fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Submit Your Event
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Send Letter to the Editor
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s UP
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Subscribe to the What’s UP newsletter
  • Opinion
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log Out
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s UP
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Subscribe to the What’s UP newsletter
  • Opinion
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log Out
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Hugh Reynolds: Fooling with fueling

by Hugh Reynolds
April 14, 2016
in Hugh Reynolds, Politics & Government, Voices
3

ktx hein electric carVladimir Lenin promised peace and land, Herbert Hoover promised a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage. And County Executive Mike Hein came up in his seventh state of the county address last week with free fuel for owners of electric vehicles. What a guy.

In offering owners of electrically powered vehicles free access at soon-to-be-established county-owned outlets, Hein or his advisors committed one of the cardinal sins of politics: Don’t mess with the majority. Very few car owners in Ulster County are tooling around in pure electric models, which cost too much and only a few have the range required for rural or suburban driving.

Which of course leaves the question of what about all of us roving around in gas-powered vehicles, a significant number of whom are driving fuel-gobbling trucks and SUVs? Is there a Mike’s Gas Station for them? No. But they’ll pay taxes to support Hein’s free-fuel program for the electrics.

Environmentalists, whom Hein so ardently courted in this speech, will applaud his initiative as the wave of the future. The plan is to convert the county fleet to electrics, thus further reducing its carbon footprint, the holy grail of the modern environmental movement. Hein claimed in his speech that the county is already carbon-neutral. There is of course merit to that goal.

Speaking of familiar themes, it seems the executive can’t get through a state-of-the-county message without bashing the old legislature (1968-2007), which hired him as county administrator in mid-2006. According to Hein, these were the dark old days of rising taxes, inefficiency, cronyism, The Jail! All was turned around in remarkably short order by the first elected county executive.

To this litany of abuse, Hein added bankruptcy in his 2015 version of recent local history. It’s fair to say in the waning days of the legislature-administrator system the county had financial issues. (Hein was the administrator.) The 39 percent tax increase a Republican majority imposed in 2005 effectively drove them from office. A new form of government was definitely in order, but nobody was talking bankruptcy. What Hein may have meant was that if Ulster had continued under the old form of government the county or its property owners might have been bankrupt by now.

Somebody stop them!

Politics being a form of war, residents are used to pols snipping and snapping at each other. Often we wonder why some of these loonies chose public service. Most, I suspect, were not properly nursed as babies. Many of these ugly exchanges take place behind the scenes, the stuff we read about in the papers or on social media being just tips of volcanoes.

Mayor Shayne Gallo. (Photo by Dan Barton)
Mayor Shayne Gallo. (Photo by Dan Barton)

The long-running animosity between Kingston’s top two elected city officials has boiled over into open warfare and beyond city limits. It’s not clear what the flashpoint was between Mayor Shayne Gallo and Alderman-at-Large Jim Noble, both Democrats. Maybe it was Noble’s support of Gallo’s opponent in the 20011 mayoral primary. Maybe it was something Noble’s grandmother said to Gallo’s back in the day. Small-town politics is like that.

For whatever reason, these two appear implacable enemies now, to the extent that Noble, in office for some 13 years, says he won’t serve another term if Gallo remains as mayor. Gallo has declared for re-election.

Gallo accuses Noble of being petty, manipulative and vindictive, traits few have witnessed in the affable plumber over a near 20-year public career. Ironically, Gallo’s critics say much the same about him.

Page 1 of 2
12Next
Tags: election 2015Jim Noblekingston times election 2015mike heinshayne gallo
Join the family! Grab a free month of HV1 from the folks who have brought you substantive local news since 1972. We made it 50 years thanks to support from readers like you. Help us keep real journalism alive.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher

Hugh Reynolds

Related Posts

Woodstock police chief wasn’t told about town hiring of Level 3 sex offender
Politics & Government

Woodstock police chief wasn’t told about town hiring of Level 3 sex offender

July 24, 2025
Letters to the editor: July 23, 2025 (police, death, zoning and more)
Letters

Letters to the editor: July 23, 2025 (police, death, zoning and more)

July 23, 2025
Stormy Woodstock meeting questions the town supervisor’s original appointment
Politics & Government

Stormy Woodstock meeting questions the town supervisor’s original appointment

July 22, 2025
Is the New Paltz supervisor race finished?
Politics & Government

Gotto will oppose Rogers again

July 25, 2025
Donna Smith to replace Jewell Turner as Gardiner’s deputy town clerk
Politics & Government

Supervisor contest in Gardiner

July 22, 2025
Femtosecond realities
Columns

Femtosecond realities

July 22, 2025
Next Post

New Paltz School District will put up same $52.9 million bond for a vote on Tuesday, January 27

Please login to join discussion

Weather

Kingston, NY
79°
Fair
5:42 am8:22 pm EDT
Feels like: 81°F
Wind: 3mph S
Humidity: 61%
Pressure: 30.05"Hg
UV index: 0
SunMonTue
82°F / 66°F
91°F / 68°F
93°F / 70°F
Kingston, NY 10 days weather forecast ▸

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Art
    • Books
    • Kids
    • Lifestyle & Wellness
    • Food & Drink
    • Music
    • Nature
    • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
    • Hey Kingston
    • New Paltz Times
    • Woodstock Times
    • Week in Review

© 2022 Ulster Publishing