No one knows for sure how these almost daily games of oneupmanship between the county’s executive and comptroller over former finance commissioner Burt Gulnick began. But for now, it’s the best show in town.

In ways large and small, Executive Jen Metzger and Comptroller March Gallagher have been rivals ever since last June when Democratic Committee members gave the former state senator their nomination by an almost 2-1 margin over Gallagher. Gallagher had gone to that turkey shoot convinced she should have earned the party endorsement after two successful elections for county office over Metzger, a one-term senator.

Flashing forward, the comptroller would seem to have clear authority in the Gulnick business, since ostensibly this is all about county finances. But power in county government lies not in the over-staffed legislature nor in the under-staffed comptroller’s office but in the well-padded executive branch. Gallagher has the pulpit. Metzger has the horses, lots of them. There is, too, the inconvenient truth about where the buck stops: The finance commissioner is appointed by and reports to the executive, not the comptroller.

At first blush, it was hard to see this pair playing in the same sandbox. Metzger stumbled out of the gate by issuing a pithy press release last Wednesday afternoon on Gulnick’s departure seemingly more designed to bury the issue than to illuminate it. This from administration pledged to “transparency.”

This came in the wake of Gallagher, who’s always prepared to pounce, having issued a press release the earlier that day that, as well as breaking the story into the open, gave people the first details of what might have been going on during Gulnick’s watch. She’d been investigating the commissioner for more than a year during a period when the county had had two elected executives and one acting.

The dueling duo at least agree that an outside investigation of the finance department would be in order. It would appear now that the county D.A. and the state comptroller will have first bites. Here, it is noteworthy to mention that Elliott Auerbach, the county’s first comptroller, is a deputy to State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli. And a big supporter of Gallagher. I would not have been stunned if DiNapoli had said, “Speak for yourself, Ulster. Let your comptroller do it.” But he did not; Auerbach is busy putting together a team of forensic accountants to do an autopsy on Gulnick's career.

If the DA gets involved, it will be on the periphery. Gulnick has not been accused of anything other than stonewalling the executive, Gallagher’s wolf calls notwithstanding. Ulster County district attorneys have traditionally rejected what they’ve called “political issues.” They have more important things to do, like watching very carefully a state police criminal investigation into Gulnick’s record as treasurer of the Hurley Recreation Association. In the criminal justice system, the police investigate crimes, and the district attorneys prosecute them.

While this clash of rivals may provide some entertainment value, might we be better off with two heads working as a criminal investigation one?

A Difficult ‘Process’

A spokesperson for Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha may have invented a new phrase in explaining that his boss’s $9 billion “tax on corporations” bill is being held up by an “internal process” in the People’s House. Shrestha, a Democratic Socialist and a Democrat, apparently in that order, is lobbying for inclusion of her bill in the Assembly’s “one-house budget.” We'll see how that goes; so far, according to her office, the Senate sponsor is Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal and there are 19 cosponsors in the Assembly and 11 in the Senate.

I agree with my new assemblymember on at least one thing: corporate America is using inflation against us. Stories abound.

I went to my bank the other day to reorder some checks.

“That should be around the $35 I paid last year,” I said to the teller.

“More like $43,” he said. “Inflation, you know.”

A semi-retired senior citizen living on a fixed income, I was having none of that.

”Inflation?” I said. “Inflation peaked at around nine percent last year and is down to around seven. You folks are good at math, but in my head, it comes out to about 20 percent.”

“It’s not us,” the banker said. “You know, suppliers.”

Right. Believe that and I’ll sell you a bridge under repair in Rondout.

I’m convinced the powers that set these rates will ride inflation as far as it will go and then keep most of the increases as pure profit. Call it the dark side of capitalism.

In another vignette, I was waiting to pay for gas while two women finished talking about inflation. One told the other she was made a widow with three small children when her husband died la few years ago. She was getting by, she said, until inflation hit.

“Now, I find myself paying bills with my savings,” she said.

Getting back to the assemblymember, rather than soaking the rich for another $9 billion, which will only be passed on to everybody else, why not pursue tax relief across the board?

Anointed at Last

Former Assemblymember Kevin Cahill has been practicing Queen Elizabeth’s wave (Bess-1) after being named Irishman of the Year for Sunday’s annual St. Patrick’s Parade in Kingston. Cahill’s late father, Mike Cahill, was a founding member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians which sponsors the parade. The wonder is it took 24 years (Cahill’s Assembly tenure) to anoint the lad.

I used to “run” in the annual Shamrock Run, but retired after the parades started passing me by. It was the best of runs, the first of the season after a long winter, short at two miles and downhill the last 500 yards.

One of my fondest memories was the Rev. Edmund Burke, past of St. Mary’s on Broadway, standing on the balcony of his church waving at everybody. Now retired, Father Burke is a resident of Woodland Ponds in New Paltz.

Festivities will commence at 12:50 sharp with the 35th annual Shamrock Run from Academy Green to Rondout, followed by the parade.

A Natural at Reporting

I note with sadness the passing of former Ulster County Gazette editor Carolyn Short, 84.

Carolyn was a former schoolteacher with a nose for news when I hired her as a reporter. She had a particular talent for reading between the lines.

One of her first assignments on the paper was a review of that year’s Kingston city budget.

Carolyn came to me and asked what “surplus” meant. “Just a paper figure,” I said. “That’s what Frank Koenig (the former mayor) always told me.”

“I think it might be real money,” Carolyn said.

A bit annoyed at being challenged by a reporter two weeks on the job, I suggested she call the state comptroller for a ruling.

“They said it’s real money,” she reported back.

We could use a few more reporters like Carolyn Short.