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