Life22

Day 13,483(1) - Alderman Update 3, Taxes, and Altruism.mp3
Transcript
00:00:09 Kevin
Hey, gang, Kevin here. Live 22 and I wanted.
00:00:15 Kevin
To.
00:00:16 Kevin
Um, start this beautiful, beautiful morning.
00:00:21 Kevin
Actually, I still don't know if it's a beautiful morning.
00:00:23 Kevin
I'm sure Dario is going to post in the comments that I am.
00:00:26 Kevin
Incorrect.
00:00:27 Speaker 2
Again it's it's 40° out bro.
00:00:29 Kevin
Anyways.
00:00:33 Kevin
I wanted to jump back into the Alderman races.
00:00:36 Kevin
We had some posts yesterday morning after we did the podcast from a couple of the incumbents and I figured I would delve into them as well as.
00:00:48 Kevin
Upcoming guests talk about a few different things, so again this afternoon we have Del Amores in studio.
00:00:55 Kevin
So stay tuned.
00:00:57 Kevin
To.
00:00:57 Kevin
She is a fan favorite. Everybody loves Stella.
00:01:01 Kevin
And then let's see.
00:01:05 Kevin
We're going to be putting together a special I'm trying to trying to figure out how I want to lay this out, but I would like to do a like more of a.
00:01:12 Kevin
I want to do a financial or an investment section, probably a separate playlist on the show.
00:01:19 Kevin
It might be different than the morning show.
00:01:20 Kevin
Debating how I want to do.
00:01:21 Kevin
I want to debating if I want to just kind of talk about the topic of the day on the morning show, if it's going to be local politics or you know if it's going to be something different.
00:01:32 Kevin
Maybe more than just your drive to work so.
00:01:36 Kevin
Ah.
00:01:37 Kevin
Hmm.
00:01:39 Kevin
Let's see here. So and I know.
00:01:42 Kevin
I know there's been a lot of contention lately.
00:01:50 Kevin
Let's see here.
00:01:55 Kevin
So I know there's also.
00:01:59 Kevin
A.
00:02:02 Kevin
An issue coming up at the Common Council tonight. I believe there is going to be a group of protesters coming in about the Allegheny River, which.
00:02:13 Kevin
We're building a special on that as.
00:02:14 Kevin
It'll probably be like a multipart series in the.
00:02:17 Kevin
Show it may even take up a whole morning show to get through a large portion of it.
00:02:25 Kevin
Just finiting the facts and.
00:02:26 Kevin
The things that people aren't telling you, a lot of people are are rooting this in emotion.
00:02:31 Kevin
And they're not rooting it in, like, actual facts and knowledge.
00:02:37 Kevin
And the one concern is that.
00:02:41 Kevin
Facts don't care about your feelings. To quote the great Ben Shapiro.
00:02:46 Kevin
Because that's that's the.
00:02:48 Kevin
I mean, a lot of big issues are that people, people are coming out of left field.
00:02:51 Kevin
Well, you know, I feel this way.
00:02:53 Speaker 2
Well, guess what?
00:02:54 Kevin
You know.
00:02:54 Kevin
Like I don't know from a young age I was always told that like, yes, you have emotions. You should kind of embrace them when like, you know you have the birth of a child or in love with somebody and you get married, you know, things like that, those.
00:03:05 Kevin
Important but.
00:03:07 Kevin
Like to let them rule your life like almost 95% of the.
00:03:11 Kevin
World is run by emotion, which it shouldn't.
00:03:14 Kevin
That's like what they always you know what I mean?
00:03:16 Kevin
Even founding fathers reference.
00:03:18 Kevin
Like you know, you have to be.
00:03:19 Kevin
You have to be logical which is not an emotional portion of the brain.
00:03:24 Kevin
And I there's a book I recommend to a lot of people that don't understand emotional intelligence.
00:03:29 Kevin
You have to understand that it exists so you can control it because essentially like it is a very irrational portion of your brain, it does not deal.
00:03:36 Kevin
Logic. It is the lizard brain as some people like to refer to it as.
00:03:40 Kevin
There's a book called Emotional Intelligence.
00:03:44 Kevin
And I will.
00:03:46 Kevin
I will find a link to that book on audible and I will put it in the comments below. Or not the comments, but the description just because I know a lot of my listeners are about self betterment and educating yourself.
00:03:59 Kevin
I recommend you get educated on that because.
00:04:02 Kevin
You know, letting emotions rule your life, which is what 95% of Americans do, which is one of the biggest issues, right?
00:04:09 Kevin
Oh, my God, they're doing.
00:04:10 Kevin
We gotta go freak out. And that's why every so divisive is because we become a less educated society.
00:04:15 Kevin
We let our emotions rule.
00:04:17 Kevin
And then we and then we like you know.
00:04:21 Kevin
Exaggerate and get, like, ramped up on different things and like, listen, like I'm I'm guilty of it too, right?
00:04:28 Kevin
Perfect. But like I get ramped up on things, but like it just you can't like make every decision from an emotional standpoint and like you have to understand that like emotions are not working for you. They're working for your lizard brain like they want to make sure.
00:04:42 Kevin
Survive. But like with social media, like it doesn't know what to.
00:04:46 Kevin
So it just lets you just freak out how you will. And that's not a perfect way to survive in this world is to go lizard brain on the Internet.
00:04:56 Kevin
I mean, you can go Tiktok viral, probably lose your job and all this other stuff, you know.
00:05:02 Kevin
So.
00:05:03 Kevin
Oh.
00:05:04 Kevin
So we have.
00:05:08 Kevin
Incumbent Alderman Vernon Robinson junior so yesterday.
00:05:12 Kevin
So he wrote a post, Texas who wants to pay them.
00:05:16 Kevin
I don't know, but the reality is we must pay them in some form, right?
00:05:20 Kevin
Property taxes are playing an important role in serving.
00:05:25 Kevin
For the services you receive from the city, but my taxes went up for the past.
00:05:31 Kevin
In the blank years.
00:05:32 Kevin
Well, not.
