Life22

Day 13,477 - CHIPS Funding & Tax Hikes.mp3
Transcript
00:00:14 Kevin
Hey, gang. Good.
00:00:15 Kevin
It is 6:00 AM here in the lovely, beautiful yet rainy city of Olean.
00:00:23 Kevin
So guys, I wanted to touch base with you.
00:00:27 Kevin
It's the morning podcast, as you can see.
00:00:29 Kevin
If you're watching on on video.
00:00:31 Kevin
You can see my hair is still, you know, morning, morning hair but.
00:00:39 Kevin
That was my urbanate. I don't think any of you ever tried urbanate.
00:00:43 Kevin
It's very delicious.
00:00:44 Kevin
I went down to, I think it's nature's remedy.
00:00:47 Kevin
They may go to buy a new name now down.
00:00:48 Kevin
Allegheny, like two years ago.
00:00:51 Kevin
And the lady turned me on to some urbanate, which is like.
00:00:54 Kevin
South American, like their form of tea, they grind it up.
00:00:59 Kevin
They smoke it.
00:00:59 Kevin
Is unsmoked.
00:01:01 Kevin
And and then I add a little sheet.
00:01:03 Kevin
I recommended adding a little matcha to the bottom, which is like a ground.
00:01:08 Kevin
Ground, super plant or whatever, and it usually gives me a real big boost in the morning, which is kind of phenomenal this time of morning and you know, especially for you guys. You want me to be like Gatling gun, Gatling gun speed so.
00:01:23 Kevin
Oh boy.
00:01:24 Kevin
Well, what do we have going on?
00:01:26 Kevin
I want to start by.
00:01:41 Kevin
I want to start by addressing some of the downfall in our society as it was about to start this podcast. I could hear a couple of my neighbors getting into an argument. They live like 1.
00:01:55 Kevin
Half a block down from us.
00:02:00 Kevin
I'm sure maybe you can pick it up on microphone. It sounded like a woman leaving a guy's apartment calling him a ***** ** **** that he sells drugs and that his mother doesn't love him.
00:02:15 Kevin
So I mean.
00:02:18 Kevin
We should have a moral segment of the.
00:02:20 Kevin
I know a lot of you think that I'm immoral or amoral, but that is not the case.
00:02:25 Kevin
I get older, I I.
00:02:26 Kevin
I find myself more grounded in my morality.
00:02:30 Kevin
So that said.
00:02:32 Kevin
It just goes to show you like you know why.
00:02:34 Kevin
Why do people sell drugs?
00:02:35 Kevin
Why do people do these?
00:02:36 Kevin
Why do? What do people make the decision to, you know, be in a relationship with a drug dealer and a person whose mother does not love him?
00:02:46 Kevin
And then you want to get in an argument with him. It just before 6:00 AM in the morning and and and wander out in the rain.
00:02:52 Kevin
To get away from said person like yes, it's not good that this person does all these things, but yes, it is also your own fault for being for you know, for making the life choices that put you in this predicament.
00:03:04 Kevin
Now, maybe it's not your own fault because you were raised improperly by your parents.
00:03:08 Kevin
Maybe your parents were absent, and I mean, that really goes down to the moral threads of our society.
00:03:13 Kevin
Two parent households strengthen.
00:03:17 Kevin
You know, strengthening the bonds that parents and children have, you know.
00:03:22 Kevin
In you know not completely adopting this new age technology that you you know this this new wave of parenting that like you can't discipline your children, you can't yell at them, or you're going to hurt their emotions and, you know, their emotions are more important.
00:03:39 Kevin
Than you know, their mom and dad's freedom. You know that whole aspect like you like you can't say, hey, listen, don't push your sister.
00:03:46 Kevin
Like when I was a kid you got beat like and you can't do that now. But at the same time, like now they're pushing it to the point you can't even. You can't even yell at them because if you yell at a child because, like, hey, don't push.
00:03:56 Kevin
Sister, if you say that to a child and a child takes that inappropriately, they will.
00:04:01 Kevin
Say that you are abusing the child because you should not be tormenting the child's emotions and it's like like, what is he doing to his sister?
00:04:08 Kevin
Know and it's one of those.
00:04:11 Kevin
There's a lot of like upside down backwards stuff. If any of you out there are interested in learning more about, like, you know, being a parent today, I would recommend family unfriendly.
00:04:21 Kevin
It was a book we reviewed on the channel.
00:04:23 Kevin
It's very.
00:04:24 Kevin
It kind of opens up the, you know, the.
00:04:26 Kevin
The door to helicopter parenting and stuff like that.
00:04:28 Kevin
But we're going down a rabbit hole. I guess that was just kind of astonishing.
00:04:32 Kevin
It it, it happened yesterday too.
00:04:34 Kevin
People out at the corner right here on.
00:04:38 Kevin
Right here at the top of the one way outside of my house, they were just standing there, like, not on the corner by the sidewalk. Like on the corner, past the curb, into the intersection of the street with their arms crossed. Two of them side by side with.
00:04:51 Kevin
You know necklaces and and hoodies and you know like why would you like if you're wearing a hoodie and it's you think it's cold out like you should not necklace on the outside of your hoodie?
00:05:00 Kevin
I don't know that just it strikes like it's more of something that you're trying to invoke in other people.
00:05:07 Kevin
Anyways, I had, like my kids, want to ride their bikes because it was nice out yesterday.
00:05:12 Kevin
It was definitely light.
00:05:14 Kevin
Maybe you wear a hoodie?
00:05:17 Kevin
Maybe you just wear T-shirt because we've all acclimated to the cold and it's very warm out yesterday.
