BY DAN VALENTI

I agree Dan that Kalinowkis sign is lame and hard to read and it looks like it’s got a bullet hole in it, fitting for Shittsfield!

The Bitchfield GOBSIG’s are getting concerned about their grip on power with some of new candidates running, so they have already begun tossing out chaff to try and confuse or steer the voter away from any new non-backed GOBSIG candidate.

I included the link from the Eagle this AM. For those who can’t open it, here’s CC Prez. Wimpy White’s quote from the article, “Thinking one counselor can do anything by themselves [is] a misconception when you need six to pass anything, and you need seven others if something needs super majority,” he said.

Do you ever remember the Eagle running any type of story like this? It’s almost like they are purposely helping the Bitchfield GOBSIG’s to dissuade “outsiders” from bucking the trend.

Mayor Lumpy and Wimpy White fear having to do actually work and debate the issues with these “political outsiders,” and are trying to prevent as many new CC members as possible.

Plus, they know many citizens want the “Epstein List,” of Bitchfield released. You know, the unredacted Bitchfield Pubic Scohol report. They’ll do all they can to keep that report hidden.

Got out and VOTE. If that person is GOBSIG backed, VOTE THEM OUT!!

https://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/central_berkshires/pittsfield-city-council-role-explained-election/article_2f3e21a5-7955-4662-9025-cd9307c205e4.html

Let’s play a drinking game

One shot for every time the phrase community engagement comes out of a candidate’s mouth or in a statement they release

Two shots every time they use collaboration

Three shots every time you hear communication

October 13, 2025

Hello Governor Healey, and the do-nothing State Legislature in Boston, President Trump and politicians, blogger Dan Valenti, news media and blogs, the people:

The state government’s under-funding of local aid to municipalities has to stop. It is time for the state to increase state aid funding to the national average.

Massachusetts cities and towns receive 26% of their revenue from state assistance, far below the nationwide rate of 31%.

Local leaders throughout Massachusetts are saying that they are failing their residents who pay local taxes and fees to live in fair and safe cities and towns.

If the Governor and state legislative leaders in Boston do NOT act now, then local governments throughout Massachusetts will have to make drastic cuts to essential municipal and public education services.

Massachusetts is a one political (Democratic) party state. Trump and Republicans in state and the federal government will point to Massachusetts failed state aid funding to its cities and towns in in 2026 and 2028.

If local governments fail to be effective in Massachusetts, then Governor Maura Healey will go down as a failed Democratic Party executive.

My view of the state’s low state aid funding of local government in Massachusetts is that the greedy registered lobbyists in Boston – some of whom report 7-figure per year earnings – are enriching themselves and their big business clients who receive huge state tax breaks at the expense of local aid being fully funded.

Finance is a big part of public administration. State and local budgets are supposed to exist in reality, meaning that state and local leaders are supposed to meet the financial needs of the people and small businesses in the respective communities’ demographics.

We are in the 13th day and counting of the federal government shutdown that is impacting many people, government agencies, and businesses nationwide. It is due to the U.S.A.’s double digit healthcare cost increases. The White House and 98 percent of the U.S. Congress is ran by billionaires and multi-millionaires, who do NOT know what is like to live in a middle-class family, or in a no-to-low-to-moderate income household, or a small business who needs to make a profit to stay open.

Jon Melle

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“Massachusetts cities, towns at crossroads, confronted with ‘historic fiscal pressures’”
By Lance Reynolds | lreynolds@bostonherald.com | The Boston Herald, October 12, 2025

Local officials across Massachusetts are sounding the alarm over the combination of increasing costs and diminishing state aid that has prompted them to face what they describe as “historic fiscal pressures.”

Mayors and other local leaders say they have been stretched beyond a point where they feel like they are failing their residents, as they are facing numerous obstacles providing essential services.

The Massachusetts Municipal Association has found that “rising costs and sluggish state aid” have put local budgets at a breaking point across the Bay State.

That’s in addition to a prohibition against local sales and income taxes, plus a 2.5% cap on property tax increases, blocking cities and towns from “raising adequate revenue on their own.”

In a new report, titled “A Perfect Storm,” the association points to Proposition 2 1/2 – a ballot question that taxpayers approved in 1980, creating the 2.5% threshold on annual property tax increases – as a significant stressor for many towns and cities.

Real, inflation-adjusted spending on current operations in Bay State municipalities grew at a mere 0.6% annually between 2010 and 2022, the association found. The rate is “vastly slower” than the growth in real spending through the state budget, increasing roughly 2.8% per year, it added.

“Proposition 2½ was intended to limit local spending,” the report states, “but real spending growth of 0.6 percent per year suggests the constraints may be too restrictive.”

“Cities and towns across the Commonwealth are in such a difficult position today,” Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller said in a statement. “The cost of health care, energy, paving, construction and schools are contributing to cost increases that are outpacing revenue growth. We have to change tracks and find new paths to invest sufficiently in the places we love and call home.”

State aid – a so-called “lifeline” for cities and towns – is not providing the relief needed to overcome stagnant revenue growth. Massachusetts cities and towns receive 26% of their revenue from state assistance, far below the nationwide rate of 31%.

Amesbury Mayor Kassandra Gove, who serves as vice president of the MMA, hopes the new report leads to “serious consideration of solutions” to the dire fiscal situation.

“The success of the Commonwealth is tied directly to the success of its cities and towns,” Gove said in a statement. “Massachusetts cannot thrive if municipalities are struggling to provide the fundamental services that residents need every single day.”

Costs have grown over 3% annually since the pandemic, forcing cities and towns to cut real spending every year even more than before, especially as federal COVID aid has expired, according to the MMA.

Municipalities can pursue overrides, giving them the ability to increase property taxes above 2.5%. The option, though, is not highly sought after because it often requires a “lengthy public outreach campaign with real costs and uncertain results.”

Nearly 200 of the state’s 351 cities and towns have pursued zero overrides over the past 15 years, the MMA found in its study.

“Municipalities have been frugal, and any cuts they’re forced to make are now cutting bone,” MMA Executive Director Adam Chapdelaine said in a statement. “Even with the most valiant efforts to operate efficiently, city and town leaders simply can’t overcome the larger trends that are forcing them to make drastic reductions, felt by local residents and local businesses.”

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