town news 12/16

Hello all.
Merry Christmas.
At the recent town council meeting (12/15/09) during councilor comments I addressed a couple of issues.
The first being the Washington street project. I travel the section in Cumberland twice daily and have seen little if any work being done between the bridge and meijer but the barrels remain. I expressed my displeasure for the slow work at past meetings and reiterated that as well. I also pointed out my concern for what the barrels will do once the snow flies and plowing becomes needed. The safety of the residents and visitors, I feel, would be in jeopardy with these remaining over the winter months and asked that the town "require" them to be removed post haste. I was then informed by the town manager that in meeting call he had that very day, INDOT said they would be removed and the lanes marked by the end of this week (12/18). That will mean the road will be open, with the exception of the bridge, until spring. There may be a day here or there that utility crews will be working to move lines.
The next issue I talked about is the continuing sanitary sewer billing of the 4 unit minimum regardless of how much water we use. I have learned that the sanitary sewer board has tabled the issue until they can form a committee and get a consultant to review the issue and its effects on the sewer budget. I really expressed my displeasure at this. 1. there are already to many layers of government for a town this size. 2. the sewer board should BE the committee and should not need to pass the issue on. 3. a consultant will cost the tax payers money when the board should be able to figure out the cost difference themselves. 4. I then gave a very easy to understand math lesson on what the difference would make. (ex: we charge 4.25 per unit ((100 cu/ft)) and a minumum of 4 units regardless of usage. So each month residents are charge $17.00 even when they are in florida. If we had 100 homes using no water for 1 month that is $1700.00. If they are gone for 6 months a year that is $10,200 in lost revenue. I then stated that the sanitary sewer utility annual budget is 3.2million, that is 3/100 of a percent of the budget and I doubted that anyone can prove that the utility is at risk of financial failure from loosing 3/100 of a percent of its budget. It took me about 2 minutes to show what a consultant will charge the town thousands for. Councilor Engerer replied by saying that if they stay hooked up to our sewer system we should charge them weather they have water flowing out or not.
I can not stand the idea of charging for something someone is not using. That also is the reason why I pushed so hard for us to get some stimulus money since cumberland will be asked to pay back our share, we might as well get to spend our share here.
We also passed a few ordinances dealing with panhandlers near roads and convicted criminals in town parks. These are both similar to ones passed by Indianapolis and other towns in the state. They have been upheld by the state courts and found to be acceptable. We also approved money for the purchase of a video recording system for police reports, interviews and depositions that can be sent down town for transcribing into courts rather that having to pay officers extra time to manually deliver them.
Also check out the new town website. It is at the same address as before. http://www.town.cumberland.in.us/
Have a safe and happy Christmas and New Year
Joe Siefker

H1N1

The federal government said "trust us, the vaccine is perfectly safe. everyone should get it." although our president elected NOT to have his children get it. Now what is the latest news. 800000 doses are being recalled because they were found to not be concentrated enough to be effective. Trust us! Pat no attention to the man behind the curtain!
This current federal government is going to be the bigges big brother the world had ever seen and we are all going to regret it.

