In two months of running the state Department of Transportation's ferries, Harold "Buddy" Finch says he ran into nepotism, payroll padding and questionable spending. He brought it to the attention of the department's top officials and its inspector general.
They launched an investigation - and fired Finch for not being a team builder.
Finch, 58, is a career Coast Guard officer who came out of retirement May 1 to lead a division battered by a federal investigation into illegal dredging in Currituck Sound. The former division director was convicted of lying to investigators.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2010 00:00 ||
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Harold Finch hired as troubleshooter, he shot at some troubles, and they shot him down.
#4
And that's why those same states operate transport trucks and passenger cars ... as an extension of the highway system? There is a difference between the state building the common infrastructure and operating (usually as a monopoly) the vehicles that use it.
Posted by: ed ||
07/04/2010 1:30 Comments ||
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#5
The ferries are considered part of the infrastructure, as are the terminals, the marine traffic-control system, etc.
It'd be nice to see them privatized. But I don't think it would happen unless the state kicked in a subsidy or operated the terminals or allowed rates to be raised.
Operated under contract? Perhaps. The state would still have to operate and/or maintain the terminals, etc. I suspect you'd see pretty much the same corrupt shenanigans.
And if you really want to see corruption, research the New York Canal system. They make North Carolina look like pikers.
Posted by: ed ||
07/04/2010 1:53 Comments ||
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#9
I have family on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and have ridden these ferries.
The service is okay: you drive your car on, they tell you where to park it, you ride from the mainland to the island (or the reverse) and you drive off when told to. Nothing special about it. They leave on time and arrive on time.
I don't know why this couldn't be contracted out.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/04/2010 10:56 Comments ||
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#10
7: It's a taxpayer subsidy to people who choose to live in uneconomic areas.
Like the farm-to-market roads in Texas?
You mean the farm to market roads that allow us to move grain and livestock to market so you can eat? You are right about uneconomic areas. I bought a loaf of whole wheat bread at the market. It cost $4, a bushel of wheat pays $3.87. There are bcoming a lot of John Galt farmers and ranchers.
#11
One of the few good uses of taxpayer dollars and a damn important element of government is highways-sometimes to far outposts and seemingly useless backwaters. The empire stops where the road stops my friends.
Our ferry systems are as Pap indicated an extension of that highway system and we should all support the fair and reasonable appropriation of funds thereunto. I dont and wont defend a state government I know squat about and am not involved with, but generally I'm for ferries and highways and rest stops and national parks and visitor's centers and interpretive sights and historic monuments and all the other trappings of the empire we find along the road in America.
Goddamn good use of taxpayer money.
America is the light and the shining city on the hilltop because we can come together to achieve this greatness. Of course we shouldn't manage this or any other of our resources on Chicago Style boobery, but privatization is not always the answer. Government has a purpose and the highway is perhaps it's second highest after defense.
America Rocks! "Just over the horizon my freedom awaits me and the highway carries me ever closer"
Happy Independence Day Rantburgers!Happy Birthday America!
#12
It would be nice to see them privatized; after all, there's been absolutely no instances of corruption in all those places where they've gone ahead and privatized the roads by turning them into toll roads. Then again, the places they've done that, like Illinois, are all clean, sober, honest and efficient economies, eh?
#14
bman, for those of us who are uneducated in such matters, how many loaves of bread can be produced from a bushel of wheat?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/04/2010 17:07 Comments ||
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#15
You repeatedly confuse 'vehicle' with infrastructure.
Boat = vehicle, water and port authority = infrastructure. Put it another way: airplane = vehicle, air corridors, ports and FAA = infrastructure.
Going by your definition, I want to know when do I get my free airplane ride to my favorite beach?
Buses use roads. Trains and trolleys use tracks. Ferries are the 'road' when it comes to water.
Ferry = transport vehicle. Ferry /= road. Ferries have engines and move. Roads do not. Nor is a ferry too large or diffuse an asset that a private company cannot buy, operate and charge to ride.
The bottom line is taxpayers are forced to pay $32.2M/year for "free" ferry service. That comes out to 12.88 per ride per passenger. A commuter is subsidized by the the payers for the amount of $6,440/year for 250 commute days. Next year it will be $43.5M, $17.40 and $8,700 respectively. When is enough, enough?
Not that hard a concept, if you bother to think about it.
Simple? Yes. Wrong? Emphatically yes. Immoral and a ripoff to the state's taxpayers? Absolutely.
Posted by: ed ||
07/04/2010 19:03 Comments ||
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#16
For all you bread lovers here are the numbers.
There are about 150 cups (8oz.) of grain in a 60 pound bushel of wheat (1 bushel = 0.352 hectolitres in volume, 1 hectolitre = 3381.4 US fluid oz.).
