‘COMMUNITY PRESERVATION ACT’ A ‘VOLUNTARILY’ TAX INCREASE BY ANOTHER NAME
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION, SEPT. 16-18, 2016) — Citizens of Pittsfield: Do you wish to voluntarily raise taxes on yourself? THE PLANET wants to know. Ward 2 city councilor Kevin “The Barber” Morandi thinks you do. He doesn’t think the shave he gave you at budget time was close enough.
Morandi, councilors, the Town Players of Pittsfield, and other vested interests think you can’t wait to do so. Why else would they be trying sell you on a measure that will raise your present taxes 40% above the allowable 2.5% limit. This would be on top of the annual 4 to 6% increases with which city “leaders” try to annually suffocate you — which may explain the nightmares you’ve been having about being snuffed with a pillow.
Your heroes on the council voted unanimously to place a question on the November ballot asking you to adopt the Commonwealth’s Community Preservation Act (CPA). If you do so, many of you will need CPR not CPA Backers of this new tax will be using the usual scare tactics as the electorate continues its death march to the general election. They claim the CPA will provide dollars for conservation, historical preservation, and — are you sitting down? — “affordable housing.” If you don’t vote for this new tax, life as you know it will come to a halt. So they say.
‘Give us your tired, your hungry, your human waste.’
THE PLANET has to laugh. “Affordable housing” has become the politically correct way one refers to the the “gimme” crowd who expect taxpayers not only to feed them but to house them as well. Think of it as Nanny State 3.0. Affordable housing, which includes Section 8, tests for eligibility only at the beginning. In other words, not only do you have no incentive to start paying your own way, but should your long-lost Uncle Leo die and leave you his millions, your rent will still be subsidized by Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski.
As councilors have proposed the CPA, “low income” folks will qualify for exemptions. What’s left of the middle class will have to pick up the slack, with no bellyaching. That’s most of you out there.
And who will decide where the CPA money will go?
“Local committees,” according to the council, made up of “community leaders.” That’s code. You can bet the monies will be allocated on the basis of political loyalty and not on need. The books, we are sure, will be strictly on the up-and-up.
THE PLANET mentioned The Town Players earlier because one of their board members put on his shades and pulled out a cup of pencils during a council meeting earlier this month. Tom Suski said the group wants to renovate the Allen House on East Street located between the old Madonna Hall (now the state office building) and St. Luke‘s.
“I need your help,” Suski told councilors.
All we can say to his pathetic plea is, “Welcome to the club.” The Kapanskis certainly need the council’s help. Ah, but for all that, our Right Honorable Good Friends on the dais have given ordinary citizens a steady dose of fiscal arsenic in the form of tax increases, service decreases, egregious pay hikes for public employees, unsustainable borrowing, and unsupportable capital projects.
Players: Play with Your Own Money
To The Town Players and its board, if you want to renovate Allen House, do it with your own money. Citizens don’t need public-supported arts. They need enough money to pay rent, buy food, heat the house, pay for prescriptions, and luxuries like that.
The Profiles in Courage Award goes to Morandi for saying, “I support the voters having a say at the ballot box.” Isn’t it great that Morandi and the other councilors care so much about letting “voters have a say at the ballot box?” — Just like y’all did on the new Taconic High School, eh, Kev?
There’s only only sane vote for the CPA in November: A rousing “NO!!!!”
With that, THE PLANET opens The Comment Line. Have a great weekend, everybody.
—————————————————————————————————
“Everybody’s got a thing that someone don’t know how to handle, always reaching out in vain and taking the things not worth having.” — Stevie Wonder, “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing.”
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
The views expressed in the comment section or opinions published within the text other than those of PLANET VALENTI are not those of PLANET VALENTI or endorsed in any way by PLANET VALENTI; this website reserves the right to remove any comment which violates its Rules of Conduct, and it is not liable for the consequences of any posted comment as provided in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and PLANET VALENTI’s terms of service.
I would like to know which of my city councilors support this.Does my mayor support this.Does Chris Connell and Bouvier support it.This is where the Democrats lose me on odd ideas.I can handle straight up here’s how I will spend the money taxes but a big No to a ridiculous idea.Who would pull a yes for this.
I remember Jane Swift took 700 million in cigarette taxes to help Balance the budget and I remember when the lottery would be used to fund education.