00:05:33 Kevin
And then so he goes into an excerpt here. And this is, this is what I've been telling, you know, some of the Alderman.
00:05:42 Kevin
And the Council president that, you know, one of the big issues is you're going to have to raise taxes.
00:05:46 Kevin
You're going to have to.
00:05:47 Kevin
I don't want to see taxes get raised, but you're going to have to. It's.
00:05:50 Kevin
You can't and and and if you do raise taxes, you're stepping on the third rail of politics.
00:05:55 Kevin
And you really don't need to so.
00:05:58 Kevin
And well, you do need to.
00:06:00 Kevin
Needs.
00:06:01 Kevin
It's just most people don't.
00:06:03 Kevin
Most people won't.
00:06:07 Kevin
And so here and then, yeah, we're breaking the tax.
00:06:10 Kevin
So I I implore you to go to his his his Alderman page on Facebook and read the post to its entirety.
00:06:17 Kevin
Then in this he posts a screenshot.
00:06:25 Kevin
Let's see here. He posts a screenshot from.
00:06:31 Kevin
It looks like the city of Olympia tax rates per thousand of assessed valuation.
00:06:40 Kevin
So I do need to dive more into this, but I believe.
00:06:47 Kevin
Like where he's saying that we haven't raised taxes significantly in the last many years.
00:06:56 Kevin
Since 2011.
00:06:59 Kevin
We've stayed at the tax cap.
00:07:00 Kevin
The downside was I don't believe a tax cap existed too far after the 2000s. I'd have to find out when the tax cap was implemented by New York State to and for most of you don't know what the tax cap is. The state incentivizes local municipalities to.
00:07:20 Kevin
Not not increase their property taxes, you know, buy so much each year if you don't. If your municipality doesn't break the tax cap, you get like an additional like rebate in a separate check or in your star exemption.
00:07:35 Kevin
Check from the state there is a like a rebate. If they don't break the tax.
00:07:40 Kevin
And it's so inconsequential, like when they go up a percent. I mean, we're talking like $20 a person, but then the state gives us, like, money back and it's like $50 a person. If you don't increase the taxes, it's like, well, but if they go up.
00:07:55 Kevin
So they go 2%.
00:07:56 Kevin
You like? You make $10. You know what I mean?
00:07:59 Kevin
It's it's an inconsequential number.
00:08:02 Kevin
Increase taxes by a percentage point, right?
00:08:04 Kevin
It's also an inconsequential number.
00:08:11 Kevin
To like why is the state handing us that money?
00:08:13 Kevin
Like the don't our money in the 1st place if you're just gonna hand it back. Like, why don't you just give it to our municipality?
00:08:18 Kevin
Like, hey, here's all the money we would have given your constituents.
00:08:22 Kevin
And so you can use this to offset the taxes.
00:08:25 Kevin
Like, oh, that you know, that would be phenomenal.
00:08:28 Kevin
I would love that.
00:08:30 Kevin
And but you know, so it disincentivizes municipalities to break the tax cap and incentivizes constituents to.
00:08:38 Kevin
Twister Municipality don't raise taxes and.
00:08:42 Kevin
You have to raise taxes because you know, like in the last couple years, inflation has not, you know, the the taxes have been outpaced by inflation.
00:08:53 Kevin
So like in the cost of goods that the city pays for, the city uses for repairs, the city pays in in wages that goes up.
00:09:02 Kevin
Significantly and and every year.
00:09:05 Kevin
In, you know like a 1 1/2% tax increase would keep you on the level, but when you miss a year or you're below it a year.
00:09:11 Kevin
You know, like now you have to play catch up. So and if in years where it's like 8-9 percent inflation like you really have to like compensate for that.
00:09:22 Kevin
So.
00:09:24 Kevin
It.
00:09:25 Kevin
And it's compounding, which adds another spectrum of, you know, complication to the situation.
00:09:31 Kevin
If you look at his his screenshot here.
00:09:34 Kevin
On the post.
00:09:36 Kevin
It it starts in 1987, no. Yes, 1987. And it shows a 5%, seven percent, 11% zero percent increase, 9 percent, 10 percent. 8%. So like if you try to like get use these numbers to get in the heads of the common.
00:09:52 Kevin
At the time.
00:09:55 Kevin
But you're also looking at the tax rate starts at 49 and 1/4.
00:10:01 Kevin
Percent. You know, our tax rate per thousand.
00:10:05 Kevin
So 5% increase is $2.33 per thousand.
00:10:11 Kevin
So if we pull up a nice calculation, let's see.
00:10:15 Kevin
So if your house is an average house in Olean pre COVID, the numbers are easier that way.
00:10:20 Kevin
House is worth $50,000.
00:10:22 Speaker 2
Right.
00:10:25 Kevin
Not 50 dollars, $50,000. And then so if you're paying taxes at 49 and 1/4 per thousand, right, so.
00:10:37 Kevin
Times.
00:10:39 Kevin
Let's see here.
00:10:40 Kevin
4925 per thousand.
00:10:45 Kevin
50,000 and then we want to divide it by 1000 to give us the number.
00:10:48 Kevin
It's 50 thousands, right?
00:10:52 Kevin
So you're paying 2460?
00:10:56 Kevin
50.
00:10:58 Kevin
Per thousand in 1987, right.
00:11:04 Kevin
Well, if you keep following that wow and then it goes.
00:11:08 Kevin
An increase was $2.33, right?
00:11:11 Kevin
So if that same 50 dollar $50,000 house went up by $2.33, it went up by 116 bucks back in 1987, right?
00:11:22 Kevin
By the time they ended this in 2010.
00:11:26 Kevin
Taxes had to go up so much to cover costs that you were paying 100 and 7098, and that's just and I don't if this incorporates the school taxes.
00:11:36 Kevin
And this the county or I don't.
00:11:40 Kevin
So once we get to this next part, I don't. This is why I don't believe it does. But because I know right now we are currently at about $54 per thousand and that's aggravating.
00:11:50 Kevin
Crossed every metric.