00:05:21 Kevin
So like why the guys wearing a?
00:05:23 Kevin
I don't know, but yeah, I my wife was like, listen, she's like I'm in the middle of.
00:05:28 Kevin
Can you go stand out there with them? And I said sure, 'cause. She didn't want these nefarious looking gentleman to, you know, say something to her kids. Snag.
00:05:36 Kevin
Of the kids, do whatever they were giving off a harmful vibe. And the longer I sat out there on the.
00:05:42 Kevin
Phone. I wish I got a phone call from somebody and I was on the phone and while I was pacing back and forth talking to myself, I kept glancing over at them and quickly they they dispatched and they they went on their own way.
00:05:53 Kevin
But then then I was able to say, hey kids, you want to go ride in the church parking lot across the street?
00:05:57 Kevin
Want to? You know, my daughter wants to.
00:05:59 Kevin
Down to the middle.
00:05:59 Kevin
She's she's old enough now she can bike down to the middle school.
00:06:02 Kevin
I I trust her to do that.
00:06:04 Kevin
But not nefarious gentleman standing outside my house like it's, you know, like they're up to no good and you know.
00:06:12 Kevin
So anyways that just.
00:06:15 Kevin
We could go down a whole rabbit hole on that one, I.
00:06:20 Kevin
I would like to, you know, kind of break down some of those thoughts in the in the future, but this morning.
00:06:27 Kevin
I got an I got a URL link sent to me.
00:06:30 Kevin
Somebody fact checking me because of the way that I was taught how chips funding works and so this individual.
00:06:39 Kevin
Is an engineer who deals with the dot and he sent me a dot dot newyork.gov link and it's based on chips.
00:06:51 Kevin
Funding. And then if you see subsection 3 and 4, which I will put the link in the description below so you can do your own research if you're interested.
00:07:00 Kevin
And it does show that chips funding is not like I said.
00:07:04 Kevin
So Fact Check, I guess I'll be the first to admit that I was wrong.
00:07:07 Kevin
Then again, these are the things they are teaching.
00:07:09 Kevin
You go there and you ask questions and you get answers. And so I guess when somebody.
00:07:15 Kevin
Who's also an elected official that's been there longer, or who is employed to do these things. You know, they tell you.
00:07:22 Kevin
What certain things are you?
00:07:25 Kevin
I guess you take.
00:07:26 Kevin
You should take them with a grain of salt I.
00:07:27 Kevin
But I was taking them as fact, and it wasn't too far off. Right so.
00:07:34 Kevin
New York State dot.
00:07:37 Kevin
Checks the and I'll pull it.
00:07:41 Kevin
U New York Tate dot has two different funding groups that make up chips funding.
00:07:47 Kevin
And so the chips funding is of course it's going to take forever to load.
00:07:55 Kevin
Consolidated.
00:07:59 Kevin
Local St. and Hwy. improvement program or chips.
00:08:04 Kevin
And So what they do is they are taking money from.
00:08:10 Kevin
They aren't taking money from the TIF, which is the Transportation Improvement Fund, and then they are also using something from the LILAF, which is the local assistance fund. And so the process is.
00:08:25 Kevin
They are the, I believe the first one. One of them is based on how many miles of Rd. that you have.
00:08:34 Kevin
And they're giving you a percentage of it.
00:08:37 Kevin
And they distribute that out to.
00:08:41 Kevin
They distribute it out to counties, towns, cities, villages, boroughs, whatever they.
00:08:49 Kevin
They distribute it out, and then there's also a percentage back of vehicle registrations based on location.
00:08:55 Kevin
So you're kind of getting like a a refund on that.
00:08:59 Kevin
To the point that they haven't updated it in many years is a point of contention that I know that Vernon Robertson junior brought up in his post that we went over yesterday.
00:09:09 Kevin
And then I did a little diving because after I received that, I had to, you know, do some delving into the system.
00:09:19 Kevin
Now, only in his 67 miles of Rd.
00:09:23 Kevin
OK. And this is to show that what the person told me was more of a rule of thumb and not how they actually do it.
00:09:29 Kevin
I guess I misconstrued.
00:09:30 Kevin
Either that or they misconveted it.
00:09:34 Kevin
67 miles of road and so last year the city of Oleand did 3 miles of Rd.
00:09:40 Kevin
If you divide that by three, that's two 2.33 miles or years.
00:09:47 Kevin
In order for the cycle to complete itself, well, I don't know if you've seen roads nowadays, unless you have a brick road that you know needs maintenance every 100 years, the average Rd. lasts about 7:00 to 10:00. So if you were to try to go with the less.
00:10:01 Kevin
Number on 10.
00:10:03 Kevin
You should be replacing 67 divided by.
00:10:07 Kevin
You should be replacing 6.7 miles of Rd. a year.
00:10:12 Kevin
And three miles out of 6.7 is just under 50%.
00:10:17 Kevin
It's about.
00:10:19 Kevin
Rounded up, it's about 45% of the road of about the the annual what we should be doing annually.
00:10:27 Kevin
In roadway.
00:10:30 Kevin
Arm and I believe funding is probably a large portion of that now. Chips funding for the city is a give or take half $1,000,000 where yesterday I was saying it was about 400 and 36460 somewhere in that ballpark, it's it.
00:10:42 Kevin
I believe there have been minor increases, but it's probably somewhere between 450,000.
00:10:48 Kevin
And like 5 and a quarter which?
00:10:51 Kevin
If you were to take oh also.
00:10:55 Kevin
Here's the kicker.
00:10:57 Kevin
It's not just chips funding that supplies roads. There's all these other little municipal, you know, help us with our potholes.
