAreTheChildren, then with frustration directed largely at Ivanka, and finally with outrage over the new “zero tolerance” prosecution policy that has already separated more than 1,300 children, some as young as infants, from their parents. Family separation is not a law—it is a Trump administration policy. President Trump has tried to shift blame onto Congressional Democrats by tweeting that they need to end the “horrible law” that is causing family separation. But the practice of splitting up families at the border is the direct result of this administration’s “zero tolerance” policy to criminally prosecute anyone who is caught crossing the U.S. border, including families who are seeking asylum. While parents are transferred to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service to be criminally prosecuted, imprisoned, detained, and perhaps deported from the country, their children are taken into government custody and held with little or no contact with their parents."</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Flores continued-- "Tellingly, the Department of Homeland Security is not only separating families that are being prosecuted for illegally entering the country, but also families that are requesting asylum at official ports of entry—that is, parents who are doing exactly what the administration is saying it wants them to do. The Trump administration is deliberately prosecuting parents and separating them from their children in order to deter other families from coming to the U.S. to ask for asylum—something they are fully and legally eligible to do. Many of the families being separated today have fled extreme violence and abuse to seek asylum in the United States. The right to seek asylum has long been recognized by international and federal law. That is why an increasing number of families, many of whom are fleeing extreme violence and abuse in the Northern Triangle countries of Central America, have taken the treacherous journey north to seek asylum protections in the United States. New analysis by the Center for American Progress shows that the extreme violence in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador—and in particular the rates of homicide against women and girls—remains alarmingly high. The Trump administration is deliberately prosecuting parents and separating them from their children to try and deter them from coming to the United States to ask for asylum—which these families are legally eligible to do."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;">President Donald Trump</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;">Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;">House Speaker Paul Ryan</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;">Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;">Representatives John Faso and Sean Patrick Maloney</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Governor Andrew Cuomo</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">State Senators Terrence Murphy and Sue Serino</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Assemblymembers Didi Barrett and Kevin Cahill</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Assemblymember Kieran Michael Lalor</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Dear National, State, and County Leaders:</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">We, the various undersigned members of the Dutchess County Legislature, ask that you join us in publicly and formally endorsing Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign made real once again fifty years after its inception-- by Rev. William Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis; to its credit, just last week Dutchess Outreach hosted a regional Poor People's Campaign event; our county, state, and federal government would do well to take the Poor People's Campaign work seriously.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">On Mother’s Day 50 years ago, thousands converged on Washington, D.C., to take up the cause that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been fighting for when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968: the Poor People’s Campaign. A little more than a week after her husband’s memorial service, Coretta Scott King led a march to demand an Economic Bill of Rights that included a guaranteed basic income, full employment and more low-income housing. In the coming weeks, caravans traveled from around the country to take part in a 6-week-long protest camp on the National Mall called “Resurrection City.” Half a century later, Rev. Dr. William Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis have launched a new Poor People’s Campaign. Low-wage workers, clergy and community activists in 40 states are participating in actions and events across the country that will culminate in a mass protest in Washington, D.C., on June 23.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Earlier this month dozens of people were arrested in civil disobedience protests in cities across the United States during a national day of action for the new Poor People’s Campaign. Thousands of low-wage workers, clergy and community activists participated in sit-ins, marches and rallies, calling on lawmakers to guarantee healthcare and a healthy environment for all. In Washington, D.C., 28 people were arrested in the Capitol Rotunda Monday while protesting the disproportionate impact of disasters such as Hurricane Maria on the poor. In Topeka, Kansas, 16 people were arrested as they demanded Medicaid expansion at the state Capitol building. And in Kentucky, 400 activists were denied entry to the state Capitol Monday while protesting the nation’s first work requirements for Medicaid. Monday’s actions are the fourth week of nonviolent direct action from the new Poor People’s Campaign.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Late last month, hundreds of people were arrested in cities across the country in nonviolent protests calling for an end to economic inequality, militarism and racial injustice, organized by the new Poor People’s Campaign. In Missouri, dozens of people held a sit-in protest at the state Capitol building, calling for a minimum wage of $15 an hour. In Nashville, Tennessee, 20 people were arrested as they protested for gun control and against militarism ahead of a visit by President Trump. In Washington, D.C., dozens of protesters were arrested as they held a civil disobedience protest outside the office of Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">As Rev. William Barber has stated-- "Activists, clergy and, most of all, impacted people, the poor, will be organizing a nonviolent, moral, fusion direct action Mondays, a direct confrontation with what we call policy violence and the immoral policies that we see are continuing to hurt the poor. And particularly the focus today will be on women in poverty, children in poverty and the disabled. We cannot continue to have a democracy that engages in the kind of policy violence that we see happening every day. I think about the low-wage worker I met in North Carolina who could not get insurance, because North Carolina did not expand Medicaid, and was also sick with ovarian cancer and has children. Or in West Virginia, who is a woman who’s a working poor woman, who watched her state, her governor, Republican governor, cynically give a little raise to teachers, but chose to do it by cutting Medicaid and cutting food stamps. Or I think about the lady Pamela in Lowndes County, Alabama, who has raw sewage in the back of her yard, who was taken advantage of by predatory lenders and had to pay over $100,000-some for a single wide trailer that is now falling apart, full of mold and holes. And her son, who is an 11-year-old, now has to wear a CPAP machine because of the infections in his lungs. And she, herself, is disabled. All over this country, we continue to see what is not often seen or talked about in our politics, in our political debates, or even in the media, except for places like here. Two hundred fifty thousand people are dying every year from poverty and low wealth. Sixty-four million people work with less than a living wage, 54 percent of African Americans. And these realities hurt children and women and the disabled the most. Thousands of people who are homeless, of every different race, creed, color and sexual orientation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">And what we are saying, it is time for a moral confrontation, a nonviolent moral confrontation, because whether you look at the morality of our Constitution, the establishment of justice, or you look at the morality of the Scriptures, that says, for instance, in Isaiah 10, “Woe unto those who legislate evil and rob the poor of their right and make women and children their prey.” It is immoral to have 37 million people without healthcare. It is immoral not to pay living wages when we know we can do it. It is immoral that people don’t have single-payer healthcare for everybody as a matter of human rights—and children have access to public education and college, and that we stop the trend of resegregation. It is immoral the way we’ve suppressed the vote in a way that allows people to get elected who, once they get elected, using racialized methods to do so, they then vote policies that hurt women and children and disabled. They’re against living wages. They’re against healthcare. They’re against unemployment— and those things that hurt families, hurt children, hurt women and hurt the disabled."</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Rev. Barber continued-- "And we’re coming together, of every race, creed, color, kind, people from every part of this country. There will be simultaneous nonviolent actions, beginning May 14th, and this will go on for 40 days, every Monday, along with other things that will be happening across the country. The direct action, well, today, after the rally, we will link arms, clergy, in full vestment, with impacted people. And today, we will—under the theme “Somebody is hurting our people, and it’s gone on far too long, and we can’t be silent anymore,” we will take a particular street, right near the east side of the Capitol, and we will engage in that street. Many people will sit down to pray and lay, because we are saying that the country is headed in the wrong direction. That’s why today it’s the street. Later on, it will be other places in D.C. But today it’s the street, because we’re saying the country is headed in the wrong direction. We have to break through the moral narrative. Our first goal is to break through the moral narrative to where we’re talking about it. We’re not even talking about these issues in the country. And we’re also going to be calling people to engage in massive voter mobilization. We’re also going to be doing power building among poor communities. And this is a launch. The 40 days is not the end of the campaign. It is the launching of a multiyear campaign."</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[below = inspired by recent march in Pok. led by Sabrina and Angela McDevitt!]</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">President Donald Trump</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">House Speaker Paul Ryan</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Representatives John Faso and Sean Patrick Maloney</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Governor Andrew Cuomo</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">NYSDOH Commissioner Howard Zucker</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">State Senators Terrence Murphy and Sue Serino</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Assemblymembers Didi Barrett and Kevin Cahill</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Assemblymember Kieran Michael Lalor:</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Dear National and State Leaders:</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">We, the various undersigned members of the Dutchess County Legislature, ask that you pass and sign into legislation advocated for by the youth-led March for Our Lives Coalition, Hudson Valley Stands Up, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, and Moms Demand Action:</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">“We support the right of law-abiding Americans to keep and bear arms, as set forth in the United States Constitution.. But with that right comes responsibility. We call on all the adults in Congress elected to represent us, to pass legislation that will protect and save children from gun violence. Our elected officials must act by:</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">1. Passing a law to ban the sale of assault weapons like the ones used in Las Vegas, Orlando, Sutherland Springs, Aurora, Sandy Hook and,most recently, to kill 17 innocent people and injure more than a dozen others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.. Of the 10 deadliest shootings overthe last decade, seven involved the use of assault weapons. No civilian should be able to access these weapons of war, which should be restricted for use by our military and law enforcement only. These guns have no other purpose than to fire as many bullets as possible and indiscriminately kill anything they are pointed at with terrifying speed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">2. Prohibiting the sale of high-capacity magazines such as the ones the shooter at our school—and so many other recent mass shootings used. States that ban high-capacity magazines have half as many shootings involving three or more victims as states that allow them. Limiting the number of bullets a gun can discharge at one time will at least force any shooter to stop and reload, giving children a chance to escape.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">3. Closing the loophole in our background check law that allows dangerous people who shouldn’t be allowed to purchase firearms to slip through the cracks and buy guns online or at gun shows. 97 percent of Americans support closing the current loopholes in our background check system. When Connecticut passed a law requirin background checks on all handgun sales, they saw a 40 percent reduction in gun homicides. 22 percent of gun sales inthis country take place without a background check. That’s millions of gunsthat could be falling into dangerous hands. A background check should be required on every gun sale, no exceptions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">The children of this country can no longer go to school infear that each day could be their last.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">We also ask that you make sure that the current loophole in the NYSAFE Act be closed— the one that makes it legal to use assault weapons like the AR-15 here in New York State as long as the military/pistol grip is removed. AR-15’s have been used in many mass shootings-- at Parkland, Newtown, Orlando, Las Vegas, and Sutherland Springs— enough is enough.</span></div>
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[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-2000798623844420902018-11-23T19:00:00.003-08:002018-11-23T19:00:17.071-08:00re: Agency Partnership Grants-- $55 million county fund balance means none of these funding requests from nonprofits should be rejected <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="galileo-ap-layout-editor" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black; min-width: 100%; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Hi all... [given massive surpluses, no need for Hunger-Games like austerity here]</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Recall-- back in June it was announced by the Dutchess County Budget Director Jess White at the Dutchess County Legislature’s Budget, Finance, and Personnel Committee meeting that Dutchess County ended 2017 with $55 million left over in the fund balance (note-- curiously, this has been ignored by local media); click here on either of these two links to see her presentation:</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/joel.tyner/videos/10157472074740744" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/joel.tyner/videos/10157472074740744</a></div>
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<a href="https://totalwebcasting.com/view/?id=dutchess" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://totalwebcasting.com/view/?id=dutchess</a></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Fact: For the last two years in a row there has been tons of media coverage on Dutchess County Budget Director Jess White announcing annual county fund balances (budget surpluses) in May that have literally been triple what they were, on average, from 1996 through 2012-- $59 million last May and $57 million the year before that.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2017/May/04/DC_2016_fiscal-04May17.html" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2017/May/04/DC_2016_fiscal-04May17.html</a></div>
