BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Limba - ECPv6.16.5//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://limba.net X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Limba REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20140309T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20141102T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20150308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20151101T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20160313T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20161106T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20150108T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20150108T000000 DTSTAMP:20150108T050000Z CREATED:20150108T050000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150108T050000Z UID:4631-1420675200-1420675200@limba.net SUMMARY:District Attorney Tom Spota TBC DESCRIPTION: URL:https://limba.net/calendar/district-attorney-tom-spota-tbc/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20150109T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20150109T000000 DTSTAMP:20150109T050000Z CREATED:20150109T050000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150109T050000Z UID:4614-1420761600-1420761600@limba.net SUMMARY:NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli DESCRIPTION:Our speaker this morning was New York State Comptroller the Honorable Tom DiNapoli. He began by telling us that the state’s economy is not as robust as we would like it to be\, but it has been improving. Unemployment is down to 4.6% on Long Island. (That’s good news\, but during Q&A it was pointed out to him that much of those gains in employment went to lower paying jobs than those that were previously lost) \nThe state budget which has been late year after year has been on time in each of the last four years. (That is important because it avoids costly short term borrowing on the local level). Employment is up but not all sectors of the economy and regions of the state are enjoying the same level of growth. Upstate New York is a challenge to reinvigorate. On the other hand New York City is the state’s leader in job growth \nHousing affordability is still not where it should be. The accepted percentage of income that is spent on housing is 25%. Housing costs are about 30% if you are fortunate\, but more often it is 40% and even 50% \nInfrastructure needs are not being met and that leads to other increased costs. According to the comptroller we are funding about 30% of our infrastructure needs. \nDiNapoli discussed the idea of accountability in the local government budgets. He stated that the impression that school budgets are a special target is not quite accurate\, but the truth is that they are very large budgets and there is a potential for improving allocations of resources is greater when you have a large budget. Some school budget audits were requested by an incoming board. \nThe Q&A was lively and we ran out of time before we ran out of questions. \nErnie Fazio \nToday’s sponsor was Gold Coast Bank- Thank You \nStaff of LIMBA that helped today was Bill Miller\, Marguerite Moore\, and Ken Nevor. URL:https://limba.net/calendar/nys-comptroller-tom-dinapoli/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20150123T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20150123T000000 DTSTAMP:20150123T050000Z CREATED:20150123T050000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150123T050000Z UID:4612-1421971200-1421971200@limba.net SUMMARY:Open Forum on Community Issues DESCRIPTION:Bob Bender of the RB Bender Group and Suffolk legislator Rob Trotta helped launch our LIMBA open forum meeting this morning. Our format was different from our usual presentation. Instead of having one featured speaker we had an open forum. \n  \nBob Bender gave us food for thought about water in the region. “We are collecting large amounts of grease that is produced by the many restaurants. The restaurants pay for this disposal service and the collection companies add chemicals to break it down and send into our municipal sewer treatment plants.” This process is costly to the taxpayers and detrimental to the environment due to the chemicals that are added. Bender poses the question of why are we doing this when a more effective way of processing grease would to break it down into methane gas that gas could be used to produce electricity at the sewage disposal facility. \n  \nBender went on to point out the environmental cost in dollars is substantial\, but the closing of beaches and the dangers to our water supply has an impact on our quality of life. \n  \nRob Trotta had a completely separate issue about the enormous cost of municipal governments caused by the pensions that have been negotiated. He pointed to the fact that due to a feature in the state law municipal workers get raises even when a new labor contract is not negotiated pay raises happen anyway. It called the Triborough Amendments. Beside the written inequities there is political fear that politicians don’t want to deal with. Elected officials would rather give the unions almost anything they want than antagonize them and lose an election. \n  \nRob Forstrom has been an ally of the Maglev transportation system. Regarding that thought the geographical Long Island including Brooklyn and Queens has over 7 million people. With natural disasters such hurricane Sandy and terrorist attacks the likes of which would dwarf the one we have already seen\, there are inadequate ways of either exiting the island or supplying the island. Forstrom suggested that the Cross harbor tunnel that Congressman Nadler spoke about at LIMBA could be completed and the more than adequate rail system that is underground in Brooklyn and Queens could be extended to the Long Island Expressway and turn at William Floyd Parkway and cross the Long Island Sound by bridge or tunnel. \n  \nThis would be a massive undertaking but there are no technical reasons that it couldn’t be done. Ideally it would be serviced by Maglev because the operational costs are low and the technology is fast\, safe\, and clean. \n  \nWe had no shortage of topics and we will do this again. \n  \nErnie Fazio URL:https://limba.net/calendar/open-forum-on-community-issues/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR