DIE PROVIDES BITCHFIELD’S NEW MAYOR WITH AN EASY BUDGET CUT … THE REVERSE-RACIST OFFICE HAS NO PLACE IN HONEST GOVERNMENT
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JAN. 22, 2024) — Racism is alive and well, but you don’t need THE PLANET to tell you that.
It’s new name is Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity, better known as DIE.
Bitchfield’s new mayor says he can’t see any way to cut the $205 million+ municipal budget, so let’s help him out. Mayor, there’s lots of low fruit hanging off the weeping willows, and the lowest (in more ways than one) is the city’s DIE office. Here’s why:
- It has produced nothing other than an increase in the divisions that hinder human relations.
- It pretends to represent marginalized groups.
- It creates no jobs, other than the con job and snow job for staff.
- It penalizes other social constituencies.
- It wastes taxpayer dollars.
- The local office not been called to report on spending.
- Its results can’t be measured.
- It drains the local treasury with zero accountability.
- There are no metric to gauge performance.
- It fosters reverse racism.
Across America, organizations (campuses, businesses) are waking up to the grift foisted on them beginning the death of George Floyd, a drug-addled fellow with a violent criminal history whose cop-resisting led to his canonization in the church of addled values.
THE PLANET shares a recent article by Katherine Donlevy from the New York Post:
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Watchdog group demands Johns Hopkins eliminate DEI program that called all white people ‘privileged,’ created a ‘toxic culture’
A healthcare watchdog group is demanding that Johns Hopkins Medicine eliminate its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program after its boss created a “toxic culture” by declaring all white people, Christians and men as “privileged.”
Do No Harm condemned the elite institution’s “empty” apology after Dr. Sherita Hill Golden, chief diversity officer for the hospital system, sent a staff-wide memo last week defining privilege as “a set of unearned benefits given to people who are in a specific social group.
“Johns Hopkins needs to completely eliminate their DEI department and channel those resources toward the primary objective of preparing the next generation of healthcare professionals to give the highest quality care to all patients,” Kristina Rasmussen, executive director of Do No Harm, told The Post.
“They have created a toxic culture rooted in a DEI ideology that demonizes and indoctrinates the very students they’re tasked with training to become the next generation of medical professionals.”
“Their weak apology is simply insufficient, and our campaign is focused on raising awareness about the discriminatory ideas being taught to students and the hostile workplace imposed on employees.”
The group — which is “focused on keeping identity politics out of medical education, research, and clinical practice” — also deployed a mobile billboard in DC Thursday in protest of the DEI program.
Do No Harm deployed a mobile billboard in DC protesting Johns Hopkins’s DEI program.
The billboard will be deployed to the school’s campus Thursday.
“Racism is still racism when a DEI officer says it,” the poster, plastered alongside Golden’s face and The Post’s original reporting, says.
The mobile billboard will spend Thursday driving around Johns Hopkins’s Baltimore campus and hospital, the group said.
The school drew national ire last week after Golden sent a “monthly diversity digest” email to staff outlining the limited definition of privilege, which she claimed operates on “personal, interpersonal, cultural and institutional levels.”
White people, able-bodied people, heterosexuals, cisgender people, males, Christians, middle- or owning-class people, middle-aged people and English-speaking people were among the privileged social groups listed in the letter.
Dr. Sherita Hill Golden is facing backlash for her definition of “privilege.” X/@EndWokeness
Golden’s list of privileged groups, per a staff email. X/@EndWokeness
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Former President Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr — both white, cisgender and English-speaking males — were among those who blasted the memo.
Golden retracted her definition of privilege and issued an apology to staff after the backlash.
“The newsletter included a definition of the word privilege which, upon reflection, I deeply regret,” she wrote in a memo. “The intent of the newsletter is to inform and support an inclusive community at Hopkins, but the language of this definition clearly did not meet that goal.
Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. TNS
“In fact, because it was overly simplistic and poorly worded, it had the opposite effect,” she continued. “I retract and disavow the definition I shared and I am sorry.”
The apology was not sincere, Do No Harm argued, adding that dismantling the DEI program was the only way to correct the misstep.
The group pointed to Golden’s second position as the head of DEI for the American Society of Clinical Investigation, which offers a post-BA scholarship program available only to students who are “underrepresented in medicine and science.”
“It’s clear Dr. Golden’s detrimental DEI influence is far-reaching in the medical community and deserves additional scrutiny,” Do No Harm said.
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Memo to Bitchfield’s new mayor: Cut the DIE office or continue the political dishwashing. The choice is yours.
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“If heaven comes looking for you, don’t say you’re lost” — Sir Donald Turpentine, Knight of the Bath.