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<a href="https://hudsonvalleynewsnetwork.com/2016/05/02/molinaro-announces-year-end-2015-financial-condition/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://hudsonvalleynewsnetwork.com/2016/05/02/molinaro-announces-year-end-2015-financial-condition/</a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Fact: Over $770,000 worth of requests for funding from worthy nonprofit agencies were rejected this March by the Dutchess County Agency Partnership Program-- and over a million dollars’ worth of similar requests denied the year before; $878,000 in requests denied in 2016. This is all true despite a county fund balance reported to be over $59 million last May and a county fund balance over $57 million in 2016-- cruel austerity unnecessarily forced on local nonprofit agencies not just as an unfair burden on them with a very real and harmful impact on local victims of domestic violence, seniors affected by elder abuse, at-risk youth, those with disabilities, homeless, formerly incarcerated, and those of low income.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Pls email all 25 of us at countylegislators@dutchessny.gov to build support!</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[this is not a new point for me; click here for missive I sent out last fall on this:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">https://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2017/09/rhinebecks-joanne-gelb-is-right-and-so.html</span>]</div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[...let's reflect on true Molinaro/GOP funding priority: $274 million jail expansion</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/2016/03/22/county-legislators-approve-bond-fund-jail-construction-project/82081136/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/2016/03/22/county-legislators-approve-bond-fund-jail-construction-project/82081136/</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.change.org/p/marcus-molinaro-stop-274-million-gop-jail-expansion-in-duchess-county-fund-cost-saving-alternatives" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.change.org/p/marcus-molinaro-stop-274-million-gop-jail-expansion-in-duchess-county-fund-cost-saving-alternatives</a> ]</div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[click on link here for even more info re: Dutchess County AGP Program:</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.dutchessny.gov/CountyGov/Departments/Planning/22115.htm" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.dutchessny.gov/CountyGov/Departments/Planning/22115.htm</a> <span style="font-weight: bold;">]</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Pass it on...</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Joel</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">845-464-2245/876-2488</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">p.s. also new below in this email-- list of nonprofits denied AGP funding in 2016(!)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dutchess County Office Building</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">22 Market Street</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Poughkeepsie, NY 12601</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dear County Executive Molinaro:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">We, the various undersigned members of the Dutchess County Legislature, ask that you allocate a million dollars more annually to the Dutchess County Agency Partnership Program. On June 7th it was announced by the Dutchess County Budget Director at the Dutchess County Legislature’s Budget, Finance, and Personnel Committee meeting that Dutchess County ended 2017 with $55 million left over in the fund balance. Over $770,000 worth of requests for funding from worthy nonprofit agencies were rejected this March by the Dutchess County Agency Partnership Program-- and over a million dollars’ worth of similar requests denied the year before; $878,000 in requests denied in 2016. This is all true despite a county fund balance reported to be over $59 million last May and a county fund balance over $57 million in 2016-- cruel austerity unnecessarily forced on local nonprofit agencies not just as an unfair burden on them with a very real and harmful impact on local victims of domestic violence, seniors affected by elder abuse, at-risk youth, those with disabilities, homeless, formerly incarcerated, and those of low income.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">According to the Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development, the following funding requests were rejected from receiving monies this year as part of the Agency Partnership Grant Program (a similar exists for each year of the last five years):</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Boy Scouts of America, Hudson Valley Council: Exploring Explosion in Dutchess County ($55,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County: Organics Recycling Education and Promotion ($38,579)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County: Agriculture/Horticulture/Farming Sustainability ($114,803)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Down Syndrome Association of HV: Behaviorist Specialized/Developmental Disabilities Workshop ($13,700)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Down Syndrome Association/HV (DSAHV): Balance Bike Camp for Individuals w/Down Syndrome ($7900)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Down Syndrome Association (DSAHV): Reading Tutor Program: Individuals with Down Syndrome ($18,500)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dutchess Outreach, Inc.: Community Based Development through Food Access Centers ($50,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Exodus Transitional Community: Exodus Poughkeepsie Reentry Work Readiness ($75,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Hudson Valley Community Services, Inc.: Syringe Exchange Program ($23,750)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Hudson Valley House of Hope: </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">House of Hope Case Management ($25,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">In My Mother's House Resource Center for Women: Giving All Girls Opportunities ($7500)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Legal Services of the Hudson Valley: Dutchess Eviction Prevention and Stabilization Program ($25,890)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Mediation Center of Dutchess County: Coalition on Elder Abuse ($50,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Mid-Hudson Workshop: Workforce Training for Physically and Medically Handicapped ($41,523)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Mill Street Loft: Power Up Youth Outreach Program ($25,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Nubian Directions II, Inc.: YouthBuild ($120,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Poughkeepsie Farm Project: Garden Education Manager ($50,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Poughkeepsie Public Library District: Public Library Service for All: Creating Supportive Environments for Special Needs Patrons ($25,500)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">United Way of the Dutchess-Orange Region: Hudson Valley CA$H Coalition 211 ($20,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Women's Enterprise Development Center Inc.: Entrepreneurial Training Program (ETP) and Business Support Service ($20,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Work Works, Inc.: BEGIN: Building and Renovation Job Skills Training & Employment Program ($186,635)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">According to the Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development, the following funding requests were rejected from receiving monies last year as part of the Agency Partnership Grant Program:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Anderson Center for Autism: Autism Spectrum Disorder Concierge Service ($19,998) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Bardavon 1869 Opera House, Inc.: Bardavon Cultural Access Initiative ($60,000) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Child Abuse Prevention Center, Inc.: Human Trafficking Prevention & Education ($33,073) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Child Abuse Prevention Center, Inc.: Teen Parenting Program ($20,000) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Community Action Partnership of Dutchess County: CAP DC Pathways to Kindergarten ($57,070) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC): Agriculture Emergency Preparedness Project ($13,257)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC): Collaborative Efforts to Address Land Use Planning at a Watershed Scale ($24,324) Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC): Green Teen Planning Project ($10,578) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC): Kinship Caregivers: Relatives as Parents Program ($19,077) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC): Organics Recycling Education and Promotion ($25,499) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Council on Addiction Prevention and Education of Dutchess County (CAPE, DC): Marathon Project ($12,000)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dutchess Community College: Freedom Star Players-Anti-Bullying Awareness & Education Interactive Role Play ($23,140)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">El Centro De Abriendo Puertas Para Familias, Inc./Opening Doors for Families, Inc.: Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors Parent Engagement Program and Youth Camp ($25,544) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Epilepsy Foundation of Northeastern New York (EFNENY): Seizure Smart Community Project (Part 1 of 2: $26,642) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Epilepsy Foundation of Northeastern New York (EFNENY): Seizure Smart Community Project (Part 2 of 2: $26,642) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Hudson Valley Council, Boy Scouts of America: ScoutReach Year Round / Camp Programs for Inner City Youth ($48,915)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Mediation Center of Dutchess County, Inc.: Coalition on Elder Abuse in Dutchess County ($78,566) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Poughkeepsie United Methodist Church: Harriet Tubman Academic Skills Center ($10,000) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Ramapo for Children: Parents as Leaders - Support & Education Workshops to Inspire Behavioral Change ($25,000) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Taconic Resources for Independence, Inc.: Peer Housing Advocacy ($26,203) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">United Way of the Dutchess-Orange Region: United Way's 2-1-1 of the Hudson Valley Region ($54,892) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Women's Enterprise Development Center (WEDC): Entrepreneurial Training Program (ETP) and Business Support Services ($27,271) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Work Works, Inc. - The Tarver Training Academy: Begin Employment Gain Independence Now(BEGIN) Carpentry Job Training ($92,280) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Poughkeepsie Farm Project: Farming for the City ($32,021) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Poughkeepsie Public Library District (on behalf of all public libraries): Dutchess County Teen Geeks ($38,831) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, St. Mary's Conference Poughkeepsie: Ongoing Project Title, or purpose, is helping people in need ($2500) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Women's Enterprise Development Center Inc.: Entrepreneurial Training Program (ETP) and Business Support Services ($45,090)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.dutchessny.gov/CountyGov/Departments/Planning/22115.htm" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank"> </a></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">2016 Agency Partner Grant Program Funding Summary</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">$878,413 in Funding Requests Denied from these Organizations for the following Activities:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Anderson Center for Autism</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Autism Spectrum Disorder Concierge Service ($19,998)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Bardavon 1869 Opera House, Inc.: Bardavon Cultural Access Initiative ($60,000)</span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Child Abuse Prevention Center, Inc.</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Human Trafficking Prevention & Education ($33,073)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Child Abuse Prevention Center, Inc.</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Teen Parenting Program ($20,000) Community Action Partnership of Dutchess County: CAP DC Pathways to Kindergarten ($57,070)</span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC): Agriculture Emergency Preparedness Project ($13,257)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Collaborative Efforts to Address Land Use Planning at a Watershed Scale ($24,324)</span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Green Teen Planning Project ($10,578)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC): Kinship Caregivers: Relatives as Parents Program ($19,077)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Organics Recycling Education and Promotion ($25,499)</span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Council on Addiction Prevention and Education of Dutchess County (CAPE, DC): Marathon Project ($12,000)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> Dutchess Community College: Freedom Star Players-Anti-Bullying Awareness & Education Interactive Role Play ($23,140)</span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">El Centro De Abriendo Puertas Para Familias, Inc./Opening Doors for Families, Inc.: Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors Parent Engagement Program and Youth Camp ($25,544) </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Epilepsy Foundation of Northeastern New York (EFNENY)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Seizure Smart Community Project (Part 1 of 2: $26,642) </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Epilepsy Foundation of Northeastern New York (EFNENY)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Seizure Smart Community Project (Part 2 of 2: $26,642) Hudson Valley Council, Boy Scouts of America: ScoutReach Year Round / Camp Programs for Inner City Youth: $48,915 Mediation Center of Dutchess County, Inc.: Coalition on Elder Abuse in Dutchess County ($78,566)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Poughkeepsie United Methodist Church</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Harriet Tubman Academic Skills Center ($10,000)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Ramapo for Children: Parents as Leaders - Support & Education Workshops to Inspire Behavioral Change ($25,000) </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Taconic Resources for Independence, Inc.: Peer Housing Advocacy ($26,203)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">United Way of the Dutchess-Orange Region: United Way's 2-1-1 of the Hudson Valley Region ($54,892)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Women's Enterprise Development Center (WEDC)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Entrepreneurial Training Program (ETP) and Business Support Services ($27,271)</span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Work Works, Inc. - The Tarver Training Academy: Begin Employment Gain Independence Now(BEGIN) Carpentry Job Training ($92,280) </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Poughkeepsie Farm Project</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Farming for the City ($32,021)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Poughkeepsie Public Library District (on behalf of all public libraries)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">: </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dutchess County Teen Geeks ($38,831)</span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, St. Mary's Conference Poughkeepsie: Ongoing Project Title, or purpose, is helping people in need ($2500)</span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Women's Enterprise Development Center Inc.: Entrepreneurial Training Program (ETP) and Business Support Services ($45,090)</span></div>
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[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-68904666131345822172018-11-23T18:56:00.004-08:002018-11-23T18:56:54.077-08:00Lauren Ruark's story shouldn't be forgotten<div align="left" style="caret-color: rgb(54, 73, 95); color: #36495f; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Hi all... </span>[pic here just above of Lauren Ruark from PoJo front-page article June 10th]</div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Two interesting pieces on front page of Poughkeepsie Journal June 10th re: opiates...</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">At the monthly June full board meeting of our County Legislature, I circulated the letter below-- email countylegislators@dutchessny.gov to help this!</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Click on first two links for Poughkeepsie Journal pieces, much more on this:</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/2018/06/07/after-opioids-dutchess-resident-lauren-ruark-gets-her-life-back/661356002/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/2018/06/07/after-opioids-dutchess-resident-lauren-ruark-gets-her-life-back/661356002/</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/politics/albany/2018/06/06/heroin-epidemic-funding-new-york-state-200-million-addiction-resources/619817002/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/politics/albany/2018/06/06/heroin-epidemic-funding-new-york-state-200-million-addiction-resources/619817002/</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/04/how-france-reduced-heroin-overdoses-by-79-in-four-years/558023/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/04/how-france-reduced-heroin-overdoses-by-79-in-four-years/558023/</a></div>
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<a href="https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/effective-addiction-treatment/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/effective-addiction-treatment/</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.ashwoodrecovery.com/blog/length-stay-addiction-rehab-matter/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.ashwoodrecovery.com/blog/length-stay-addiction-rehab-matter/</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15540492" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15540492</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.rehabs.com/pro-talk-articles/whats-the-harm-in-using-harm-reduction/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.rehabs.com/pro-talk-articles/whats-the-harm-in-using-harm-reduction/</a></div>
