Mike Plochocki: Thanks to the voters

By Mike Plochocki

I would like to give my sincerest thanks to the voters of the 6th District for giving me the honor of electing me four times to serve as their county legislator.

The honor is even more humbling in light of the fact that, in each of these four elections, I won with the most votes in any contested race in the 17 legislative districts.

I cannot put into words how much I will remain forever grateful.

I have tried my best during my time as county legislator to keep my pledges to the voters, including: to fight to lower county taxes, to return more sales tax money to the villages, and to fight to protect the environment – especially the beautiful lakes of the district.

The Post-Standard referred to me in an article as a “fiscal hawk” and, indeed, in every single budget that I voted for the property tax rate was cut.

In fact, that rate is literally now the lowest it has ever been.

I lead the successful effort several years ago to increase the county’s sales tax money given to villages in the annual county budget (known as VIP money) and, now thanks to County Executive Ryan McMahon, that effort is culminating in a new sales tax agreement that will continue to restore even more sales tax money to the villages over the next 10 years.

The entire time I was on the legislature I served as the chair of the legislature’s Environmental Protection Committee. In that position I not only had oversight over the Onondaga Lake cleanup project, but was able to work to protect all the watersheds of the county, including successfully obtaining more money in the fight against invasive species, HABs and other problems affecting Skaneateles Lake and Otisco Lake.

While I have greatly enjoyed my time on the legislature, and may well run again for office someday, I resigned my seat in recent weeks to take a position as deputy county attorney and director of clean water initiatives.

Quite simply, I felt I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be even more heavily involved with the county’s environmental issues under the leadership of someone as dedicated to environmental protection as my friend and former colleague, County Executive McMahon.

Now I look forward to continuing to serve to protect the lakes that I love in an even more direct capacity.