town council and random thoughts

The town council again passed the ordinance for the bond issue. I was unable to attend the meeting but it passed by a large enough number that my vote would not have changed it anymore that the first time. Thanks to those citizens for going to the meeting to be heard. It does help.
One thing I wanted to toss out is that with the new surfaces on roads in the town and them being so smooth. When winter hits they will be icy so be careful.
As for random thoughts. I decided I would chime in again on the health care issue but more along the lines of how big the bill itself is. The senate version is over 2000 pages and the house version was over 1500, if I remember correctly. Does anyone believe that there is no pork in that bill. There was an example of this in an article in the Daily Reporter from Oct 9, 2009. The Indiana legistature passed the budget bill but in it was a line that states that nursing homes and the like should not be taxed on property as they function more as a non profit and that they can ask for reimbursement going back up to 10 years.
When asked by a reporter, our representative Mr Cherry said that the line had gotten in there and flew in under the radar in the version that was passed. My point exactly. We have elected officials in state and federal levels who write these monstrous bills that no one can read through completely in less than a month with out being put into a coma. It comes as no surprise to me that things like this get passed with out the majority of politicians even knowing it.
Granted the town of Cumberland is small but the ordinances that we have passed have been 3 pages tops.
We need to send a message with these next couple of elections that things need to change.
There is no way 2000 pages of bill will not have pork in there. They just won't call it "earmarks" so as to not make the President look bad since he said "no earmarks". They will just call it something else.
Healthcare WILL get more expensive. We will have less medical resources available for access and we will have longer waits (think Canada). If socialized medicine is so great why to people from other countries come here for treatment? We will have fewer facilities, fewer doctors and older equipment to be treared with. Those are my predictions. Along with this prepare yourself for higher unemployment. Why? because when the bill shows up to these companies that the feds want to have pay for it, they will just lay off staff to cover the cost and not let it come from the bottom line.
I will continue to work to the best of my ability for the people of district 5 and the town of cumberland. I have voted against higher spending as well as trying to get things done in a timely fashion and have made so ground in those areas. Especially when I have had the citizen support at the meetings.
Take care
Joe

latest news 11/5/09

The town council met last night. During the meeting an ordinance providing a bond fund was past 3-1, with my vote being the lone opposition. I opposed this because we currently have a bond fund that will be paid off in february 2010 and in order to not lose that revenue stream we needed to pass another bond to take its place. The new one is for up to 850,000. I feel that the town is doing just fine in the areas that the fund would be for and did not see the need to extend this burden of tax payers into the future. It can be used for infrastructure work to roads and sewers.
On the subject of the recent breakins. The town is trying to obtain funding to increas the size of the police force but remember that crime is up in other areas of town, marion county and the country in general. The best avenue to help is having an alarm and calling 911 when you see something.
Joe

Latest from the council.

Last night, 10/7/09, the council passed the budget for 2010. I did in fact vote in favor this year where I voted against last years vote for 2009 budget. Last year the 2009 budget (4.35mill) had an increase of 6% and I stated from the outset of my campaign that I wanted to reduce the budget and stated that fact at last years vote when I said nay. This years budget (3.99mill) reflects a 8% reduction which brings it back to the level from before the 2008 year of 4.1mill. This is in no small part a result of the property tax cap the state legislature voted in. I would have liked to have gotten this done ALL on our own without the forced reduction from the cap. It will have a even further effect on future budgets of 2011 and 2012. Hopefully by then we will have figured out the best way to run the town for the least amount of money.
With this in mind I will continue to push the town to be more frugal on spending of tax dollars on large engineering work and legal reviews that eat up the budget so that we have nothing left to do the project needed by the town.
One example of changes made is that the town used to contract out for cleaning services at a cost of a few thousand a year and this is now being done in house by staff and we reduced those few thousand down to about 1 thousand for supplies.
I also moved and had pass a motion to have 5-6 smaller road projects in town repaired this year now that we have finally gotten the quotes back. We have about 200k left in the mvh fund for road repairs and we will be getting these 5-6 projects done for a bit less than that. My hope is to see the balance of that be used for draingage issues around town that are inexpensive enough to get them paid for.
Next year we will have to look at a lot of bigger drainage issues around town before we do to much more road work. I feel that with these project this year we will be ok for a bit and we can try to get back on the capital inprovement plan time table.
The areas this fall will be the large chunk of cobblefield way that is desintegrating and the roundabout circle in VBV. Also the road that runs behind CVS from the back of the post office past the park and around to washington which looks like a war zone and actually IS part of the town road system. These areas will be ground, patched and resurfaced.
In the next few weeks I will be negotiating the fire service contract for the next 2 years. we have a deal for this year but need to work on the future. They are looking for a increase in fees as currently town residents pay less per home than non town residents. I am not sure we will be able to accomodate their full request as we have budget reductions as they have cost inflations.