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
Copyright (c) 2023 By Dan Valenti, PLANET VALENTI and EUROPOLIS MANAGEMENT. All rights reserved. The views and opinions expressed in the comment section or in the text other than those of PLANET VALENTI are not necessarily endorsed by the operators of this website. PLANET VALENTI assumes no responsibility for such views and opinions, and it reserves the right to remove or edit any comment, including but not limited to those that violate the website’s Rules of Conduct and its editorial policies. Those who leave comments own all the responsibilities that are or can be attached to those comments, be they rhetorical, semantic, or legal. Such commentators remain solely responsible for what they post and shall be and remain solely accountable for their words. PLANET VALENTI shall not be held responsible for the consequences that may result from any posted comment or outside opinion or commentary as provided in, but not limited to, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and this website’s terms of service. We serve as a marketplace of ideas, without prejudice and available to all. All users of this site — including readers, commentators, contributors, or anyone else — hereby agree to these conditions by virtue of this notice and their use of/participation in this site. When PLANET VALENTI ends with the words “The Usual Disclaimer,” that phrase shall be understood to refer to the full text of this disclaimer.
Hey Dan, where is the empirical evidence in support of your position?
DIE
???Starts with duplicity of positions made for a person/people of a certain color which of course causes a schism in human interactions or feelings and then you can move to where all that ARPA money went….was it Africa?
He asks for empirical evidence. That’s good.
I made the argument in my first meeting on DEI. I stated the following: It comes with a $80,000 preliminary price tag. That shall grow quickly as they add: personnel, supplies, weird expenses (which came in the form of ‘DEI Ambassadors’). 2) Fortune 500’s, implementing DEI and academic institutions will be the first to drop DEI as they come to terms that it is too expensive and provides no value. Symbolic expense for a controlled delusion. I also argued, less empirically and therefore clumsily, that it is also silly.
Today: Fortune 500’s are dropping DEI. U of North Carolina, the flagship institution for progressive academia, dropped DEI. Hospitals are beginning to drop the puzzle like intake papers that attempt to bifurcate gender – dropping DEI in practice.
The US military has seen its ranks dry up because of DEI wrecking cohesion and
substituting for learning how to blow the brains out of CCP soldiers.
Empirical evidence is the correct evidence to use, and it is there for the picking. Unfortunately, the ones who herald a bad idea are rarely the ones equipped to remove it.
SIR CHAZ
Precisely. You nailed it when you said that DIE provides no value. In fact, it does a double whammy on the public treasury: (1) Zero value (2) It requires a direct hit on public funds.
It also makes people not want to work.
It’s a Controlled Delusion. That means, it’s ok to do spend on it so long everyone agrees that is serves no purpose.
It makes white snowflake moonbats all warm and fuzzy inside.
It does that too. The ROI on warm fuzzies is not, however, empirical. Scohol Committee critters eat it though.
Dan’s doesn’t seem to be an American hating liberal/Marxist like yourself.
Since Biden’s Selection/installment America has been in a free fall and doesn’t even have a border with 20 million new criminals in that short time.
Race relations have declined since Sotero’s 8 years of stirring up hatred rather than unity. I don’t care what color a persons skin is if they have a decent mind.
Schools, both primary/secondary and colleges have become centers for indoctrination, rather than education. Math itself is “racist” according to liberals. Today’s students expect a “B”, for just being there, white black brown and yellow.
More idiotic word salads from you.
I love it when leftists get bent out of shape by the truth.
It’s just so “empirical”.
Reminds me of the old saying “If you want to piss-off a conservative, tell him a lie. If you want to piss-off a leftist, tell them the truth.”
The truth? The Georgia Election workers defamed by Giuliani sued The Gateway Pundit and its slimeball owner, Jim Hoft, for defaming them in essentially the same manner. That garbage site publishes outright lies on a daily basis. No wonder you’re so attracted to it.
Case in point, Mad Trapper!
Can you at least try and come up with a counter argument H.L. MAP?
Or is your Cumby’s parking lot security shift a little to time consuming for you?
MA: I take offense. Many a book I have written handling the checkout line at Home Depot.
Your posts are demented. Biden was not selected. The election was not stolen. And, why on earth do you keep insisting I’m Barry Clairmont?
Because if thy weren’t Dirty Barry, thy would not complain to me like thy does. Thy would ignore. But because thy doesn’t, thy confirms thy identity.
Campeche?
And yes, Xiden was selected.
ALL the voting machines in the swing states stopped counting votes while Trump was WELL ahead. When they all came back “online” the vote tally had miraculously switched to Xiden.
ALL of the votes “counted” were in favor of Xiden. A statistical improbability, for your “empirical side.”