00:11:06 Kevin
Organizations and grants and you know.
00:11:09 Kevin
Winter weather grants and all these little things that make up additional funding, like chips that go towards the municipalities.
00:11:19 Kevin
Municipalities.
00:11:22 Kevin
Road budgets or or or can be used towards those, and then they also have their little caveats. Like any grant does. If you've never dealt with grants, then we'll probably have a whole section on the show. Just about that, because that is a that that is a really.
00:11:35 Kevin
Topic as well, like you have to do this you have to do that.
00:11:39 Kevin
Wage MW MB E contractors.
00:11:42 Kevin
You have to give.
00:11:43 Kevin
They have to at least offer it to a veteran owned contractor or show that you've made calls inquiring that people are federally rabbit hole. Sorry.
00:11:52 Kevin
So 3 miles of Rd. cost the city last year.
00:11:58 Kevin
$2.3 million and that's total, that's grant funding and our contribution, right, so $2.3 million.
00:12:07 Kevin
Umm.
00:12:11 Kevin
We're just going to make it A and then we're going to divide that by three miles.
00:12:14 Kevin
It ends U being 766.
00:12:20 Kevin
Repeating.
00:12:22 Kevin
So $766,666.67 rounded.
00:12:31 Kevin
Uh. Mile like, OK.
00:12:34 Kevin
So if we have to do, if we did 3 miles and we're supposed to be doing 6.7 miles to try to stay just ahead of the curb right now, I get that like, you know, most people don't understand this.
00:12:44 Kevin
Are not 8686 is funded by the state and then they get federal funding as well to offset the state's costs on inter.
00:12:53 Kevin
So roads like, you know, 86 that might crossover into different states, they get percentages based on how many miles you know, there's a whole separate set of formulas.
00:13:01 Kevin
That come up with state funding, but so like Erwin's been complaining about the potholes on 86, that's your state.
00:13:06 Kevin
That's not. You're not going to expect City of only to go out and do.
00:13:09 Kevin
I mean, they might if they were really like, if you had a, you know, if you had a, you know, administration that was very.
00:13:16 Kevin
Very proactive in saying, hey, we're not going to wait for the state, we're going to do this because you're complaining and it makes our city look, you know what I mean, that that would be a mentality that you could take.
00:13:25 Kevin
And I'm sure you'd probably still have to get.
00:13:27 Kevin
I'm sure like there's a bunch of past, present and future DPW directors and P ES dot workers.
00:13:33 Kevin
Would say no, you can't touch that road because it's the states.
00:13:36 Kevin
Which could be the case too. There very well could be.
00:13:43 Kevin
So, so three quarters, $1,000,000 per mile.
00:13:48 Kevin
That's that's. That's a lot of money.
00:13:49 Kevin
So now if you were to take that number and multiply it by 6.7.
00:13:55 Kevin
Well, that's 5.36.
00:14:01 Kevin
Yeah.
00:14:02 Kevin
Yeah, five $5,136,666.67.
00:14:10 Kevin
A year and we're spending.
00:14:14 Kevin
2.3.
00:14:17 Kevin
So 2.3 divided by 1.362 point 3 / 5.136. Again, we're at that same 45% number.
00:14:28 Kevin
We're spending 45% of what it should be now. If you were to take our 1.3.
00:14:33 Kevin
Let's say let's say we're at half $1,000,000 in chips funding, right?
00:14:41 Kevin
So 5 / 3.
00:14:45 Kevin
Our chips funding is 2121.7% of our street budget based on how much money we spend on streets.
00:14:56 Kevin
Which which isn't too far off 15%. And you're saying, oh, 21 percent or almost 22%. Like that's. I mean that's a 7% difference.
00:15:04 Kevin
To me that is negligible, like and I'm sure in previous years with pre COVID when these numbers were told to me. You know when they said, oh, it's about 15% of your budget, it's supposed to be 15% of your budget.
00:15:15 Kevin
Like OK. And then I'm hearing that and I don't have the numbers on all the other ones that are coming up. But I'm hearing that a.
00:15:21 Kevin
Portion of those are.
00:15:25 Kevin
Umm. A large portion of those are what we are supposed to be, or a large portion.
00:15:33 Kevin
Sorry brain fog.
00:15:42 Kevin
This is.
00:15:43 Kevin
This is 22 and I don't have the exact numbers on all the other contributing grants that we get towards streets, but.
00:15:51 Kevin
If if those numbers were right, like, hey, this is about 15% of your budget, this is what the state, you know, this is what the state gives you every year for what should be 15% of your budget.
00:16:01 Kevin
It's like, yeah, well, we're right in there.
00:16:02 Kevin
A little bit more than that.
00:16:05 Kevin
So I guess we weren't too far off on what we're actually spending.
00:16:08 Kevin
So then, if you were to say hey.
00:16:11 Kevin
Well.
00:16:12 Kevin
Rather than, you know, you know, and it's good to redo roads, but you got to think like, man, look how many millions of dollars it's costing to do.
00:16:20 Kevin
You know it.
00:16:21 Kevin
It cost to do Washington Street and then it's how many you know. How much did it cost to do? It's going to cost to do W State St.
00:16:29 Kevin
Yeah, we're getting grant funding like, oh, well, you were just the grant funding come from the grant, from tax refunds or tax refunds, income taxes.
00:16:37 Kevin
So the state takes your income.
00:16:38 Kevin
The state takes a large portion of our sales tax the state takes.
00:16:43 Kevin
You know they have all these different mechanisms in order to generate revenue so that they can.
00:16:50 Kevin
So the doling back out our money, essentially redistributing our money back to us and making us jump for it. And I I think grant funding needs.
