Andrea Macko for Porcupine Soup updates WGXC's story about how the Town of Cairo's major tax error goes back at least two years, and maybe more. For the past two years at least Cairo town officials have announced a tiny tax increase, when a much larger tax increase was actually charged. In December, Cairo voted for a 0.51 percent tax increase, but taxpayers are actually paying 7.5 percent, an error of around $300,000. The year before voters were told about a 1.8 percent increase, but actually paid a 4.5 increase. Now the town needs to cut the budget to reflect the smaller tax numbers they announced to the public. So far the town has violated the state's tax cap, and broke the law again by retroactively voting to allow the town of Cairo to exceed the tax cap. Certain planned projects and town board raises are the first cuts the town will make to its budget, but how much gets cut will depend on how many years the town made similar errors. At the Jan. 9 town meeting Cairo Town Supervisor Jason Watts said, “I didn’t catch this, I’m sorry. It’s not one of my good points,” but he did not resign. Nor did he fire the bookkeeper, and he said, “She took on a set of books and didn’t get trained at all. She is catching on now and everybody makes mistakes... Only this mistake was huge.” Read more about this story in Porcupine Soup.

Michelle L. Price reports in the Daily Freeman that New York Republican leaders on Jan. 11 called for the immediate resignation of new Republican congressperson George Santos. There are currently multiple investigations of Santos over his personal and campaign finances and lies about his resume and family heritage. “His lies were not mere fibs. He disgraced the House of Representatives,” Joseph Cairo Jr., chair of the Nassau County Republican Committee, said at a news conference. “He’s not welcome here at Republican headquarters.” Santos was sworn in by the Republican majority in Congress on Jan. 7, and he was accused of flashing white power hand symbols during the voting to elect the Speaker of the House. On Jan. 11, asked if he would resign he said, “I will not.” New York Republicans are powerless to remove Santos. On Jan. 10, two Democrats from New York asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate Santos because he failed to file “timely, accurate and complete” financial disclosure reports and the reports he did file are “sparse and perplexing.” Before that, the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center lodged a complaint with the Federal Election Commission about Santos to “thoroughly investigate what appear to be equally brazen lies about how his campaign raised and spent money.” Besides the possible financial malfeasance, Santos referred to himself as “a proud American Jew,” then said his mother’s family had “a Jewish background,” then was quoted saying, “I said I was ‘Jew-ish.’” He also made false claims about his family being involved in the Holocaust and the Sept. 11 attacks, and has said his mother died on multiple dates. Santos now represents some Long Island suburbs and a small slice of Queens. Read the full story in in the Daily Freeman.

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Keshia Clukey, Gregory Korte and Donna Borak are reporting for Bloomberg New York Governor Kathy Hochul focused her first major policy address since the general election on crime and inflation. “We will make New York safer. We will make New York more affordable,” the Buffalo Democrat said in her State of the State address January 10. If New Yorkers do not feel safe or they cannot afford a rent or mortgage, “people will leave in pursuit of their dreams elsewhere,” she said, referencing a significant population decline that led to the state losing a congressional seat. Hochul, 64, the state’s first female governor, begins her first full term with various challenges including rising inflation, a slowing economy, a growing state budget gap and the lingering effects of the pandemic on major issues such as crime, housing, health care and transit. Polls show crime at the top of that list. “There has been no aspect of the discussion around public safety more controversial than bail reform,” she said, expressing a willingness to revisit the bail law. She said parts of the law are contradictory or confusing, and proposed changing the standard that judges use to set bail for more serious crimes. A Siena College poll last month found that crime and the cost of living topped the concerns of New York voters, with nine in 10 saying crime was a “serious issue.” The upcoming legislative term will also test Hochul’s ability to hash out the state’s more than $200 billion budget. She will have to calculate how to fund proposals to add 800,000 housing units, invest $1 billion into overhauling the state’s mental health system, deliver additional tax credits for childcare, curb greenhouse gases, expand the state’s health-care services and index the state’s $15-an-hour minimum wage to inflation. In one of her signature issues, Hochul called for building 800,000 units of new housing over the next 10 years. As part of her “New York Housing Compact,” she announced plans to require municipalities to rezone areas around transit stops to allow for greater density, legalize basement apartments and fast-track certain mixed-income, multifamily projects. Hochul proposed to make New York the first state in the US to ban natural gas heating and appliances and she called for the state to ban the use of fossil fuels by 2025 for newly built smaller structures and 2028 for larger ones. The state would also prohibit the sale of any new fossil-fuel heating systems starting in 2030. Read the full story at bloomberg [dot] com.

