Here in Trumansburg, we’ve done better than most of the nation. The pitch of the decline of our housing prices has been less steep. Nonetheless, this chart from Zillow, which tracks real estate statistics, shows that we’re in a double dip too.

At least housing prices here aren’t as low as they were in 2009.

There won’t be a protest of this sort in Trumansburg today, but take the Route 21 bus down to Ithaca, and you can be dropped off right at the location of protest scheduled to take place in Ithaca. You can take part outside the county library, starting at 5:00 PM.

On economic issues, however, Richard Hanna hasn’t begun so well. So far, TheMiddleClass.org has given Congressman Hanna a zero percent legislative rating, indicating that Hanna is voting against the economic interests of his middle class constituents. Ulysses is a mostly middle class town, of course, and Hanna’s economic agenda so far isn’t matching our needs.

So, what’s the solution our U.S. Representative, Michael Arcuri has come up with? Well, he voted against health care reform, leaving the unemployed, underemployed and self-employed vulnerable to the outrageous rates from insurance companies. Then, Arcuri voted in favor of doing nothing about climate change, which is already draining billions of dollars out of our national economy every year.

But, you may be asking, what has Mike Arcuri done lately? Not much, to be honest. Most of Representative Arcuri’s work on Capitol Hill has been procedural clerking, offering motions to adjourn, or to have someone else’s bill considered, and that sort of thing.

In his re-election campaign, however, Representative Arcuri has shown the kind of leadership that… well, the kind of leadership that we’ve come to expect from Arcuri. Arcuri’s latest big economic idea, sent out in a campaign email this afternoon, is to invite consituents to a big gathering in Ithaca, and then take their money.

Arcuri’s supposed to be working for us in Washington D.C., but it seems that he sees it the other way around. We work at our jobs, and pay our taxes so that he can get a big paycheck, and then Arcuri charges us for the privilege of meeting him for a few seconds.

The going rate that Mike Arcuri has devised for his upcoming gathering: 500 dollars to stand in line waiting to shake his hand, and 1,000 dollars if you want your photograph taken with him to make yourself look important.

In times like these, Congressman Arcuri ought to be meeting with us come up with ways to help us make ends meet, rather than taking our money to meet his own ends.

Is Representative Arcuri truly “fiscally conservative”, though, or does he just use that term as an excuse to support the Republican agenda? A recently introduced bill, H.R. 5353, provides a good test of Arcuri’s true fiscal character.

H.R. 5353 would eliminate federal taxes on the first $35,000 of every American’s income ($70,000 for married couples). Just think of how that tax cut could help you in these economically difficult times. The bill would also pay off 16 billion dollars of the federal budget deficit, providing a savings for the American people that will compound year after year.

How would H.R. 5353 accomplish this feat? It would merely require the Pentagon to pay for its activities through its official budget, rather than taking hundreds of billions of dollar in extra requests to Congress. So long as the Pentagon cuts its most outrageous pork barrel spending – such as money just approved for a second engine for the F-35, a single engine airplane – this requirement shouldn’t be a problem. The U.S. military budget is so filled with waste that it’s as large as the military budgets of all the other nations on Earth combined. Our planet’s 2nd largest military budget is from the European Union, and they’re U.S. allies.

Maurice Hinchey, the U.S. Representative for the district that includes our neighbor Ithaca, has cosponsored the bill. But Michael Arcuri? Apparently he doesn’t approve of this sort of fiscal conservatism. H.R. 5353 gives Arcuri a chance to dramatically cut taxes and pay down the deficit, but Arcuri won’t sign his name to the effort.

There are 18 homes for sale in Trumansburg now, and 13 homes have recently been sold. The median listing price for homes currently for sale in Trumansburg is $234,900.

“Yes, we have reached a milestone of two years at The Artisan Cafe. It hasn’t been easy but we are trying to hang in there despite all the inherent problems of running a new business in a difficult economy. As a thank you to all our customers we will be open Thursday from 11am until 8pm in addition to Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We will also offer two dollars off every sandwich and entree all day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday! We hope to see you all during our Anniversary. For those of you who are having parties for the Super Bowl, remember we offer to go meals. We will have chili. burgers and our amazing cheesesteaks on the menu as well as our lunch menu to go all day Sunday. Just be sure to call in advance with orders. 387-4993. Thank you all for a great two years.”

In a time when some big restaurant chains have gone out of business, the Artisan Cafe remains, giving us opportunity for an occasional bite of comfort to help us get through the hard times.

Current tax law gave an exemption for the first million dollars of this form of income. Under the bill Arcuri voted for, that exemption will be raised to three and a half million dollars.

Middle class and working poor Americans won’t see one single cent of savings from this tax cut. In fact, we’ll be paying for this widened tax loophole for wealthy Americans. It’s going to cost the federal government hundreds of billions of dollars, a debt our taxes will have to pay off – with interest.

For years, when the Republicans were in charge, I heard Democrats complain about tax cuts targeted to benefit the wealthiest Americans. Will Democrats be silent now, when one of their own in Congress has voted in favor of the same sort of scheme?

Upon reading an analysis of the cost of the legislation by political site FiveThirtyEight, I find out this morning that Arcuri’s statements were even more off base. It seems that the average household expense from the legislation in New York State would be much lower than the national average: 19 cents a day – an amount easily offset by replacing an inefficient lightbulb. New York’s expense would be the second lowest in the United States, behind only Florida.

If New York’s energy expenses would be increased at a lower rate than any other state than Florida, wouldn’t that make our state more attractive to businesses and individuals looking to relocate? Once again, Mike Arcuri doesn’t seem to have been able to think things through. He’s thrown away for both environmental and economic improvement for our region.

“The Committee has made every effort to encourage Democrats from varied backgrounds to join and participate in Committee activities. Members of the Committee have taken to heart the task of increasing the racial, socio-economic, age and gender diversity within the community.”

Can we expect to see that kind of planning for diversity from the Ulysses Republicans? Any Ulysses Republicans want to inform me on that matter?

Actually, that’s $3.75.9 per gallon, to be precise. 24.1 cents per gallon of gasoline to go until we’re paying four dollars per gallon.

How soon will we make it to that point? It seems silly to predict, though gasoline prices typically go up during the summer time.

My family is not planning any long vacations this summer. I wouldn’t be surprised to see others staying closer to home as well.

It’s a national story, of course, and that means that we ought not to expect quite so many visitors as usual either… and perhaps a more local audience for the Grassroots Festival.

In the middle of Trumansburg, the new awning for the improved and enlarged Little Venice is up.

On the south end of the village, gasoline is selling for $3.30 a gallon (or, as the sign would have us believe, just $3.299). How much longer before Trumansburg pays $4.00 per gallon? Any friendly bets on that?