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<a href="https://americanaddictioncenters.org/rehab-guide/success-rates-and-statistics/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://americanaddictioncenters.org/rehab-guide/success-rates-and-statistics/</a></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Pass it on...</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Joel</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">p.s. Recall-- from Lisa Bennett and Friends of Recovery Dutchess(!)..."Chatham Police Chief Peter Volkmann and Lieutenant Alessi are coming to speak with us on Tuesday June 19th. From 7-9 pm. Location 230 North Road, Poughkeepsie Ny.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Chief Volkmann will be speaking on how his CC4U system works when folks struggling with Substance Use Disorder are ready to ask for help. Chief Volkmann and his staff of Angels have successfully placed approximately 185 souls into the appropriate treatment and recovery services based on the unique needs of the individual. Come hear how they navigate the complexities of insurance and treatment centers. Come prepared with any questions or challenges you have been experiencing. This is a learning opportunity for our community to take best practices from Chief Pete Volkmann and apply them here in Dutchess, Putnam and Ulster. As a community we WILL make a difference." [for more re: Volkmann/PAARI:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">http://www.PAARIUSA.org </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">; </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/chathamcares4u" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/chathamcares4u</a> <span style="font-weight: bold;">]</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Governor Andrew Cuomo</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">NYSDOH Commissioner Howard Zucker</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">State Senators Terrence Murphy and Sue Serino</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Assemblymembers Didi Barrett and Kevin Cahill</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Assemblymember Kieran Michael Lalor</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dr. A.K. Vaidian, Dutchess County Commissioner of Behavioral and Community Health</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dear State and County Leaders:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">We, the various undersigned members of the Dutchess County Legislature, ask that you make sure that sufficient state and county resources are devoted to drug treatment to deal with the opiate epidemic; 67 Dutchess County residents overdosed and died from the opiate epidemic in 2016, an increase from the previous year.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">As yesterday’s Poughkeepsie Journal reported on its front page— “In April 2017, Gov. Andrew Cuomo held a ceremonial bill signing on Long Island proclaiming the state would now invest $200 million a year to fight the scourge of opioid addiction in New York. There was just one missing point: The state was already spending that much money on the epidemic. A review by the USA TODAY Network's Albany Bureau found that despite New York's insistence that it is adding significantly more money to fight the abuse of heroin and other dangerous drugs, the state has largely just shifted funds from other addiction programs to pay for it. ‘There was no infusion of $200 million in new dollars,’ said John Coppola, executive director of the Alcoholism & Substance Abuse Providers of New York State. ‘Most of the dollars were already there, already being utilized by prevention and treatment programs, but now their emphasis shifted to address the opioid epidemic.’ New York's spending on heroin and opioid treatment has, in fact, doubled since 2011, but the numbers are tricky. It's mainly redirected funding from other treatment programs, leaving other services neglected, critics said. The budget for the agency overseeing the programs grew just 1 percent between 2012 and 2018 — in part because of new federal aid. The number of opioid deaths in New York skyrocketed 135 percent between 2013 and 2016. In 2016 alone, the state had nearly 3,800 opioid deaths, yet the state has increased its number of treatment beds only by 4 percent since 2014 — to about 11,000 overall.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Yesterday’s Poughkeepsie Journal continued— “A 2016 law banned prior insurance authorization before a patient could get 14 days of care for substance abuse. But that only led to another issue: After 14 days, addicts can end up back on the streets, creating a ‘revolving door’ of care, as one provider said. Stephen Hill explained his battle with recovery in a recent interview with The Journal News/lohud as part of the USA TODAY Network's review of New York's spending. ‘All of these treatment programs were 28 days long, and I was addicted to opiates and prescription painkillers and later on heroin … and 28 days just is not enough for an opiate addict,’ said Hill, 30, who is from Rockland County. Hill has bounced from state-run treatment to costly private rehabs and sober homes, but he continues to struggle with recovery. ‘Every time I would come out of treatment and I would say to myself, ‘I’m just going to drink alcohol,' or maybe 'I’m going to smoke marijuana every now and again,' he said, recalling the inevitable return to his drug of choice, OxyContin. ‘Every single time I would drink I would get that thought in my head, ‘This is not what I’m looking for, I need opiates.' That’s what my body wants, that’s what my brain wants.’”</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Health-care experts said that New York has improved immediate access to care for opioid abusers. But the system hasn't added enough services for people needing months of inpatient help — leading them to return for short-term treatment time and again. "We’re clogging the system because it becomes such a revolving door," said Jonathan Westfall, program director of the Find Your Path community outreach program in Rochester. The law requiring 14 days of care is helpful for getting addicts into the system, but then there aren't enough resources to give them adequate care thereafter, Westfall said. "Fourteen days, that is not even nearly enough time to get the drugs out of your system, much less have your head on straight," he said. "And they’re throwing people back on the streets again because there’s no halfway housing or supportive living situations." Critics said there may be beds, but they could be far away from a person's home and not easily gotten to. And some facilities have better reputations than others. Susan Salomone, founder of Drug Crisis in our Backyard in Carmel, Putnam County, also referred to New York's system as a "revolving door." Her son died of a heroin overdose. "You’re in and you're out, and it’s really no more than an interruption of use," she said.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Though treatment for any period of time is a step in the right direction, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) recommends residential rehab for a period of 90 days or more. Research Psychologist Bennett Fletcher from NIDA conducted a study of 1,605 users of cocaine. The research, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry in 1999, analyzed relapse rates a year after treatment. Results showed that 35 percent of individuals treated for 90 days and below relapsed while only 17 percent of those treated for longer than 90 days did. A similar study funded by NIDA studied 549 patients being treated in a residential facility for addiction. Results showed that patients who left before 90 days passed had similar relapse rates to individuals who only stayed in rehab for a day or two. According to the study, longer rehabilitation stays resulted in lower relapse rates. A 2001 study by the University of California, Los Angeles followed 1,167 adolescents undergoing treatment for substance abuse. Results showed that adolescents who stayed in rehab longer than 90 days were less likely to re-indulge in heavy drinking, marijuana and illicit drugs as compared to adolescents who only stayed 21 days. Because addiction is a chronic disease, rehabilitation will take more than overcoming a substance addiction. Rehabs, therefore, do more than just help addicts overcome a physical addiction, they provide the tools to overcome the psychological causes and effects of addiction. According to NIDA, substance abuse actually affects the brain’s functioning, specifically the parts of the brain responsible for: perceiving risk and reward, learning and memory, and behavioral control.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">The Poughkeepsie Journal yesterday also highlighted the story of Lauren Ruark, sadly incarcerated initially for nothing more than criminal possession of a controlled substance— unfortunately, there continues to be dozens of folks inside our county jail here in Dutchess, charged with nothing more than nonviolent drug addiction (not drug dealing or violence)— they could be healed more quickly on the outside and for less taxpayer expense through drug treatment, as the Chatham Police Department and the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative have proven. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Moreover, Suboxone should be much more readily available immediately to all who need it here in Dutchess County. As Olga Khazan wrote for The Atlantic this April, echoed by a recent New York Times editorial-- “In the 1980s, France went through a heroin epidemic in which hundreds of thousands became addicted; the rate of overdose deaths was rising 10 percent a year, yet treatment was mostly limited to counseling at special substance-abuse clinics. In 1995, France made it so any doctor could prescribe buprenorphine (Suboxone) without any special licensing or training. Buprenorphine, a first-line treatment for opioid addiction, is a medication that reduces cravings for opioids without becoming addictive itself. With the change in policy, the majority of buprenorphine prescribers in France became primary-care doctors, rather than addiction specialists or psychiatrists. Suddenly, about 10 times as many addicted patients began receiving medication-assisted treatment, and half the country’s heroin users were being treated. Within four years, overdose deaths had declined by 79 percent.” </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Finally, according to the Dutchess County Department of Behavioral and Community Health, in response to public input at the April 19</span> <sup style="color: black; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 0;">th</sup> <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"> public forum hosted by the Chemical Dependency Subcommittee to the Mental Hygiene Board, the Mid-Hudson Addiction Recovery Center is the only entity in Dutchess County that will take an individual without the ability to pay— that situation needs to be addressed more fully.</span></div>
[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-74551914735813680182018-11-23T18:51:00.002-08:002018-11-23T18:53:50.902-08:00local nonprofit agencies' AGP funding requests unfairly rejected year after year-- despite county fund balance (budget surplus) literally triple what it was 1996-2012<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="galileo-ap-layout-editor" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black; min-width: 100%; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Fact: Revealed earlier this year-- Dutchess County's fund balance (budget surplus) at $55 million.</span>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">https://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2018/July/10/DCL_DCC_budget-10Jul18.html</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">How is it that so many worthy programs proposed by well-respected nonprofit agencies get rejected annually (almost in secret as opposed to the way it had been decades previously during Nov./Dec. county budget negotiations) as part of Molinaro's "Agency Partnership Grant" program?</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Fact: For the last two years in a row Dutchess County Budget Director Jess White has announced annual county fund balances (budget surpluses) in May that have literally been triple what they were, on average, from 1996 through 2012-- $59 million last May and $57 million the year before that (see chart above for previous years and click on these two links for announcements on this over last two years):</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2017/May/04/DC_2016_fiscal-04May17.html" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2017/May/04/DC_2016_fiscal-04May17.html</a></div>
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<a href="https://hudsonvalleynewsnetwork.com/2016/05/02/molinaro-announces-year-end-2015-financial-condition/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://hudsonvalleynewsnetwork.com/2016/05/02/molinaro-announces-year-end-2015-financial-condition/</a></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[this is not a new point for me; click here for missive I sent out last fall on this:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">https://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2017/09/rhinebecks-joanne-gelb-is-right-and-so.html</span>]</div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[...let's reflect on true Molinaro/GOP funding priority: $274 million jail expansion</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/2016/03/22/county-legislators-approve-bond-fund-jail-construction-project/82081136/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/2016/03/22/county-legislators-approve-bond-fund-jail-construction-project/82081136/</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.change.org/p/marcus-molinaro-stop-274-million-gop-jail-expansion-in-duchess-county-fund-cost-saving-alternatives" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.change.org/p/marcus-molinaro-stop-274-million-gop-jail-expansion-in-duchess-county-fund-cost-saving-alternatives</a> ]</div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[click on link here for even more info re: Dutchess County AGP Program:</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.dutchessny.gov/CountyGov/Departments/Planning/22115.htm" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.dutchessny.gov/CountyGov/Departments/Planning/22115.htm</a>]</div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Pass it on...</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Joel</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">845-464-2245/876-2488</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = </span></div>
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[note-- details here for last 2 years on this-- soon to come in another email: other 4 years]</div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">2018 Agency Partner Grant Program Funding Summary</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">$772,523 in Funding Requests Denied from these Organizations for the following Activities:</span></div>
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Child Abuse Prevention Center: Parent Empowerment Program ($30,000)</div>
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Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County: Dutchess County Financial Capability Project ($55,298)</div>
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Council on Addiction Prevention and Education: The Marathon Project ($74,100)</div>
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Family Services: Teen Resource Activity Center: Beacon Youth Employment Program ($18,704)</div>
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Hudson Valley Community Services, Inc.: THRIVES ($10,800)</div>
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Hudson Valley Seed Inc.: Garden Learning in Beacon Elementary Schools ($20,000)</div>
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Legal Services of the Hudson Valley: Dutchess Homelessness Diversion Program ($45,000)</div>
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Mediation Center of Dutchess County: Anti-Bullying An Integrated Approach ($78,320)</div>
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Mid-Hudson Children's Museum: Promoting Urban Food Security, Nutrition, and Healthy Eating ($33,000)</div>
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Poughkeepsie Farm Project: Poughkeepsie Gardens ($30,000)</div>
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R.E.A.L. Skills Network: Peer Mentors Program ($29,660)</div>
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Ramapo for Children: Camp Ramapo ($20,000)</div>
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Red Hook Community Center: What's On Your Mind ($62,510)</div>
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Work Works, Inc.: Project BEGIN: The Blueprints of Empowerment ($265,131)</div>
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[nonprofits that did get $1,070,895 funded thru county AGP program this March (they had requested $1,273,587): Boy Scouts of America, Hudson Valley Council, Boys and Girls Club, Catholic Charities Community Services of Dutchess County Child Abuse Prevention Center, Child Abuse Prevention Center, Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County, Dutchess Outreach, Exodus Transitional Community, Family Services, Friends of Seniors of Dutchess County Corp., Hudson River Housing, Inc., Literacy Connections of the Hudson Valley, Inc., Mediation Center of Dutchess County, Mental Health America of Dutchess County, Inc., Northeast Community Council Inc., Poughkeepsie Farm Project, Poughkeepsie United Methodist Church, R.E.A.L. Skills Network, Taconic Resources for Independence, Inc., The Art Effect, The National Alliance on Mental Illness Mid-Hudson, Inc.]</div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">2017 Agency Partner Grant Program Funding Summary</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">$1,005,480 in Funding Requests Denied from these Organizations for the following Activities:</span></div>