Rachel Silberstein is reporting for the Times Union a new, highly contagious COVID-19 strain is circulating in New York, resulting in an increase in hospitalizations. The XBB.1.5 variant now constitutes more than 50 percent of COVID-19 cases statewide, the state Department of Health announced last week, citing sequencing data from the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data. The department is urging state residents to consider masking and to get the latest COVID-19 booster. "Since it emerged, the COVID-19 virus continues to change," Acting State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said in a statement. "The new bivalent booster has been updated to address these changes, which is why it is so important that all New Yorkers 6 months and older get the important protection it offers." Experts believe the new omicron subvariant, which is nicknamed "Kraken" after the mythical sea creature, is significantly more transmissible than previous versions of the coronavirus. The state's hospitalization database shows a jump in COVID-19 admissions statewide, with the total number of New Yorkers hospitalized with the disease hovering around 4,000 since New Year's Day. In the Capital Region, the rate of hospitalization has risen from about 10 patients per population of 100,000 in early December to nearly 18 hospitalizations per 100,000 people on January 9. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's community COVID levels map shows high transmission rates in Albany and Rensselaer counties. Columbia and Greene counties have medium COVID-19 levels, while the rest of the Capital Region's community COVID level is low, according to the CDC. According to virologists, XBB.1.5 has an increased number of mutations that enable the virus to better bind to cells. While it may not prevent infection, the booster provides significant protection against getting very sick or being hospitalized. People are advised to wear a high-quality mask in public indoor spaces, when feeling unwell, in crowded places, or around individuals at increased risk of getting very sick, health officials said. Information is available at coronavirus [dot] health [dot] ny [dot] gov. Read more in the Times Union.

Mike Ryan is reporting for The Mountain Eagle steady progress is happening at the site of the new ambulance headquarters and senior citizen center in Windham. The building has been shingled, with interior finishing and the installation of the roof the next steps. “Those guys ran like a well-oiled machine,” said Town Supervisor Thomas Hoyt of the workers on site. Hoyt said as much as $250,000 in cuts to overall costs have been made. The electrical, plumbing and heating, ventilation and air conditioning crews are ready to begin and the job is expected to be completed by the spring. The $3.5 million price tag on the project is nearly double the amount approved by local taxpayers three years ago, before the pandemic hit and prices skyrocketed. Ian Peters is the liaison between the town board and the local ambulance squad. He also represents the town of Windham on the Greene County Emergency Medical Services Council. Peters presented a recent report to the Windham Town Board. He said $3 per hour pay raises have been given to members of Greene County Emergency Medical Systems who cover the rural county in fly cars and provide paramedic service around-the-clock, every day of the year. Ryan also reported there is movement toward forming a mountaintop ambulance system, ultimately combining units in Windham and the towns of Ashland and Hunter, as well as in Jewett, Lexington and Prattsville. That merger is perhaps a year away if not longer, Peters said. Read more in The Mountain Eagle.

Jon Brodkin reports for Ars Technica that Nevada's Democrat senators claim that the Federal Communications Commission's new, more detailed broadband map unveiled in November is full of errors, overstating coverage. "Nevada’s Office of Science, Innovation, & Technology (OSIT) has found over 20,000 purported broadband-serviceable locations on the map that they believe overstate coverage. They also have found incorrect information on the quality of service available to some locations and in some cases, missing serviceable locations," Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto wrote in a letter to the FCC last week. The FCC's broadband map cost at least $44 million to produce, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. The complaints about the map come from all over the country, with the newspaper reporting that the State of New York found 31,000 missing, unserved, or underserved locations. In Vermont, things are worse. "The map is missing or incorrectly lists the location of over 60,000 broadband-serviceable locations. The map also lists service availability levels far beyond what the state has found through its mapping and what we are hearing about from residents," said Vermont Community Broadband Board Executive Director Christine Hallquist said in a press release. The new map allows citizens to type in any address and find out broadband availability. But since there are so many reported errors, it is fairly useless. Both the FCC and Congress have rules requiring internet service providers to submit accurate data for the map. The FCC has a Jan. 13 deadline for consumers to challenge what is wrong about the map, but Rosen and Cortez Masto, the Nevada senators, want the FCC to "work with NTIA to extend the availability and location challenge process by an additional 60 days to give our state broadband office and others the time needed to verify and submit accurate data." Billions of dollars of broadband grants depend on the map, so hopefully the FCC can make corrections. Read the full story at Ars Technica.

