By Mark David Blum, Esq.

The Republicans in Onondaga County who are battling out which will receive the slot on the November ballot for County Executive have each put forward their “plans” for our future. Unfortunately for the rest of us, we are being fed another heaping dose of four more years of the same old crap.

It started with a letter to the newspapers by perennial candidate Joanie Mahoney. Like Howie Hawkins, Ms. Mahoney has not met an election she did not like. Each election cycle we see more and more and how Ms. Mahoney is more interested in securing an office, any office, which leads to the conclusion that her interests lie in the pay/retirement and power/patronage benefits that come with elected office.

Pandering to the insurance industry, Ms. Mahoney says in her letter that she is “thankful” that an insurance company did not leave the county; only the City of Syracuse. Excellus, says Mahoney, is an example of why the City of Syracuse and County of Onondaga should not be in competition but should work together. ‘Pie-in-the-sky’ generic dreams sound pretty but there is not a shred of detail nor an iota of passion offered to give hope to the voters of the County.

If you remember Ms. Mahoney’s last campaign for Mayor of Syracuse, she proposed to hire 25 more police officers and put them on the streets. If operation IMPACT has taught us anything, twenty five or two hundred fifty more police officers on the street is not going to stop the violence. But that aside, Mahoney’s plan was twice foolish as she proposed to pay for her additional force by taking money away from infrastructure. You do remember “infrastructure” … roads, snowplowing, parking, sewers, utilities … the basic necessities of life. The Republican plan is to strip away the real quality of life because they feel the City needs an additional army to combat loud music.

Yes, people want to be safe on their streets. But of what value is that when the streets are broken, the buildings are in disrepair, and the overall look is downtrodden and sullen. The Mahoney dream for Syracuse seems dark and bleak. Taking money from infrastructure to fight ‘fear’ mirrors the George Bush attitude toward Iraq: Having spent 1/9 of our entire national debt on the Iraq war, our bridges are collapsing, our schools are failing, and our health care system is a shambles.

Now comes the other candidate, Dale Sweetland. Fifteen years on the Onondaga County Legislature and Sweetland’s plan proves he learned nothing in his position. He wants to strengthen ties with Syracuse, consolidate services with Syracuse, and work harder with Syracuse for the benefit of the County. With due respect, the City of Syracuse is that giant sucking sound you hear whenever you pay your county taxes. The City is mismanaged, abusive, racist in policy, and cares not one whit about the education of its children. Melding more of the County into the City will take the County down, not build up the City. I see no valid reason the entire county should be circling the drain with Syracuse.

In fact, the best option for the County would be to leave Syracuse until the City cleans its own house. County offices should follow Excellus, County investment should be outside the City, and no more county tax dollars to clean up downtown Syracuse. That City has shown itself so inhospitable that the entire County suffers for the sins of the City.

Mr. Sweetland did have good ideas in his proposal to make education a top priority. Long term investment costs a lot in short term dollars but pays off over the years. City leaders think mismanaging and ignoring the schools is OK and the voters there keep putting the same people back into office at the Board of Education; despite a less than 50% graduation rate. Otherwise, his were just another boatload of empty promises.

Until the community awakens to realize that Onondaga County includes Manlius, Camillus, Skaneateles, Dewitt, Cicero, and Clay -- with a combined population greater than that of the City of Syracuse and candidates for office stop pandering to Syracuse and look beyond its boundaries for hope and a future, it is just going to be another four more years of the same old crap.

But hey, at least the Republicans are trying. Democrats have not whispered a word of their intentions. Somehow I verily believe that their songs will have the same tune and lyrics as their Republican counterparts.