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Boy Scouts of America, Hudson Valley Council: <span style="color: black;">Exploring Explosion in Dutchess County ($55,000)</span></div>
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Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County: <span style="color: black;">Organics Recycling Education and Promotion ($38,579)</span></div>
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Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County: <span style="color: black;">Agriculture/Horticulture/Farming Sustainability ($114,803)</span></div>
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Down Syndrome Association of HV: <span style="color: black;">Behaviorist Specialized/Developmental Disabilities Workshop ($13,700)</span></div>
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Down Syndrome Association/HV (DSAHV): Balance Bike Camp for Individuals w/Down Syndrome ($7900)</div>
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Down Syndrome Association (DSAHV): <span style="color: black;">Reading Tutor Program: Individuals with Down Syndrome ($18,500)</span></div>
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Dutchess Outreach, Inc.: <span style="color: black;">Community Based Development through Food Access Centers ($50,000)</span></div>
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Exodus Transitional Community: <span style="color: black;">Exodus Poughkeepsie Reentry Work Readiness ($75,000)</span></div>
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Hudson Valley Community Services, Inc.: <span style="color: black;"> </span> <span style="color: black;">Syringe Exchange Program ($23,750)</span></div>
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Hudson Valley House of Hope: <span style="color: black;"> </span> <span style="color: black;">House of Hope Case Management ($25,000)</span></div>
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In My Mother's House Resource Center for Women: <span style="color: black;">Giving All Girls Opportunities ($7500)</span></div>
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Legal Services of the Hudson Valley: <span style="color: black;">Dutchess Eviction Prevention and Stabilization Program ($25,890)</span></div>
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Mediation Center of Dutchess County: <span style="color: black;">Coalition on Elder Abuse ($50,000)</span></div>
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Mid-Hudson Workshop: <span style="color: black;">Workforce Training for Physically and Medically Handicapped ($41,523)</span></div>
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Mill Street Loft: <span style="color: black;">Power Up Youth Outreach Program ($25,000)</span></div>
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Nubian Directions II, Inc.: YouthBuild ($120,000)</div>
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Poughkeepsie Farm Project: <span style="color: black;">Garden Education Manager ($50,000)</span></div>
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Poughkeepsie Public Library District: <span style="color: black;">Public Library Service for All: Creating Supportive Environments for Special Needs Patrons ($25,500)</span></div>
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United Way of the Dutchess-Orange Region: <span style="color: black;">Hudson Valley CA$H Coalition 211 ($20,000)</span></div>
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Women's Enterprise Development Center Inc.: <span style="color: black;">Entrepreneurial Training Program (ETP) and Business Support Service ($20,000)</span></div>
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Work Works, Inc.: <span style="color: black;">BEGIN: Building and Renovation Job Skills Training & Employment Program ($186,635)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">[nonprofits that did get $900,000 funded thru county AGP program last March (they had requested $1,222,784): Boys & Girls Club of Newburgh, Inc., Catholic Charities Community Services of Dutchess County, Center for Prevention of Child Abuse,</span> <span style="color: black;"> </span> <span style="color: black;">Center for Prevention of Child Abuse,</span> <span style="color: black;"> </span> <span style="color: black;">Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC), Dutchess Outreach, Inc.,Family Services,Friends of Seniors of Dutchess County Corp, Hudson River Housing, Inc.,Hudson River Housing, Inc.,</span> <span style="color: black;"></span><span style="color: black;">Literacy Connections,</span> <span style="color: black;"></span><span style="color: black;">Mediation Center of Dutchess County,Mediation Center of Dutchess County</span><span style="color: black;">,</span> <span style="color: black;">Mid-Hudson Children's Museum</span> <span style="color: black;">,</span> <span style="color: black;">Northeast Community Council Inc.</span> <span style="color: black;">,</span> <span style="color: black;">Northeast Community Council Inc.</span> <span style="color: black;">,</span> <span style="color: black;">Poughkeepsie Farm Project</span> <span style="color: black;">, </span><span style="color: black;">Poughkeepsie United Methodist Church</span> <span style="color: black;">, </span><span style="color: black;">Spark Media Project,</span> <span style="color: black;"></span><span style="color: black;">The National Alliance on Mental Illness Mid-Hudson, Inc.]</span></div>
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[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-59217314360988903612018-11-23T18:47:00.000-08:002018-11-23T18:47:42.581-08:00six Cricket Valley truths/facts ignored by Pok. Journal editorial earlier this year (back in June)<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="galileo-ap-layout-editor" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black; min-width: 100%; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Hi all... [pls read this-- then email letterstoeditor@poughkeepsiejournal.com]</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Yes of course it's good that the June 6th Poughkeepsie Journal editorial admits what many proponents of this project have refused to admit-- the fact that the 1100-megawatt Cricket Valley power plant now under construction here in Dutchess (in Dover) "will be fueled by natural gas obtained through out-of-state fracking...</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">However-- I do have six "bones to pick" with it, as it were:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #36495f; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><b>First-- the </b></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 73, 95); font-size: 14px;"><b>June</b></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><b> 6th PoJo editorial patronizingly dismisses opposition to Cricket Valley as mere “pockets of protest”-- when the fact is that nine different members of the Dutchess County Legislature have signed on to my letters in strong opposition to Cricket Valley since last August-- Hannah Black, Kris Munn, Francena Amparo, Rebecca Edwards, Craig Brendli, Randy Johnson, Nick Page, Micki Strawinski, and Kari Rieser-- along with many well-respected environmental organizations (NYPIRG, Riverkeeper, Food & Water Watch, Mothers Out Front, Environmental Advocates of NY, NY Communities for Change, Sane Energy Project, Frackbusters-- along with well over 1000 folks signed to my </b></span></span><a href="http://www.tinyurl.com/StopCricketValley" style="color: #de4e3a; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.TinyUrl.com/StopCricketValley</a><span style="color: #36495f; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></span><span style="color: #36495f; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">effort-- including many folks in CT (see:</span><span style="color: #36495f; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/stopcricketvalley/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/stopcricketvalley/</a><span style="color: #36495f; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></span><span style="color: #36495f; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">).</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Second-- the PoJo editorial June 6th ignores (just as Sunday's front-page PoJo article did) simple fact that Cricket Valley energy is not needed to replace Indian Point-- as NYS Public Service Commission, NYS Independent System Operator, and Riverkeeper all pointed out last year-- and as even the Poughkeepsie Journal reported this January (incredibly, entire 4th paragraph of editorial today off on this).</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.riverkeeper.org/blogs/the-watchdog/checking-twice-grid-operator-says-electric-system-reliable-without-indian-point/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.riverkeeper.org/blogs/the-watchdog/checking-twice-grid-operator-says-electric-system-reliable-without-indian-point/</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/2018/01/19/easy-going-green/109603170/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/2018/01/19/easy-going-green/109603170/</a></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Third-- it ignores the massive amounts of toxic pollution that the DEC has already permitted Cricket Valley to emit annually-- 383 tons of particulate matter (PM 2.5 and PM 10), 200 tons of nitrogen oxides, 60 tons of volatile organic chemicals, 46 tons of sulfur dioxides, 19 tons of hydrogen sulfides, 569 tons of carbon monoxide, and 3.5 million tons of carbon dioxide (millions more from pipelines feeding it as well); recall how NOX + VOC's = ozone/smog-- and health dangers of particulate matter.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.epa.gov/ozone-pollution" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.epa.gov/ozone-pollution</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.lung.org/our-initiatives/healthy-air/outdoor/air-pollution/particle-pollution.html" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.lung.org/our-initiatives/healthy-air/outdoor/air-pollution/particle-pollution.html</a></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Fourth-- the June 6th PoJo editorial also completely ignores how the American Lung Association reported this April that Dutchess County's air quality just fell to a "D" from a "C"; fact is that there are already 5157 children in Dutchess County with pediatric asthma--- along with 22,765 adults with asthma, 12,893 local residents with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), 173 here in Dutchess with lung cancer-- and another 19,211 residents with cardiopulmonary disease. Additionally, the New York State Department of Energy Conservation issued an Air Quality Alert warning for Dutchess County in early May.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2018/April/18/HV_air_qual-18Apr18.html" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2018/April/18/HV_air_qual-18Apr18.html</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.lung.org/local-content/california/our-initiatives/state-of-the-air/2018/state-of-the-air-2018.html" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.lung.org/local-content/california/our-initiatives/state-of-the-air/2018/state-of-the-air-2018.html</a></div>
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<span style="color: #36495f; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><b>Fifth-- the </b></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 73, 95); font-size: 14px;"><b>June</b></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><b> 6th PoJo editorial attempts (again patronizingly) to admonish us activists, sternly telling us re: Cricket Valley that “there appears to be no turning back” and that “critics should focus on the next fight because, when it comes to how we get our energy, there are not shortage of them”-- ignoring clear precedent on this issue-- how, tho Shoreham nuclear power plant on Long Island had been fully licensed to operate, Gov. Mario Cuomo wouldn't let it fire up: due to strong opposition in grass roots locally.</b></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/10/nyregion/cuomo-attacks-us-efforts-to-block-deal-on-shoreham.html" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/10/nyregion/cuomo-attacks-us-efforts-to-block-deal-on-shoreham.html</a></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Sixth-- on that note-- it also ignores how Protect Orange County and strong grass-roots organizing there has forced politicians on both sides of the political aisle to literally do a near 180-degree about-face re: 650-megawatt frack-gas CPV plant in Wawayanda in Orange County. Up until protests started building up steam on this locally last summer, just about all GOP and Dem elected officials assiduously remained silent, refusing to question impact of CPV pollution; this spring, however, even Conservative GOP Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus went out of his way to trash CPV and all the pollution documented that it's caused (reported on repeatedly in front-page Times Herald-Record and MidHudsonNews.com articles)-- wake up-- CPV plant "only" 650 megawatt plant (Cricket Valley = 1100 megawatts).</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.protectorangecounty.org/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.ProtectOrangeCounty.org</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.recordonline.com/news/20180409/oc-exec-assembly-members-ask-state-to-revoke-cpv-permit" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.recordonline.com/news/20180409/oc-exec-assembly-members-ask-state-to-revoke-cpv-permit</a></div>
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<a href="http://westchester.news12.com/story/37351597/neighbors-report-odor-from-cpv-power-plant-in-wawayanda" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://westchester.news12.com/story/37351597/neighbors-report-odor-from-cpv-power-plant-in-wawayanda</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2018/January/25/CPV_teting-25Jan18.htm" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2018/January/25/CPV_teting-25Jan18.htm</a></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Pass it on...</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">...and call Cuomo and state legislators @ 877-255-9417-- stop Cricket Valley!</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[....and join 1000+ signed to my </span><a href="http://www.tinyurl.com/StopCricketValley" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.TinyUrl.com/StopCricketValley</a> <span style="font-weight: bold;">effort]</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Joel</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">845-464-2245/876-2488</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-weight: bold;">= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[here below is actual text of letter on this that I circulated @ Apr. 9th full board mtg. (that opposes Cricket Valley/CPV)-- signed on to by County Legislators Kris Munn, Francena Amparo, Rebecca Edwards, Randy Johnson, Nick Page-- onward ho-- call Cuomo and state legislators re: Cricket Valley @ 877-255-9417-- and email all 25 of us at countylegislators@dutchessny.gov to build support for my June letter!]</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[earlier this year Giancarlo Llaverias signed on to my anti-Cricket-Valley letter; last year I got Hannah Black, Craig Brendli, Micki Strawinski, & Kari Rieser to sign too]</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">From: </span> <a href="http://webmail.earthlink.net/wam/MsgReply?msgid=18823&action=reply&style=plain&title=Reply&x=802348047" style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Joel Tyner <joeltyner earthlink.net=""></joeltyner></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">To: countylegislators@dutchessny.gov</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Subject: Colleagues-- Riverkeeper, Food & Water Watch, Mothers Out Front, Sane Energy Project et. al. are inspiring this letter I'll be circulating at tonight's mtg.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Date: Apr 9, 2018 12:47 AM</span></div>
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<a href="http://nyc.sierraclub.org/?event=cuomo-walk-talk-climate-albany" style="color: black; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://nyc.sierraclub.org/?event=cuomo-walk-talk-climate-albany</a></div>
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<a href="http://events.timesunion.com/event/cuomo-walk-the-talk-on-climate-hfkrwh934m" style="color: black; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://events.timesunion.com/event/cuomo-walk-the-talk-on-climate-hfkrwh934m</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.northjersey.com/story/opinion/contributors/2018/02/15/opinion-new-jersey-become-more-green-phil-murphy-tim-eustace/341485002/" style="color: black; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.northjersey.com/story/opinion/contributors/2018/02/15/opinion-new-jersey-become-more-green-phil-murphy-tim-eustace/341485002/</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060035207" style="color: black; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060035207</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/ready-for-100/commitments" style="color: black; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.sierraclub.org/ready-for-100/commitments</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/ready-for-100/case-study-report-cities-are-ready-for-100-clean-energy" style="color: black; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.sierraclub.org/ready-for-100/case-study-report-cities-are-ready-for-100-clean-energy</a></div>
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<a href="http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2013/03/new-yorks-fossil-fuel-gone-wind-water-and-sun" style="color: black; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2013/03/new-yorks-fossil-fuel-gone-wind-water-and-sun</a></div>