When converted to flour these 150 cups of kernels produce about 300 cups of flour.
About 3 cups of flour are required to produce a single 1.5 pound loaf of bread.
Therefore 1 bushel of flour produces about 100 loaves of bread each weighing 1.5 pounds (24 oz.)
Or, in other words, a bushel of grain berries (kernels) produces about 150 pounds of bread.
I'll try the math: 100 loaves of bread out of a bushel of wheat at $4 a bushel means there is 4 cents worth of wheat in a loaf of bread.
#17
When Mr. Lotp and I met at the beach for a brief vacation last month, my car and I took the Lewis-Cape May ferry. It saved nearly 200 miles driving, which would have both polluted the air and caused wear on the highways. That ferry ride, back and forth, took the place of a bridge or the highways as far as I was concerned, and for the 50 or so cars that accompanied us on those ferry crossings.
#18
States use a ferry when it is cheaper than building a bridge. So, by running a ferry system the State is saving money. If the ferry system is corrupt and inefficient, then the State saves less money than they might otherwise have saved.
I happen to live in Missouri near Illinois. I use a private ferry to cross the Mississippi and an Illinois public ferry to cross the Illinois. The only difference is a modest fee charged by the private operator.
Could Illinois change to a private or fee based public system, sure. Should they build a bridge? No, the amount of traffic is not worth it. Should there be no ferry service and no bridge? Absolutely not, we need transportation infrastructure available to connect the country. This is so important that it is a Federal responsibility to provide post roads throughout the nation, and we are fortunate that Illinois, Washington, or North Carolina are paying the full cost of the ferry service.
In a year when Americans are arguably more cynical and disillusioned about politics than at any time since Watergate, the corruption trial of Rod Blagojevich is a sobering reminder of how its practitioners operate.
Although "Blago", the foul-mouthed bouffant buffoon, is the main attraction of the Chicago production, the former Illinois governor's reluctant co-star is Barack Obama. The President forms part of the proceedings each day even though the judge has spared him a personal experience.
Reports of the Blago trial cannot make comfortable reading for the White House for they provide what Mary Mitchell, the Chicago Sun-Times columnist, described as "an unfiltered look at how the sausage is made in Illinois"
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2010 00:00 ||
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Blago had the power to appoint a new Senator when the seat was vacated because of Obama's presidential election victory in November 2008. Clearly, he thought the seat was a valuable prize.
"I got this thing and it's f------ golden and I'm not just giving it up for f------ nothing," he said in a conversation recorded by a federal wiretap. Blago's instinct was that Obama -- who he mockingly described as "this historic, f------ demi-god" -- would be willing to pay to have his preferred choice be duly appointed.
This is why we have the 17th Amendment. This was 'politics as usual' prior to its adoption. At least the people get to chime in at the end of any appointment, as opposed to never getting to speak in the old days.
#3
And in further sad news for Al: Al And Tipper Gore To Skip Chelsea Clintons Wedding More sad news from the Al Gore camp, who is starting to look more and more like the new John Edwards every day: Gore and his soon-to-be ex-wife, Tipper, will not be attending Chelsea Clintons wedding, and event they had reported been looking forward to a year ago, before the Gores hit this recent unfortunate patch of events.
New Yorks Daily Intel blog reports that a rep for the Gores announced the sad news, and added that they both wish Chelsea well, believe she is a wonderful young woman, and they share in the familys excitement. They also note that, yes, the Gores were invited, and they seemed to be excited about it all before, well, they announced their plans to divorce and Al Gore got caught up in a National Enquirer masseuse pseudo-sex scandal.
#4
starting to look more and more like the new John Edwards every day
Jack Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton, John Edwards, Al Gore. Didn't I hear that FDR had a bit of a zipper problem as well? It's a family tradition. One good thing about Bambi: We all know Michelle would beat the crap out of him if he ever...
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/04/2010 17:20 Comments ||
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The government has pressed ahead with plans to slash the nation's carbon output, despite widespread opposition and New Zealand's larger neighbour Australia shelving its own scheme.
Motorists were hit by a 3c (1.4p) rise in the price of a litre of petrol overnight, while householders face a 5 per cent increase in gas and electricity prices.
It was the first step in a complex scheme, universally referred to as "the ETS", to slash carbon emissions back to 1990 levels.
Posted by: ed ||
07/04/2010 19:42 ||
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The halcyon days of tax-free Internet shopping will, if Rep. Bill Delahunt gets his way, soon be coming to an abrupt end.
Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat, introduced a bill on Thursday that would rewrite the ground rules for Internet and mail order sales by eliminating the option for many Americans to shop over the Internet without paying state sales taxes.
