Stec once fought the good fight
The best movie of the year has not been nominated for ANY Oscars
By Ken Tingley
I didn’t write a lot about politics in those days. Frankly, there were better stories out there, but this story was different.
Warren County was embroiled in a budget crisis and facing a $4 million deficit. Some supervisors suggested raising the county sales tax by 1 percent to help close the gap. As we know, for Republicans to propose raising taxes it has to be desperate times.
Stec, who served five terms as Queensbury supervisor, showed the guts we all want to see in a public official. He proposed cutting four road patrol officers from the Warren County Sheriff’s Office to reduce spending.
That’s the third rail of local politics.
If you want to lose an election, propose consolidating or cutting the local police force.
It was a bold proposal.
"I don't seek confrontation," Stec said at the time. "This is not personal. We've got a deficit of $4 million and I'm just trying to get it to $3 million. And if you are going to do that you have got to do it from the big departments like social services, the sheriff's department and public works."
Stec was the rare fiscal conservative willing to battle with the sacred cows. And he went a step further by proposing the cuts come in the town in which he lived and served. Stec pointed out the State Police barracks on Aviation Road was right across the street from the high school and was built from funds raised by Queensbury taxpayers. The State Police were not paying rent or utilities.
So if there was a problem, an emergency, the State Police would be well positioned to respond.
It made a lot of sense.
Stec had also stood up to the local fire companies when they were looking for large increases in their budgets and won concessions.
I applauded Stec at the time.
Unfortunately, Stec is in the minority in the state Senate. He was in the minority in the state Assembly when he was there too, so he can’t get a lot done.
What I’d like to see is one of our Republican leaders stand up against the current political climate, someone who is for the people first, not the party.
I hope Dan Stec could be that person.
Rep. Elise Stefanik seems to have set the tone for local politics with her serial fibbing. Between demonizing the other side and investigating far-fetched conspiracy theories and wild investigations, it does not seem like she has a lot of time for constituents.
That style of politics seems to have seeped into local politics where Warren County officials seem to be at each other’s throats.
What has been nice to see over the past two months is that Sen. Stec rarely tweets. That may be a good sign that he is not buying into Rep. Stefanik’s political attacks. We need local Republican leaders to stand up for what is right.
None have so far.
Someone like Dan Stec could bringing people together by standing up to the false accusations and attacks.
Dan Stec wasn’t afraid to do that when he was a supervisor in Queensbury. That was far riskier at the time. It made his a respected leader. He has lost some of that luster by his silence.
Maybe, he can get that back.
Nepotism?
Speaking of Stec, this past week the Queensbury Town Board appointed Hillary Stec, Dan Stec’s wife, to fill out Rachel Seeberr’s remaining term as n at-large Queensbury supervisor in Warren County.
She was chosen from among seven candidates.
Whlie she may be the best candidate, the optics are not good when the wife of a sitting state senator and former town supervisor is appointed to a position at the county.
It just doesn’t look good to the general public.
Basketball Week
Perhaps my favorite sporting week of the year is when the Section II Basketball Tournament comes to Glens Falls.
Starting Monday with three games, a full slate of playoff basketball takes place at the Cool Insuring. I like to come early and stay late.
The games continue straight through four championship games on Saturday.
If you are looking for me this week, you will find me in downtown Glens Falls, especially when Glens Falls plays today at 3:30 p.m. in the sectional semifinals.
Oh my!
My friend Greg Brownell pointed out that there was a faux pas on the arena scoreboard on Monday night with the Greenwich boys playing.
Check out the spelling of Greenwich.
Movie obsession
This time of year I watch a lot of movies. With the Academy Awards ceremonies just 10 days away, I trry to watch as many nominated movies as possible. So far I have watched 27 different movies and it has been mostly disappointing.
But last week, I saw the best movie I have seen all year - “She said.”
It won’t be surprising that I am drawn to a good newspaper movie. “Spotlight” still holds up as a great movie and some great journalism. “She said,” covers the investigation by two New York Times reporters into the sexual assault allegations around Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. It is a great movie that focuses on the victims and the reporters attempts to get them on the record and hold Weinstein accountable for his crimes.
This past week, Weinstein was sentenced to another 16 years in a rape case in Los Angeles. He is already serving 23 years for a conviction in New York.
Weinstein is 70.
PBS interview
For those who received Mountain Lake PBS, I will be appearing on the “Mountain Lake Journal” show on Friday at 8 p.m. The interview will also be aired on Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 10 a.m.
It was a great discussion with host Thom Hallock.
I’ll also be speaking later this month to the Plattsburgh Rotary Club.
Another fun event
When you get a couple of newspaper folks together, there is never a shortage of good conversation.
I’ll be talking about newspapers and journalism at Greenwich Free Library on Thursday, March 9 at 6:30 p.m. along with former Schenectady Gazette Editor Judy Patrick and Albany Times Union reporter Wendy Liberatore.
We’ll be talking about the state of journalism past and present. Bring your questions and concerns.
This is a profoundly hopeful analysis on Dan Stec’s record. We should not forget that the budget crisis of 13 years ago was precipitated by “fiscal conservatives” led by Stec decrying the size of the county’s “rainy day” fund saying that it’s the people’s money and they know best how to spend it. That was about 15 years ago. And it was a fine idea if all of the county’s maintenance and future accounts were in careful order in case of a major financial crisis - like the bank collapse that happened shortly after Stec convinced the county to reduce the reserve fund. Instead the county severely scaled back spending on things like infrastructure maintenance. That deferred maintenance has been costing us ever since and is only being caught up recently because of the largess of Democrats in Congress and the Biden administration. $4 million of ARPA money alone was turned over to the DPW to catch up on deferred maintenance, and that is a fraction of the costs of “fiscal conservatism.”
Hope that Stec will “stand up against the current political climate” seems misplaced as well. Dan Stec is the power player in the local and regional political power, second only to Stefanik. If there is a lot of political nonsense going on you can be pretty sure Stec has a hand in it but kept his fingerprints off of it. Before the last election 54 local GOP leaders were listed endorsing Stefanik. Only 2 were vocal in their qualms about J6 and the sadistic form of politics Stefanik represents: Dennis Dickinson and Bob Blais. Stec stood proudly side by side with Stefanik again and again.
So, yes, Stec stood against a 1% sales tax increase 13 years ago. Chalk 1 up for him on that. Meanwhile consider that every single local tax increase in decades has been brought to you by self-professed “fiscally conservative” Republicans. I didn’t get a postcard from our State Senator decrying the recent tax increases in Queensbury or Warren County. When Thurman was going through a period of animosity on the town board Stec didn’t step in to calm tensions. When Whitehall suffered a disastrous flood at the school causing $16 million in damage Stec didn’t send a postcard telling us how he worked to help the community. But if there is a ribbon that needs cutting Stec has his scissors sharpened and is ready to serve.
I think it is political death right now for a Republican in a red district to speak out against the conspiracy theories. In a swing district, maybe, but not in a red one. They would never get past their next primary. I'm settling for less maybe, but a rep that spoke out too long and too loudly against the insanity wouldn't be around long.