00:16:58 Kevin
Think you need to get rid of income tax? First off. And then I think that you need to.
00:17:04 Kevin
Get rid of, you know, then stop redistributing our money to us.
00:17:08 Kevin
Do that and then increase our property taxes.
00:17:11 Kevin
You know what, I.
00:17:12 Kevin
So that the local municipality can just afford to do it, and then you're not hitting everybody in the area up for?
00:17:19 Kevin
You know, also hitting them up for income.
00:17:22 Kevin
So it's just, I don't know, it's our systems, you know, the evolution of our tax system has gotten a lot of control and how they do things and then they they're all, let's change it this way and that'll help this and that. And the incentive structures are back.
00:17:37 Kevin
So people are changing it to incentivize this, this or that instead of something else.
00:17:45 Kevin
Instead of what they should be incentivizing it.
00:17:56 Kevin
Anyways so.
00:18:00 Kevin
If you took our chips funding.
00:18:03 Kevin
Five point.
00:18:04 Kevin
Oh, half $1,000,000 / 5.136.
00:18:09 Kevin
It's actually only 9.7% of what we should be spending.
00:18:15 Kevin
See. Isn't that funny?
00:18:17 Kevin
So yes, chips funding is low if we're actually spending the money we're supposed to, and it's supposed to be a moniker for 15%.
00:18:25 Kevin
But.
00:18:27 Kevin
It's.
00:18:29 Kevin
You're not going to get. I don't.
00:18:30 Kevin
I don't think raising the chips, funding like raising the chips, funding would be helpful, but it's not.
00:18:35 Kevin
It's not necessary.
00:18:39 Kevin
It's not necessary to the major issue, which is the fact that we are severely underfunding our roads.
00:18:46 Kevin
That's.
00:18:46 Kevin
Like you're, I mean, you're always gonna have troublesome roads.
00:18:48 Kevin
You have a road that needs to be replaced every two years.
00:18:50 Kevin
Because.
00:18:51 Kevin
The way it is, wash out and we have less wash out roads than you know like little municipalities, Hinsdale, Cuba, all these little places with winding roads that go into back countrysides and and.
00:19:00 Kevin
Like you know, the road washes out.
00:19:03 Kevin
I'm trying to think if there's like a whole bunch of them that I've driven on in the last 10 years that just, you know, you get called out to an emergency call and you got to go drive up this road and it's dirt and you got a 2.
00:19:13 Kevin
Van and you park at the base of the road, 'cause, you're.
00:19:16 Kevin
I ain't.
00:19:16 Kevin
To risk it, but we don't have any of that in the city.
00:19:19 Kevin
So, but yeah, those are that. So like I said, I got that.
00:19:20 Kevin
So.
00:19:24 Kevin
Got somebody fact checking me yesterday and I appreciate constructive.
00:19:27 Kevin
So if I am wrong and you know call me out, I'll, I'll, I'll do my research as well to find out like how I've.
00:19:35 Kevin
Misconveyed something.
00:19:36 Kevin
Maybe it is just something way I conveyed it that confuse somebody into thinking that I was missing, you know, saying something.
00:19:42 Kevin
Maybe it was.
00:19:43 Kevin
I was told something that I believed is fact and and it was either I misconstrued it when I was learning it or it was misconstrued or it was misconveyed to me.
00:19:53 Kevin
Have you but.
00:19:54 Kevin
Like like I said, we just, we just went through it.
00:19:56 Kevin
We took a deeper dive into your chips funding.
00:20:01 Kevin
20 minutes to talk about moral fabric of our society and chips funding, which I'm sure all of you are super excited to talk about.
00:20:08 Kevin
So now here is the point of.
00:20:10 Kevin
So if all of you have hung in there for 20 minutes and you are willing to listen longer.
00:20:17 Kevin
Here is my take on local taxes and this is what I was going to talk about yesterday and instead we dove into the Alderman races.
00:20:25 Kevin
So your local taxes and I've made, I've made point to mention this to a few of the Alderman that you know that I talked to on a regular basis people that will call me or I'll call them or whatever.
00:20:40 Kevin
The current budget is proposed at 6.4% tax increase or something like that. 2.2 and a quarter percent 2.4, something like that.
00:20:49 Kevin
It's over 6%. And then what'll?
00:20:51 Kevin
Is it'll go to the Council and the Council will try to save face and be like, wow, but we we have to raise taxes above the tax cap, but we can probably, and this is of it is like we can, we can probably.
00:21:05 Kevin
You know.
00:21:05 Kevin
I'm sure every person doesn't exactly think like this, but the the the general consensus is that we will fight this down, so it's not 6.4%, but it's like 3.8% or 4.2%. And look at us. We're, you know, look at.
00:21:20 Kevin
Come to a compromise and we're all heroes and we only raised at 4.2%.
00:21:23 Kevin
Could have been higher.
00:21:24 Kevin
Like OK.
00:21:26 Kevin
Well, me and me and a former Alderman had been on the Council and we had talked recently and he was like, do you remember being on the Council and tax caps at 2% and inflation is typically 1 1/2 percent?
00:21:41 Kevin
And you and I would always say, hey, like let's maybe we have to raise it a half a percent and we would like there'd be like dead pigeons nailed to the city building to our own doors. We get rats nailed or mailed to us. Like it was just.
00:21:53 Kevin
Like he was like it was like you might as well just like.
00:21:58 Kevin
Like expect the plague.
00:21:59 Kevin
You know, if you try to raise taxes by 1/4 or half a percent and it's like now the last couple of years, it's like they're, you know, you break the tax cap, you break the tax cap, you break the tax cut.
00:22:09 Kevin
2% ain't cutting it.
