brian's blog

First thing's first.

I want to thank EVERYONE who supported this campaign and encouraged us to move forward and practice this process called democracy. I'm sure I'll have more later to add when I can catch my breath.

I also want to congratulate Senator Saland on his victory. I am appreciative that we both ran a clean race and focused on issues and policy.

The future? We all need to keep pressing our legislature in Albany to:

- Open our government be reponsive to people, not special interest money.

- Deliver on REAL property tax relief.

- Secure Health Care Security for all New Yorkers.

We have plenty of work to do tomorrow, but for today, thank you.

It's time to practice this thing called Democracy. We've done our part. Please do yours.

VOTE.

My Best, Brian

For the past couple of months I have spent at least a few very early mornings each week on train platforms introducing myself to the commuters of the 41st District. I have met thousands of citizens at stations in Poughkeepsie, Beacon and New Hamburg. Honestly, it's been one of the most rewarding experiences of the entire campaign.

I recently received an excellent letter from a commuter I had the pleasure to meet all too briefly on the platform in Poughkeepsie. The letter contains some really excellent and thoughtful questions, questions that deserve answers.

With the the author's gracious permission, I have reprinted that letter with my answers here on our campaign website so that those who may have similar questions can benefit as well.

Saw you at the Poughkeepsie Train Station this morning... was in too much of a dash to catch the train to stop and speak with you directly.

Many people are in a hurry early in the AM. Thanks for taking the time to read our material.

I hear all this talk about how we have a tax crisis - property and school taxes combined. But what are your plans to do something about it?

At the moment, we have a 19th Century education funding system supporting a 21st Century education system. We fund our schools with a property tax which no longer is an indication of wealth or income. Therefore, many people who have homes that are now worth many times the value of their initial cost can’t afford their exploding property tax bills. We need to switch to a funding system that is based upon the ability to pay (income tax). We need to do it now.

At 30 years of age, I have yet to find myself trusting my vote when it comes time to hit the polls.

So sad and I know you would agree. So what can you tell me - and everyone for that matter, that would help me trust that my vote for you will help address and resolve our tax crisis?

I give you my pledge. I recently signed the F.A.S.T (Fix Albany School Tax) Pledge where I pledged to to FAST-track solutions to this extremely complex and serious problem. I have pledged to hold town hall meetings looking for the input of the citizens of the 41st District. What I have pledged to do is to tackle the problem from day one, to look for new solutions and new thinking, and to quit punting this problem down the road. Our children as well as the taxpayers of New York deserve nothing less than a comprehensive set of solutions ASAP.

Last week, while going door-to-door in Poughkeepsie (my opponent's home town), I spoke with a registered Republican...as I do many times every day. The neighborhood was in the Barnegat/Crown Heights section just west of Route 9. The following is a transcript of our conversation. I am in italics and the white haired gentleman home owner is in bold.

I’m Brian Keeler and I live in Hopewell Junction and I’m running for the New York State Senate this fall.
Against Saland?
Yes.
(reaching out his hand)
You got my vote.
Well, that was hard.
Did you see that rebate announcement in the mail?
Yes.
Makes me so mad. I’m getting a couple hundred dollars and my taxes are in the thousands…and then he sends me this notice about it that the taxpayers paid for!
Well, it’s election time. In 2004, he spent over $170,000 of taxpayer money during the election season sending out what are essentially campaign mailings to everybody. And the rebate? It cost the taxpayers over $3,000,000.00 just to cut and send out those rebate checks. Three million dollars could have bought a lot of schoolbooks.
It stinks. FIX the school tax problem; don’t go sending me checks and notices. FIX IT.
Well, that’s exactly what I’m committed to doing. Fix not only that, but the way the state does business.
Like I said, you got my vote. Time for them all to go.
That’s why I’m running…and tell your friends.
I'm gonna do just that. Thanks for coming. Saland has never knocked on my door. I really appreciate you doing this.
My pleasure. This won’t be the last time I’m here.
Good luck. Go get 'em.

This from the New York Post:

STATE TACKING TAX ON REBATES By FREDRIC U. DICKER State Editor
September 27, 2006 -- ALBANY - More than 1 million New Yorkers may owe a large chunk of taxes on the school "tax relief" rebate checks they're now receiving in the mail, officials conceded yesterday.

The checks, hundreds of thousands of which were rewritten earlier this month to credit Gov. Pataki and the leaders of the Legislature for issuing them, fail to mention that the refunds are subject to city, state and federal income taxes for those who itemize their returns.

"It wasn't something that we really wanted to have out there," said a legislative staff member who worked on the rebate plan.

State authorities claimed they didn't have enough room on the checks to notify the public that they are taxable - even though room was made to feature Pataki's name.

