In closely analyzing the results of last week’s elections, it is quite apparent to me that some frustrated New York state voters flooded to the polls in an effort to tell their elected officials that enough is enough.

Specifically, it seems as though some Democrats who slyly engaged in what have been properly identified as extremely foolish tax-and-spend tactics were served a wake-up call by ticked-off taxpayers who want the fiscal follies in Albany to cease and desist.

Democrats in Nassau, Erie, Dutchess, Putnam and Westchester counties took some hits politically as Republicans in those five counties were able to gain control thanks to the GOP’s campaign platform that stated incumbent Democrats openly embrace higher taxes and careless spending.

Why the outrage and the extra effort made last week to head to the polls?

I think the answers are quite simple. Average citizens in the private sector who consistently bust their humps and are literally living paycheck to paycheck while working in an uncertain economic climate are easily angered by elected officials who have no problem signing off on property tax hikes.

While Joe Six-Pack comes home each day wondering if it’s just a matter of time before his job may be downsized or outright eliminated and then stares at the bottom line of his shriveled retirement fund, we have so-called public servants strolling around Albany answering the state’s budget problems by increasing taxes.

I’ve done the research and the numbers don’t lie — taxes were increased by more than $10 billion this year in an attempt to fill budget gaps and now there’s chatter more increases won’t be far behind in 2010.

So what happens next?

This week our illustrious leaders have begun to examine New York’s multibillion-dollar cash shortfall. I would be lying if I didn’t say I would love to be a fly on the wall to hear if any of our elected officials at the state level — both Democrats and Republicans — admit that they sat up and took notice of last Tuesday’s election results.

In the words of the rock band Twisted Sister, taxpayers took a stand and the message is quite clear — “we’re not going to take it anymore.”

What we need now is a change in the normal behavior of those who represent us in Albany. There needs to be significant changes in policies and procedures related to the budget process, specifically long-range fiscally planning that keeps a constant eye on what should be the common goals of all members of the state Assembly and state Senate.

We need to avoid the same-old, same-old approach to how things have been done by career politicians whose chief responsibilities were aimed at simply hiking taxes whenever the numbers from the expense ledger don’t equal or were less than what is identified as revenue.

What will be most interesting to observe between now and next November is if the voters’ wrath felt last week will have an impact come election time next year.

While there wasn’t that much change locally when talking about Western New York, specifically Erie County, I was surprised when I reviewed last week’s voting results to see that some well-known and longtime Democrats were ousted.

Their Republican opponents didn’t promise 20-pound bags full of leftover Halloween candy or cases of cranberry sauce to be used by voters for Thanksgiving. Instead they simply vowed to do whatever is necessary to lower property taxes by decreasing state spending.

The need to re-evaluate how property tax rates are calculated — instead of just automatically figuring on raising taxes, we need someone to take a stand and look at holding the line, or, perish the thought, actually reduce the rates — has never been so obvious.

What also needs to happen is for voters to get away from the mindset of voting for someone simply based on their party affiliation or whether or not the candidate enjoys union support. Every incumbent office holder needs to be held to some type of standards, party be damned.

I encourage you to pay close attention to what happens this week in Albany. If the response to how to fix the state’s budget woes includes the usual introduction of new revenue sources instead of reducing expenses, it will be obvious that our elected leaders still don’t get that we would respect them more if they did the right, not political, thing for a change.

(Daniel Meyer is a columnist for the Weekly Independent Newspapers of Western New York, a consortium of community-based weekly newspapers with a combined paid circulation of 75,000 homes. E-mail comments to: meyersmusings@gmail.com. Opinions expressed here are those of the author.)