At the moment, Americans who shop over the Internet from out-of-state vendors usually aren't required to pay sales taxes. Californians buying books from Amazon.com or cameras from Manhattan's B&H Photo, for example, won't be required to cough up the sales taxes that they would if shopping at a local mall.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2010 00:00 ||
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Whoever wants their rep to vote for this $hit, please raise your hand.
Even by the standards of this deficit-ridden state, Illinois's comptroller, Daniel W. Hynes, faces an ugly balance sheet. Precisely how ugly becomes clear when he beckons you into his office to examine his daily briefing memo.
He picks the papers off his desk and points to a figure in red: $5.01 billion.
"This is what the state owes right now to schools, rehabilitation centers, child care, the state university -- and it's getting worse every single day," he says in his downtown office.
Mr. Hynes shakes his head. "This is not some esoteric budget issue; we are not paying bills for absolutely essential services," he says. "That is obscene."
For the last few years, California stood more or less unchallenged as a symbol of the fiscal collapse of states during the recession.
Now Illinois has shouldered to the fore, as its dysfunctional political class refuses to pay the state's bills and refuses to take the painful steps -- cuts and tax increases -- to close a deficit of at least $12 billion, equal to nearly half the state's budget.
Insolvency looms
Then there is the spectacularly mismanaged pension system, which is at least 50 percent underfunded and, analysts warn, could push Illinois into insolvency if the economy fails to pick up.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2010 00:00 ||
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#1 That's why they sent one of their own to DC.
Yeah, grom. Like a metastasizing cancer......The gift that keeps on giving. They need someone like a Mayor Bing, backed up by the National Guard.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in NW Iceland ||
07/04/2010 6:40 Comments ||
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Mr. Hynes is a card carrying member of the 'Combine' -- that group of insider Dems and Reps that have run Illinois into the ground.
He might be a decent enough guy one on one. Might be good conversation with a beer in his hand.
But he and the Combine have wrecked my state.
If the state had, over the past twenty years, simply limited the increases in its spending to the inflation rate plus population growth rate, Illinois would not have a deficit today.
Instead the Combine had the state spend lavishly on pensions for public employees, new prisons that we can't even open, increased transfers to Chicago, and -- of course -- all sorts of goodies for their favored hangers-on.
That's why we're $19 billion in the hole.
If I were to go along with new taxes in my state, what assurance do I have that the new money would be used to fix the problems? None whatsoever, which is why I won't vote for a tax increase, and why I'll vote against my state rep or senator if they do.
It's not just a financial deficit. It's a trust deficit. I don't trust the Combine. I have no reason to trust them.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/04/2010 11:03 Comments ||
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#4
Ill has not been able to reimburse the physicians of its state employees for nine months (timing sound familiar? cf ObozoCare).
State tried to blame the insurers that administer its plans, but the fact is Ill isn't funding its plans (big lie sound familiar? Cf OblahblahCare)and even the politically connected halfwits that make up the state employee pop are wising up.
Posted by: regular joe ||
07/04/2010 12:56 Comments ||
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#5
The economy will not improve period!. They will raise taxes and tax anything and everything. The result will be more of the same. This time next year things will be twice as bad. They see yet they are blind, they hear yet they don't listen, they have a brain yet they don't comprehend what they see or hear. This is kalkaesque.
#6
'Kafkaesque"? Dale is right. Idealogues are not leaders. They will take us all down their Golden Path to our inevitable destruction. It will fall to those of us who are left to rebuild what we can. Hope to see you all on the other side.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
07/04/2010 20:32 Comments ||
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our inevitable destruction?
Theirs will come first. The Marie Antoinette type public figures of the world never endure.
Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias will pay no income taxes this year and stands to receive returns of $30,000 in income withheld from his state treasurer's salary.
Giannoulias says he will donate the $30,000 to charity. He released his tax returns on Friday, as well as a financial disclosure statement that reveals that he lost nearly half of his net worth.
The state treasurer's fortunes were tied up in his family-owned Broadway Bank, which the federal government seized and sold earlier this year.
Giannoulias' share in family trust funds plummeted from an estimated "$8 million to $40 million" down to an estimated "$2.5 million to $11.5 million," according to the financial disclosure form he is required to file as a candidate for U.S. Senate.
Other family trusts are doing well enough that his net worth could range from $7 million to $29 million, the report said. That's down from the $13 million to $62 million range he reported last year.
Giannoulias' income tax returns show he earned $119,000 from his job as state treasurer. He reported $14,757 in capital gains.
But he also reported a loss of $2.7 million from his holdings in his family's Broadway Bank.