Any questions call or email me.
Thanks
Joe

Local and more

Well, we had the groundbreaking for the east intercepter and work should begin shortly on that and we should be having the pensy trail breaking and work starting soon. At my urging we are having some quotes obtained for, not major but not really minor, road work in the town. We should be hearing back soon with hopes that we can get the work done before bad weather hits.

I was not going to comment, but can't stand not to, about Rep. Joe Wilson outburst during the President speech. I likely would have done the same thing if I had seen the bill, saw something wrong and was being ignored when pointing it out. For those across the isle who think the Dems have a right to slap his wrist, take note. MR. WILSON WAS TELLING THE TRUTH, other wise why would the dems be going back to re-writing the bill to put in wording to prevent illegals from using the system if it was already covered like the PRES. was trying to get us all to believe.
I am sick of being fed this bull.

There was a massive 2 million people tea party rally in D.C. and the liberal press tried to pass it off as minimal saying a few thousand and the white house trying to say they knew nothing about it. Can we say political censoring.

Now ACORN the presidents own personal agenda and propaganda machine is being investigated yet again and how about his 'green czar' calling all republican a**holes. Good man to have in a high profile government position.

I bring these things up so that my supporters can see that I am not being snowed.

Joe

8/19/09 town council

Latest from the Cumberland town council,

At the meeting on aug19, 2009 the town council adopted and signed a contract for fire service from Buck Creek fire department. We have been in negotiations since the beginning of the year as the fire department was looking for a 25% increase this year and further increases for the next 2-3 years. The contract as signed has a 5 1/2 % increase for this year and is an agreement for BCFD to provide service for next 2 years (2010,2011) as well with a dollar amount to be determined during further negotiations. I have been involved with these negotiations and will continue to try to get the best service for the town for the most reasonable cost. We have also decided to start looking at putting the service for the whole town out to bid for the 3 local departments vs have our own department vs leaving the service areas as they currently are. Current tax caps will help in my desire to reduce the tax burden on Cumberland citizens but will require some challenges to provide to current level of service that I feel is a necessity.
The council also voted to allow the police department to use money that has been obtained by them from forfeiture and seizures to purchase in car video cameras. This has been shown to increase conviction rates as well as provide electronic data for department use and help with keeping our officers a bit safer.
The “Cumberland arts goes to market” festival on August 8th was a big hit and the current farmers market is open not only on Saturday mornings but also on Tuesday evenings so stop by and get your locally grown products.
The council passed a resolution opposing the sale, zoning change and redevelopment of the ST. John church on the corner of German Church rd and Washington st. Word is that a developer/corporation is looking at buying the church, tearing it down and building a new retail structure. As the council stated, look forward to developing Cumberland into a even better place but would not wish to see an historic building that has been a part of the town for many years to be replaced when we have multiple site available at this time for such building.
The sanitary sewer board has not made any decision yet dealing with the minimum charge of 4 units that the sewer department is current charging and bringing it back down to actual usage like I have pressed for and will continue to do. It would help if citizens would contact the town and the sanitary board to express your feelings on this issue to them and at their meetings (3rd wed of month at 3:30).
Now that we have received federal monies to build the east sewer interceptor I have asked for a sizable amount of the money we had already set aside for the project be used to pay down the debt on the treatment plant. This to has met with little support among the council but I will keep at this issue as well. It as well as adding customers along the east interceptor will be our best chance to get the flat rate portion of our sewer bills reduced to a more reasonable level.
That is about all for this month. If you have any issues do call or email me. That is why you put me on the council.
Joe Siefker
Town councilman dist 5

PS please keep your cars and homes doors locked, we have had a large increase in car break-ins with car doors being left unlocked.

More lies and More taxes

Washington is now looking at a 2 billion dollar addition the the clunker program so that by my calculations will allow for over 660,000 car deals or lets just say that ever LEGAL U.S. resident (men, women and children) will need to give 10 bucks to someone who just bought a new vehicle, u.s. made or not.
Health care is now the poster child for government gone wrong. The following is a snip from a wall street journal article on what is will cost the tax payers he swore he would not raise taxes on when running for office. Note that he also has taken the plan from insuring the uninsured to attacking the insurance industry.


