Candidate Chris Collins: I want to be your CEO and not your chief politician.

County Executive-Elect: Held a fundraising affair with county employees uncertain about their jobs, and evaded campaign finance laws by asking for “voluntary” contributions to his political slush-fund.

County Executive: Early in his tenure in office, he unsuccessfully sought a Republican Party nomination for higher office. Told he didn’t have enough of a record to run for higher office yet, he slashes the budget at the expense of the library system, Buffalo’s uniquely vibrant theater companies, and other cultural organizations which make for the great quality of life in our area. He will, however, honor financial commitments to the Buffalo Bills, who have cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in subsidies to a privately owned business. Unfortunately, they have repaid our generosity by, in recent years, adding to our image as a loser city.

County Executive Collins will try to run for higher office claiming he was a tough executive who balanced the budget and had a surplus. Of course he won’t talk about the damage he did to our cultural life. He is following the Hip Golden Rule of Administration: Do unto others, then cut out!

Murray Levine, Buffalo

The pieces in recent issues bemoaning Collins’ “attacks” on cultural institutions missed an important point. Efforts by conservative politicians to remove sponsorship of said institutions from the shoulders of taxpayers have not done, and could never do, anything like the kind of harm that a hostile, deconstructionist left has done to the culture at large. These institutions have proliferated in my lifetime. Whatever happened to patrons? I pay for culture I consume or attend.

Dan Hoffman, Buffalo

Artvoice reserves the right to edit letters for content and length. Shorter letters have a better chance at being published in their entirety. Please include your name, hometown, and contact number. E-mail letters to: editorial@artvoice.com or write to: Artvoice Letters, 810 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14202