Will Giannoulias suffer the same sort of backlash that Republican candidate for governor, State Sen. Bill Brady did when he revealed he paid no income taxes on his $75,000 state Senate salary because his family business took a loss?
Giannoulias was paid $119,000 in state salary and paid no federal or state taxes on it.
Giannoulias' spokeswoman Kathleen Strand pointed out that Giannoulias is donating his federal and state income tax returns -- totalling about $30,000 to charity. Also, the night his family bank was seized, Giannoulias said he would not be filing for an income tax break he might be entitled to for struggling businesses.
And unlike Giannoulias' Republican opponent Mark Kirk, Giannoulias let his staffers hand copies of his income tax forms to reporters to take with them. Kirk made reporters come to his office and just take notes without being able to take copies with them.
Kirk filed his income tax report by the April deadline. U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk and his now ex-wife earned $239,000 in 2008 and paid nearly $49,000 in taxes. The bulk of the couple's income came from his $169,000 salary as a congressman, though investment income and $3,900 from a rental property they owned contributed to the total.
Kirk has been needling Giannoulias since April 15 about when he would file his income tax and financial disclosure forms. Giannoulias has said the nature of his family's bank requires them to file late every year and they seek the proper extensions.
"Alexi Giannoulias wants to raise our taxes but doesn't pay any taxes himself," Kirk spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said. "After costing the FDIC $394 million and wiping out $73 million in college savings, Illinois voters can no longer afford Alexi Giannoulias."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2010 00:00 ||
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apparently there is a S corporation statement involved
otherwise it would be impossible to have that much income and no taxes
in any event, it strains credibility like so much else in Illinois
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/04/2010 14:35 Comments ||
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U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski is being criticized again for comments he made, this time on a local radio show, but his campaign fired back on Thursday.
Last week the 13-term Democrat from Nanticoke was criticized and attacked for his statements about minorities and "defective" people. On Thursday, while appearing as a guest on WILK Radio's "Webster and Nancy Show," Kanjorski was asked if he was going to hold any public town hall meetings with his constituents.
"We will do everything we can to meet with people, but I'm not going to set myself up for, you know, nuts to hit me with a camera."
He said often times "people can't resist changing what you said or taking things out of context." He said these "snippets" lead to "distortions."
"I'm not going to arm my opponent with a baseball bat," Kanjorski said later in the interview.
Kanjorski's Republican opponent, Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, leveled criticism against the congressman.
"Paul Kanjorski has been in Congress for 26 years and his response to our region's 10 percent unemployment rate is to call his constituents 'nuts' and to attack the city of Hazleton," Barletta said. "Do these so-called 'nuts' who attend town meetings fall into Kanjorski's 'defective people' category?"
Ed Mitchell, Kanjorski's campaign spokesman, fired back, saying the congressman stands by his comments made on WILK, "including the ones about Barletta's sorry record as mayor."
"With the reference to 'nuts,' he (Kanjorski) meant a small number of extreme political opponents who come to disrupt town meetings solely for the purpose of scoring political points they can register on YouTube or the Internet to inflict damage and embarrass the congressman and not to the people who come to those meetings to discuss issues and gather information," Mitchell said. "He meant nothing disparaging by his comments."
Mitchell said Kanjorski has held face-to-face town meetings for 26 years "that usually had crowds of 20-30 people a meeting."
"When we hold our tele-town meetings, we speak to thousands of people," Mitchell said. "It is simply better to communicate with our constituents this way."
Kanjorski, 73, is opposed by Barletta, 54, in the 11th Congressional District race. Kanjorski also attacked Barletta's record as Hazleton's mayor -- something he has refrained from doing so far in the campaign.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2010 00:00 ||
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The comments are anything but supportive of Mr. Kanjorski
The Democratic Governors Association trailed badly in second quarter fundraising. It pulled in $9.1 million, which is less than half what the Republican Governors Association raised.
The RGA announced Thursday it has raised $18.9 million since the end of March and now has some $40 million cash on hand. The DGA, meanwhile, has $22 million cash on hand.
The RGA holds the overall lead for the year, too, having raised $28 million in 2010 to the Democrats' $17 million. Still, this is the DGA's "best-ever fundraising for the first six months of the year," according to a release.
Republican strategists have spoken openly about the importance the party places on gubernatorial races this cycle with redistricting looming after the Census is complete in December. But DGA executive director Nathan Daschle said the RGA may have gotten an added boost from the controversy surrounding the party's other campaign committees.
"To be honest, given the mass donor exodus from the RNC, we never expected to outraise the RGA. But we have marshaled historic resources to compete aggressively across the map," Daschle said in a statement. "With marquee states like California, Florida and Texas up for grabs, more Americans could have a Democratic governor after November than ever before."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2010 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