00:11:52 Kevin
The school districts the school tax bill, the county tax bill and your city, so you would have been paying an extra $116.50 per thousand for that, you know 5% increase.
00:12:05 Kevin
Right. So.
00:12:08 Kevin
O divide that by 5.
00:12:12 Kevin
Ooop.
00:12:16 Kevin
Oh, because it was also based on the percentage, right?
00:12:19 Kevin
So yeah, one, yeah.
00:12:21 Kevin
In 2000.
00:12:24 Kevin
12.
00:12:26 Kevin
Let's say 2000.
00:12:28 Kevin
There's a 1% tax increase.
00:12:29 Kevin
Was $0.15 right?
00:12:32 Kevin
$2.00 and.
00:12:34 Kevin
$2.33 per.
00:12:41 Kevin
Times 1000.
00:12:45 Kevin
Wait a minute. No. Times 50. What am I? Jesus. Kevin, what are you doing this.
00:12:49 Kevin
Times 50 is $116.00 / 5 was $23.30 per person of what the tax rate was.
00:12:58 Kevin
A percentage increase right in 1987.
00:13:02 Kevin
To 1988, the year I was born. If any of you gave a ****.
00:13:08 Kevin
So percentage increase.
00:13:12 Kevin
So if your house is worth $50,000.
00:13:16 Kevin
And you had a 1% increase in 2020, it was $0.15, so 15 * 15 cents was $7.50 for a 1%.
00:13:26 Kevin
So if you broke the tax cap and you went 3%, we're gonna multiply that number by three. Your $22.50 and the state wouldn't give you a check for 50.
00:13:35 Kevin
Which is dumb because you'd be like, why wouldn't the state just give us the money? If you're taking out of our income taxes, just give it back to us, to the county. The city like it's stupid.
00:13:47 Kevin
Anyways.
00:13:49 Kevin
But in 2010 to 2011, there was, and this is this is a point that I have to, you know, like that is like very.
00:13:57 Kevin
Real.
00:13:59 Kevin
In in what Vernon posted here.
00:14:03 Kevin
And I think he was using this chart to convey like how tax increases were huge.
00:14:09 Kevin
You know, prior to 2011, because I mean 20/20/2007 and 2008 like a 19% tax increase, looks like the highest one of all the the years and then it was 14 before it and 11 after it and dropped to 5.
00:14:24 Kevin
And then there was a -92%.
00:14:27 Kevin
Tax increase, which means it's a tax decrease of 92%.
00:14:28 Kevin
Text.
00:14:33 Kevin
In 2010 to 2011 budget year.
00:14:38 Kevin
So the city's budget runs twenty runs June 1st.
00:14:42 Kevin
Like for this for example, this upcoming year is June 1st of 2025.
00:14:48 Kevin
To May 31st of 2026.
00:14:51 Kevin
So it's it's not even mid year.
00:14:54 Kevin
Because everyone thinks, oh, June's the middle of the.
00:14:56 Kevin
No, technically, July 1st, it's the beginning of the second-half of the year.
00:15:00 Kevin
So a true budgetary year.
00:15:03 Kevin
Would be July 1st.
00:15:06 Kevin
To uh.
00:15:08 Speaker 2
Right.
00:15:09 Kevin
Or am I off on that?
00:15:10 Kevin
I might be off on that.
00:15:13 Kevin
No. Alright, never mind. They're right.
00:15:17 Kevin
It's it's too early in the morning for Kevin.
00:15:24 Kevin
So they do a half year fiscal year versus your standard, you know calendar year, fiscal year.
00:15:30 Kevin
But there was a tax refi or not refi, a tax adjustment or an assess a reassessment that is done and So what they do is they say OK, what is your fair market value of your house?
00:15:42 Kevin
There's all these houses that were undervalued.
00:15:46 Kevin
Until 2011, when they did, you know, 2010, 2011, when they did a tax, a refi or a a reval.
00:15:54 Kevin
So that Reval actually took a house and maybe, like my grandparents, were probably stuck in the middle of that.
00:16:00 Kevin
Mean my grandfather died in 2009.
00:16:03 Kevin
They didn't sell the house until about 2010.
00:16:05 Kevin
He died in 2000.
00:16:07 Kevin
No, I was in Texas when he died, 2009 February 2000.
00:16:12 Kevin
They probably sold the house in 2000, so right about that time they probably did a.
00:16:16 Kevin
Re eval. But my grandfather was paying taxes on like.
00:16:20 Kevin
He bought the house with the lot next to it. Unlike S, like over by Irving Street, Irving Parkway, Irving Street.
00:16:28 Kevin
And it was.
00:16:31 Kevin
Jeez, I think my dad used to tell me he paid, like, 10 grand.
00:16:34 Kevin
A year and then eventually with tax increases he was or and like little assessments here and there.
00:16:42 Kevin
The the reassessment they did probably prior to 1987, he was because they bought the house in like the 19.
00:16:48 Kevin
1860s. And so he was paying like, I think by the time like they sold the house the estate like the assessed value at the time was.
00:16:58 Kevin
Like $16,000, they sold it for 30, you know.
00:17:04 Kevin
But it was one of those like, so if you have a lot of houses that are like not been reevaluated since the since the 60s, you know, and maybe they did a reval in 1987 and that's why this goes back that far, maybe this is the.
00:17:18 Kevin
Back they went with electronic, but if they didn't do a re 1987 and they're like the assessed value of my grandfather's property.
00:17:25 Kevin
$16,000.
00:17:27 Kevin
All right. Well, so a tax increase on a $16,000 house?
00:17:34 Kevin
In 1987, X 2.33, if that was the average House, which I would say it was slightly below average because it was like A2 bed.
00:17:43 Kevin
It was a three bedroom home.
00:17:45 Kevin
It.
00:17:46 Kevin
It wasn't the average, you know, wasn't like the nicest, but it probably was the average that wasn't an apartment or a duplex, but that was a $37 tax increase.
00:17:56 Kevin
And I'm sure he griped about it.
