“I voted “ stickers are a waste of taxpayer money

It’s not millions of dollars, but the approval for this expenditure signifies how waste in government can accumulate and place a burden on taxpayers.

I’m referring to the expenditures approved by the boards of election in Nassau County and New York City to purchase “I voted” stickers for individuals exiting the polling places.

This is a taxpayer financed effort to encourage the virtue signaling of what a great person you are for having exercised your right to vote. It’s fine with me if you want to brag about voting, which should be your obligation as a citizen anyway, but why should I be taxed so that you can get a publicly financed sticker to show off. I really don’t care if you voted or not. In fact, if you don’t vote, it makes my vote more valuable.

The amount of public funds earmarked for these stickers range from as low as $5,600 in Nassau, to as much as $92,000 in the city of Santa Clara as far back as 2012. Suffolk County wisely decided it was not justifiable to make a $20,000 expenditure for the stickers. Kudos to the present chair, Gail Lolis, for saying the same. (Makes me proud I appointed her as a Deputy County Attorney in my days as County Executive.)

So good for all of you who exercised your right to vote, but expenditures like this serve no purpose.

When it comes to the relatively small amount that’s involved, it brings me back to articles that I’ve written about in the past highlighting what I call “Tax Creep.”

It’s where big spending officials justify a new school bond by claiming it’s only another $200 a year. Or LIPA officials saying that their new windmill will only cost another $40 a month. Or a union official claiming that the new contract will only cost another $55 monthly.

Taken separately, they don’t add up to much, but cumulatively, when the bills come out, we wound up seeing increases in our taxes $600, $800, or maybe $1000 a year.

The only way to stop tax creep is to have the courage to say no to the things we want so that we have the capacity to say yes to the things we need.

HOW MANY EARLY DAYS OF VOTING DO WE NEED?

And speaking of unnecessary expenditures at our election boards, why do we need to continue to pay poll watches to sit in school gymnasiums for nine separate days prior to the election?

I’ve always been a believer in early voting and in years past called for voting to be available on the weekend before election day to give those who had to work on election Tuesday an extra opportunity to vote. One extra day on the weekend would’ve been fine, but the big spenders in Albany decided we need nine extra days.

As far back as 2019, the cost to man these polling places for these extended days cost Suffolk County almost $3 million.

OK, maybe you could make an argument for that back then before we had mail in voting, but now you can vote by absentee anytime you want.

Do we really need an additional nine early days on top of that?