"The campaign team is intent upon protecting a pledge driven by its 2008 campaign polls: Mr. Obama promised never to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year to avoid being labeled a tax-and-spend liberal.
Even so, Mr. Obama has already broken his no-new-taxes pledge. On Feb. 4, Mr. Obama signed a $33 billion cigarette tax increase, which fell disproportionately on lower- and middle-income individuals. And the “cap and trade” energy bill, approved by the House on June 26, is a tax on anyone who owns a light switch, uses a car key, or has bought anything manufactured, shipped or sold in the U.S.
The House version of Mr. Obama’s health-care—excuse me, “health-insurance”—reform already has four taxes that will largely be paid by people making less than $250,000 a year. There’s $8.2 billion in taxes for using health savings accounts and other tax-free medical savings vehicles to purchase over-the-counter drugs. There’s an 8% tax on employers who don’t offer insurance: The Congressional Budget Office says workers in those businesses would pay the $163 billion cost via lost wages.
There’s a 2.5% “Tax on Individuals Without Acceptable Health Care Coverage” in the House bill that applies to people who either don’t have insurance or whose policies the government deems inadequate. Finally, there’s a $2 billion “Comparative Effectiveness Research Tax” on all private and “public option” insurance policies.
If some version of ObamaCare is passed, the president will break his tax pledge several more times while adding trillions to the deficit, dismantling the best elements of our health-care system and slashing Medicare by hundreds of billions of dollars."


Obviously he is never going to be content until the government is in control of every aspect of our lives and takes every dime we make in taxes and will then give us back what they feel we actually need to survive. Sounds like soviet socialism to me.
Again, send me to washington and I will not vote in favor of any of this. Realizing I can not win such a race we at least need to get rid of those in power now.
joe

clunkers part II

We will have to see where this leads but less than a week into this so called "plan" (see oxymoron) they have to halt it. Apparently, Obama math shows 25,000 cars (sold in the first week) times 4,500 dollars equals 950 million dollars. (for the rest of us we know that it totals 112 million). Where did the other 838 million go? Administrative fees or is that adminstration fees? This "plan was supposed to fund 250,000 not 25,000. They are off by a digit.
Hold on to your health!

Cash for clunkers

Well, it is playing out just as I figured. The MSN article on this program had a photo op showing a family with a 10yr old japanese vehicle (made in japan and not supporting U.S. economy) trading it in for a new japanese vehicle (not made here or supporting the U.S. economy) and getting $4500 of OUR tax dollars in a rebate.
The federal government is really pushing for universal, mandatory health care. By the way fed legislators and employees are exempt from being forced to participate.
If you are already as tired of the current leadership in washington spending every last dime of our future incomes on pipe dreams and pet projects then lets vote them out. PERIOD.
You can vote and send me to washington and you can bet I will not vote for tax increases, I will not vote for government intervention in our lives, I will not vote to use tax payer money to bailout irresponsible corporations and their executives, I will not vote for rebates for buying FORIEGN made cars or any product. I have voted NO on the town budget because it had an increase.
The federal government wastes so much money. The current administration talks about beinf free of the need for foriegn oil and energy. The department of energy was formed back under Carter for that very reason and it has done little and has a 24 billion dollar budget. The list goes on and on but enough for now.
Joe

New Cars

I have been trying not to post a bunch of rants about the fed gov't on my town blog but here's something to think about. The new fed program for incentives to buy a new gas miser car is set up to give those wanting to trade in their "gas guzzler" for a new car will get up to $4500 dollars from the government (our tax dollars actually). The real issue is that the list of "guzzlers" includes toyota's, honda's, nissan's, hundai's on it and you know there is no stipulation that the new vehicle be U.S. made. So in a nut shell. The moron who bought a hundai 8 yrs ago and sent the money overseas now gets to buy a new hundai sending the money overseas and then gets $4500 dollars of our tax money back as a reward. There will be nothing left of our country in 4 years.
Joe