00:22:11 Kevin
Inflation was what, like 8% a couple years ago.
00:22:14 Kevin
Year ago year and a half ago.
00:22:15 Kevin
Like.
00:22:17 Kevin
The tax.
00:22:18 Kevin
Is like barely pacing with inflation. So.
00:22:20 Kevin
And then you can't go 0 years.
00:22:24 Kevin
You can't go years with with 0 tax increase like, because now all of a sudden inflation's got.
00:22:29 Kevin
So now next year you have to raise it by 1.5%, compounded with another 1.5% which just to give you for those math enthusiasts like myself.
00:22:39 Kevin
1.5% I have 1.5%. Oh, so is yeah. Is it 2 1/4% inflation rate for two years. If you didn't account for the first year?
00:22:51 Kevin
So you have to break the tax cap on year 2. If you go 0 on year one, or if you'd stay under, then eventually the piper is going to need to be paid and that is the issue.
00:23:03 Kevin
And that's what I'm.
00:23:04 Kevin
Like we've gone like, I mean, my five years on the Council, man, it was, you know, I don't want nailed rats nailed to nail to my door.
00:23:11 Kevin
And I was trying to keep people happy and at the same time, I'm a taxpayer.
00:23:14 Kevin
Don't watch taxes go up.
00:23:16 Kevin
But what happens is cost still go up.
00:23:19 Kevin
Can't prevent costs from going well.
00:23:20 Kevin
You're the ultimate. Stop the.
00:23:22 Kevin
Go like yeah.
00:23:22 Kevin
That's that's that's super easy to do, right?
00:23:25 Kevin
You can't stop costs from going.
00:23:27 Kevin
You can't stop, you know, like there's there's negotiations that you're not a part of. As an Alderman, you're not a part of, you know, like you're you're a part of it into a degree.
00:23:36 Kevin
But like when they when they negotiate like labor contracts, they're they go up a half a percent, they go up 1%, they go up, they go 3%, they go three years without an increase and then they get a 4% increase. You know there's a lot.
00:23:48 Kevin
Different ways of how they're structured and like those are.
00:23:52 Kevin
And now you have to do those and then you have inflation. The cost of doing goods go up.
00:23:58 Kevin
They raise minimum wage.
00:23:59 Kevin
And then guess what?
00:24:02 Kevin
They they have.
00:24:02 Kevin
You know the wages of the, the the cost of produced things goes up to compensate for that.
00:24:10 Kevin
That it has to, you know, like, so now all of a sudden a gallon of milk costs more money and the shipping of that milk or, you know, we have to get.
00:24:16 Kevin
Well, the guys that you know, dig the salt out of the earth, their minimum wage employees and guess what then? Now it cost more to have them per hour dig salt out of the ground.
00:24:26 Kevin
So what do you?
00:24:27 Kevin
Like I'm using it as an example. I have no idea how they get. You know, I'm assuming they pull salt from the ground or they go to the ocean and.
00:24:34 Kevin
They catch a bunch of water and then they let it dry in the sun, and then they they scrape this giant pan that had all the salt crystals on it, like.
00:24:43 Kevin
Maybe that's how they make sea salt. You know what I mean? Like, OK.
00:24:45 Kevin
I'm not the I'm not the greatest.
00:24:48 Kevin
Expert on how they make salt, but I'm just saying like that's.
00:24:52 Kevin
You know, however they make it. I'm sure they don't have brain surgeons excavating salt out of the the.
00:24:58 Kevin
Earth or or, you know, formulating salt wherever they do and stand in your rocks or roads are usually done with rock salt sand.
00:25:08 Kevin
There's different, you know, like if you're, you know, really nice community. I'm sure you got some, like, magnesium and all these other things that they've that they use.
00:25:16 Kevin
It's like, man, what do you?
00:25:17 Kevin
What do you?
00:25:18 Kevin
Like, that's just a lot.
00:25:20 Kevin
And then so you raise, you raise the wage on the poorest.
00:25:24 Kevin
Know the the the least skilled worker there.
00:25:27 Kevin
And then guess.
00:25:28 Kevin
The Vegas ALG goes up the ton of salt goes up.
00:25:31 Kevin
Whatever it happens to be that you're buying whatever moniker you were buying salt in and then you have transportation, wages and fuel prices and the guys that you know are handling fuels at some point that those costs get relayed to the people handling fuel and then.
00:25:45 Kevin
Fuel prices go up and there's there's a lot of different.
00:25:48 Kevin
It's very complicated, but once once it happens, once the ball is in motion, some little piece of legislation from up top comes rolling down.
00:25:55 Kevin
It can decimate cities and and that's really where like everyone's like, oh, we just need living wages.
00:26:01 Kevin
Okay, but as soon as you do that, be prepared like your gallon of milk your eggs.
00:26:04 Kevin
Going to be this.
00:26:07 Kevin
So you, you're you're gonna. You're gonna see an increase and it ain't gonna be 1 1/2 percent. It's gonna. You're gonna see a 4% increase on the minimum wage is gonna be a 12% increase on everything else because that's that's 4% on like.
00:26:19 Kevin
Different monikers that make that product.
00:26:22 Kevin
And then then to get it to you, is another 4% increase and it's like man, you're at like 16% increase and it's like don't be surprised, don't be shocked.
00:26:30 Kevin
Well, blame the government like no 'cause the government. The goal, the government's not.
00:26:33 Kevin
Your stuff like they should be doing very minimal stuff because touches the more.
00:26:41 Kevin
It's like medication.
00:26:42 Kevin
The government like it can, it can.
00:26:45 Kevin
We're going to solve this problem. You got a headache?