The lottery should be changed where 100 percent goes to fund the schools.
.
Mayor Tyer in the end really has no thoughts to share with us who elected her.I like to imagine Mayor Tyer running in her next election after raising taxes 30% and tell me to vote for her 1 more time.I ok walmart for PEDA…I kept 1/2 million square feet of high schools to educate 1600 kids oh high school age.I kept that discussing school Crosby open and the Hibbard building which is awlful for the neighbors to deal with.I brought MS13 to town….MS 13 will drive to lenox to sell drugs. …Dalton…Our kids are in big troubleMS13 will bring opposition with it .More gangster s to come.
Yes, MS-13 is here. The State Police’s Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section and the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force got one in Pittsfield yesterday morning.
http://www.westernmassnews.com/story/33107866/ms-13-gang-member-arrested-in-pittsfield
they are radiating out from Manchester NH and Lawrence MA. You see a lot of them arrested there.
It looked like PMS-13 was marching down North St. Last night.
Maybe Morandi will move into the new Wal Mart facility and, do his hair Cuts.
You would have to be out of your mind to vote for this slush fund.
All of the school employees will rush to the polls to vote for this and cover their losses by raising the school budget next year to increase their own salaries for big cost of living increases. When was the last time you got a cost of living increase? In this way low income hard working taxpayers will be hit twice.
As these progressives constantly remind us, they are a different breed of Democrat. Don’t we know it. Democrats of years ago would have been looking out for the hard working low income people not just the section 8 crowd.
“Progressive” = the PC label for “Socialist.”
Vote NO for the CPA!
The city should end its role in subsidies for senior housing and veterans’ assistance. These ere the two most expensive part of affordable housing.
Your obviously not a senior or veteran. I believe it’s the people that are on welfare (I don’t think the word is welfare anymore) that costs us the most. They don’t work, they keep having children and they are sucking the life out of the rest of us. Shakes I’m 72 years old and still working to keep from losing my house and keeping insurance that I can actually afford. Maybe you have a solution for me.
Keep working, and go whine to the millennials you disparage.
Me too
Shakes,
Sorry but you are incorrect in your wording, it is not Veterans assistance I am certain if you served you are aware it is Veterans obligations. It is our duty and responsibility as citizens to see to it that Veterans have housing, medical treatment etc.
Each of us who has served has earned these benefits, and many of us still pay a price, No I did not charge up Hamburger hill, nor did I land at Omaha beach. I have served as both a combat medic and at a Tactical hospital. I have had the privilege of holding Soldiers hands and working them through the pain of their injury and reassuring them they would be ok as morphine was administered. And I have had the Honor of holding Soldiers hands looking into their eyes, being the last person or thing they see and sending them “over the bridge” knowing though they may not be on this earth any longer, compassion caring and love does not vanish from this earth with them.
I give you that glimpse so that you might rethink your Veterans assistance and see it as an obligation. Should I find myself in Veterans housing someday I assure you that I see it as I am paid in full.
A beautiful testimony joe p and the perfect way to deal with the type of bitterness of the person you responded to. It gave us all a lift Im sure. Thank you too for your service to our country.
Thank you for your service, Joe
Shakes, put your tin foil hat back on and the voives will stop.
If the Allen House has not raised any money to renovate the house by now, that means there is no interest. Just sell the property and do something beneficial with the money.
Do not only vote against this CPA but appeal your property tax valuation. It is probably too high.
I never met a politician or bureaucrat that ever was a good steward of finances. They always want more money. They never think about doing with less or more efficiently.
“We don’t have a spending problem. We have a revenue problem.” That’s code for more taxes.
Starve the beast!
All they have to do is say it passed.
The people wanted it.
Yeah sure they did. They expect you not to question the results.
Questioning election results they will spin as anti-American, conpiracy theory. Label you crazy.
One thing this election will prove is that people don’t trust the media.
People don’t trust the government.
People don’t trust the election process.
The powers that be are strongly entrenched. Deeply corrupt. Totally untrustworthy.
It was interesting watching councilor Pete White hanging with Adams Hinds during 3rd Thursday and introducing the candidate to all of the “important people”. White also made sure to stop by the vote “No” on Question 2 table to adorn one of their buttons.Why would a city councilor take such a stand on an issue that does not have an impact on Western Mass with no regional district on the expansion list. To kiss-up to the teacher’s union perhaps? White, once a true champion of his constituents, has fallen so far from grace that he appears now to only care about being a player in the machine and an acolyte to the powers that be.