In the town 6/09

The town coucil last night approved a new town brand (logo). Which will be showing up in the future. I, and we, feel that the council is trying very hard to make a NEW Cumberland not just the same old one with a new sign. With everything that is going on, Washington street rebuild, the street scape, east intercept for the sewer and the pensy trail system it was imparitive that we make any brand changes now before the ordering of the signage and things begin.
It is a real nice piece. It should be available for viewing at the town hall and on the web site shortly. It is a round logo of country blue color with a red curving road (us40) running through it and has a sillouette of the Indy sky line, old town Cumberland and a us40 sign. All elements can be extracted and used on various sings, letter head etc.
I, and we, are very excited about the new look for the new Cumberland we are trying to form. We hope you will agree that it is a good look for the town as we move forward.
On another item, I again asked last night that the sanitary sewer board review the current sewer billing rates. I feel it has taken far to long to address this issue and many of you have also voiced your concerns. Going to the current 4.21 from the old 4.00 per unit at using 5 units a month will cost about a buck but I feel the biggest issue is with the minimum of 4 units/month regardless of actual usage can cost 10-20 dollars a month if citizens not only use less than 4 but even if they use more in a month where Indy water uses an estimated usage. Hopefully that explaination is not confusing. A comprimise may be to let the 4.21 stand but bill actual usage rather than a minimum. I would rather it all go back to rates from the past x number of years since the sewer fund got by on what it was taking in in those years.
It appears that the developer (M/I homes) has withdrawn it's request for a zoning change at us40 and 600w due to opposition from citizens and county council members. I did meet with our councilman, Derek Towle and discussed our concerns. I, and I think most of you, feel that that corner will become one of the main focal points of hancock county and we should stick to our desire for nice, attractive developement with stores and businesses that we want to frequent. Thanks to those of you who also called the councilmen to express your thoughts.
Joe

Latest town news 5/21/09

1, there will be a small antique tractor/steam engine show at the Saturday farmers market on june 6. Also they are doing the market coop again this year with a farm tour on 6/27 and a new event "art goes to market" on aug 8th with an art show on some of the streets on and off of south muessing.
2, Bad news. Indianapolis water (veolia) and the metro water sewer advisory board has decided to raise the rates for water service for all of marion and surrounding counties that are serviced by veolia. That means us included. No info yet as to how much the rates will go up. The town has no plans to raise it's sewer rates and this increase will not effect the sewer bills as it is on a per usage basis. I am still trying to get the town sanitary sewer board to make the changes to our ordinance so that everyone is charged only what they use not a flat minimum and that the rate be $4 not $4.21 per 100 cu/yd.
3, The east interceptor bids have been opened and awarded and the winning bid was about 2/3 what the engineer estimated so we are asking to use the balance of the grant money from the state that was going to cover the job to work on other shovel ready repiping or relining of existing sewer main issues in the town.
4, The parks board will be advertising for nominations for names to be placed in honors park in the paper in the near future. You should also be able to get a nomination form from the town.
5, At the next meeting we will also be looking at changing the grass hieght ordinance to make it faster (from 30 to 10days) that the town has to give after notice to mow and also add an administration fee along with the actual mowing fee that is assesed to the property owners who have not kept lawns mowed. This mostly applies to forclosed and abandonded homes where the lawn is let go and the town has to mow it to keep it presentable and keep bug levels down. The town currently has to give 30 days notice to mow and by then the grass is really long and become hazardous to the equipment when we mow and can't see what's there. The fees are placed as a lein on the property to be recouped later. We are also looking at contracting this work out as the town equipment is rather large for yards and it takes longer for our staff to do the work with hand mowers. The bill from the contractor will then be passed on with an administrative fee to the property owner/mortage holder.
Joe Siefker
Town council dist 5

Nationalism (aka. socialism)

Anyone remember when the 700 billion financial bailout went through and the government saying "it's not nationalism, we want no part of owning the banks, we are just trying to help them out of a bad situation." Lie Lie Lie.
Now here we are 6 months or so later and what is the latest plan from the feds to help the banks out some more. They say they can further help the banks and not ask for more money by SIMPLY converting the LOANS the COMMON STOCK (ie; own a part, a LARGE part of each of the banks and have voting rights with those stocks). That's the backdoor politics way of starting nationalism which is for most purposes to you and me, socialism. Still everyone just loves the political leaders in Washington. We need to wake up before there is no more America left to save.