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<a href="https://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/NewYorkWWSEnPolicy.pdf" style="color: black; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/NewYorkWWSEnPolicy.pdf</a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Governor Andrew Cuomo</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">State Senate Leader John Flanagan</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">State Senators Terrence Murphy and Sue Serino</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Assemblymembers Didi Barrett, Kevin Cahill,</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Kieran Michael Labor, and Frank Skartados</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dear State/County Leaders:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">We, the various undersigned members of the Dutchess County Legislature, in solidarity with the #CuomoWalktheTalk campaign and April 23rd event and co-sponsoring organizations (Sane Energy Project, Riverkeeper, Environmental Advocates of New York, Food & Water Watch, Mothers Out Front, New York Communities for Change, Complete It Cuomo, Coalition to Protect New York, Frackbusters, Push Buffalo, NY Renews, Split Rock Sweetwater Prayer Camp, Like A Village, Inc., et. al.), strongly urge you to implement three actions to fight climate change, create good jobs, and ensure justice for all: stop all fracking infrastructure projects, move to 100% renewable energy, and make corporate polluters pay.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Governor Cuomo says New York is a “leader” on climate change; that it is “gross negligence” not to address climate change; and that he’s taken “decisive action”. In reality, the level of New York’s climate pollution is virtually unchanged since he took office in 2011. Only 3% of New York’s electricity comes from wind and solar. And New York is failing to effectively cut the almost 80% of our climate pollution from cars and trucks, buildings and other sources other than the electric grid. New York is falling behind other states, including Massachusetts and New Jersey, where Governor Phil Murphy has already committed to making his entire state 100% fossil-fuel-free energy by 2035, just as GOP San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and the San Diego Chamber of Commerce have committed to do, and as the Sierra Club's Ready for 100 campaign calls for as well. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">This coming Earth Day, it’s time for Governor Cuomo to make a public commitment to:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">1. Stop all fracking infrastructure: One year ago, Governor Cuomo announced in his 2017State of the State that “the State must double down by investing in the fight against dirty fossil fuels and fracked gas from neighboring states.” And in 2014, he outright banned High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing, or fracking, on account of health and environmental impacts. In 2017, however, we have seen continued expansion in gas pipelines, compressor stations, and frack-gas power plants like the 1100-megawatt Cricket Valley under construction here in Dutchess County and the 650-megawatt CPV frack-gas power plant in Orange County. Compressed-gas truck fleets now ply rural roads and explosive oil trains run in residential communities. The state continues to import frack waste from Pennsylvania. Medical associations have documented increased cancer rates, and respiratory problems. Besides pregnant women, children and the elderly are most at risk. Working-class neighborhoods, communities of color, and Indigenous Peoples are disproportionately targeted by fracked gas infrastructure. This contradicts the goals of Environmental Justice, human rights, and stewardship of Earth.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">2. Move to 100% renewable energy in a rapid and just transition that creates tens of thousands of good, union jobs, and investment, especially for low-income communities and communities of color;</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">3. Make corporate polluters like Exxon pay for the pollution they currently dump into our air for free by putting a fee on their climate pollution. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[thx tons again to six of my Dem Co. Leg. colleagues for signing on to this letter below I circulated at May 14th Co. Leg. mtg. for new county Air Quality Task Force!]</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">The Honorable Marcus Molinaro</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Dutchess County Executive</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Dutchess County Office Building</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">22 Market Street</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Poughkeepsie, NY 12601</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Dear County Executive Molinaro:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">We, the various undersigned members of the Dutchess County Legislature, ask that you work with us to facilitate the creation of a Dutchess County Air Qualty Task Force.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Just last month the American Lung Association released a report stating that over the last year that air quality here in Dutchess County had fallen from a "C" to a "D"-- besides this impacting our health, this impacts tourism dollars and a main economic driver in Dutchess.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">The same report noted that there are already 5157 children in Dutchess County with pediatric asthma--- along with 22,765 adults with asthma, 12,893 local residents with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), 173 here in Dutchess with lung cancer-- and another 19,211 residents with cardiopulmonary disease.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Additionally, the New York State Department of Energy Conservation just issued an Air Quality Alert warning for Dutchess County earlier this month regarding high ozone levels (and it's not even the dog days of summer in June/July/August).</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">The status quo of the air we need to breathe to live here in Dutchess County is unacceptable.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Our county government needs to do much more to incentivize green/renewable energy like solar, wind, and geothermal, along with energy-efficient retrofits and conservation measures in households, businesses, nonprofits, and municipalities across our county, truly ramp up recycling and composting to make our county incinerator obsolete, and seriously address the threat to our air and public health from the 1100-megawatt frack-gas Cricket Valley power plant now under construction in Dover.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">We need your leadership to bring together all of the green groups, colleges, businesses, environmentalists, and health professionals in Dutchess County to combine forces to work on this issue. We cannot afford to wait until Dutchess County air quality is an "F" to act.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.riverkeeper.org/blogs/the-watchdog/checking-twice-grid-operator-says-electric-system-reliable-without-indian-point/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.riverkeeper.org/blogs/the-watchdog/checking-twice-grid-operator-says-electric-system-reliable-without-indian-point/</a></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">12.15.17 </span></div>
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<span style="color: #001b70; font-size: 38px; font-weight: bold;">Checking it twice: Grid operator says electric system reliable without Indian Point</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">by Paul Gallay and Mike Dulong</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">This week, the New York Independent System Operator — the nonprofit corporation responsible for operating the state’s electricity grid — </span> <a href="http://www.nyiso.com/public/webdocs/markets_operations/services/planning/Planning_Studies/Reliability_Planning_Studies/Generator_Deactivation_Assessments/Indian_Point_Generator_Deactivation_Assessment_2017-12-13.pdf" style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">confirmed</a> <span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;"> that when the old and increasingly dangerous Indian Point nuclear plant is retired in 2021, the grid will remain reliable, with plenty of available power. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">Riverkeeper already knew that air-conditioners would keep humming in the summer and holiday lights would still twinkle in the winter, based on a 2017</span> <a href="https://www.riverkeeper.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Clean-Energy-for-New-York-16-121-02-23-2017.pdf" style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> report</a> <span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;"> by Synapse Energy Economics we commissioned with the Natural Resources Defense Council. The real question is: how can we assure that the power that replaces Indian Point will be clean and green?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">NYISO’s report discusses two contrasting paths for closing Indian Point. Given the season, let’s just say that one is </span> <span style="color: #666666; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">naughty </span> <span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">and the other one’s </span> <span style="color: #666666; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">nice</span> <span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">. The naughty path assumes three natural gas plants will come online by 2023: Cricket Valley Energy Center (1,020 megawatts); CPV Valley Energy Center (678 megawatts); and Bayonne Energy Center II (120 megawatts). Replacing Indian Point power with these power plants would cause a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions, and the new pipelines required to serve some of these facilities will cause significant water quality impacts. Of course, the NYISO report’s big takeaway is that there’s no need to go anywhere near the </span> <span style="color: #666666; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">naughty </span> <span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">natgas path. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">We can instead take the </span> <span style="color: #666666; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">nice</span> <span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;"> path, because NYISO’s own figures show that the three new gas projects under discussion aren’t needed for New York’s power system to remain secure and reliable. Without new natural gas power, says NYISO, even after you close the 2,000 megawatt Indian Point plant, there will be only 100 megawatts of power needed in 2021 and 600 megawatts by 2027. NYISO’s report goes on to say that this modest need could be met by “combinations of solutions including generation, transmission, energy efficiency, and demand response measures.” Well, not only </span> <span style="color: #666666; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">could</span> <span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;"> this small gap be met by energy efficiency and demand response, recent history shows that it’s </span> <span style="color: #666666; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">already well on the way</span> <span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;"> to being met that way. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">That’s because NYISO’s own demand forecasts keep going down, from year to year. For example: NYISO’s 2014 estimate of what peak downstate electricity demand would be in 2016 was overestimated by a whopping 549 megawatts more than what their forecasters projected just a year later. In the interim, energy efficiency and other conservation measures provided unexpectedly deep cuts in demand, far outstripping previous estimates. If demand forecasting trends continue downward — and they should, given the measures already in place to save energy — the modest shortfall projected by NYISO without new natural gas plants goes away completely and</span> <span style="color: #666666; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"> Indian Point can be closed without requiring any new generational capacity, whatsoever. </span> <span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">This is already evidenced by NYISO’s preliminary demand forecast for 2018, which shows that more than half of the 100 MW of resource need in 2021 in the lower Hudson Valley (if none of the gas plants were completed) has already been captured by efficiency and behind-the-meter solar installations.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">But wait, there’s more we can do, on the </span> <span style="color: #666666; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">nice</span> <span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;"> path. New York can actually close Indian Point </span> <span style="color: #666666; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">and </span> <span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">reduce the amount of fossil fuel it uses for electricity generation, by truly going big on energy efficiency and conservation. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">As Riverkeeper and NRDC illustrated with the help of Synapse Energy Economics in our report: </span> <a href="https://www.riverkeeper.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Clean-Energy-for-New-York-16-121-02-23-2017.pdf" style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">“Clean Energy For New York: Replacement Energy and Capacity Resources for the Indian Point Energy Center</a> <span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">”, New York is behind a surprising number of other states, in the efficiency department. For example, while New York saved about 1.05 percent of retail electricity sales through energy efficiency in 2015, Rhode Island hit 2.91 percent, Massachusetts reached 2.74 percent, and Vermont topped out at 2.01 percent. What’s the difference between these states and New York? They have incorporated energy efficiency mandates into their energy portfolios.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">The closure of Indian Point presents a singular opportunity for Governor Cuomo to lead the charge on clean energy in New York and set the course for our future by setting efficiency mandates for utilities and reducing demand by two to three percent annually. Governor Cuomo has already signed a</span> <a href="https://www.utilitydive.com/news/new-york-energy-storage-target-official-after-gov-cuomo-signs-bill/512056/" style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> bill</a> <span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;"> requiring the state to set an energy storage target. While it’s unclear whether that target will be sufficiently aggressive, it’s nevertheless a crucial new step towards further lowering peak energy demands on generators during high use periods. Passage of a similar bill requiring more energy efficiency, like the</span> <a href="http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=&bn=S06771&term=2017&Summary=Y&Actions=Y&Text=Y&Committee&nbspVotes=Y&Floor&nbspVotes=Y" style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> one</a> <span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;"> introduced by New York State Senator David Carlucci, could give a big boost to our efforts to close Indian Point </span> <span style="color: #666666; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">and </span> <span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">cut carbon pollution at the same time. And, reducing total electric demand through greater efficiency is the easiest and cheapest available method to help achieve the state’s lofty goal of supplying 50 percent of our energy needs with renewables by 2030.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">In taking a conservative approach to predicting future energy availability, the NYISO report also omits consideration of other viable renewable projects. For instance, one promising, already-permitted proposal is for the Champlain Hudson Power Express, a 1,000-megawatt transmission line that could deliver low-carbon surplus hydropower from Quebec to New York City. This project alone would displace any perceived need for new natural gas generation and put us on track to cut carbon-based energy consumption in the Empire State.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">Make no mistake: measures already in place will allow us to close the ever-riskier Indian Point nuclear plant without any new fossil fuel power whatsoever. And, with a few proven policy improvements, we can boost energy efficiency, battery storage, and renewable resources to secure the power grid, shutter Indian Point and cut carbon, too. There’s no coal in this stocking for consumers, either, as efficiency more than pays for itself. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">Closing Indian Point creates a huge opportunity for New York to lead on clean, efficient and sustainable energy. And based on recent experience in New York and other leading states, the path forward to a safe, secure, low-carbon energy future without Indian Point is well lit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[kudos again to Co. Leg. Rebecca Edwards for getting all 25 members of our County Legislature to sign abridged version of this letter below at our April mtg. (I had originally sent this email to my colleagues re: NYISO issue on Mar. 12th-- 'tis beyond ridiculous that our electric rates are being forced to be artificially high to pay for CVE pollution-- in effect, subsidizing profits of Cricket Valley investors!]</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">From: </span> <a href="http://webmail.earthlink.net/wam/MsgReply?msgid=18657&action=reply&style=plain&title=Reply&x=1276210998" style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Joel Tyner <joeltyner earthlink.net=""></joeltyner></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">To: countylegislators@dutchessny.gov</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Subject: Colleagues-- there's new info here below in new letter to NYISO and state leaders re: Cricket Valley-- re: electricity price gouging, TEPCO involvement, etc.-- pls read and sign tonight thx Joel</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Date: Mar 12, 2018 6:37 AM</span></div>
