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.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
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.
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.
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.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
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
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
Thursday, February 5, 2009
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