Joe

Tax Day

Well, it's tax day everyone and hope all of you are well and surviving these times. I would like to give an update on the town projects. The street work on Washington is moving along and the east interceptor for the sewer system and the trail project are also.
To date the town has obtained more than 5million in stimulus monies from the state and federal programs for these projects.
Weather you agree with the stimulus and bailout packages really does not matter to our President in Washington. They are a done, signed, sealed and being delivered.
Here again is my stance - that even if we don't agree (which I do NOT) we will not be able to say the the U.S. government that since we do not agree we do not want to have to help pay it back. So since myself and my fellow hoosiers and our children and their children will be asked to pay it back we should do what we can to be sure that our portion of the money actually gets spent here locally. That is why I have backed our obtaining of these funds. Furthermore the town has pretty much saved up the money to do these projects already I say we save part of our money for next years budget (to help LOWER taxes), use some for projects that may not have been done this year and definately pay off some of the debt on the sewer plant (to get the operating costs down and hopefully get rates in check)
Come to the council meetings and help me get the town in order becasue I am only 1 of 5 votes and we need more citizen pressure.
Thanks and take care.
Joe

Outrageous

Well, I have to say something. Now the Obama administration is trying to distance itself from the BAILED OUT banks and AIG by pointing a finger and saying shame, shame, shame. They are trying to do this before telling us that the financial sector will need another bailout and they have to tell us that our future tax dollars are going to pay for it. Meanwhile, AIG handed out 165mil in bonuses to executives from the bailout money it received. When are we going to learn that the government works for us and not the other way around and when we will actually STAND UP for something and tell them NO!
I am still working toward having the towns budget decreased for next year. The one for this year had an increase and I voted NO to it. I was the only councilor but maybe I can get 2 more to side with me now that they see how out of control the federal government is getting. If next years budget has an increase I will again vote NO.
Joe

DOW and Stimulus

Has any else noticed that every time our new president announces some big spending and bailout or restructuring plan the stock market dumps 4-5%. I have and believe it to be intentional. He is in such a hurry to pass everything and change the structure of our whole country and it is a lot easier to have government intervention and total and complete control over everyone and everything when all aspects of our system are in the tank.
Here's hoping Americans will pay attention and make sure where we are headed is where we want to go.
Also of note is that I have stated that it would be irresponsible to not go after some portion of the spending going on in D.C. Since we will ALL be asked to pay our fair share back I think we should get our fair share to begin with. With that in mind the town of Cumberland as obtained a sum of money at 0% interest that we will use on our east interceptor sewer project. We have been working towards this job for some time and had everything ready to be what they call "shovel ready" and we were granted the funding to do so. This will be a huge asset for our town since we will be able to use the Fed's money for the job and pay it back with no interest and do so with out raising any rates. This will allow us to focus our resources on other needy projects and we have also applied for funding for road and infrastructure work as well and it sounds promising.
We have a nice town here and these projects will help us be more noticeable and not forgotten by the entities above us which will no doubt help with our relationship to those entities.
There are a lot of things changing in our world and in our community and with your support and patience I will continue to try to make our small part better.
Joe

stimulus part 2

Well, I think it is time to draw some more attention to these stimulus packages. 700 billion for financials, 780+ for "economy" (aka pet projects), a few 10's of billions for housing and a few more for health care. I have posted before about how big these numbers are and how long it will take to pay it back (never).
If we as a country paid back 1 dollar every second it would take 45,000 years just to pay back what washington has spent in the last 6 months. The Presidents own budget predicts a 1.5 trillion deficit this year alone. Now deficit is NOT debt which is even bigger, but the deficit is just what they are planning to spend OVER what they plan to take in. When will this stop?
Well I have noticed that some Governers, including some dems, are not taking parts of the money being offered to them. Why you may ask? Because they can see that parts of it come with mandates that say the state has to set up a PERMANENT particular programs with the money but only provides funding for 2 years which will run out when? you guessed it. right before election time rolls around so he can claim the states can not be trusted to handle things and that the feds will have to step in to save the day once again and get him a guarenteed second term for being the one who saves us all.
I have said the town will try to get some of the infrastructure money because we will all be asked to help pay it back but I do not care for this extra.
It seems the democratic run country's answer to every problem is to throw money at it till it goes away. And throw they have.