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<a href="http://ny.mothersoutfront.org/hudson_valley" style="color: black; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://ny.mothersoutfront.org/hudson_valley</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/stopcricketvalley/" style="color: black; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/stopcricketvalley/</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.dcpaa.org/" style="color: black; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.dcpaa.org</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.tinyurl.com/stopcricketvalley" style="color: black; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.tinyurl.com/stopcricketvalley</a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Mr. Brad C. Jones</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">President & CEO</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">New York Independent System Operator</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">10 Krey Blvd, Rensselaer, NY 12144</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Governor Andrew Cuomo</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">NYSDEC Commissioner Basil Seggos</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">State Majority Leader John Flanagan</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">State Senators Terrence Murphy and Carl Heastie</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Assemblymembers Didi Barrett, Kevin Cahill,</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Kieran Michael Lalor, and Frank Skartados</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Dear President/CEO Jones and State Leaders:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">We, the various undersigned members of the Dutchess County Legislature, strongly urge you to follow through and implement your proposed change to your current market model to allow NYISO more flexibility in achieving your mission of keeping electricity prices low for consumers— and we strongly urge you to do everything in your power to protect our public health in Dutchess County and stop Cricket Valley from being built and going operational.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">We want you to implement your proposal to eliminate the G-J Locality in order to ensure that Zone G (where Dutchess County and most counties around New York City are) gets the lower electricity prices that the rest of the state is getting, as shared in your NYISO ICAP Working Group “On Ramps and Off Ramps: Market Design Proposal Summit” document last November 6th. Right now, as you know, people in Zone G are getting shafted with high prices because of an old "zone scheme" that NYISO wants to update. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">We know that NYISO runs New York state’s power grid and that you are tasked with ensuring regional reliability, promoting and operating a fair and competitive electric wholesale market, planning for the power system of the future, and providing objective and independent technical information on energy issues, and for those reasons we ask you to follow through on your proposal to stop zone G consumers from being overcharged.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: Elimination of the special G-J capacity zone combined with simultaneous enlargement of the ROS (rest-of-state) zone would recognize the changing character of electricity generation in NY. As NYISO itself has acknowledged, this trend means that grid reliability and power will increasingly depend on distributed (not centralized) generation and will no longer require the subsidized construction of large power plants.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Power companies like Central Hudson have been making record profits at the expense of our constituents (Central Hudson made $50 million in profit in 2016, for example), and we here in Dutchess County appreciate your efforts to address this unsavory situation. Without this high-profit guarantee, Cricket Valley has stated directly to NYISO in a letter on January 3rd this year that they will pull out of Dover and cease construction. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Unfortunately, Cricket Valley and the power lobbyists are very against this change and have written lengthy letters urging NYISO to kill the proposal and continue allowing consumers to be overcharged in zone G (Dover is in zone G) so that the power companies can make the profits that they promised their investors. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">It is not NYISO’s role to protect private investors. NYISO's elimination proposal correctly puts the concerns of rate-payers first. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">On January 22nd this year the Poughkeepsie Journal about Riverkeeper President Paul Gallay that “he helped broker the Indian Point shutdown agreement and continues to weigh in on the state's future energy choices. Gallay doesn't want the energy gap left by Indian Point to be filled by natural gas plants. ‘Replacing Indian Point with these power plants would cause a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions, and the new pipelines required to serve some of these facilities will cause significant water quality impacts,’ Gallay said." </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Riverkeeper has stated for a year now that the energy from Indian Point is not needed by power from Cricket Valley; "recent transmission improvements coupled with energy efficiency gains, cheaper renewables and lower demand estimates-show that New York is already on its way to a reliable, affordable, clean energy future; when Indian Point closes in 2021 that power can be replaced entirely with clean sources as long as we take advantage of the additional renewable energy and efficiency options available to us, " and</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Last August County Legislators Hannah Black, Francena Amparo, Craig Brendli, Kari Rieser, and Joel Tyner signed on to a letter urging Governor Andrew Cuomo and state legislative leaders to "stop the toxic, frack-gas Cricket Valley power plant from becoming operational; Dutchess County property taxes go up when air pollution issues are exacerbated for some/all of the 35,000 Dutchess County residents with asthma, bronchitis, or emphysema who may be on Medicaid"; Cricket Valley is being constructed within 3/4 mile of the Dover Plains High School and Middle School campus; already this year County Legislators Giancarlo Llaverias and Nick Page have signed similar letters.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">As the Dutchess County Progressive Action Alliance has stated, “at Cricket Valley there are known and unknown amounts of chemical contaminants that will be burned off in to our air on a constant basis. Some of those chemicals are carcinogens and some of them are chemicals that disrupt the body's normal processes. There are thousands of children going to schools within 5 miles of Cricket Valley whose health will be adversely affected by Cricket Valley. These children have a right to breathe clean air. Cricket Valley will add 15% to state emission from the power sector. Calculating leaked methane and burned gas, Cricket Valley will generate 10 or 11 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents every year, with an accompanying carbon cost of near half a billion dollars.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">According to Cricket Valley's own projections, annual emissions from the frack-gas power plant in Dover will include 279 tons of nitrogen oxides, 118 tons of volatile organic chemicals (together with the nitrogen oxides VOC's cause smog or ground-level ozone), and 191 tons of particulate matter; the American Lung Association has stated that "breathing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide can make the lungs react more strongly than just breathing ozone alone" and that particulate matter "is so dangerous that it can shorten your life, causing lung cancer and other cardiopulmonary mortality.” Annual emissions from this frack-gas power plant in Dover will also include 46 tons of sulfur dioxide, 19 tons of sulfuric acid, 569 tons of carbon monoxide, and 3.5 million tons of carbon dioxide (even more from the gas pipelines feeding it).</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">According to the American Lung Association, "sulfur dioxide causes a range of harmful effects on the lungs, as the EPA's most recent review of the science concluded wheezing, shortness of breath and chest tightness and other problems, especially during exercise or physical activity; continued exposure at high levels increases respiratory symptoms and reduces the ability of the lungs to function; short exposures to peak levels of SO2 in the air can make it difficult for people with asthma to breathe when they are active outdoors; increased risk of hospital admissions or emergency room visits, especially among children, older adults and people with asthma.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">According to the national Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry, "sulfuric acid and other acids are very corrosive and irritating and cause direct local effects on the skin, eyes, and respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts when there is direct exposure to sufficient concentrations; breathing sulfuric acid mists can result in tooth erosion and respiratory tract irritation; breathing small droplets of sulfuric acid at levels that might be in the air on a day with high air pollution may make it more difficult to breathe; this effect is more likely to occur if you have been exercising or if you have asthma; this effect may also be more likely to occur in children than adults; breathing sulfuric acid droplets may affect the ability of your respiratory tract to remove other small particles that you have inhaled.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">According to Mothers Out Front, Cricket Valley's projected "emissions are known to cause cancer, neurological issues, endocrine disruption, and cardiovascular disease; the power plant would withdraw water from on-site groundwater wells at 60 gallons per minute or 86,400 gallons per day; studies show that property values go down where power plants are built; methane, the main component of natural gas, is 86 times more warming to the climate than carbon dioxide over a twenty-year period; it is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels; methane leaks into the atmosphere at every stage from gas well to combustion; the shale gas boom of the past decade is hurtling us toward climate catastrophe; natural gas extraction leaves a trail of devastation in low income rural communities in its wake: degradation of air and water quality in the fracking fields of PA, land taken by eminent domain for pipelines, gas storage affecting drinking water, compressor stations sited in the midst of rural residential lower income communities across NY state; Cricket Valley Energy is sited just north of a designated Environmental Justice community"; as frack-gas expert Dennis Higgins of Otego has noted, "gas is cleaner than coal only if infrastructure hemorrhaging can be constrained to 2 percent, but gas has been measured leaking at rates up to 15 percent; fracked gas is mostly methane.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Governor Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman are suing the Environmental Protection Agency because air pollution from other states is damaging air quality in New York; as Governor Cuomo has stated, "with this action, New York makes it clear that we will not stand idly by as other states shun their responsibility to keep our nation's air quality safe,"; Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has stated that "millions upon millions of New Yorkers are still breathing unhealthy air due to smog pollution, a huge amount of which is blowing into New York from upwind states.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: TEPCO comprises half of JERA-- "largest equity investor" in Cricket Valley):</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">"JERA was established on April 30, 2015 based on the comprehensive alliance entered into between Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) & Chubu Electric Power Company (CEPCO)" (this was even reported last year in The Millbrook Independent)</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.themillbrookindependent.com/content/cricket-valley-energy-power-plant-breaks-ground-0" style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.themillbrookindependent.com/content/cricket-valley-energy-power-plant-breaks-ground-0</a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: TEPCO found negligent in court this March re: 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster:</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/world/asia/japan-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-tepco-ruling.html" style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/world/asia/japan-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-tepco-ruling.html</a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Fact: TEPCO dumping 777,000 tons of tritium-tainted (Fukushima) water into Pacific:</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/07/14/national/science-health/tepco-says-decision-already-made-release-radioactive-low-toxic-tritium-sea-fishermen-irate/" style="color: black; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/07/14/national/science-health/tepco-says-decision-already-made-release-radioactive-low-toxic-tritium-sea-fishermen-irate/</a><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;"></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Fact: Bechtel, who got contract to construct Cricket Valley, has proven to be careless/irresponsible re: Big Dig fatality in Boston recently.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Big-Dig-tragedy-could-stain-Bechtel-s-name-2492830.php#page-3" style="color: black; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Big-Dig-tragedy-could-stain-Bechtel-s-name-2492830.php#page-3</a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Fact: Jurgen Wekerle (of the Executive Committee of the Atlantic Chapter of the Sierra Club) has pointed out that even the NYS Public Service Commission decided a few years ago that Cricket Valley's potential energy production is NOT needed here in our state-- due to the current energy glut.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Finally, as the Dutchess County Progressive Action Alliance has pointed out, it doesn't have to be this way-- there is an alternative-- a clean-energy future through wind, water, and sunlight; as a 2013 Cornell/Stanford report found, extrapolating for our county, right here in Dutchess our county could create literally 67,000 new green construction jobs each year, 800 new green jobs each year, saving $537 million annually and the lives of 59 Dutchess residents each year moving to being fossil-fuel free by 2035.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">In conclusion, Dutchess County and New York State would do well to follow the amazing example of GOP San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who, working together with the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, agreed to make the entire city fossil-fuel-free by 2035-- to create green jobs, save on energy/electricity, clean local air, and cut carbon emissions (along with 1400 other mayors across our country this year working with Sierra Club's Ready for 100 campaign); Burlington/VT, Greensburg/KS, Aspen/CO, Rock Port/MO, and Kodiak Island/AK all are already getting all of their energy from renewable sources like solar, wind, and hydropower.</span></div>
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[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-85002418229692903722018-11-23T18:39:00.000-08:002018-11-23T18:39:24.375-08:00Leila Cline Ransome decided the topic by herself for her essay-contest-winning effort (and knocked it out of the park)....<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="galileo-ap-layout-editor" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black; min-width: 100%; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">See just below-- Leila Cline Ransome's awesome essay! (I originally sent this out June 4th)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[she's the daughter of amazing authors James Ransome and Lesa Cline Ransome]</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">...for the last 14 years I've hosted an annual essay contest for graduating high school seniors here in Rhinebeck and Clinton...</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">......tonight I'll be presenting her with a certificate from the County Legislature and $100 at the annual academic awards ceremony @ Rhinebeck High School...</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Note-- I didn't dictate exactly what she should write about-- that was her choice...</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[kudos to students yesterday who organized a great rally on this too; I was there:</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/2018/06/03/hudson-valley-stands-up-teens-rally-change-gun-laws/667454002/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/2018/06/03/hudson-valley-stands-up-teens-rally-change-gun-laws/667454002/</a> <span style="font-weight: bold;">]</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Click on these four links for reminders of my past 14 years worth of essay contests:</span></div>