00:26:47 Kevin
This is the government.
00:26:48 Kevin
Solve this headache.
00:26:49 Kevin
Oh, but it also causes dysentery and urinary tract infection. And like six other things, gives you gut problems like.
00:26:57 Kevin
You've got you've got explosive diarrhea now, but your headache is gone. And like, that's the issue.
00:27:02 Kevin
Well, let's let's have the government do this, this and this to solve those problems. It's like, well then, each one of those cost 10 more problems. So it like, it's like a hydra.
00:27:09 Kevin
You.
00:27:10 Kevin
You can't have the government solve all those problems the government can solve like 3 problems.
00:27:14 Kevin
And then we have to live with the consequences of those 10 things that come off of each one of those. So 30 things you have to deal with as a headache.
00:27:21 Kevin
Because of the three things you asked the government to handle, and you can also expect the government to do it 50% efficient.
00:27:28 Kevin
That's 25% efficient, like the government is nowhere near the epitome of anti efficiency so.
00:27:37 Kevin
There's another.
00:27:38 Kevin
So there was another 7 minutes for me to lead up to how our taxes work so that I can lead you up to.
00:27:47 Kevin
What I've inevitably come to the conclusion of.
00:27:52 Kevin
Our municipality has to stop spending. So like if we're not spending this is to our original point, if we're not spending, if you're only spending 45% of what you should be on roads and a portion of that is subsidized by government funds.
00:28:08 Kevin
Now you have to come up with the other 50% out of pocket and some of what you've already put in is out of pocket.
00:28:15 Kevin
You need to find their money, but the budget's already very tight and they're already breaking the tax cap, OK?
00:28:20 Kevin
How do we do this?
00:28:22 Kevin
Do we do this?
00:28:25 Kevin
I don't know what to tell you if you don't. If you haven't been outpacing inflation and now you have to catch up with inflation and every year you fall behind inflation a little bit more or the percentage you should be increasing by to cover costs every single year.
00:28:36 Kevin
You're not violating the tax cap. Eventually, at some point you have to.
00:28:41 Kevin
You have to you have.
00:28:43 Kevin
Just you have to more than just violate the.
00:28:45 Kevin
California, like they're going to try to do this year, they're going to do like a three-year 3 or 4 increase. It was better than 6.
00:28:51 Kevin
Like no, because actually 6 gets us closer to the goal.
00:28:54 Kevin
Like I don't want to and and and and don't misconstrue what I am saying.
00:28:59 Kevin
I do not want to watch my taxes go.
00:29:00 Kevin
I would love it if every year my taxes were zero, but I'm also a realist.
00:29:04 Kevin
You cannot raise my.
00:29:06 Kevin
You cannot not raise my taxes and then in 10 years from now, someone's going to have to RIP the Band-Aid off and going to be the we'll be the town of Dunker or the village at.
00:29:14 Kevin
Or the city of Dunkirk. Well, whatever.
00:29:16 Kevin
Their missiles structure.
00:29:18 Kevin
That is unimportant to this conversation.
00:29:21 Kevin
However, they did.
00:29:22 Kevin
They did like a 96% increase in their taxes and it was things like this.
00:29:29 Kevin
It was things like this.
00:29:32 Kevin
It's.
00:29:33 Kevin
It's going to.
00:29:33 Kevin
It's going to have to.
00:29:34 Kevin
And if they don't do it sooner rather than later, it's instead of it being a 25% tax increase, which is probably what they're going to have to do. It's going to be a 40% tax increase.
00:29:43 Kevin
Going to be a 60% tax.
00:29:44 Kevin
It's going to be 15 years from now and it's 98% tax increase because they have to do it.
00:29:49 Kevin
Have to do.
00:29:49 Kevin
We don't have to like.
00:29:52 Kevin
And it's political suicide for anybody who's in office. If you do this.
00:29:55 Kevin
But it's the way to right the ship.
00:29:57 Kevin
So how you write the ship is you're going to have to do a large tax increase to cover the costs that are going on.
00:30:02 Kevin
Sure, you can cut costs, but what are we talking about?
00:30:05 Kevin
Going to cut $10,000.
00:30:06 Kevin
$12,000 there from a 19 to $29 million.
00:30:09 Kevin
Or whatever.
00:30:10 Kevin
I'd have to double check the numbers, but when I was there they would always.
00:30:12 Kevin
Talk about a A 616 to $19 million.
00:30:16 Kevin
And then somebody told me the other day was like 29 million.
00:30:19 Kevin
I'm like, what, 29 million?
00:30:20 Kevin
That come from.
00:30:21 Kevin
And I'm wondering if they're also including the water and sewer divisions and funds which are completely separate.
00:30:26 Kevin
They don't go off our tax base.
00:30:27 Kevin
They're not allowed to go off our tax.
00:30:29 Kevin
They have to collect their own revenue through water and sewer funds and and billing so.
00:30:35 Kevin
But you got to think that you know you're a 19,000,000 million dollar budget to run the city and it's like.
00:30:42 Kevin
Well, I mean, if it has to be $25 million or $24 million.
00:30:47 Kevin
You got.
00:30:47 Kevin
Raise taxes to cover that because you're not going to drum up sales tax like you're going to spend more money on a marketing campaign to get people to.
00:30:54 Kevin
Money on sales tax, then you're going to bring in sales tax.
00:30:58 Kevin
So like that's.
00:30:59 Kevin
You're not going to increase that number other than its natural growth all by itself.
00:31:04 Kevin
That's what you have to do and it's and it sucks.
00:31:06 Kevin
And then also, if you can't afford certain things, you're going to have to cut pet projects back. Like I get infrastructure.