Stimulus bill

I wanted to let my district know that I and the town council are trying to obtain any of the stimulus bill that we can and my reason for favoring such.
I have said before that I do NOT agree with all of the bailouts and spending going on in washington. I can not agree with helping those who are irresponsible and criminal. I would like to explain my reason for going after some of the stimulus money though.
The reason is thia, IT IS DONE, signed and into law. Which means that it is mine, yours and our current and future tax money being spent. It WILL be spent and I do not want my tax dollars going to some other community while I sit back and say "no thanks, I do not agree with the whole thing". It IS being spent and you and I will have to pay for it so we might as well fight to get our share to be spent here rather than somewhere else.
Thanks Joe.

socialism

Alright, time for another rant. Even after the government has spent 1.5 trillion dollars on the economy (with a large amount going to line pockets) here our new Pres is saying he wants to spend another 75billion on the mortgage mess.
Let me get this straight. I was responsible with my money. I was realistic in what I could afford. I was smart enough to buy a home for less than I could actually afford. All to make sure I kept my family in a good financial situation and NOW with all of this spending going to those who were NOT like me, I am going to have to sit here and watch my present and future tax dollars as well as the taxes paid by my children and grandchildren and more get spent on people and banks who were totally irresponsible.
It kind of makes me wish that when, 4 yrs ago, I said this whole build, build, build, sub prime loans chaos would get us all in trouble i would have jumped up and bought a million dollar home since sticking one's neck out obviously is going to result in no axe falling on it.
To put it in perspective. 1 trillion. that's trillion. 1 trillion seconds is equal to 31,000 years. That is one BIG number all to rescue people who are irresponsible at best and more likely criminal. There is no chance any of our future generations will be able to pay that off. That's what we are leaving for our descendants.
Now all of this money going into all of these sectors of our daily lives, banking, mortgages, auto industry, wall street and investments, health care and so on. That is socialism. The dictionary definition is
1.
a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.
2.
procedure or practice in accordance with this theory.
3.
(in Marxist theory) the stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles.

This is exactly where we are headed with the controlling political party in Washington. Most foreign countries are this way already. France is the biggest to use as an example. Let me tell you do some research and you will see that most french pay near 70% of income towards taxes of one form or another. Here we have what we call "tax freedom day" which is the day each year were most Americans have earned enough in pay to cover what they will outlay in taxes for the year. It usually happens in late April. For France it is some time in July and getting worse. How do you like me telling you that you will need to work till the end of July just to pay uncle sam's bill. Think about it. Do we really want the government that involved in our personal lives.

SEWER BILLS

Well the sewer bills are now being sent from the town after the council voted to break off from Violia (indy water) and do our own billing. I have recieved a few calls from citizens stating they believe their bill went up. It should be the same as before only spilt into two pieces. The split will require you to go to the town to pay the sewer bill or use your own envelope but it will save the town money by doing it ourselves and hence reduce costs to tax payers which was one of my campaign topics.
Below I will try to give an example for you to use to see if your bill is correct. The one thing that we can not control in the reading of the meters by indy. They read, usually, every other month so you may see fluctuations in your usage. Usages are stated in 100 cu ft units. Both indy and the town have a base rate plus charges for usage.

Indy water charges $8.12 base rate and the town $22.18. Indy then charges $1.82 per cuft of usage and the town charges $4.00. (yes i think the $4 is high but it was set up when the plant was built and has been that way for a while). I am trying to find ways to bring down the rates but am getting resistance, mainly because the plant that was built was bigger then needed for the town size. It was built to handle around half again the size it has now and it was planned for future growth which has not happened. If we can get growth then that would put more users/payers into the system and reduce the costs to everyone. I am trying hard to work on economic and residential growth to help this out.