He’s now one of Tyer’s Toddlers, Clairmont’s Kids, Sakshaug’s Students. God help us.
All some politicians want us to have their picture taken
I will never get over giving Hancock Shaker village 400 k and they redirected the money.Ask connell Kroll and mazzeo about that.You don’t see Lenox giving money to Tanglewood to pay for 400 buck a night sheriff s.
Whenever you see non profits hire retreads, the money’s never go for the intent.
School committee, that was a joke, 400 g thatcould have done a lot of good elsewhere,check out the news hour at 5 and get schooled with the real hard facts.
The Planet didn’t get a Trendsetter Award, that’s some Bullspit there mister!
Who is the Lee Brain Surgeon who agreed to shut down Main Street in Lee, in the middle of the Friday night rush hour, for the Latin Festival?? Tried to get home from Springfield tonight – traffic was at a standstill from Exit 2 to Main! Idiots! Avoid the area unless you are planning on attending!
Lee has the same problem as Lenox….not much parking. I will be going to the Apple Squeeze Festival next weekend….will probably have to get there an hour early or more to get a parking spot…everybody else will probably have the same idea. I usually do not attend Founder’s Weekend as you said it is a tangled mess of traffic.
The founders of Lee were Latino?
Fiesta!
Mucus Garcia
afeitarme las bolas de ballenas
tu madre chupa el pene del caballo
Si, bendeho
Simple answer NO NO No community preservation act, NO!
Mayor Tired of her RAISING TAXES…6 MILLION IN HER 1ST 5 MINUTES ON THE JOB……RETIRE NOW AND LEAVE THIS NURSING HOME OF A CITY….what gang should we leave it to
What difference does it make? Pittsfield politics has already raised its municipal taxes to near capacity. The CPA tax just adds insult to injury.
There are 2 groups of citizens in Pittsfield. The first group is the welfare/social services residents. They make up about 70% of the local population. The second group in the wealthy residents. They make up about 10% of the local population. That means there are only 10% of local residents earning a living wage in Pittsfield.
And 10% is missing?
Second home owners from NYC?
BEagle headline (big type) in the business section today says,
“. . . then [sic] expected.” Instead of “than.”
I think most high school newspapers are better run. Does anyone there look at anything before it goes to press?
What a complete joke of an excuse for a newspaper.
Based on the extremely shady behavior of this current city government as well as the past few there is no way I vote for this open ended tax. NO WAY IN HELL!
I believe that there is a new gas tax coming as well. And the cost of having your garbage taken away is about to spike big time. If the Pittsfield city government wanted to drive out the lower middle class they could not do a better job than they are doing right now.
Do not forget the huge tax break multi millionaire Beacon theater owner was given buy her friend Mayor Tyer. Now she wants you to pay more to make up for what he did not have to pay. And there are plenty of others getting their corporate welfare while Johnny regular guy gets it in the rectal area.
Let us for once, make a show of force and get out and vote this special interest grab bag down. And when you go to vote take a friend or neighbor with you. Do not believe what you read in the newspaper as it is an arm of the special interest folk.
If you needed that special push to get to the polls this is it. And I would suggest that you vote to allow more charter schools as well. Please read up on question 2.
“special interest grab bag”. Perfect description. Vote NO on community presversation act
My neighbors will split the cost, if any, and cram the whole neighborhoods garbage into one tote, any extras will be thrown in the street.
Excellent forward thinking. Outside of the box as Kerwood would say. The city should encourage all neighbors to do the same thing
When they eliminate a service that was formerly covered by taxes (such as trash pickup) and make you pay for it, its the exact same thing as a tax increase.
No matter how much they increase taxes, it will never be enough.
They will spend every single cent.
Tax and spend.
Its the progressive liberal way.
Massachuetts is a communist state.
Reply to JL: Bravo! Nicely said! Massachusetts is a Commi state!
