Analyzes
Local Dems
"Roxy Burke wouldn't
have given a political
enemy the finger ...
... Neither would
Mary Lou Strom."
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Did Someone Say, "Problem?"":
Yeah, it's time to sweep the dynasties out- the Tallaritas, the Jarmocs, and Kiners need to go for good. There's no reason why a politician should be elected because he was preceded by his mother, his father, or her husband. They're the ones beholden to special interests who have created the problems we have now. They're all career politicians more interested in raising campaign cash than helping Enfield.
It's sad to see how low my party has sunk. These days, I'm almost ashamed to admit I'm a Democrat. We used to be the party of Harry Truman, JFK, Abe Ribicoff and Ella Grasso. During the post Cold War recession, Roxy Burke refused to raise taxes.
How did we get to being represented by wimps and namby pambies like John Kerry, Jim Amman, and Pat Tallarita? Roxy Burke wouldn't have given a political enemy the finger in the grocery store. Neither would Mary Lou Strom. One of the posters is right that they were classy people from an age when Enfield was considered a classy town.
Now we're on our way to becoming mini-Manchester: white trash and trashy retail.
What a racket it's been. My friends from other towns laugh when I tell them that the mayor got his office because his mother ran the local senior center. They guffaw even harder when I say he maintained his office by tossing senior social service pork on the ballot. What a bunch of dupes! That whole bond issue so smacked of pork, and now we're gonna be paying debt through the nose with these stupid tax increases.
Quite frankly, I don't need a senior center to keep me entertained and don't think the town should be in the business of entertaining bored retirees. Also, I don't understand why seniors need their own "center" separate from everyone else. It's just another ploy to build the social service empire. That must be why Tallarita and Mangini love it. The energy costs and debt on that thing have got to be just tremendous. It's Enfield's Nightmare on Elm Street. I guess it's a monument to Mayor Tallarita's largesse: make mommy happy and buy senior votes. A white elephant would probably make a better monument than that hideous hacienda, but I suppose the republicans wouldn't be too keen on the elephant idea. What an ugly building; I drive by there and wonder where's the Taco Bell?
What I can't believe is that my party leadership thinks that David Kiner's supposed to be the next messiah with his senior tax freeze plan.
I'm sorry but sleazy politicians promising pie in the sky are a dime a dozen. Like Bob Casey Jr., David Kiner is a shadow of his father's greatness and doesn't know what the hell he's doing.
That kid acts like he can buy us off with promises of a gimmick tax cut. Does he think I was born yesterday? It makes me wonder if he ever took an economics class in college. First, a "tax-freeze" won't result in a tax cut. The revaluations have already done their damage and are gonna be sticking around for the next five years. I'm pissed because if Kiner gets his way, property values are gonna plummet like no tomorrow. It'll make the this forclosure s%&# look like nothing. Supposedly Kiner wants to institute the tax freeze AND increase education spending. What planet is he living on? This gimmick means that everyone else's taxes go up even more! If Kiner's head were screwed onto his shoulders, he'd know that higher taxes means lower property values. It's a simple ratio of operational cost to capital cost. In order to balance an increase in operational cost, capital cost must decrease. It's that simple. Think about how the cost of the boat cars went down as the price of gas went up. No one wanted to buy them because they guzzled gas. I knew that; I drove a '72 Crown Vic and ended up having to sell it for less than blue book because of how gas went up.
I wasn't born yesterday and know that my house is the most valuable thing I have. When I bought it from Ledger Starr, I paid $20,000. You can't find anything for that these days!
Say that Kiner's genius tax freeze and spending increase results in an average $2000 tax increase for Enfield residents. If most mortgage terms are 15 years or 30 years, I may have to take a $30-60,000 loss when I sell the place, if this stupid tax freeze goes in. If the housing market gets softer, it could be even more than that. I'm not going to devalue my legacy to my heirs.
Maybe David Kiner doesn't get it. My grandkids have fled Connecticut because they can't get the American dream here. They can't afford to buy houses. If so many of them have left, who's going to buy the houses? The illegal immigrants?
