Bait and Switch

Okay, I have been trying not to get hot and bother on too many issues outside of the real local stuff, but forgive me, has every elected official lost their mind?  The governor's bold new plan calls for an increase in your income tax and a reduction in the sales tax.  In addition to the hundreds if not thousands of dollars for some the newly proposed "transportation" fees and taxes will cost.

This is like throwing a bag of potato chips to someone after taking away a full meal and telling them its okay, we are still feeding you.

How about leaving everything as is and learning to live with what you have?  

Believe it or not, I will by into some of the transportation money gouging so long as the legislature learns to take the money and apply it year in and year out solely to transportation.  I get it. After decades of misapplying money from the gas tax and other fees; after decades of mismanagement and worse at the MBTA and the turnpike and just about anything else the state touches, more money is needed to bail it out.

Spare me the arguments about how well this state does compared to everyone else.  Great.  In fact we are better than most states on the financial end.  Just think how wonderful it could actually be if the standard were the truly best run instead of the least inept.

Until you can figure out a way to deal with the issues you have, why are you proposing more.  I am sorry, but history has kind of shown that creating new programs and throwing more money against the wall hasn't solved much of anything.  Money, unlike mud, doesn't stick to the wall, at least not until the grubby hands have had a chance to pick it up off the floor.  Trust me, once happens, it doesn't get thrown at the wall a second time.

I can see it all ready, another phantom budget out of the governor's office.  Lame ducks should act like lame ducks instead of trying to create a grandiose legacy.

The concept of a recovery is to get the foundation laid back on a solid footing. You want to add more stories to a building before then, at least make sure you plan to be around when the building starts to crumble in the future.   

You can tell 2013 is not an election year for state officials.  

While I am on a state rant, might as well continue on something that has big implications locally, the consolidation of local Housing Authorities. For a rosy picture of why it should be done see the article in  The Fairhaven Neighborhood News. 

Sorry, but small towns being lumped in with big cities does not work for small towns.  

I have yet to see any example or even any proposed idea were regionalizing with a big city is going to be a true benefit to the Town.  It is also likely we will be lumped in with more than one big city.  Do the math.  There are 242 housing authorities.  There are 6 proposed regions.  Again, do the math.

While there is a certain internal debate on the concept, in the long term if the present set up is so bad, the regional alternative should be making bigger pockets of bad.  Let the state take the whole darn thing over, eliminate the "local" "regional" run concept.  That is what it is doing anyway.  

Improvements for tenants, don't count on it.  Well run authorities will decline.  Tenants aren't going to have the same local option.  You will forgive me but bigger bureaucracies don't instill any level of confidence in me.

Costs savings?  If all current employees will be given the opportunity to transition into the new system, just what is the savings?

Trust me when I tell you, the ultimate result here is for those who do it well to pay the price for those who do not.  If current residents at the Authority in Fairhaven feel neglected, just wait.  It will be like going to the local market deli and standing in a line of four or five, to picking a ticket at the super market and seeing you have # 25 and realizing they are serving #2.

Housing Authorities were formed upon a local determination as to need.  The present law provides for local communities to determine whether it is in there best interest to regionalize.  We as a community buy into these concepts with the understanding that there will be local control.  

The governor feels it is entirely appropriate to forget about that little detail and simply attempt to strip that away.

People wonder why I get so ticked off and at times resist buying into any state program.  These little power grabs are the reason.  You are asked to adopt something under a certain set of guidelines and procedure.  

Then, without giving you the chance to opt out, an entirely new set of rules are thrust upon you.  

Your local housing authority, which the town had to determine there was a need for, will no longer be about your local housing determination.  Your local members on the authority are no longer going to be local.  Let's face it, with essentially 60 communities in a region, just how many Fairhaven reps are going to get appointed to a nine member governing body.

You had to make the choice to buy into the program.  You are now stuck in it forever, and forced to be a participant in something you might, and probably never would have, voted to be a member of.

The Neighborhood News also has an interesting article on the public hearing to be held on the turbine siting proposed bylaw, and the rules being set for the public hearing.  I like them.  I think it is a smart move and I think it will keep the hearing on track for what is is suppose to be about, the proposed siting by-law.  

Might have to actually go to that one.  Be interesting to see how many people try to get qualified as an "expert".

Okay, enough of this.  Try and enjoy your day, and as always, be safe.