Read the rest of this entry...

UPDATE 9/25/06: Citizen Action of NY Endorses Brian Keeler for NY State Senate!

Much of the huge mess in Albany can be mitigated by returning accountability and transparency to the electoral process...and by removing the need for qualified candidates to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to challenge incumbents. Citizen Action of New York has a great description of Clean Money, Clean Elections:

More and more New Yorkers are fed up with a political system where contributions from wealthy special interests matter more than health care, decent jobs, education, Social Security and the environment.

I came upon a house in Poughkeepsie where a young man was carrying a matress to a van parked in the driveway. He was taking a few things from his parents home, because, it turns out, he was moving to North Carolina.

"I can't afford to live up here anymore. I'm moving down to N.C. where my property taxes will be 1/4 what they are here," he said of his own home in Pleasant Valley.

Then his mom came to the door. She was almost in tears and she told me she will miss her son terribly. I spoke with her about how she wasn't alone. That I'd already encountered this elsewhere in the district. I left her some material and told her that when I'm elected, job one will be to tackle the school tax crisis.

As I walked away down the driveway, she waved and pointed to the literature I left with her and mouthed, "Help us."

My opponent is the chairman of the Senate Education Committee and has blocked Property Tax reform for years. If for nothing more, this is reason enough for change.

Our property tax bills will soon be arriving in the mail. The numbers on those bills and the present real property tax crises that created them, are an indication of how broken and unresponsive our state government in Albany has become. Over the past four years, as our property taxes have increased over 40% statewide, we have heard nothing from the Senate Education Committee; no leadership, no guidance, no research and no reform.

The crisis has become so acute that property tax citizens’ organizations have sprung up all over New York, especially here in Dutchess County where nine of thirteen school budgets were rejected this past Spring. Arlington School District Superintendent, Frank Pepe, was quoted in the Poughkeepsie Journal as saying: “This is not a vote against Arlington, but a vote against the governor and the state legislature for their inaction on school tax reform.”

During the last four years while this tax crisis has exploded, Poughkeepsie’s Steve Saland, in his role as chairman of the Senate Education Committee, blocked all serious reform legislation in his committee. As a result, he is more responsible for our current property tax crisis than any other Senator in Albany.

Interestingly enough, just 3 days before the end of the latest legislative session, in an apparent response to mounting political pressure and criticism from voters, Saland proposed his “School Tax Act”; a confusing and unworkable one-house bill that could never become law. His act appears to be nothing more than election year political posturing.

Accountability.

In business, if you make a lousy product or treat your customers like dog food, you’ll be hanging out a quick “going out of business” sign. In schools, in the workplace, and even in personal relationships, you mess up, you pay the price. Accountability. It’s the ultimate check and balance.

Now, with all the Ned Lamont news swirling around and all the talk about anti-war and left v. right ideology, we seem to be losing track of a very basic instinct that has been lost, and that loss is REALLY what people power politics is all about.

I know, because I’m on the front lines and I’m hearing the story every day as I knock on the doors of the 41st District here in New York. What people are telling me isn’t about ideology, left v. right or even specific issues. The one theme I’m hearing is that people are VERY angry because there is NO ACCOUNTABILITY in government anymore.

“My husband is working two jobs and trying to get a third. And I’ve got three kids. The cost of everything is just going crazy,” a young woman from Hopewell Junction told me while standing on her front step. “There’s not much more we can take,” She was almost in tears.

“I grew up around the block. My mother still lives there, but I don’t know how much longer she can. We’re paying her bills, but…it’s the property taxes. She’s going to have to move, and breaking the news to her isn’t going to be easy,” a life-long Beacon resident told me.

“Is anybody listening? Does anybody care? Maybe that’s more to the point.” The gentleman who posed those questions shrugged his shoulders and walked back into his East Fishkill home.

As I've walked the neighborhoods of the 41st District, people have told me they have had it with exploding property taxes, the Albany payola money machine, secret special interest wheeling and dealing… basically the whole broken, unresponsive, self serving, status quo that passes for state government these days.

That’s why I’m running for the New York State Senate, and, with your help, we CAN make a real difference. We CAN fix the system. It won’t be easy, but together we can do it.

Soon, I’ll be in your neighborhood with my message of change and hope. I'll talk with you about:

• My ideas concerning property tax relief. It’s time we really tackle this issue, instead of the old Albany two-step approach of borrow and spend.

• My plan to take big money out of politics. Clean Money, Clean Elections.

• Complete budget overhaul based upon a “spend as you go” mentality which will save the state billions annually.

• My ideas about health care. Finding the will to fight the medical establishment and treat health care as a human right, not just another profit-generating product.

We have so much to do. Let’s get started. Join the NEW Team for a NEW New York.