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<a href="https://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2015/06/casey-heady-amazing-rhinebeck-high.html" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2015/06/casey-heady-amazing-rhinebeck-high.html</a></div>
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<a href="https://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-eighth-annual-essay-contest-500.html" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-eighth-annual-essay-contest-500.html</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.rhobserver.com/23486/essay-contest-for-rhinebeck-clinton-graduates/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://www.rhobserver.com/23486/essay-contest-for-rhinebeck-clinton-graduates/</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/125671881190564/" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/events/125671881190564/</a></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[see:</span> <span style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">https://dailygazette.com/article/2018/02/16/nra-donates-to-faso-and-stefanik </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">] </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">If I Were Dutchess County Legislator </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">By Leila Cline Ransome</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">I have had countless arguments with classmates, teachers, friends over whether. Rhinebeck is considered upstate New York. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">For an outsider, this probably seems like an unnecessary lesson in semantics and technicalities, but this everlasting debate is a representation of the crossroads Rhinebeck faces. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Arewe a rural town that should embrace it's more conservative and traditional roots or are we meant to embrace our love of art and culture and join the cohort of towns dedicated to a liberal environment? </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Whether we want to embrace our rural nature or our progressive tendencies, both require common sense protections for our citizens. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">There has been a lot of talk about gun control and safety in the recent months considering the plague of mass shootings in theUnited States. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Naturally, this issue has found its way into local politics as well. With increased awareness of the NRA’s role in blocking gun reform through financial support, countless public officials have been exposed for receiving thousands of dollars in exchange for political favors. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">On this long list, is our very own representative John Faso. in 2016, Faso ranked third in the nation for representatives, accepting large monetary donations from the NRA; nearly 6,000 dollars. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">While the NRA would love to have you believe that gun owners reject any restrictions on their second amendment rights, studies have shown that gun owners actually support many gun control measures like increased background checks and restrictions for those suffering from mental illnesses. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">So maybe Rhinebeck isn't as divided as it lets on. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">This is the job of legislator, to find a middle ground that won't alienate either one of Rhinebeck many factions. And if I were elected County Legislator, this would be my focus. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">The NRA doesn't know Rhinebeck and neither do any other special interest groups. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">It's a difficult job, but a town as beautiful as ours deserves a legislator who will work hard for every one of us. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">We’re rustic and we’re contemporary, traditional and welcoming, but each and every one of us deserves the right to feel safe. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Recall Casey Heady's awesome winning essay from 2015 here:</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">"If I had the chance to be a county legislator and was able to influence and make a difference in my own community I would start with the things that are close to my heart. I would want to make it easier for high school graduates to get an affordable education with free community college. I would also want to make sure that there is always funding for programs that can help children through difficult situations in their early lives. These things are especially important to me because of the stage of life that I am now in. These things are personal and would affect me directly. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">This past year has been a particularly difficult one for me and my whole family. Starting with my Dad’s Alzheimer’s diagnoses leading to the loss of his job. The year seemed to slip through my fingers so quickly without a real plan for my continuing education. With money getting tighter and tighter it was an easy decision to go to Dutchess community college for a cheap start to my college years. Yet it is still hard to find the money to attend a community college when you can’t even seem to find the money for a new shirt. There are many Rhinebeck high school seniors who would never even consider going to Dutchess but for the ones like me who are not in a crazy rush to leave Rhinebeck or may not be able to afford another school, free community college would be a huge weight lifted off their shoulders. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">There are many graduating kids in the county who will not be attending any college next fall, and I think if there was a way to offer free education to them this would change. Education is so important and I strongly believe that money should never be an obstacle if you are hardworking and willing to learn. We do have a great opportunity that allows the top ten percent of each Rhinebeck high graduating class to attend Dutchess Community College for free but in such a competitive school for grades like Rhinebeck it is extremely hard to secure a top ten percent ranking. Also most kids in the top ten percent don’t have much of an interest in attending DCC. Free community college would allow everyone to have a good start out of high school and encourage them to do bigger and better things with their lives. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">In 2006 when I was diagnosed with leukemia I spent a lot of time in hospitals. I was in and out and sometimes for prolonged periods of time. This brings me to another topic that I am passionate about. I wouldn’t have been able to have such a positive attitude if it weren’t for, of course, my friends and family but also programs like mill street loft. I remember them coming to Vassar hospital every Tuesday, it would be something I could look forward to. Something to keep me going, and when the day arrived it kept me occupied and distracted from the side effects of the chemo I was receiving. But it was much more to me than just a chance to do arts and crafts for the day. It was an opportunity to leave my room and talk to the other kids who were in similar situations. It was very therapeutic, and the volunteers running the program were always so friendly and interactive. I felt that I could really open up to them and they would listen no matter what even if they had no idea what to say, just having someone listen sometimes was good enough. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Funding for small programs like this may not seem so important with all the other craziness going on in the world but looking through the eyes of an eight year old it meant everything to me. I would make sure that programs similar to this one would keep going. I’m sure that most people wouldn’t realize how important something so small can be. But I know that both the kids and the mentors benefited from this program. There are so many issues that hit home for me that it would be difficult to decide where to start. But I believe that it is important to fix or continue things that you have a personal connection to." </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[here below-- more winning essays from 2010 and before]</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">From Kayla Arsenault...</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">"Growing up in Rhinebeck I've come to notice the </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Fairgrounds rarely used. Using the Fairgrounds </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">for events such as concerts that our local Hudson </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Valley bands could play at, a local drive-in </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">movie theatre, family potluck days, and various </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">competitions would be an effective use of the </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Fairgrounds space. The local bands would gather </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">the surrounding towns creating a stronger </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">community. Many people from around this area </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">would come spread or get inspiration from this </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">event. Local businesses will benefit greatly from </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">this because many people will stop and eat or </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">shop at Rhinebeck's local businesses. Also </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">another plus would be that teens would get into </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">less trouble because they would be attending </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">these events instead of having free time to do </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">whatever they please.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">To make families closer it would be great to have </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">family field days. May through August would be </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">acceptable months to have this because it would </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">be after the car shows but before the fair. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Things such as cook-offs, go-cart racing, and </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">bull-riding would be fun and exciting for people </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">to attend. For these events we could invite local </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">business vendors to serve, display, or market </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">their business' food. By gathering the residents </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">of the community it would truly strengthen our </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">neighborhood.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Another way to use that space would be to have a </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">drive-in movie theatre. This would give a place </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">for kids to go at night and is also closer than </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">the Hyde Park drive-ins. Some ideas for this </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">would be classic movie night for the seniors and </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">late-night movies for teens and adults.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">I'm hoping that you will take these ideas into </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">consideration considering the fast growth in </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">crime in Rhinebeck. Involving kids, teens, and </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">adults back into the community is the main </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">purpose of these ideas-- so if you make any of my </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">ideas reality, I'm positive that a lot of things </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">will change around Rhinebeck."</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">From Alex Landa...</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">"Rhinebeck, New York- a rather beautiful town, </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">with an old-fashioned comfort that's rare these </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">days. It's become a famous place to raise the </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">young, and for the elderly to enjoy their wisdom </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">years. Where does the middle stand, the teens, </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">the young adults, and the working family? To be </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">honest, many teens and even adults find it </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">difficult to have a good time in town. This is a </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">fairly stale area in all honesty, which has many </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">people, teens and even adults resort to doing </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">hard drugs and drinking their time away. I've </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">lost friends due to this circumstance, and the </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">idea of an internet café could spark some </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">creativity through artistic means, as opposed to </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">resorting to artificial means.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">This town lacks the creative side, as it's </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">focused on entertaining the elderly and wasting </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">too much time making artificial beauty to bring </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">in naïve spenders from large cities, primarily </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">New York City. Although the town has its fair </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">share of narrow-minded people, who take natural </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">beauty for granted, there are still the ones who </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">need a spot to be with other artistic people, </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">sharing their works, and having a mentally safe </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">environment. I propose to make an internet café, </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">of which is fairly self explanatory; a café with </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Wi-Fi connection, but with more. I also propose </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">to include two separate venues to the side, one </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">being an art gallery of which could be updated </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">periodically. The second venue would be used for </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">different occasions each week, one week it could </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">be an open mike night, a battle of the bands, </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">poetry slam, karaoke, plays be performed, and </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">even setting up a projector and have a film </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">festival.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Not only could this generally bring a lot of </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">amusement to Rhinebeck, it could greatly improve </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">the economy. It would create new jobs; have </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">builders create the new building, people running </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">the café, setting up internet, creating the </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">events, and so on. It would bring more people to </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Rhinebeck, as this idea doesn't seem too common </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">in Dutchess County, so it could potentially have </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">people bring their disposable income, which could </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">go to the school, and fixing up some less that </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">adequate roads and sidewalks throughout </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Rhinebeck. It could easily relieve parental </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">worries; I'm sure they'd rather have their child </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">come home fatigued from creative stimuli rather </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">than narcotic stimuli.