00:17:57 Kevin
That's like it's like 3 cases of beer back in 1987, four, five cases of beer bought a keg for 3725.
00:18:04 Kevin
8 Actually Jesus, you could have. You could probably bought 2 kegs back then.
00:18:09 Kevin
'Cause. Well, I mean in 2006.
00:18:12 Kevin
When I was in high school not buying kegs, but I happen to know the keg prices.
00:18:18 Kevin
You could get a keg of PBR for 3230.
00:18:21 Kevin
Remember.
00:18:22 Kevin
Duly noted right up here.
00:18:24 Kevin
Go, you know and.
00:18:28 Kevin
The year before that, they had passed that stupid $105.00 deposit thing.
00:18:32 Kevin
I mean, you were.
00:18:33 Kevin
You had an investment in a keg.
00:18:35 Kevin
For sure.
00:18:36 Kevin
And drove a lot of people to Pennsylvania where the deposit was only 10 bucks.
00:18:40 Kevin
So, but then people kept scrapping the keg because they were only 10.
00:18:43 Kevin
Scrap stainless steel and get like 50 bucks back as long as you blew a bullet hole in it and it was good to go.
00:18:50 Kevin
So. So they had to raise it to 30.
00:18:53 Kevin
And then work with the scrap yard just to not.
00:18:55 Kevin
Them and.
00:18:57 Kevin
Scrap values drop so you weren't getting more than 30 for them anyway, so why would you even bother?
00:19:01 Kevin
Bring it back to the Beer store. Get your money.
00:19:04 Kevin
Anyways, another tangent. Thanks guys.
00:19:06 Kevin
Anyway, so in in 2011 they dropped.
00:19:09 Kevin
So the price per thousand on tax rate was 1444. So if your house was probably only worth or only appraised at $25,000.
00:19:20 Kevin
Let's just use that as a high number $25,000 * 4925.
00:19:30 Kevin
You were paying for your city tax.
00:19:32 Kevin
You were paying 12/31/25 a year 123125.
00:19:39 Kevin
What you're.
00:19:40 Kevin
You're paying, like, just over 1200 bucks.
00:19:44 Kevin
For the city, for your tax bill, which is right around normal for nowadays for like?
00:19:50 Kevin
It's been kind of consistent really well. No, it's dropped.
00:19:57 Kevin
So that's got to be.
00:20:01 Kevin
Houses must have been appraised a lot lower and I'm wondering I would see, like I said, I have to do more research into this, but these are the things that you don't understand about a refi. So a lot of the houses I wanna, I would like to know.
00:20:12 Kevin
The average house was worth during that time period, so you could see when it gets up to 100 and 7098.
00:20:20 Kevin
Like before, they did the re eval they probably had houses that were appraised at $10,000 because they hadn't been evaluated since.
00:20:29 Kevin
Then you know the 1910s. It sounds like you have $10,000 house, or even just keeping that number solid. I doubt you had too many houses worth 25,000, at least on the tax rolls, is what they were appraised at 25 * 100 and.
00:20:43 Kevin
7098, which is where it ended in 2010, right?
00:20:48 Kevin
You were paying 4274.
00:20:54 Kevin
Price per thousand.
00:20:57 Kevin
I wonder if they also.
00:21:00 Kevin
Maybe you got one bill during that time.
00:21:02 Kevin
Too.
00:21:04 Kevin
I wasn't paying tax bills at that time.
00:21:07 Kevin
I may have no.
00:21:09 Kevin
My dad used to gripe about it.
00:21:10 Kevin
Oh, I got three different tax bills to pay now that it must have always.
00:21:14 Kevin
I just wonder what they did until the the refi.
00:21:17 Kevin
So now all of a sudden they go through and they're gonna reappraise homes, right?
00:21:21 Kevin
This this like this is a notice of something that.
00:21:24 Kevin
You should.
00:21:25 Kevin
You should be thinking about though. If they're reappraising homes and all of your house.
00:21:30 Kevin
House is significantly they don't just say go through and say hey, you know, we're charging you 178 a $170.98 per thousand.
00:21:42 Kevin
On on the assessed value of your home. And then they go through and raise the houses and all of a sudden your house that was worth 25,000 is now worth 100, right?
00:21:51 Kevin
Isn't that is an?
00:21:52 Kevin
It it is now worth $100,000.
00:21:56 Kevin
Well, they're not going to charge you $170.98, because if your house was.
00:22:01 Kevin
100 Well this, I mean this should be easy math, right?
00:22:06 Kevin
Move the decimal place over 2, right?
00:22:09 Kevin
You're paying $17,000 a year for your $100,000 house. Well, that's ridic.
00:22:17 Kevin
Ulous. That is ridiculous.
00:22:19 Kevin
And there's no way they would do something like.
00:22:21 Kevin
And that's why there is a 98% or 92% tax decrease because they reevaluated and then it says right at the bottom, oh, there it is right at the bottom, there's a little asterisk next to 2010, 2011.
00:22:34 Kevin
And it says first property reassessment.
00:22:37 Kevin
1968.
00:22:40 Kevin
1968 so if my grandparents, my grandparents, my my grandparents lived around the corner in a house when my dad was born in 1950, four 1954.
00:22:52 Kevin
And he said when he was a boy, they moved to the house that eventually my grandparents, like died, didn't die in the house.
00:23:00 Kevin
You know what I mean?
00:23:00 Kevin
They.
00:23:01 Kevin
That was the last house they owned before they passed away.
00:23:06 Kevin
And I remember it being worth like $16,000 on the tax rolls.
00:23:10 Kevin
Not what it's actually.
00:23:11 Kevin
It's just what the the the government says it's worth because of the re eval. So they go off of like previous sale price and things like that.
00:23:20 Kevin
And they track some of that data.
00:23:21 Kevin
They track if you pull a building permit that does a remodel. If you pull the building permit for a roof, they don't raise your taxes.
00:23:26 Kevin
At least they're not supposed to, for the simple fact that your your house like. If you paint your house like your your house supposed to be painted every five years.