So here is an example of a bill.

if you use 5 water units, that is 500 cu/ft. your bills should be about like this:

Indy water = $8.12 base + ($1.82 x 5 units) = $17.22 + taxes

Cumberland sewer = $22.18 base + ($4 x 5 units) = $42.18 + taxes.

In addition the this the council voted in favor of a storm water sewer fee for all residents and businesses based on impervious surfaces. (the residential fee is around $5/month). This money will go to help pay for improvments to the storm water drainage system. I did how ever vote against this fee since we are already paying huge sewer fees.
So your sewer bill would be 42.18 + taxes plus the storm water fee of around $5 so =47.18

You can just use the formula above and input your usage units to see if the bill is correct.

Joe

Here's the Pork

Well, our new president has been in office less than a month and already has shown that the Washington democrats are running business as usual. Tax and spend, tax and spend. The new "stimulus" bill is being touted by Dem's as the cure all to end all cure all's. I say HA. They say they met his requirement for no earmarks, no pork only stuff that gets the economy going. Yet in the bill there is spending, worded vaguely, that effects only 2 or 3 companies in the entire country. Spending for payments to Filipino WWII vet not even living in the us, 198 mill. If they want to right a wrong and help them like the US promised after the war then do it by itself not here. It will do NOTHING to stimulate the US economy.
A portion for habitat and water needs in San Francisco bay, 50 mill. 62mill for military projects in Guam (not part of the US), 1.2 billion to transportation security for hardware and explosive detection devices made by only 3 companies.
They even had a tax break that would allow Hollywood studios to write off production costs. That one was removed along with a couple more that were getting bad press. Like a few million for condoms to be provided by medicaid.
they have just gotten better at wording to cover up the blatant earmarks. I do not see how many of these items will help get the US economy going. There is little in there to help small businesses which employ a great portion of Americans.

Now if there is anything left for actual infrastructure work, like it was originally intended to be for, along with new energy tech, the town of Cumberland is trying to get ready with "shovel ready" projects that we may be able to secure funding for.
At the Feb 4th 2009 meeting the council approved spending budgeted money for final engineering on multiple projects so that they will be ready for submission when the Federal government asks for them.
I am not terribly optimistic that there will be much for roads and bridges as the President told us it would be for so I did ask for and support the council being given the right to deny spending on the engineering projects that come in as to costly. I do not want to spend a lot of money just on the engineering and not get funding for the project itself, nor do I want to give free reign to companies to come in with proposals that magically cost the same amount we are setting as our top dollar amount.
We have a good number of roads that need attention as well as sanitary and storm sewer issues. The town put in a wonderful sewage treatment plant but spent so much on it that the rest of the system was neglected and needs work.

Economy

Well, the current economic times are getting tougher as I am sure we all guessed they would. The feds say the deficit for 2009 may be 1.2 trillion and that's before President Obama's trillion dollar spending spree. I am still not sure what he thinks is going to happen with that money but most individuals will pay bills with it not spend frivolously. We are just not going to be a nation of spending any more.
I am totally convinced that the financial sector is the root cause of our current situation and yet that is the very sector the government bailed out with little reassurance or checks that they will not do it again. Sub prime loans are still out there and people are getting more house than they can afford along with adjustable rate mortgages that will run them into the ground in a couple of years just like whats happening now. Build, build, buy, buy. I saw it years ago and no one cared enough to look at it.
On another front. The new president wants to invest in alternative energy, which is great, it's what we should do but remember that as we drastically reduce our gas and oil consumption these new energies will come with HUGE taxes as we will have to pay for his spending plan plus re coupe the tax revenue lost on decreased fossil fuel taxes. It will have to come from somewhere. Not trying to be negative, I just want everyone to always look at the big picture.
Take care everyone and try to get through this. I am still working to try to actually reduce spending by the town while trying to get things done and treat all residents fairly.