MONROE COUNTY GOP POLICIES PERPETUATE POVERTY IN ROCHESTER

Rochester and Monroe County now have the distinction of being the 3rd largest city in America with the highest poverty rate, according to the Brookings Institute. Image provided.

Rochester, N.Y. -- November’s elections around the country were brought to you by the word "overreach," specifically by extreme conservatives who were testing the limits and boundaries of good government. Here in Rochester, N.Y., Democrats won two out of three county-wide races despite the local GOP spending millions of dollars more than Democrats to push their anti-worker and anti-equality agendas.

The big story locally continues to be voter turnout. Of 423,833 registered voters in Monroe County, a paltry 32.5 percent bothered to cast their ballots. In the city, just 25 percent of its 92,000 registered voters went to the polls. Not many media sources make the connection between poor people being adequately represented in local elections. To the contrary, it is the objective of the GOP to make sure they stay home on Election Day.

Our bigger problem here in Monroe County is not under performing elected officials and the bureaucrats they surround themselves with-- its voter apathy and an unengaged electorate that keep people like Maggie Brooks in public office. To put it mildly, our county government was hired by a motivated minority of voters.

Let's be clear-- in Monroe County, we do not have a true representative government. In fact, the GOP did not run candidates in most city races to suppress the vote. Voter suppression efforts are tactics politicians employ when they can’t win elections democratically.

photo: Ove Overmyer
Voice Reporter

Under Brooks’ reign, we have endured a net loss of more than 22,000 jobs, according to state Labor Department statistics. County tax levies have risen seven times in seven years. She even cut day care and lead poisoning prevention funding, which hurts children, families and all taxpayers. Her handpicked salaried protégés have all received hefty pay raises over the years, while thousands of Monroe County workers have gone without a contract since 2008. Don't even get us started over the defunding fiasco for the Center for Disability Rights. Revisit her politically movtivated decision here. The hypocrisy here cannot be overstated. There is clear evidence that these uneven policies have disproportionately hurt the poor and working class members of our community.

Coupled with the fact that Rochester and Monroe County now have the distinction of being one of the poorest communities in the nation should not sit well with anyone fighting the good fight.

Poverty increasing in Rochester

Poverty is becoming more concentrated and enveloping more of Rochester and other U.S. cities. The number of people living in neighborhoods in which 40 percent or more of residents are below the poverty line increased by one-third nationally in the past decade, according to a Brookings Institution report released earlier this month.

Rochester has the third-highest poverty rate among the nation's largest cities. For the metro area, defined by the Census Bureau as including Monroe, Livingston, Ontario, Orleans and Wayne counties, it's 22 percent, ranking 13th nationally.

To be sure, poverty is not confined to those highly impoverished city neighborhoods. In the Monroe County suburbs, for instance, the number of people living below the poverty line went from about 24,500 to about 34,500 — an increase of 40 percent — between 2000 and 2009, when the collection of Brookings' data was completed.

The total number of people living below the poverty line in the city rose from 54,700 to 57,900, or 6 percent. This is totally unacceptable.

photo: Ove Overmyer
Voice Reporter

Someone please tell us that the County Executive’s office shouldn’t shoulder some of the responsibility here? Under a Maggie Brooks administration, just like the national GOP model, the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. Now, income inequality has never been greater since the day’s right before the Great Depression. That’s true nationally and that’s true in Rochester, N.Y.

These new statistics should not be surprising given the policies that have been implemented by federal, state and local governments-- but they should shock you if you care about inclusion, opportunity and democracy.

Furthermore, this year’s election results underscore a momentum behind the power of labor unions and populist politics, the danger to conservatives of social-issue extremism and the fact that 2010 was no mandate for Republicans and right-wing policies. The Tea Party is now officially over. The 2011 elections also mean that if Republicans don't back away from an agenda that makes poor, middle-class, middle-of-the-road Americans deeply uncomfortable -- and in some cases angry -- they will no doubt feel the wrath of an angry populace come 2012.