00:23:33 Kevin
The the condition of your house.
00:23:37 Kevin
Is supposed to be. They're taxing you based on the value, and that value is at your house being at 100%. That means brand new roof siding is just freshly painted or freshly sided foundations and good repair like there's no major issues. And what happens is if.
00:23:52 Kevin
Let those things go.
00:23:54 Kevin
Because you don't want them to raise your taxes.
00:23:56 Kevin
All that does is when you go to sell the house, that drops the value.
00:24:00 Kevin
Like the sale value, so and then the sales value is what they base it off of.
00:24:07 Kevin
So if you owned $100,000 house when they re evaled, and I would say they took that six, that $25,000 home and they made it 50,000 or they made it maybe 75,000, right, which would make more sense, right? So they.
00:24:19 Kevin
Haven't raised it since 1968 and they went up and they did a reassessment. And so you say.
00:24:25 Kevin
75 times the new rate in 2010, right?
00:24:31 Kevin
Is $14.44 and This is why I believe this portion is the city's share.
00:24:37 Kevin
You're paying 1000 bucks for $75,000 home, which makes sense.
00:24:43 Kevin
Because on average in the city with between all three bills, if your 50 houses were 50.
00:24:49 Kevin
$1000 you're paying about $3000 a year in taxes, give or.
00:24:53 Kevin
So if you have $100,000 home at $6000 a year and that's across all three bills, right? So.
00:24:59 Kevin
Yeah, you're paying 1000 bucks a year to your city for your taxes.
00:25:03 Kevin
Which, to Vernon's point in his in in the.
00:25:07 Kevin
You are.
00:25:08 Kevin
You're getting a phenomenal deal out of that.
00:25:11 Kevin
I mean, people are paying taxes like you're getting a phenomenal deal because you're getting police, you're getting fire.
00:25:18 Kevin
You're getting roads and you can gripe about the condition of all of them, right?
00:25:22 Speaker 2
Like, well, the police aren't the best or the fire department isn't the greatest, or, you know, or the road zip potholes.
00:25:28 Kevin
Like you can always find something to.
00:25:30 Kevin
But I think what you get for $1000.83 in 2010 or even $17.77 * 75 for $1300 like 300 bucks $300.00 more a year.
00:25:45 Kevin
In a 15 year span.
00:25:48 Kevin
That's.
00:25:49 Kevin
So that's that's not the city's fault that they pay more money, that you have to pay more money to the share to contribute. But.
00:25:56 Kevin
And that was with a 6%. Oh, that's what the projected 6% tax increase.
00:26:01 Kevin
It.
00:26:02 Kevin
They broke the tax cap.
00:26:03 Kevin
It was 2020.
00:26:05 Kevin
It was 1%, 2020, 2/23 it was 3%, four percent, 5% and now projected at 6%, which they'll probably settle at 3 to 4%.
00:26:15 Kevin
But I think like you can, you can poke holes in anything that you want at the city government level. You can say that you don't like this.
00:26:22 Kevin
You don't like that there's too many potholes, you know, whatever.
00:26:27 Kevin
You're getting all those.
00:26:28 Kevin
You're getting. You're getting a rec center. You're getting an ice skating.
00:26:31 Kevin
You're getting a stadium, you get, you know, youth basketball. You get a wading pool, you have parks, you have playground equipment.
00:26:42 Kevin
You you get all these little benefits besides the big ones, which I'm in favor of, like, wholeheartedly, which is, you know, you know your level roads.
00:26:51 Kevin
Your your protection from crackheads and people breaking into your home and you know, and then obviously if my neighbor's house burns down like.
00:26:57 Kevin
Get over here, put.
00:26:58 Kevin
Put it out.
00:26:59 Kevin
Oh, my house going up like a candle like it's, you know, you're getting all that for 1300 bucks a year for your $75,000 home, like insurance is about that.
00:27:08 Kevin
So like if you want the added protection of. Well, if these things don't protect.
00:27:15 Kevin
Like and with the insurance you're just getting like, you know, you could pay half that price and just get fire insurance. But if your house burns down, you want to build a brand new house.
00:27:22 Kevin
Exactly the same with the, you know, the oak trim that maybe your house has 75,000 in the city. You're not getting that for like.
00:27:28 Kevin
Lesson.
00:27:29 Kevin
$500,000 if you were to build new oak trim mosaic tile flooring like, there's a lot of these like caveats like you're getting a nice house for $75,000 in only in New York and you have to pay 1300 bucks a year in.
00:27:43 Kevin
But you get more than you would get with insurance like so actually I would say you get less out of, you know, a fire and ACV replacement or in in an indemnity policy you indemnify you all the way up to a rebuild.
00:27:58 Kevin
Would probably be about.
00:27:59 Kevin
Same.
00:28:00 Kevin
So to protect your home. But that doesn't protect you from crackheads.
00:28:02 Kevin
Doesn't pave the road in front of your house.
00:28:05 Kevin
You know, like that doesn't provide code enforcement.
00:28:10 Kevin
Like it?
00:28:10 Kevin
It doesn't provide a lot of things.
00:28:13 Kevin
With your insurance price the $1300 does, I was gonna say I probably pay 1300 bucks a year for the.
00:28:19 Kevin
On my home.
00:28:21 Kevin
I don't.
00:28:22 Kevin
My insurance adjuster ain't coming here to protect me from crackheads.
00:28:25 Speaker 2
They're.
00:28:26 Kevin
Not going to have somebody come, you know, somebody comes breaks in my house, kills me and my family takes all our stuff.
00:28:30 Kevin
They're not going to be providing justice.
00:28:32 Kevin
They're not going to have an investigator show up.
00:28:38 Kevin
They might have a an investigator show up to figure out what the house is worth when the.
00:28:41 Kevin
Goes.
00:28:42 Kevin
Sell it, but I don't care about that.
00:28:45 Kevin
I.
00:28:46 Kevin
I want justice.
00:28:46 Kevin
I want I want justice for my corpse. Like that's like.