There’s more to the CPA story. It may surprise readers to learn that Pittsfield’s Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski are actually subsidizing the Stockbridge library project. How can this be? Well, the Community Preservation Act has two parts, a voluntary part and an involuntary part. The voluntary part is what Dan is discussing here – the November ballot measure to adopt a 1% property tax surcharge. That money would go into a town fund and be partially matched by State dollars. Where do the State dollars come from? That’s the involuntary part of the CPA. The State has a pot of money funded by a surcharge on all real estate sales in the Commonwealth. The CPA has been in place for 15 years and the participating communities are preferentially wealthy and savvy towns like Williamstown and Stockbridge. They know a good deal when they see one. So, yeah, it’s true to say that Dan’s own town library (even though it’s in the wealthy enclave of Stockbridge) is being refurbished with the hard earned dollars of Pittsfield residents. If I were Dan I wouldn’t want to change that situation either.
http://www.berkshireeagle.com/local/ci_29904721/stockbridge-voters-ok-11-86-million-budget-including
So the State of Massachusetts as well as the City of Pittsfield gets to blackmail taxpayers as it holds money hostage.
Only Bouvier could love that.
Only your mom loves that.
Isn’t that how the Taconic deal went down? “How can you pass up this deal since you pay for it anyway”. Seems very deceptive.
Mike I would like a built in pool with a hot tub and pool house bar. My wife informed me we cannot afford it. Why can’t you and others ( mayor , city clowncil) see that. How much tax increases can we absorb? 28 years paying for a high school we don’t need, school buses, paying rent on bus garage and parking plus rent on DPW. Going to knock down Taconic which has 6 garages on the southern end of building, could easly be retro fitted. Keep spending my money.
Sitting in a barber shop this week I heard a custodian telling the barber, that they want to keep Taconic for other use. I couldn’t believe my ears.
Yeah,how not to maintain structure.
When they wanted to build a new library they condemned the old one. (then turned the old one into a court house)
When they wanted a new jail they condemned the old one. (they then converted the old one for other uses)
Just to name a couple more reasons not to trust your city government.
in other words mike you admit its a voluntary take hike the special interests are going after proving DVs point.
So why on earth if the involuntary aspect is true would I want to pile on even more tax hike to be divvied up by the “usual suspects” for their pet projects?
I commented over a month ago on a page on facebook about the CPA. I said how it only won by a handful of votes in Lenox. While it has done some good in Lenox at least call it what it is. I didn’t think the taxpayers in Pittsfield could afford another tax hike. I was told it wasn’t a tax hike it was going to be a SURCHARGE!!!!!
Either way they’re taking money out of our pockets
Dan
We talk football a lot. How about this? Colgate 55 – Yale 14. Or thereabouts on a score I have just seen. Wasn’t Yale supposed to have a top team this year? I’m going to cc this score to Larry Bossidy. Larry will love it.
Garbage pick up is out of control and abused by residents at a huge cost to taxpayers. Drive around the city and see the mountains of garbage some put out. They need to change something.
Unfortunately people think garbage is free, far from it. Time for total overhaul of system and strict enforcement to the garbage pigs.
Most of the time it is near the end of the month when you see the biggest piles. People moving out of their apartment. But it all gets taken care of.
It cost the City to take care of it. Time to fine landlords and have them take it out of offenders deposits.
Neighbors will chip in for a fork lift, the guy who’s job to stomp on the garbage in the tote weighs 400 pounds, we will need the fork lift to get him into the tote, then we’re good to go.
Take a good look at your city council. How many African Americans do you see? How many of Spanish decent? Do you see any senior citizens or low income types? Do you feel that this cookie cutter council represents a cross section of the population?
All of these city reps seem to be doing pretty well for themselves and I get the feeling that they are having a very difficult time putting themselves into the mindset of people not as well off as they may be.
And any fixed income senior or lower income soul is not likely to match the campaign bucks these folk have in order to get elected. The special interested types can easily stack the deck by backing the people they want financially and then encouraging their unions to vote accordingly.
Almost impossible to change this and they know it so people like this mayor feel confident that they can stomp all over without serious resistance. So sad.
Heh Heh. That has to be the dumbest statement I’ve read in a long time. Kevin Morandi is a small town barber, Pete White is a social worker, You seem to have all the answers perhaps you should run for office?
Are you saying that because the mayor lives in a well over $500,000 gated community house with her rich boyfriend she has lost touch with the reality of money strapped Pittsfield?
