BRIAN HOOSE
Hi Neighbors,
Reporting back to the homeowners on Franklin St. I have spoken with DPW Superintendent Jim Mulvenna regarding your sidewalk. He will be checking it out to see what can be done to correct that dangerous situation. As well, regarding lowering the gravel level on Congress Ct. Also, the flooding situation at the end of Allen St. And, we are looking into the flooding problem on Chestnuts St. And, I would like to thank our City Engineer Mark Cressotti, and his crew; Community Development: Peter Miller; and Jim Mulvenna for their time to personally check out these situations and to help me recommend corrective measures, as well as, the Mayor. Their staffs have been great in helping me on these projects even before they knew I was a City Councilor.
Next, it is the dreaded BUDGET time. I would suggest that you check out the budgets being proposed on our City’s website, and talk with your city councilor about your concerns, after all that is why you hired us, and pay us.
I have been involved in civic affairs for a great deal of my life, but this is my first year of dealing with a city budget so it will be a learning experience for me. My thoughts: we need to find alternative ways and means to fund government. The cut or spend practices are obsolete. Originally, in 1800, most taxes came from Property Taxes for local and state budget funding, but back then 90 percent of Americans owned their own businesses, and their homes were also businesses. And, the Federal Government was funded by tariffs and excise taxes. But, back then, too, what did they have to spend it on? What has changed? 1900, the world population was 1 billon and ours (1914) was 100 million; and we lived till 45-55. Now the world is 7 billion, and ours is 300+ million, and we live to 65-75+. Today, as in 1900, invention has driven the costs up. Then, the car, electricity, the plane, and telephone, etc. and the need to retrofit buildings, and to create roads, airports, etc. So they created the Income Tax. WWII lead to a broad based income tax of 90 percent on income above $25,000 (most incomes were below this) to pay for the war and the cost of all the new inventions incorporated into our lives, and the Cold War, space program, transportation, and communications, etc. Luckily our taxes have gone down a lot. However, the private sector costs that provides us with most of our government purchases have gone up, including fuel and health care. And, while we can blame the costs on bad policy making, a lot of what our taxes pay for are demands from our citizens and our businesses. Add to this that, as consumers we get a lot of costs passed on to us as well. Add new technologies costs, but we need them. No one wants to go back to the days when we held mom’s hand, filled her with opiates while she died a painful death from cancer.
So what is the answer? It does not lay in the past in archaic dualistic thinking. So, while stuck with the current process for now, I want to start a project to seriously look at alternatives. I have friends on town and city councils in a number of cities and I want to get together with them to look for real, 21St century alternatives. Your thoughts….?
Thank you,
Brian Hoose
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not the staff, editor, or publisher of this publication.
