John W Rodat

Left Hand/Right Hand Continued #2. Perspective From Another Nursing Home

November 16, 2011 Budget

Heard from the Administrator of another nursing home (by reputation, a good facility) who pointed out that she runs a nursing home of about the same size as Albany County and … The projected deficit for a new Albany County Nursing Home is about the same size as their entire annual budget. It must be […]

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Left Hand/Right Hand Continued. Tying Several Issues Together

November 16, 2011 County Government

Am hearing from officials in other New York counties regarding the Albany County Nursing Home. Here’s a quote that ties together several important issues: The nursing home issue goes to the heart of the issue about mandate relief/bailouts for counties. Why should Albany County get the same relief that other counties are getting when they […]

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Left Hand, Meet Right Hand

November 15, 2011 Budget

It appears that this coming Thursday, New York State will bless the construction of a new Albany County Nursing Home. I wrote a bit about it a couple weeks ago when County Legislators began to talk privately about their hopes that the State would take them off the hook and disapprove the application. On the […]

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“Balanced” Budgets are Fine When You Have Plenty of Cash, but Balance May Not be Enough to Prevent a Crash

November 14, 2011 Budget

When I was a young Air Force pilot, one of the greybeards that I flew with counseled me that the most important job of an Aircraft Commander was “managing the margin of error.” Flying close to home, with less than a full load, or in good weather was much different from flying over the Pacific, […]

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Too Conservative for Their Own Good?

November 14, 2011 Budget

Good grief! Historically, Saratoga County, NY has been among the financially tightest in New York. When we wrote about Nassau County being consistently on the high side of spending per capita among New York’s county governments, we could also see that Saratoga was on the low side. In particular, you can see a graphic view […]

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Comment Policy

November 14, 2011 Site Administration

Debate is encouraged here. Flamewars are not. Thoughtfulness is encouraged here, even if and maybe especially if contrarian. Alternative perspectives that promote learning are encouraged. Personal attacks are not. Among other things, thoughtfulness and reading what’s here before spouting off would not only seem to be common courtesy, but essential to using this site for […]

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The Rich Get Richer … Connecting the Economic, Political & Social Dots

November 8, 2011 Economics

Inequality is both effect and cause. Inequality of income and resources is indeed a significant, even profound social, political and economic problem. But this did not just happen suddenly and, by itself, it’s not enough to explain the current unrest. That’s more because a large proportion of the public has come to the conclusion (rightly, […]

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Somewhere Between Scylla and Charybdis

October 12, 2011 Budget

Recently I had lunch and caught up with an old friend and colleague, one who’s been central to the wars over health coverage. We’re equally distressed about, not only the state of the economy, but the state of political discourse and decision making. We’ve been concerned for quite some time, but this past summer’s debt […]

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Albany County & Orange County, NY Budgets and their County Nursing Homes

October 5, 2011 Budget

Those who know me, know that for several years as the Albany County, NY Commissioner of Management & Budget, I developed and pushed very hard for a strategy to expand home and community based long-term care services and to close the Albany County Nursing Home. I thought and still think that this direction made much […]

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Numbers News

September 29, 2011 Cities

Just for a taste. Though most of the taste is bitter Roubini says the economy has started a downturn.spending less on entertainment and charity. Guess we can’t count on charity to help those who are struggling in a down eocnomy. Fifth consecutive year that US cities suffer a revenue decline. Original study was done of […]

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