An ad in a local trade publication noted that the Orleans County Legislature will hold a public forum and "progress report" this evening at 7:00 pm at the Trolley Building located at the 4-H fairgrounds. When I think of a progress report, I usually think of it as negative, but not everything the OC legislature has done of late has been negative, in fact holding an evening forum and a session at the nursing home are both very positive developments and indicative of better leadership.

Now people may have thought that I forgot about the county government because my topics of late have included genetic test kits, underwear laws, and open meetings. This is in addition to the fact that- as a local newsstand owner can attest to-my wife and I have recently adopted the world's cutest puppy, which has made me a little less ornery. Honestly, who can be mean when you have a puppy around?

I have been keeping an eye on some county business and following things as best as I can, and still get the occasional "hot tip" from my county insider, including the passage of a resolution dealing with gun control laws. On another positive note, the county provided me with the resolution without having to FOIL it, and it was received very quickly, much faster than the time a FOIL request would take.

The resolution in question is 169-410, entitled " Opposing Various Proposed New York Sate Legislation" states the county governments opposition to a slew of gun control bills proposed at the state level including harsher penalties for the possession of "cop-killer" bullets (A2881-S2379) and requiring the safe storage of guns in households with children under the age of 18 (A5844B-S3098A). Some of the other proposed laws are harsher and on the surface appear to be an invasion of privacy-like the establishment of an ammunition-coding database (A3200 and S2953) but the gun lobby certainly has enough power to kill it and it has not come up for a vote on the floor for well over a year.

The Shooter's Committee On Political Education (SCOPE) has issued extensive policy statements regarding many of the bills included in the county bill, and have not summarily rejected the cop killer bullet legislation, just elements of it. This leads me to question what purpose does this county legislation serve?

The answer seems to be our local Tea Party leader and sometimes guns rights advocate, Paul Rusin, who spoke at the county legislature meeting on April 29. Mr. Rusin celebrated April 15 by going to a Republican political function attended by many of our local legislators. Imagine that, the organizer of the local branch of the "Taxed Enough Already" movement rubbing elbows with elected officials of the county with the highest property tax in the nation as a percentage of home value.

I have long been one of the few voices calling for fiscal conservatism at the local level and had hoped on some level that the local Tea Party's agenda included fiscal reform at the local level. Instead, it appears that they are just another group that is cozy with incumbents; it is the equivalent of the participants of the Boston Tea Party having tea and crumpets with the King after their "protest."

Also, voting to not support these bills without an explanation is a vote against the intent of the bills, which was to protect law enforcement and children, even SCOPE policy statements offered reasonable explanations for their stance so that people could make an informed decision. Besides, we have much larger problems on the local level that need to be dealt with, and that is what our county elected officials were elected to take care of.