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Rhinebeck, New York- beauty, relaxation, </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">calmness, and low crime rate. Rhinebeck, New </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">York- stale, drug filled, and not the best place </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">for the middle range. This town needs spice, the </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">cinnamon on top of a well-made cappuccino. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Helping the economy, destroying boredom, </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">potentially lowering the drug problem, and bring </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">some more creative elements, I see, might not be </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">a bad thing. My purpose for said proposal is to </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">improve a town of which seems to dearly need </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">improving. Lest we not forget, in today's day and </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">age, living in a whirlwind of social demons, even </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">this small addition to Rhinebeck could serve as a </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">sanctuary to young, elderly, and middle range </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">alike."</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">From Forrest Hackenbrock...</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">"If I were county Legislator I would focus on a </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">few things. First I would attempt to survey the </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">youth in the area, maybe by going to elementary </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">high schools and asking various groups to fill </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">out questionnaires. In the survey there should be </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">questions about what kids would like to see more </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">of in our area. I feel that in the town of </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Rhinebeck and Clinton, there is a lack of </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">recreational resources for kids. The mini park is </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">mainly for toddlers and younger kids. The rec </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">park and Crystal Lake are the only other area in </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">town that kids can play sports or hang out. These </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">facilities are in good condition and provide </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">recreation but there could be more. There is a </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">quite large skateboarding community that is </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">oppressed by a lack of skate spots. If there was </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">even a small skate park, at the rec park or </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">somewhere near by town, I think a lot more kids </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">would be active and interested in such </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">activities. I believe kids in our community would </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">also benefit from a community center where they </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">could just hang out, play pool, etc. If there </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">were to be a stage where bands could perform I </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">know it would flourish. I know this is easier </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">said than done but with the right sponsors and </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">support it is a possibility.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Another thing I would concern myself with is </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">environmental issues. I feel that many people in </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Rhinebeck and Clinton are involved with the green </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">movement while others may not be. There should be </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">public service announcements telling quick tips </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">or facts on how to reduce our destruction of the </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">environment. These could be billboards, or small </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">signs around town, or commercials on the radio or </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">TV. Our community must be aware of our carbon </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">emissions levels and take a stricter approach on </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">littering.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">The town of Rhinebeck obviously caters to </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">tourists, especially from New York City. I enjoy </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">our town and find it very unique and interesting. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">I like how the only corporation is CVS. Corporate </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">involvement should be kept to a minimum in our </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">town. As I walk through town I notice all the new </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">establishments are upscale, and do not represent </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">locals' needs. There should be more stores with </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">practical items and prices, along with </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">restaurants.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">I moved here in 2000, and did not like it very </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">much. However, as I grew up, Rhinebeck grew on </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">me, and I am now very happy and privileged to be </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">living here. I think we are living on a high </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">standard and should maintain that. The </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">suggestions I made are the only improvements I </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">can think of, because Rhinebeck is a very well </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">established town. As long as the town can </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">communicate with the community, the harmony that </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">exists will continue to live on."</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">From Scott McDonald...</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">"In a town like Rhinebeck where poverty and crime </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">are almost nonexistent, other subjects come to </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">mind when I consider what could be changed to </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">better our community. Our community as well as </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">our country as a whole misuses resources, create </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">ridiculous amounts of waste, and operate in an </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">inefficient manner. I feel it is appropriate and </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">necessary for me to use Rhinebeck High School, </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">the institution with which I am most familiar </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">under our local government, to demonstrate these </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">observations as well as provide alternative modes </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">of action.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Everyday Rhinebeck High School deposits hundreds </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">of sets of styrofoam trays and plastic silverware </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">in the trash. To me, this waste is inexcusable. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">It would not only be cost efficient, but it would </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">relieve a huge environmental burden if our school </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">would just decide to buy real plates with real </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">silverware and wash and reuse them each day. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Also, Rhinebeck High School continues to feed the </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">kids processed, canned garbage from some large </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">food processing company located in the middle of </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">nowhere when they could be providing healthy </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">produce and supporting local agriculture at the </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">same time. The school could also set aside a </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">piece of land for growing fresh fruits and </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">vegetables and use it as an opportunity to teach </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">kids agriculture and nutrition as well as provide </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">community service opportunities.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">The school district also tends to use artificial </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">light instead of natural sunlight by keeping the </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">window shades closed and turning the lights on, </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">frequently to keep kids from being distracted by </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">the outside world. This is wasteful in terms of </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">electricity and energy, not to mention artificial </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">light has been shown to be less stimulating to </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">students in a learning environment. For the times </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">when artificial light is necessary, the school </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">should have full spectrum light bulbs installed </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">as it is proven to be more likely to keep </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">students alert, healthier for the body </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">chemically, and cost effective in the long run.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">If I were county legislator for Rhinebeck and </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Clinton, I would try to impact the school system </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">for several reasons. Not only is the system run </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">poorly, but if done correctly, instilling values </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">of conservation and local agriculture in the </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">youth now would go on to prove very beneficial to </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">both our town and the world in the future."</span></div>
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[copy, paste into browser, sign on, fwd along]http://www.blogger.com/profile/10506855411571198805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269590855647058181.post-50185639570166250332018-11-23T18:37:00.003-08:002018-11-23T18:37:49.330-08:00re: GPI-- Kris and Rebecca agree-- time for Genuine Progress Index!...(who else out there is interested in working with us to make this real here in Dutchess?)<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="galileo-ap-layout-editor" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black; min-width: 100%; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">[thx tons to County Legislators Kris Munn and Rebecca Edwards for agreeing at June 13th Co. Leg. meeting to sign the GPI letter just below I circulated-- email countylegislators@dutchessny.gov to build support for this here:</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/may/24/robert-kennedy-gdp" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/may/24/robert-kennedy-gdp</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/sep/23/genuine-progress-indicator-gdp-gpi-vermont-maryland" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/sep/23/genuine-progress-indicator-gdp-gpi-vermont-maryland</a></div>
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genuine_progress_indicator" style="color: #de4e3a; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genuine_progress_indicator</a> <span style="font-weight: bold;">]</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
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= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =</div>
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[text here below of my letter from Mon. night that Kris Munn & Rebecca Edwards signed]</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro</span></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dutchess County Planning Commissioner Eoin Wrafter</span></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">President Donald Trump</span></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie</span></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell</span></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">House Speaker Paul Ryan</span></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Representatives John Faso and Sean Patrick Maloney</span></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Governor Andrew Cuomo</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan</span></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">State Senators Terrence Murphy and Sue Serino</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Assemblymembers Didi Barrett and Kevin Cahill</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Assemblymember Kieran Michael Lalor:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Dear National, State, and County Leaders:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">We, the various undersigned members of the Dutchess County Legislature, ask that you work with us to help develop new Genuine Progress Indicators for Dutchess County, New York State, and the United States. Genuine Progress Indicator studies have been published in Vermont earlier this year (and 2013 and 2011), California last year, Missouri in 2016, Massachusetts and Oregon in 2015, Hawaii and Maryland in 2014 (and 2012 and 2011), northern Ohio in 2012, Maryland in 2004, Minnesota in 2000 (along with Washington, Colorado, and a dozen other states and many other countries across the globe as well)-- it's time for Dutchess, NYS, and the U.S. to follow suit here.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">On June 5th many of us marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of former New York Senator and Attorney General Robert Kennedy. Repeatedly Omega Institute Chief Executive Officer Skip Backus reminded us at annual gatherings recently in the Town of Clinton of Robert Kennedy’s speech March 18, 1968 at the University of Kansas: “Even if we act to erase material poverty, there is another greater task, it is to confront the poverty of satisfaction - purpose and dignity - that afflicts us all. Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.. If this is true here at home, so it is true elsewhere in world.” </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">As Marta Ceroni of the Donella Meadows Institute wrote for The Guardian four years ago, “Vermont became the first state in the US to pass a law introducing a new metric for measuring economic performance and success in 2012. The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) offers an alternative to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which has been used at national and state levels since Simon Kuznets presented it to Congress in 1934, despite his warning of the oversimplifications embedded in the metric. To get a feel for how GPI differs from GDP, imagine two heating-oil trucks leaving from the same utility company: one safely completes its deliveries and the other has a major oil spill on the way to its first customer. The truck that spilled its oil would make GDP go up because of all the spending to clean up the mess. By contrast, both oil trucks would make the GPI go down: remediation spending would be counted as a negative, and so would the cost to society of emissions from heating with oil and the costs of any long-term damage to aquifers and streams. What would make the GPI go up? Getting more energy from renewables; increased energy efficiency; reducing the income gap; putting more reliable, durable products on the market (have you heard of planned obsolescence?); volunteering more for your community; preserving wetlands, forests, and farmland; shorter commutes and transport routes. In fact, there are 26 ways the GPI can go up, all measured in dollars that boil down to a single number.”</span></div>
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