00:31:13 Kevin
West.
00:31:14 Kevin
8th St.
00:31:14 Kevin
But if you can't afford your groceries, you should probably cut back.
00:31:21 Kevin
You know the features of like the infrastructure work, the groceries that you have to do if you have to do a capital project.
00:31:29 Kevin
Like if your house if if you have to you know if if your house right and you have to put groceries into it then you should.
00:31:40 Kevin
If you put cities, if you put groceries into it, then you should, you know, to keep it sustainable and keep all the people in it alive.
00:31:46 Kevin
And which is, you know, your police, your fire, your you know you like it's it's all the parts of your government structure right.
00:31:51 Kevin
Things, the necessities that you need on a day-to-day basis. Those are groceries. But then you have capital improvements.
00:31:55 Kevin
Like you have the you have things like the infrastructure, you know, the plumbing in the house, the gas system in the, you know, the sewer mains in the house, the the roof that holds that protects the house. If you have all these different things that are going on.
00:32:08 Kevin
As well.
00:32:09 Kevin
And then you just like, wow, we.
00:32:10 Kevin
Put a pool in the backyard.
00:32:11 Kevin
It's like let's cut the pool in the backyard. Let's cut the the hot tub. Let's cut.
00:32:17 Kevin
Let's cut the bocce ball court with the basketball.
00:32:20 Kevin
We really wanted to put in the driveway, you know, like there's a lot of things. That's like, OK.
00:32:24 Kevin
Those are nice.
00:32:27 Kevin
They might attract a few new citizens here, but.
00:32:31 Kevin
Right now, we can't afford the price of eggs.
00:32:34 Kevin
So if you can't afford the price of eggs, you don't go sit there and say, well, I'm going to take the extra money. I could be using.
00:32:40 Kevin
Eggs and putting it.
00:32:42 Kevin
A pool or maintaining a pool, or you know whatever.
00:32:45 Kevin
Like.
00:32:46 Kevin
You can't afford the luxuries, so don't.
00:32:49 Kevin
Cut the spending.
00:32:51 Kevin
Cut the pet projects, cut the spending, and then you're still going to have to raise taxes by like 20%. Like if you jump on it now, it's only 20% now and there's an increase to cover inflation or to keep it at the tax cap to cover.
00:33:04 Kevin
And labor wages. And then, I mean, cut away, cut, cut all the things that you deem are fact cut.
00:33:10 Kevin
That's fine, but it's one of those.
00:33:13 Kevin
Is one of those.
00:33:14 Kevin
It's it's one of those difficult topics nobody wants to touch it. The third rail of politics, you're not going to touch that. And then also you have to think that a 20% increase on your city tax bill and this is something I was talking to somebody about.
00:33:30 Kevin
You have a excuse the garbage trucks. If you can hear them anyways.
00:33:38 Kevin
Here they come. They're coming.
00:33:43 Kevin
The your tax bill to make the numbers.
00:33:47 Kevin
It's probably like 20% for the city of Olean. Out of all the tax property taxes you pay in a year, it's probably about 20% for the city of Olan, and it's about 30% for the county.
00:33:58 Kevin
Give or take. Like if you look at like if I look at my average tax bills and and and it's probably like 22 and 28, but and it's close it's it's somewhere between a 20 to 30 ratio to a 25 to 25 like they.
00:34:14 Kevin
They're almost equal.
00:34:17 Kevin
And a large portion of it could be like 48%, but it's about 50%. Is your school taxes?
00:34:22 Kevin
And so if the city of Olean raises at the city level, raises taxes, it only raises the one bill.
00:34:28 Kevin
So just so everybody's aware, you get a lot for your one bill.
00:34:34 Kevin
It's it's 54,000 or dollars per thousand or.
00:34:38 Kevin
So if you have a $50,000 house and then times, maybe it's 56.
00:34:44 Kevin
Times 56 dollars.
00:34:47 Kevin
Oh man, I picked a perfect day for this.
00:34:48 Kevin
Guess every morning might not.
00:34:50 Kevin
I might have to or or Kevin better not rant for 35 minutes I guess is what it what it's getting at.
00:34:59 Kevin
$56 per thousand.
00:35:08 Kevin
Oh, oh, duh, that's that's right. OK.
00:35:14 Kevin
That's wrong too, OK.
00:35:19 Kevin
$56 per thousand your house is worth $50,000.
00:35:20 Kevin
This one.
00:35:23 Kevin
You pay $2800 a year in taxes, which is about right. And I always tell this this is an easy metronome to remember is.
00:35:29 Kevin
The $3000 for every 50.
00:35:33 Kevin
So if your house is worth 100,000, it's easy to say I pay $6000 in taxes and we're really you pay $5600 in taxes like I don't think anybody cares when you're having just a brief throw in numbers that people keeping it.
00:35:44 Kevin
Stupid.
00:35:45 Kevin
Those kissing numbers.
00:35:46 Kevin
So. So you're paying $3000 in taxes?
00:35:50 Kevin
So we round that up, right? Because note everybody's house is worth 50 grand.
00:35:53 Kevin
It's like 52 and now the housing markets through the roof, but they haven't done a.
00:35:56 Kevin
So lucky you, you get to sell your house for way more than it's worth, or you bought your house for way more than it used to be worth.
00:36:05 Kevin
And you, you.
00:36:08 Kevin
You haven't you paying taxes on the old system?
00:36:10 Kevin
So lucky you.
00:36:12 Kevin
If they did that, they wouldn't have to raise taxes at all.
00:36:14 Kevin
Also be paying.
00:36:15 Kevin
I'm just letting everybody know.