Gov. Kathy Hochul gave her first State of the State address after becoming the first woman elected governor in New York.

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H. Rose Schneider reports in the Times Union that Albany County's executive, sheriff, and comptroller on Jan. 7 all announced they are running for re-election. Albany County Executive Dan McCoy, Sheriff Craig Apple, and Comptroller Susan Rizzo, all Democrats were at the Carpenters Union Local #291 Training Center in Albany to make the announcement. "This is a great ticket to get behind," Deputy County Executive Daniel Lynch said at the announcement. "I know they're going to do great things in the next four years." New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli was there to introduce the candidates, saying, "We are in the path to recovery.... It is a time where we need elected leaders who bring people together." For McCoy, he is attempting to win a fourth term. He mentioned housing and mental health issues exacerbated by the pandemic, worsening weather due to climate change, and economic issues such as inflation and a possible recession as the major obstacles he will face if he wins again. Apple briefly campaigned for a state Senate seat last year, and then quit that race. He has been sheriff since 2011. Rizzo was first elected as county comptroller in 2019. Read the full story in the Times Union.

On January 9 new Congressperson Marc Molinaro got to take his first votes. Molinaro cast his first ballot for the new rules in the House of Representatives, which again rein back in the C-Span cameras that had been showing much more than normal during the long process of electing a Speaker of the House. On his second vote, he laid off 87,000 people enforcing the law, as Republicans decided to roll back President Joe Biden's recent hiring at the Internal Revenue Service. Molinaro wrote on Twitter, that, "I just voted to protect families, farmers and small businesses. No problem has ever been solved by empowering more tax collectors - I voted to repeal Biden’s 87,000 new IRS agents." Both local Republicans, Molinaro and Rep. Elise Stefanik, voted for the new rules and the lay offs, while Democrats Pat Ryan and Paul Tonko voted against both bills.

Nick Reisman reports at New York State of Politics that Gov. Kathy. Hochul a $1 billion mental health plan in her 2023 "State of the State" speech Jan. 10. The proposal would expand psychiatric beds and housing units. The plan is prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic and to address a worsening homelessness crisis. Hochul said, "We have underinvested in mental health care for so long, and allowed the situation to become so dire, that it has become a public safety crisis, as well. This proposal marks a monumental shift to make sure no one falls through the cracks and to finally and fully meet the mental health needs of all New Yorkers." Read more about this story at New York State of Politics.

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Cairo held a town meeting Jan. 9, the first chance for the public to question town officials since they announced Cairo violated the state's tax cap, and that residents weren't getting a 0.51 percent increase in taxes, they were actually going up by 7.5 percent. At the meeting, Cairo Town Supervisor Jason Watts admitted the mistake, which he claimed was a clerical error. He also said the town made the same mistake the year before, and he left the door open that the town might also have announced the wrong tax rate in previous years. Watts apologized to taxpayers for the mistakes, saying, CLICK HERE. TO PLAY OR DOWNLOAD EXCERPT OF WATT'S ADDRESS. Watts also said a number of confusing things, such as that the town had a forensic accountant going over Cairo's books, but she was not being paid yet. He said her name was Nicole, but did not give her last name. She seemed shocked that she was speaking at a public meeting, and seemed to think she was there to talk to the town board only. Cairo taxpayers will now see several previously promised projects be put on hold, as the town now must operate on the original 0.51 percent tax increase, and then put all the other money from charging taxpayers a 7.5 percent increase into an escrow account for next year. Cairo will have to do the same process for last year's budget, which was similarly advertised by the town as a very low tax increase that turned out was much higher. So far the town has violated the tax cap, did not set up an escrow account for last year yet, and misled taxpayers for at least two years, and possibly more. Investigators will likely determine if these clerical errors were gross incompetence or worse. WGXC has a full recording of the Cairo Town Board meeting on the WGXC Newsroom and in the Audio Archives.

