Ann Marie Buerkle and the Cormorants, Updated

The Oneida Lake Association is holding its 66th Annual Meeting tonight at Cicero-North Syracuse High School and Ann Marie Buerkle is invited to attend.

The announcement on Syracuse.com this morning takes Dan Maffei to task for "dropping the ball" last year with help against the cormorant problem. First of all, it is odd that Maffei "drops the ball", but Buerkle, if she fails to fund help with the cormorants, will claim streamlining government. 

She will be in an untenable position tonight in any event. She claims with every fiber that she means to cut government spending. Yet she would like to make friends with the 3500 members of the Association.

Second, last year following the 65th Annual Meeting this announcement appeared on the OLA's own web site: ...[W]e have good news right now—Congressmen Maffei, Owens, and Arcuri have requested that cormorant management funding be included in next year’s federal budget, and I have been told by Senator Gillibrand’s staff that she will support this legislation if it reaches the Senate.”

Looking forward to seeing what happens tonight....

Maybe, magically, some of Buerkle's own wealth will trickle down.

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• Update from Syracuse.com on April 22     

Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle spoke briefly at the end of the meeting about her recognition that dealing with the cormorant issue was important because the health of the fishery is a major factor in the economy scene around the lake. She apologized that “the ball was dropped” in regard to the federally funded harassment program.

She said she and her staff will work hard with DEC and federal officials to somehow get the program back.

“This project is not just a handout,” she said. “It will ensure the economic vitality around Oneida Lake.”

• ...and this wonderful comment from chainsawmyke that followed:

"i'd like to hear the representative's definition of a project that IS just a handout. whenever funds are allocated and spent anywhere,anytime, they add to the economic vitality of the area they are spent in. i suppose if one decided to burn a pile of US currency, that may not add much to the economic vitality of the area but you would still have to buy matches from some store. i thought this person was elected to CUT federal spending. i guess it depends on where she's speaking at any given night as to what will be cut and what won't. republican hypocrisy at it's finest. more empty promises...we are getting used to them ann marie."