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
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
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
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
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
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
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
Thursday, August 20, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
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
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
Friday, July 31, 2009
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!
Hold on to your health!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
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
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
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