00:28:52 Kevin
So those are all the things that you're getting for your 1300 bucks, which I think is well more than insurance.
00:28:56 Kevin
Nobody.
00:28:57 Kevin
Well, people gripe about insurance, but nobody gripes.
00:28:59 Kevin
You know the difference between that? Nobody draws the comparable right.
00:29:02 Kevin
So I would have to do more research into like what were the average homes during that time period.
00:29:09 Kevin
Are the things that I would be.
00:29:10 Kevin
So we've already done 30 minutes on just Vernon's post here.
00:29:13 Kevin
But I think that it is.
00:29:15 Kevin
I think that it's good that he brought it up. I think that he is touching the third rail of politics a little bit, but given that he's an incumbent without, I don't believe.
00:29:25 Kevin
In an uncontested race, I think that he'd probably be the one that.
00:29:30 Kevin
You know, and if you're doing what's right, man, you gotta raise taxes. I also think they need to curb spending.
00:29:36 Kevin
On certain things, I think that they do need to. I think that they need to budget more money for things that they already own, that they need that need maintenance, that need continued.
00:29:46 Kevin
Continued TLC things that they own. Like there's there's different structures that need roofs, things that you need to be planning for that like they should be building the general fund.
00:29:55 Kevin
Think that you know, if you curb spending, I think they're they're you're the past or they're going to pass a rule that I've been talking about for a while.
00:30:04 Kevin
Well, since the you know since the the.
00:30:06 Kevin
The the city's shortfall this year, I've been saying you need to just always anticipate 75% of sales tax.
00:30:13 Kevin
And any money the other 25%, like let's say you match next year with 0% increase, that 25% can roll right to the general fund.
00:30:19 Kevin
Just every year. Don't don't prepare to spend it because you have a deficit.
00:30:23 Kevin
A deficit. But you have a a very low fund balance.
00:30:27 Kevin
You're supposed to have like 15% of the fund balance in there and I believe it was.
00:30:31 Kevin
To be like.
00:30:33 Kevin
24 to 28 you know 2.4 to $2.8 million in there and we're we're under 1 and I know the state owes money and stuff like that, but it's like man, we like build it, build it 2525% of.
00:30:47 Kevin
Sales tax getting dumped in there for a couple of years and then after that you can.
00:30:52 Kevin
Allocate money from the general Fund after you've regained your savings.
00:30:58 Kevin
To comfortably cover because your general fund.
00:31:02 Kevin
Isn't your your?
00:31:06 Kevin
It's not like a savings account, right?
00:31:08 Kevin
Actually working capital.
00:31:09 Kevin
It's it's not in one like they call it an account, but that's just an accounting term.
00:31:14 Kevin
It's not like in a bank account like not touched, you know this 2.6 like it is, it is money used to pay vendors that you know that.
00:31:23 Kevin
The for toilet paper for for MOP, mop buckets, cleaning solutions.
00:31:28 Kevin
Is money to cover.
00:31:31 Kevin
The 100 line item contractual labor labor so like.
00:31:35 Kevin
W2 employees of the city it's used to cover.
00:31:40 Kevin
Retirement fund.
00:31:42 Kevin
Retirement fund.
00:31:44 Kevin
Medical insurance contributions insurance on properties the city owns.
00:31:49 Kevin
It's it's the working.
00:31:51 Kevin
Does all that. So like when you're in between years and you haven't built for property taxes this year, you haven't gotten your your quarterly sales tax in like you need money in the bank to cover that?
00:32:00 Kevin
Yeah. At the end of the year, you might be net positive.
00:32:02 Kevin
Some years you're net negative, but like you need to be.
00:32:06 Kevin
On the whole, you need to be keeping a healthy fund balance in there because 15% of your annual budget allow in in just the general fund savings portion of that account.
00:32:17 Kevin
Allows you to always maintain a minimal working capital balance, and that's the purpose of it.
00:32:21 Kevin
You start dropping down to 5% or lower like.
00:32:26 Kevin
Your overdraft of the bank account to cover payroll like that, and then that doesn't bode well.
00:32:31 Kevin
But I'm glad that he he point pointed this out so.
00:32:35 Kevin
Another another post was from.
00:32:42 Kevin
Sonia McCall over the past four years serving my constituents in Ward 4 have been tremendous honor in both 2003.
00:32:49 Kevin
So I've worked diligently.
00:32:52 Kevin
Let's see.
00:32:52 Kevin
I look back the past couple years, my run in 2021.
00:32:56 Kevin
Priorities. So she's kinda. I encourage each and everyone of you to go there and do this.
00:33:01 Kevin
Appreciate your past.
00:33:02 Kevin
Let's see. Your city faces many challenges. She talks about the, so she's pretty much giving her her speech.
00:33:07 Kevin
I am rerunning.
00:33:08 Kevin
I'm running for reelection so.
00:33:12 Kevin
I maybe she was making it formal.
00:33:14 Kevin
In November, I know that there's a lot of work to be done coming year.
00:33:20 Kevin
I have been endorsed. OK, so maybe it was because I did point out that she had.
00:33:26 Kevin
That her other one didn't point out like it pointed.
00:33:28 Kevin
I think it pointed out that they nominated her, but she didn't point out specific come out and say that she was rerunning and maybe that's what this is an official post to do.
00:33:39 Kevin
She's been endorsed by the the Democratic Party.
00:33:43 Kevin
And.
00:33:47 Kevin
The Working Families Party I have to do research into that because I always feel like I always say Democratic Party, but I don't believe it's. I believe that's where the word derives from.
00:33:57 Kevin
I believe their party title is Democrat party, but maybe it's Democratic.
00:34:05 Kevin
It's one of those like.
00:34:07 Kevin
It's like like when people miss mishear and they go, oh, I'm a I'm an independent and then they're actually signed up for the Independence Party, which was a thing a few years ago in New York.
00:34:18 Kevin
We've talked about it on the show.
00:34:20 Kevin
I appreciate your past support.
00:34:22 Kevin
I'll further you know, I encourage anyone who wants to be part of the solution has ideas to reach out to me through my city e-mail so.
