I watched some of the town budget presentation by the Cheshire Town Manager. As I said last night, I don’t get it!! All this gloom and doom talk, cutbacks, reduced hours, now the town is ending up with a surplus??
“Oh we have hard choices to make” WHERE?? Oh, you notice WHAT DEPARTMENT WENT UP!!
Because we can’t compromise public safety. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!! What COMPROMISES would have to be made to affect public safety??
I remember a few years ago, more like several years ago, under the Ganim administration, the city of Bridgeport was short 50 police officers. They could not afford to hire and be at full strength. Crime WENT DOWN!! It is not the quantity it is concentrating on areas that are causing the crime in the first place.
Bridgeport has had to lay off police, and so have many towns. I really don’t get how this town is doing it, I don’t.
Case in point-the following story-and this is REAL.
Pontiac Mich to LAY OFF ALL SCHOOL EMPLOYEES (not FIVE) ALL!!
Oh and I really loved the comment by Chairman of the Town Council “just email the town managers office with questions on the budget”
Oh YEAH!! I called up the TM’s office to ask questions about the $18,000 in overtime in the Town Managers office. I got told the day I called, that they were in the “Eleventh Hour” of the budget process. Well, it is now March 10 going in the 11th, what is the problem now??
You can’t ask some departments to cut back and give up things, while others are untouched. Spread the bad news around equally will you??
And as most of you know, I guess an about face is in order on this Trash pickup situation. NOW the town will bid on a one three or five year contract. I don’t know what they decided because my phone rang and I had to get up from the TV. That’s OK my friend or ex-friend will watch the video on Tims blog and tell me about it.
This is why I won’t go to any more of these meetings It is just a waste of time. The Town Government acts like it cares, but it doesn’t. WHY? Because the majority of people in this town DON’T CARE. They came here for the schools and when their time is up-they will leave. Sad.
Now the next topic: PREVAILING WAGE
Well it seems some people of a certain party persuasion do not like the prevailing wage-they feel it stifles competition. NO-umm like not going out for bid STIFLES COMPETITION!!
Click here to see what Prevailing Wage is
The state of Connecticut as is the case with other states, have to use prevailing wage on all Federally funded projects. I guess some people think this is unfair-well I can see their point, these are the same people that think bid waivers are OK!!
Whether we like it or not, whether we feel the laws may be stretched or going overboard, the original intent was to protect workers rights-to ensure they made a fair wage ALL WORKERS. This does not stifle competition, it encourages it and assures workers are treated as fairly as possible. Are there flaws? Sure there are? Is this law sometimes taken advantage of-probably-but the person doing the commenting on a certain show needs to realize that she is where she is because of certain “laws” protecting women that many MEN thought were ridiculous at that time and unnecessary.
“Why should women vote”?? “Why do we need women in the workplace”? That stifles competition-yeah, it takes away from men!!
I guess these people don’t like affirmative action or Title VII of the Civil Rights act. The men lawmakers that wanted this “ridiculous” act defeated put in women as one of the “protected classes” figuring it would cause such an outrage in the Congress that the law would be defeated. WELL, IT BACKFIRED!!
I guess these people don’t like the FDA because since the early 1900′s there has had to be regulations on the food and drug industry. People can’t just sell “quack” products and make money or sell diseased meat. Doesn’t that stifle competition?
They probably don’t like the Securities and Exchange Commission because now you can’t engage in “insider trading” (doesn’t that stifle competition)?
And speaking of prevailing wage as it relates to labor-they probably don’t like the child labor laws either-just think of how “competitive” this country could be if little kids were put back into the workforce!!
The other comment I loved was:”Cheshire pays more than their fair share to the state and gets hardly anything in return”
WHAT?? You can afford to pay-then-PAY!! You begrude helping out less fortunate-too bad!! So next time you split your head open, umm, I wonder WHAT CITY you will be going to for treatment!!
When you turn on your lights, I WONDER what CITY it is coming from?