That’s what we are saying. The contrast between not only the mayor’s lifestyle, but most of the GOB’s in this county is such that we are living in two very different worlds. Our needs and concerns are polar opposites and are being ignored.
This is not just OLD people talking as I hear so often on this board from the naysayers. Anybody over 45 is supposedly not to be listened to or taken seriously because they will be put out to pasture soon. This being out of touch with our politicians extends to all ages of people, young and old, because what we have in common is that we are struggling to survive as taxes and everything else (cable rates, energy costs) continue to skyrocket.
There is unquestionably a separation between the haves and have-nots. The third category, who neither “have” and in a way “get everything” we can call the “gimme gang.” No need to identify this subset of critters.
It’s a gated $637,000 Mcmansion for McMayor. 3 Phesant Way. First left past BCC…But the lovely Linda feels our pain. Especially when she kills us with taxes.
Taxes are inevitable yes but with that shrinking services for working stiffs like me and free rides for all the govt. “dependents.” gang members and their welfare honeys, druggies, sec. 8s etc etc etc.
Really? I seriously didn’t think Pittsfield had gated communities. Thought that was a Florida thing. You would think a mayor would want to live among the common people. Maybe instead of buying a McMansion, she (they) could have bought the Allen House and restored it. That would have been a perfect mayor’s house.
The residence our commentator references is indeed past BCC on the left. Maybe a couple hundred yards in, visible from the road, you will see a guard house and a barrier. The mayor lives on a side way in that development. It qualifies for the term “gated.”
They will slow us to vote on Community Preservation Act but not on a new high school . Isn’t that just a great thing .
It’s dirty…let’s face it! Truth is truth. The people would have voted it down overwhelmingly. They know it.
Let’s put everything to a vote of the people. Just because you hate teachers and children doesn’t mean everyone else does.
I think we should give more and more to the teachers. They are all such kings and queens.
Are we going to get to vote a tax override next year?? This is a good time for people who don’t vote to get out and relearn the practice. It is no big deal and while it is true that most of the time in Pittsfield it is a wasted effort, voting against a ttax override would be huge.
Perhaps an attempted override is exactly what the electorate needs to wake it up.
Wouldn’t it be great if no community took the money and we just cut the budget by getting rid of the CPA. Abolishing the CPA could be called the Shulman Act, whereas projects would not be subsidized by the State. The building and/or renovations of artsy fartsy projects and non profit organizations SHALL rely on donations to gauge if enough people actually give a shit about each project/ non profit organization.
On the trash situation, at least if Pittsfield goes to a fee for trash pick-up we will never have to hear another politician at budget time use the excuse that the tax increase is due to the fact that unlike surrounding towns trash pick-up is included in your taxes.
The Shulman Act. DV how bout it? Named after any investor public or private who doesnt use us taxpayers to be their bankers.
I like it! Jim Shulman and Terry Kinnas: The city’s two Supercitizens. Charlie Garivaltis makes it three.
I live on a main street entering Pittsfield. For a while, a woman from Stockbridge dutifully placed her trash in front of my house. I don’t put trash out every week, so it was noticeable.
When she was caught, she denied it. Until we videoed her doing it and videoed opening the bags which contained mail and bills with her name on it.
It is pretty common.
I’m good with pay per throw or the toters. I generate very little trash. But we go through the neighborhoods of the gimme class and you see overflow of trash because for some reason, welfare and waste go together like biscuits and gravy.
Southeast, I know of several people from Dalton that do the same thing.
SE
Stockbridge, as you likely know, does not provide trash pickup. Residents have to either contract privately, which some do, or take it away themselves to the transfer station. That facility is expertly managed. We separate regular trash, redemptive plastic bottles, aluminum cans, glass bottles, other plastics, and paper. The town doesn’t throw a perfect game, but both town and residents do a great job of making the system work. That’s the point, which you allude to in your insightful post. It works if you have responsible people. It won’t work with the kind of trash — both the garbage kind and the human kind — you see in Pittsfield. Excellent analogy in your last sentence.
Painter is the quote of the blog…..Excellent. They will get more revenue from us somehow, you watch.
A vote on the new School might have brought out the listless taxpayer-voter and turned the tide for future nonsense. Two steps backward and that’s why the Gobsigs candidates keep getting elected.