One thing I've come to believe is that timing is everything. So I found it rather "curious" that Erie County Comptroller David Shenk would wait until two days before the election to oppose Mark Poloncarz' proposed property tax increase. Had Shenk felt this way from the beginning, why wait three weeks to speak out against it? The answer is clear. Shenk's campaign is desperate. The polls must be leaning towards former channel 2 investigative reporter Stefan Mychajliw.
New York State, and specifically WNY, is the most overtaxed region in the country. Anyone trying to fill up their gas tank knows this. The politicians around here are famous for trying to place taxes on already existing taxes. Poloncarz promised the cultural groups a boatload of money when he ran against Chris Collins. After he won the election, the Arts groups demanded their money. The only problem was Poloncarz had no way of obtaining the money, so he immediately looked to the WNY taxpayer to bail HIM out. Had he been a truly independent watchdog, Shenk would have immediately called out the County Executive for his potential assault on the taxpayers. However, Shenk said nothing until the Sunday before the election. His silence was deafening.
Mychajliw appears to have all the momentum in this close race. While not opposed to the County Executive, he clearly would not owe his job to him. The politicians around here need to realize one thing. They can call them anything they want (fees, revenue enhancers, whatever). The people around here pay enough taxes and are not interested in paying more taxes so guys like Poloncarz can hire their brothers (a Wegmans chef) to made up government jobs. Mychajliw gets this, and based on the delay in his response, Shenk apparently does not.
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