00:34:34 Kevin
Alright. And then she gives that below 0.
00:34:39 Kevin
I think that's some exciting stuff.
00:34:44 Kevin
Hmm.
00:34:47 Kevin
All right. Let let's see, June.
00:34:51 Kevin
And I know there was a.
00:34:57 Kevin
Hmm.
00:34:58 Kevin
Here it is.
00:35:12 Kevin
Alright.
00:35:16 Kevin
So and I know so a few other few other people have come out of the woodwork in Ward 2.
00:35:23 Kevin
For Alderman.
00:35:27 Kevin
I haven't.
00:35:28 Kevin
I've heard I've seen in the comments people saying that there's somebody else running and that they're a great candidate and I haven't seen a Facebook page pop up yet.
00:35:38 Kevin
It was kind of like there was a third candidate for mayor, 5th candidate for mayor or something like that that popped up.
00:35:45 Kevin
Like I have a feeling that the 4th candidate for mayor is gonna drop out.
00:35:49 Kevin
There was there's there's the incumbent Bill Alio. There is Amy Sherburn.
00:35:56 Kevin
And then there's Jared Eiseman on the Republican side.
00:35:59 Kevin
Sherburn has been cross endorsed by the Dems.
00:36:02 Kevin
So for those of you who are not following, this is the quick rundown.
00:36:06 Kevin
And then there was Bob Buchanan had announced, and then quickly.
00:36:12 Kevin
I believe was dispatched by his wife, who told him not to.
00:36:16 Kevin
She didn't think it would be a good idea, so I believe he is settling in this March for marriage with the opine of his wife.
00:36:25 Kevin
And not not running.
00:36:29 Kevin
So Ward two, I've hurt and.
00:36:31 Kevin
But there was another grumbling of some other guy on the 14760 group or the the only in politics group or something.
00:36:38 Kevin
Of those Facebook groups somebody had posted so and so was going to run.
00:36:40 Kevin
Then there was a lot of contention.
00:36:44 Kevin
Which?
00:36:44 Kevin
It is what it is.
00:36:48 Kevin
Let's see.
00:36:48 Kevin
So Joe Kerry still running.
00:36:52 Kevin
I think that he'd be a good candidate. I'm excited to have him on the show if the other candidates.
00:36:57 Kevin
Are running. They need to get their petitions out there.
00:37:00 Kevin
They need to make their, you know, they need to make a Facebook page, they need to do, you know, get at least get their name out there, because if I don't know, you're running man like, then you probably ain't running.
00:37:10 Kevin
That's usually, but I also encourage you to reach out to me to let me know that you're running so we can schedule a time for you to get on the show. We'll be sending out invitations to all the all the upcoming.
00:37:22 Kevin
In.
00:37:23 Kevin
In the next coming days so that we can start getting a schedule together.
00:37:27 Kevin
So Joe Carey award.
00:37:28 Kevin
Sonia McCall Award for I believe somebody did mention there was award for Alderman that was going to be contesting Sonia.
00:37:36 Kevin
But.
00:37:37 Kevin
I could be mistaken because a lot of times it is fate.
00:37:39 Kevin
I said Facebook.
00:37:45 Kevin
It is Facebook like nonsense too so.
00:37:51 Kevin
Sony McCall.
00:37:55 Kevin
Democratic candidate.
00:38:03 Kevin
No. Yeah, other cities and.
00:38:07 Kevin
No, I I nothing that popped up on my quick Facebook search.
00:38:17 Speaker 2
So.
00:38:25 Kevin
But yes, so and then Ward 6 is Vernon Robinson junior and Ward 7 is Dave Anastasia, which I haven't.
00:38:35 Kevin
I pretty much I like there hasn't been really.
00:38:41 Kevin
Many, many people coming forward out of the woodwork to run for any of these.
00:38:45 Kevin
Like I heard that there were, there were grumblings of people maybe running but.
00:38:51 Kevin
It's.
00:38:52 Kevin
I'm not.
00:38:52 Kevin
I'm not getting too much so.
00:38:56 Kevin
And then obviously, we talked about school boards yesterday.
00:38:59 Kevin
We have delamoore coming on the.
00:39:00 Kevin
We have an expose I'd like to do on tiny homes. I'd like to get get you guys some information on sewer discharge. The facts that they're not telling.
00:39:12 Kevin
You that would surprise you and probably put a lot of protesters to shame.
00:39:18 Kevin
Ah, and then.
00:39:21 Kevin
We I'd also like to do, and this is so actually this next part gets me into this.
00:39:28 Kevin
I know we're.
00:39:29 Kevin
I know you guys don't like to listen to me talk for 40 minutes, but.
00:39:33 Kevin
So there wasn't the article we talked about yesterday.
00:39:38 Kevin
Um.
00:39:43 Kevin
Ah.
00:39:45 Kevin
I think he removed it.
00:39:49 Speaker 2
What a **** head.
00:39:59 Speaker 2
So there was a few people.
00:40:02 Kevin
On the Onion stars page.
00:40:08 Kevin
There was one person in particular and he didn't use a real name, and I know the only in Star had an issue with it and they've posted up a comment in the meantime.
00:40:16 Kevin
Was going to read that comment, but I didn't screenshot it so I believe it's gone now.
00:40:22 Kevin
And essentially the the name on the account was.
00:40:27 Kevin
Well, we know which and then.
00:40:37 Kevin
So anyways, if you break the word down, it's we know and know who, HOW or sorry who.
00:40:48 Kevin
U the.
00:40:50 Kevin
U and then R and then the last two letters are EF.
00:40:54 Kevin
So I'm assuming it was like a scare tactic for Eric Firkle, who wrote the article like we know who you are, Eric Furkel.
00:41:02 Kevin
And it was humorous to see this because.
00:41:07 Kevin
The the person in there I was trying to figure out who it might be when I was reading the comment was.
00:41:14 Kevin
Because it was talking about like I'm corrupt Kevin. And I'm thinking like this person's out of touch and like he got a job with the city because blah blah blah.