00:36:17 Kevin
So don't, don't go. Don't go wishing for certain things, because if we wish in one hand and poop in another, you know what they say.
00:36:26 Kevin
So you have a $3000 tax bill.
00:36:27 Kevin
That by 50%.
00:36:31 Kevin
So divide that by two gives you 50.
00:36:38 Kevin
Man, everybody put their garbage out today.
00:36:42 Kevin
So you divide that.
00:36:45 Kevin
I almost have to pause and pick this back up tomorrow, don't I?
00:36:49 Kevin
I'm not going to stock it.
00:36:51 Kevin
Not going to stop.
00:36:52 Kevin
A working Joe from working right.
00:36:57 Kevin
So $3000 / 2 you're paying $1500 a year in school taxes, give or take, right?
00:37:07 Kevin
OK. The other 15 per $100 you're paying a year in school in taxes are between the county and the city. And so half of that roughly is one or the other.
00:37:17 Kevin
So you're paying 7:50 to the school or to the city and 7:50 to the county. Now, actually, if you break down your county taxes, if you look at them, the line items.
00:37:25 Kevin
I don't know what the percentage is. I I want to say. It feels like you pay more.
00:37:37 Kevin
Sorry, waiting for the.
00:37:40 Kevin
Yeah. Was there, like a caravan of garbage trucks this morning?
00:37:45 Kevin
Anyways, you pay. If you look at your school, your county tax bill, I recommend that everybody who pays county taxes, everybody who gets a bill.
00:37:53 Kevin
So if you're watching the show and you're a tenant, you're not going to see half the stuff you can look online. If you look at the line item on your bill, it says like county taxes.
00:38:03 Kevin
Medicaid. So if you ever look at that, there's there's a Medicaid portion of your taxes. And I I'm going to do some more diving into it because it always strikes me as odd that I'm, you know, that like I'm a large portion of my county tax bill just.
00:38:16 Kevin
Other people's health.
00:38:17 Kevin
But most people don't look at that 'cause they hide it.
00:38:19 Kevin
Like if.
00:38:20 Kevin
Look at your phone bill. Luckily the county only.
00:38:22 Kevin
This is why I noticed county has 2 lines on there. They show you your your county taxes and then they show you your Medicaid share.
00:38:30 Kevin
And so it.
00:38:32 Kevin
It is kind of humorous because if you look at a a phone bill, a phone will have like 1500 different line items and you're not going to know which ones which and some of them are mandated government stuff.
00:38:41 Kevin
You're like.
00:38:43 Kevin
How was my $20 month phone?
00:38:45 Kevin
Cost me $120.00 a month was just $100 in miscellaneous government.
00:38:49 Kevin
Taxes and.
00:38:50 Kevin
And that's how they make their money.
00:38:52 Kevin
Like bed.
00:38:53 Kevin
Like all these other things that they're instituting, it's like just raise 1 tax man.
00:38:57 Kevin
Just raise 1 tax.
00:39:00 Kevin
So, but yeah, that's that's the rabbit hole that no one's gonna like that take it's you're gonna have to increase taxes.
00:39:08 Kevin
Have to cut spending.
00:39:09 Kevin
So the the people in office are not gonna like.
00:39:12 Kevin
You have to cut spending because everyone's got their little pet project.
00:39:15 Kevin
'S got their their.
00:39:17 Kevin
Oh, my ward needs this in this park and my, you know.
00:39:21 Kevin
My my ward complaints about this this issue and we can revamp it with this huge project and it's like and we can beautify the city with this project or you know I think it would be great if we did this and renovated that and.
00:39:32 Kevin
They're gonna.
00:39:33 Kevin
They're gonna hate that. They're also be like, hey, kids, Kevin Doherty. He's, you know, he's one guy.
00:39:37 Kevin
He gonna.
00:39:39 Kevin
So he shouldn't say that, OK.
00:39:42 Kevin
Whatever.
00:39:43 Kevin
And then all the people out there in tax paying land are going to be like going to raise our taxes 20%.
00:39:48 Kevin
Christ, you're nuts.
00:39:50 Kevin
Yeah, well, I'm not nuts.
00:39:52 Kevin
Just a.
00:39:53 Kevin
I I I think you're going to have to make a, you know. And I'm not saying that like I have a definitive number.
00:39:58 Kevin
It have to be 20%.
00:39:59 Kevin
We.
00:40:00 Kevin
18 is it really like 24/7?
00:40:04 Kevin
Like I'm just saying.
00:40:06 Kevin
The thumb.
00:40:07 Kevin
My thumb is testing the pulse like I'm not writing it down and then staring at the statistical data of the.
00:40:12 Kevin
I'm just saying my guts is saying that you're going to have to have a large tax increase based on certain monikers like.
00:40:21 Kevin
You're only funding 45% of your Rd. repairs. That's what I'm talking about.
00:40:25 Kevin
But that said guys, I want to thank you for watching.
00:40:29 Kevin
Thank you for listening.
00:40:30 Kevin
It's been a long one this morning, 40 minute.
00:40:33 Kevin
I'm sure none of you are listening to the whole thing.
00:40:36 Kevin
Now, not none of you.
00:40:37 Kevin
There's a couple of you die hard fans out there listening to my soothing voice.
00:40:41 Kevin
Just like Bing Crosby. That's right.
00:40:43 Kevin
So anyway guys, we will talk to you tomorrow on life 22.
00:40:47 Kevin
Forget to like, subscribe and have yourself a splendid day.
00:40:52 Kevin
Never say that.
00:40:53 Kevin
Have yourself a splendid day.
00:40:56 Kevin
The.
00:40:56 Kevin
Rain is beautiful too.