Philip Pantuso reportx for the Times Union that state Sen. Michelle Hinchey, on Jan. 6, introduced the Short-term Rental Registry Act, new legislation intended to help municipalities track, regulate and collect taxes on vacation rentals. "Instead of putting the onus on every community and small town to figure this out on their own — there just isn’t the time, expertise and availability to do that, so this is a moment for the state to step in," the Saugerties Democrat said. The new law defines short-term rentals as any rental unit "offered for tourist or transient use" for less than 30 consecutive days. The act would create a statewide registry, managed by the Department of State, in which property owners would be required to register their units every two years. Failure to do so could result in a $200 fine per day. Property owners in municipalities that already have vacation-rental registries do not have to file separately with the state, but those municipalities would still be required to provide registration information to the state department so that a comprehensive database can be maintained. The registry data will be shared with Airbnb and VRBO, so they can verify that properties listed on their platforms are properly registered. And all municipalities will get a monthly report with the number of rentals, their locations and the number of nights the rentals were occupied. Hinchey’s 41st Senate District is located in the Mid-Hudson Valley and Catskills, a region that ranked among the top 10 most profitable areas for new Airbnb hosts in 2021, according to a company report. An independent analysis of the short-term rental market found that spending on Airbnbs and VRBOs in the Capital Region and Hudson Valley jumped 99 percent from 2020 to 2021. Read the full story in the Times Union.


Paul Kirby is reporting for the Daily Freeman Democrat David Clegg, 70, Ulster County District Attorney since 2020, said in a brief email January 9, that he is currently undecided on whether to run again. “I have not yet made a final decision,” Clegg said. Kelleigh McKenzie, the Ulster County Democratic Committee chairperson, said that she has been reaching out to the party’s incumbents. The Democrats' endorsement convention is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 22. On January 7, Republican Michael Kavanagh, 51, announced he will run again, but this time as an independent, in November’s contest. An election official said that even with Kavanagh saying he will run as an independent, he will need to comply with election rules and run under a party line. “It is unclear what Mike Kavanagh means when he says he will run as an ‘Independent’ since he is registered as a Republican and all signs in the various political circles in Ulster County points to him running as the Republican/Conservative’s selected candidate,” said Democratic Elections Commissioner Ashley Torres. Kavanagh previously ran as a Republican, losing to Clegg in November 2019. The son of former county DA and state Supreme Court Justice E. Michael Kavanagh, he lost to Clegg by just 77 votes, making Clegg the first Democrat in recent memory to lead the DA’s office. Kavanagh was previously an assistant district attorney in Dutchess County and is now serving as a member of the Ulster County Public Defender’s Office. “Ulster County cannot endure another four years of what has transpired under the current district attorney,” Kavanagh said. “Restoring the District Attorney’s Office will require an experienced prosecutor who has served that office and this community at the highest level.” Read more in the Daily Freeman.

T. Carter Ross reports for Radio World that Cuban radio broadcaster, journalist, and DX-er Arnaldo de Jesús Coro Antich died at age 80 on Jan. 8, 2023. Radio listeners knew him as Arnie Coro on his twice-weekly program “DXers Unlimited” on Radio Havana Cuba, Cuba’s English-language shortwave service. Coro also co-founded Radio Havana, and was a professor of broadcasting at the University of Havana. He joined the Radio Club de Cuba amateur radio association at the age of 12, and then, in 1957, began working as a journalist at Canal 7 (CMBF-TV). He was one of the founders of Radio Havana Cuba in 1961, setting up the station’s first transmitter before the Bay of Pigs Invasion. State broadcaster Radio Cubana gave him the National Radio Award in 2017. Coro's amateur callsign was CO2KK. Read the full story at Radio World.

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