00:41:23 Kevin
Now listen, I got a job with the city because there was an opening.
00:41:27 Kevin
And because it was a better way for me to give back to my community than just being an Alderman.
00:41:35 Kevin
Like, let that sink in like.
00:41:39 Kevin
I'm doing an HVAC job for half of what people in the industry are making, doing an HVAC job.
00:41:45 Kevin
Like and you can make the.
00:41:47 Kevin
Yes, the the city has insurance and they have, you know, retirement and stuff like that, like whatever.
00:41:52 Kevin
Like that's that's a.
00:41:55 Kevin
That's a that's a non starter because you're already getting 50% of your pay like. And the reason you take a job working for a municipality at a lower wage.
00:42:04 Kevin
Is.
00:42:05 Kevin
Yes, the argument that, well, you get like 20% more in benefits than you would anywhere else, OK.
00:42:10 Kevin
Now you're working for, you know, 70% of your wage or 75% of your wage.
00:42:15 Kevin
Where's the other 25% then, huh?
00:42:17 Kevin
That's what most municipal.
00:42:20 Kevin
Most people from the public and most municipal employees also miss.
00:42:24 Kevin
Is that the fact that you don't work for a municipality expecting it to be a great job?
00:42:28 Kevin
You do it to give back to your community.
00:42:31 Kevin
There's an altruistic.
00:42:34 Kevin
It's a good 25% of what you get paid.
00:42:37 Kevin
Obviously, you can't volunteer at everything that you love.
00:42:42 Kevin
I love my community and that's why I take this, this that position. If the position dried up, I can find work elsewhere like I'm not concerned about workload. I can find work elsewhere.
00:42:56 Kevin
But it's it's the fact that that's why you do.
00:42:58 Kevin
So for somebody to be on the the Olean Star comment section, being Kevin's corrupt, he only he he played his position to get a job with the like. No, no, I graduated into a higher.
00:43:13 Kevin
Benefit to my city.
00:43:15 Kevin
I could benefit my city in a better way, and that's what I do.
00:43:20 Kevin
Tireless hours.
00:43:21 Kevin
I'm the guy that if you go to the city like I'm the guy who doesn't take a lunch break. I don't take regular breaks. Like I don't do these things.
00:43:27 Kevin
I'm yelled at for it too, because like I'm working so hard. It's like, well, if you work late, you have to get paid for. Like, no, I don't care. Like I like.
00:43:36 Kevin
That this is my city. Like I I'm willing to die for it like that is.
00:43:41 Kevin
You know, if it came down to my city or my kids like I might, I'll take a bullet for them. Usually over, you know, an elected.
00:43:47 Kevin
But I'm just saying like this is that you have to have that in in your in your gut. And if you don't have that in your gut like that's what makes.
00:43:56 Kevin
That's what makes the general public not like a lot of you know, the city government is because they they get that vibe that not everybody has that, and you're supposed to have that when you're going into it. You're supposed to, like, work tirelessly and and go above and.
00:44:11 Kevin
And have that hunger.
00:44:12 Kevin
That we spoke about in an earlier episode from last week that you're supposed to have that hunger and most people.
00:44:17 Kevin
And that's the issue most people don't in most aspects of their life, and that's what's that's what separates the wheat from the chaff, right and.
00:44:26 Kevin
So, but for somebody to be on here saying that I'm corrupt, like, get out of here.
00:44:29 Kevin
Like the biggest advocate for like free speech and transparency.
00:44:35 Kevin
As you can see by the article that's above it, that's rich like OK.
00:44:39 Kevin
That's rich because.
00:44:41 Kevin
Your misconception of Kevin is incorrect. That's why that's what the comment said.
00:44:44 Kevin
Is rich.
00:44:45 Kevin
And then they're also making fun of Eric Firkle. And I think the reason why they're making fun of Eric Firkel.
00:44:51 Kevin
You know, take Eric how you will.
00:44:53 Kevin
I can't speak for for his altruism as as much as my own, but like with the only in Star, he's exposing the lies and the ******** and the corruption.
00:45:01 Kevin
I think that.
00:45:02 Kevin
I think they're doing a phenomenal job over.
00:45:05 Kevin
Because.
00:45:05 Kevin
Is and that leads me to my last point before I.
00:45:08 Kevin
You guys go for the day.
00:45:09 Kevin
And that is that, um.
00:45:14 Kevin
I'm also planning on doing an expose on corrupt politicians starting from the top of our county.
00:45:23 Kevin
Down.
00:45:24 Kevin
And the first one that we're going to start with is most likely going to be the king himself, Michael Briski. And that'll be a fun one.
00:45:32 Kevin
I know Mike is probably watching this as somebody's going to clip this and send it to him, be like, watch it, watch it.
00:45:37 Kevin
5 minutes in Kevin talks about you. Great.
00:45:41 Kevin
Bring it on.
00:45:42 Kevin
I feel like Elon Musk in an extent that by me going down some of these rabbit holes to expose the corruption of our of our county government that I am potentially putting my life at risk.
00:45:59 Kevin
Or, you know, I'll be the ire of gained the ire of, you know.
00:46:07 Kevin
The the new District Attorney or something to have like false allegations point. You know what I mean?
00:46:13 Kevin
It's, you know.
00:46:16 Kevin
It'll be fun. It'll be exciting and.
00:46:22 Kevin
Bring it on.
00:46:23 Kevin
Bring it on. I'm excited. I'm excited.
00:46:26 Kevin
So just a little tidbit there and.
00:46:28 Kevin
Don't forget to watch the show later, guys, because we have delamore coming on.
00:46:31 Kevin
We'll have delamore coming.
00:46:33 Kevin
We'll have all new stuff, all great stuff, all stuff that you wanted to hear, that you're at the edge of your seat. I'm sure you're sitting there wishing, man, I wish my car ride into work was 45 minutes so I can listen to all of Kevin's.
00:46:43 Kevin
All right, gang. We'll see you next time. Life 22.