Meanwhile, he lives fat on his state salary and $3 drug co-pays, while ordinary Joes like me find keep having to choose between buying our drugs and putting gas in the car to see the doctor. It's because of leeches like Kiner that property values are so inflated. Why does the Legislature's Education Committee need a "sessional clerk"? Why does the legislature need an education committee? Isn't that stuff better figured out by local boards of education than political hacks in Hartford? Meanwhile, everyone who can has fled CT, we've lost seats in Congress, and old-timers like myself are choking to death on taxes that just go to fund the salaries of hacks like David Kiner.
The democrats need to find the courage to stand up to the special interests, because the spending can't continue.
Posted by Anonymous to The Cool Justice Report at 8:56 PM
9 comments:
Major "kudos" to Enfield Old Timer. My parents were drawn to Enfield in the early 60s thanks to Ledger Starr. But keep in mind that even $10K was considered big bucks in those days. They had all they could do to buy their first home, and support their young family.
As more young families flocked to Enfield, my parents' (and likely your's) taxes helped to build all the new schools and infrastructure that were needed as the population grew. My parent's generation is what made Enfield an "All American City".
That's why it makes me sick to my stomach to watch now as they're pressed to make ends meet as taxes go out of sight during their not-so golden retirement years. These people have more than paid their fair share to help Enfield grow. Town officials need to stop bleeding them to fund their footloose ideas. Maybe if there were a few more retirees on the Council, they'd curtail some of this foolish spending? This current Council is dismantling Enfield piece by piece.
My parents have been to the Senior Center once or twice but they're generally too busy to spend time there. It also grates on their nerves to see so many out-of-towners at the Enfield Center. Why should out-of-towners be using Enfield's Center?
Enfield's become nothing more than the "Social Service Hub" of north central Connecticut.
Who has time for the Senior Center? My mother is in her 70s and still
holds down a part-time job to help
supplement social security. I'm sure she never thought in a million years that retirement would include
working.
Enfield has become nothing more than acres and acres of shopping centers (though many are empty now) and home foreclosures. The parking lots are filled with MA plates because the people of Longmeadow don't want all this commericalism in their town.
All great points made here, Old Timer. Hopefully your useful information sinks in with readers. Before its too late.
Old Timer, maybe you can get the Enfield Council to copy Oprah's Pay It Forward Challenge. Instead of so many of them feeling they should be "paid back" for all their hard work, they in turn realize that its more important to "pay it forward".
Its far more important for them to just do good or right by others. Period. Then maybe others will also do good bu others. Thus, the idea of pay it forward. Because "while its nice to be important, its more important to be nice."
If more politicians were only interested in leaving this world a better place for everyone, as opposed to taking care of themselves, just think what kind of world this would be.
With all due respect, I don't believe for one minute that all members of the Council feel they should be "paid back" in any way. They do this strictly on a volunteer basis, with no stipends or monetary gain (or we hope so at least). Honestly, based on the amount of time they spend with Council, sub-committe meetings, civic functions etc, it really and truly is a thankless job. For this I give them credit and my thanks. There are a few bad apples in every bunch but I think if you look and watch the council meetings and voting records, you will see there are some very dedicated people with no hidden agenda who truly want what is best for Enfield and are trying very very hard to make is affordable for us. They just need to keep plugging along and make it happend
Brovo old timer, you said it best and it is the truth!
> With all due respect, I don't believe for one minute that all members of the Council
"cuse me, but don't believe earlier post said "all members". Its common knowledge that a few have taken advantage of their appointed or elected positions. Whether it be to appoint a relative to a sub-community, or push through approvals or funding for a friend's pet project, or to make it difficult for some others. You know exactly what I mean. None of this is a secret anymore.
So yes, of course, there are some dedicated, unselfish people serving. Problem is that not enough of them stood up against those who did abuse the system.
Its really hard to speak out against bullies. But as an elected official, that's their job when they see something wrong. Its not enough to merely turn away and hope someone else stops it.
What's that old saying, "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem". So like it or not, unless every member on the current Council is part of the solution, then they'll all likely be lumped in as part of the ongoing problems.
So many things have been voted on 11-0 the last couple of terms, that one has to wonder who's pulling the strings. How do a few bad apples get everyone else to vote along the same lines?
Why is it that the town is running the ambulance service instead of the fire departments? The fire departements are already paying for firemen who are qualified ems personnel and the town went out and hired more. That's a waste of my tax dollars. I hope the town council is looking out for us taxpayers and turns the ambulance service over to the fire departments.
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