Bill Meyer remembers waking up to find a parking ticket on his beat-up ‘64 Chevy Malibu. It was that cold November morning that he realized he wanted to get into politics.
“I didn’t think giving me the ticket was the right thing,” recalls Meyer. “And I knew I could do a whole lot better than what was being done.”
Now Meyer, a Republican, is running for his 10th term in the Onondaga County Legislature, representing District 3. The district includes most of Cicero and northern Manlius.
For Meyer, he and supporters say, the 2009 fall election will feature his traditional grassroots campaigning, emphasize his opposition to high taxes and highlight his 19 years experience in the legislature. There, say other legislators, he has gained a reputation for his attention to detail and his ability to get things done.
“I’m here to look out for the taxpayers and the residents,” Meyer said. “I don’t have another agenda.”
A native of Syracuse, Meyer grew up in a family with what he describes as a proud tradition of military service and an entrepreneurial spirit. He graduated from West Genesee High School and Auburn Community College. He received a bachelor’s degree from Kansas State Teacher’s College. Meyer is a former member of the Army Reserves, in which he served for over 20 years, and now owns an insurance company in Cicero. A self-described family man, he has two daughters and four grandchildren. His wife, Linda, is a librarian in the Onondaga County Public Library system.
In 2006, Meyer unsuccessfully ran for a vacant seat in the 121st District of the New York State Assembly. He lost to Democrat Al Stirpe by a vote of 23,914 to 22,562.
He has already begun his campaigning for the 2009 election for the District 3 county legislature seat. But, he said, he does not want voters to think that he is going door-to-door only because his seat is contested this year.
“I do the door-to-door thing even when I don’t have someone running against me,” Meyer said. “Generally, elected officials that are not active in their districts are usually not successful in their jobs.”
As of late April, the New York State Board of Elections does not list any campaign contributions for Meyer in 2009. He did raise $13,465.80 in 2008. He is fundraising for the election, Meyer says. Contribution and expenditure amounts, he says, will be available by time the report is due.
Apart from fundraising, Meyer is also continuing his tradition of hosting community events. He recently held his annual Kentucky Derby Party on May 2, 2009. The event was at Lakeshore Yacht and Country Club in Meyer’s hometown of Cicero. The event is an opportunity, Meyer says, for local Republicans to come together.
He also wins praise for his attention to community needs and social graces. Kate McCaffrey is the new director of the Northern Onondaga Public Library system. She has known Bill Meyer for over six years, she says, dating back to her time as the deputy director for the Onondaga County Public Library. Meyer was the chair of the legislature’s Ways and Means Committee, and McCaffrey had to present him with any requests for funding. A supporter of libraries, Meyer also remembers the social courtesies that are attached to his position, McCaffrey said. He was there to welcome her a year ago when she took over as the director in the library’s Cicero branch, she recalls.
“He knows the community so well, and he was able to give me some insight as a new-comer,” McCaffrey said. “It was helpful, and I feel like he’s there if I need to ask him for help. The general consensus is that he’s really active in the community.”
In the 2009 campaign, taxes will again be on his agenda, Meyer said. “We pay far too much in taxes,” he said.
In addition, Meyer said he plans to address concerns raised by the voters. What he has done in the past is not important, he says. Instead, he wants to focus on what he can do to help his district in the future.
“In my district, you have a lot of new people and new homes,” said Meyer. “When I meet these new people, they tell me their concerns and I do what I can to help them.” That is why he loves making the rounds door-to-door, he said. Those are the times, he says, that voters can most directly tell him their concerns.
Among his legislative colleagues, Meyer wins praise for taking a broad view of issues as chairman of the county legislature. Sam Laguzza, D-Syracuse, is the legislator from District 16. He is also the only Democratic chair of any legislative subcommittee, the social services subcommittee. He lauds Meyer for his ability to get things done.
“Bill is approachable, open-minded, and generally receptive,” Laguzza said. “You have to develop relationships with other legislators to get things done, and he has those relationships.”
But Laguzza is also quick to point out that Democrats struggle as the minority party, with eight seats to the Republicans’ 11. As the minority party, Laguzza says, being a Democrat with Meyer as chairman can be difficult. “A lot of times the things we want to do are stifled,” said Laguzza. He added, “But I do think that Bill always tries to do what he thinks is right for the county.”
But on partisanship in local politics, Meyer recalls a shift since his earliest days in politics.
“When I was on the board for the Town of Cicero, if I could have given everyone $100 and the Democrats would get credit for it, they still wouldn’t have let me do it,” said Meyer. “But now, I think people are pretty open to ideas, no matter where they come from.”
Meyer’s ideas for the upcoming term are focused on his tax relief stance. Some of the issues he advocates are:
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Increasing STAR benefits for homeowners to reduce school taxes
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Keeping local tax dollars in the county to secure better funding for local schools
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Preventing Medicaid fraud to keep money in the pockets of local homeowners
Paying too much in taxes, much like the ticket he found on his old Chevy Malibu, is unfair and needs to be stopped, Meyer said. He added, “What I’ve found is over the years there are a lot of people with similar stories to mine, and these things shouldn’t happen.”
(Mark Banick is a junior newspaper journalism major with a minor in religion.)
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