BUDGET BUSTERS, PHANTOM JOB CUTS, & THE COMEY COMETH
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY JUNE 8, 2017) — Pleased to say that things broke well Wednesday playoff-wise as the Golden State Warriors beat the Cleveland LeBons once more, and the Syracuse Crunch (Triple A Tampa Bay Lightning affiliate) slammed the Grand Rapids Griffins (Toronto Maple Leafs) 5-3 in a rockin’, sold out War Memorial. The Crunch are 10-0 at home in the playoffs. Money. Absolute money.
BUDGET BUSTERS — Still no word either from city hall or The Boring Broadsheet on how Pittsfield’s municipal spending plan mysteriously jumped $8 million from $156mm to $164. It couldn’t be that the city first floated a fake budget, thinking no one would do the math and check the figures, could it — you know, someone, say, such as Supercitizen Terry Kinnas or a person of that caliber and ilk? An “ilk” is what you get when an elk drinks milk with a White-Out chaser. So was a deliberate “error” flushed out of the fudge by good citizens from The Secret Squadron performing the accountability that no one else does in the town, and the city “got caught” or is there a plausible explanation? Matt Kerwood, city finance director, has been mum, and so has the mayor, The Lovely Linda Tyer. They issued the first figure as well as the second one with the $8 million inflation. They felt your pain. They heard your suffering. They blathered about sacrifice and “cuts.” Then they went out and snuck in another $8mm. The Local Mainstream Media took both figures as they were handfed, with nary a question about the difference.
PHANTOM CUTS? — A big deal was made about the 75.6 job “cuts” by the Pittsfield School Department, but is the figure credible? THE PLANET recently got wind of a plan that you’ve heard nothing about that would seem to be a book-keeping version of Three-Card Monty rather than a reliable piece of information given to the owners of government, you know, Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski. The back-room scheme would take all of the school custodians and maintenance workers, transfer them to the city-side Building and Maintenance Department, and claim those positions as “cut” from the PSD. Such a plan would be dishonest at best, fraudulent at worst. Do city “leaders” think citizens and taxpayers are stupid? Does a bear use Charmin in the woods? Actually, consolidation would make sense, but do it above board and don’t claim that position were axed. That’s phony.
COMEY COME — The much anticipated testimony of former FBI director James Comey came down before the Senate Intelligence Committee as an anti-climax. Comey confirmed that President Donald Trump was not under investigation and, even more important, never asked him to impede or halt any investigation into Russia. Comey did call Trump a liar and that he didn’t trust the President, but we knew that anyway. It leads THE PLANET to wonder that if Comey had such feelings about the President all along, why didn’t he resign? It’s constitutionally clear that under our system of government, the President is the boss of the Justice Department and could have ordered Comey to drop the investigation. He also could have issued a pardon for former national security adviser Michael Flynn. He also could have ordered Comey to leave Flynn alone. Trump didn’t do that. He said, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.” The President was well within his rights with this request. While Comey’s testimony creates political problems for Trump, it has done nothing to suggest Trump did anything illegal or criminal. Is this all about politics rather than policy? Does a bear …
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“Are we living in Nazi Germany?” — Donald Trump
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
The last moment the Budget was incorrect.
Dan, Glad to see you’re back!
FACTS:
Fiscal Year 2017 operation budget = $151,293,951
Fiscal Year 2018 operation budget = $163,859,871
Percentage increase = 7.67%
Dollar increase = $12,565,920
Fiscal Year 2017 capital budget = $11,948,000
Fiscal Year 2018 capital budget = $23,600.000
Percentage increase = $49.37%
Dollar increase = $11,652,000
There is a 12.9 percent increase in employee health insurance. That accounted for a $3 million increase to the budget operating budget. Pittsfield Public Employees currently receive a 85/15 health insurance split.
The lovely Linda Tyer will use $2.2 million in “free cash” to offset the tax rate increase.
The Bottom Line = The average Pittsfield homeowner will pay an additional $160 based on a home valued at $200,000. (Residential = $20.43 per $1,000 of assessed value). Commercial rate would add $145 per $100,000.
Pittsfield politics is at its Proposition 2.5 tax levy ceiling, which means it is acutely financially constrained.
Fact.. people like you keep voting for liberals. Take the red pill Jonathan…you are a conservative,you just don’t know it yet.
S’il Vous Plait?
And the Answer Is: Collaboration.Or we don’t know.
The collaboration must be dynamic and vibrant.
The council looks out smarted again by Tyer and McCandless,we are a Walmart city with a Walmart council.How do these people and I do mean all balance a checkbook that says we can’t go on vacation this year but the family voted to go and stay at the beach front rental and figure out later how to pay for it……McCandless just toys with them as banker Marchetti is overmatched by the numbers.
Marchetti is complicit.
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And add miss Information and forgetfulness by the administration,and you have a cluster muk of incompetence.
Dan: Thank God you are back! If this is true, what you suggest, that some positions will be transferred to the city side and called “cuts” to the school budget, then I am furious!
Please stay on top of this.
SPIDEY
Good distinction to make by qualifying, i.e., ” …if his is true.” Can’t say at this point that it is, but it a[[ears to be. The proposal is now smoked out, and perhaps that will force cooler heads to prevail.
I read reporter Carrie Saldo’s commentary in todays Eagle. She writes that SC members receive a stipend of $2,000 a year. I thought that the new Charter called for $4,000 (half that of CC members).
Can some one out there correct me, if I am wrong.
Saldo is a bad reporter. She didn’t even mention how much the taxpayers fork over for city council health insurance. I guess her masters at Dotties didn’t want her to mention it.
Unless they cut it by $2,000 without telling anyone, an unlikely circumstance, the SC members get $4,000.
Amuseless just called the Budget,Bare Bones. Um, ok?
Bye, bye Amuso. Don’t let the door hit you on your ample asset.
Mazzeo took Marchetti to the cleaners this Budget. It’s very clear that this is an Orchestrated Musical Chairs budget, with missing numbers,errors under-over funding, switching, dragging numbers and answers that just aren’t forthright.
Love how city council grills city departments and that’s good but they just melt when discussing the matter of the business of running schools,Marchetti along with everyone else gets run over by a Mack truck in discussions.
nah, they’re soft-headed across the board, see the months-long process that was supposed to end taxpayer subsidies for millionaire aircraft owners that somehow concluded with taxpayers generously giving them even more welfare
Gee, do you think it’s because they are the Voting Block, that gets direction from an educated Superintendent, so that makes everything right. Oh, ceiling fans, the Taconic Bill is coming soon.