Explain it?
Let me guess? A conspiracy theory like the, Steele Dossier, Russian collision hoax, or a few UNARMED MAGA members entering the Capitol to take selfies…..I mean overthrow a heavily armed, major federal institution?
1988 Mexican Election. they did the same thing, only on paper.
You’re putting an awful lot on BC’s shoulders.
Nice empirical information in your response:)
He likes his empirical spam canned by the fargone socialist rag The Guardian.
(I think he may be a closet Brit!)
It keeps getting worse for Ballard:
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2024/01/14/tim-ballard-faces-4-new-criminal/
FOX made up America hating liberal Markist and they all were on board to back the Republican Coup to overthrow America…truth hurts FOX University student viewers
Does FOX University have a good football team? Basketball team? Or is it an online school?
One more, what is a “Markist?”
A Markist is what happens on a honeymoon for a man named Mark.
A thug who writes graffiti with a sharpie.
Wait till the thorazine kicks in before you post
“Today, America is at another crossroads. The wild-eyed American-hating Marxists are in control of our mainstream media, our education system, Hollywood, the government, and our Department of Justice.”
You cribbed this from The Gateway Pundit. A site with content written by idiots to be fed to morons.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/desperate-times-call-drastic-measures-recent-polling-confirms/
ROFL!!!!
I’m surprised your liberal pea brain didn’t explode when you read the article. I thought you’d remain “in the closet” concerning reading that news/TGP.
Media is republican Corp run
My secret Biden gibberish decoder ring can’t translate that one.
Imagine that
There are none so blind as those who will not see
This from the RWNJ crowd that barfs up lies about the 2020 election being stolen.
“Reminds me of the old saying “If you want to piss-off a conservative, tell him a lie. If you want to piss-off a leftist, tell them the truth.”
-YingYang
What does DIE have to say about Mayor Peter Marchetti being named in Victoria May’s federal lawsuit that alleges sex discrimination? She alleges that Peter Marchetti called her a BITCH at the bank prior to the termination of her employment at the bank.
Why is the city spending over $205.6 million in fiscal year 2024? How much will the municipal budget increase in fiscal year 2025? Local homeowners and small businesses are scared by the 10 percent increase in city spending. Pittsfield politics is overspending and excessively taxing!
Maybe all of the DIE offices in the world could look into my vote not counting on Tuesday’s NH Primary election. Joe Biden’s name is not on the ballot in the NH Primary. The Democratic Party won’t count any and all of the Democrat votes in the NH Primary on my half-birthday on January 23rd, 2024.
Just write in Lucy
There are two DIE offices – one in city hall, one in school department. Totally uncalled for and a waste of hundreds of thousands each year. And health care has gone woke too, and they won’t treat you if you raise your voice, hurt somebody’s feelings, or they don’t like your body language. And of course the colleges all have loads of diversity hires and DIE employees. Every state college in Taxachusetts has em. Fire em all.
A Democrat simply can’t cut it. Look at Pignatelli, an electrician, saying kids should be “educated” with books like Gender Queer even if parents oppose it. Democrats know what they are doing is wrong, but it’s the path they’ve chosen.
If the new mayor can’t even figure this out, there isn’t much hope.
It may be a matter of having the balls to do it. Can you just imagine the backlash? There would be professional riot organizers flown in from Oakland.
Unfortunately, I think OB and the DIE Office are here to stay, especially in democRAT led states.
Instead of telling me how privileged I am because of the color of my skin, which I was always taught is racism in itself, how about going after the real pink elephant in the room, black on black violence.
30-40 people are shot in Chicago every weekend, but I have to attend a training put on by a guy like OB, for him to tell lecture me on how I had it easy growing up, simply because I’m white.
https://abc7chicago.com/chicago-shootings-shooting-breaking-news-today/13572616/
When stores shutter their doors in the black community because of rampant theft, does OB reach out to the black community and explain to them the ramifications of repeatedly looting a store.
No, he doesn’t. But I get to sit in a training and listen to OB explain to me how it’s “racially insensitive,” or why white people, have “privilege,” to shop that POC’s don’t have.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/we-think-its-insensitive-residents-outraged-as-walgreens-closes-pharmacy-in-roxbury/ar-AA1mMcC1
Bitchfield has our own example of “racial privilege.” Take a look at these two “executive board members” of the Berkshire Black Economic Council (BBEC). Between Shirley and AJ, hey received over $1,250,000 of taxpayer money, simply for being black.
I think Maypo is going to have to create a new department within the City of Bitchfield. Forget the red-carpet welcoming committee, Maypo will need to create a Professional Sh!t Cleaning Team.
You can even thank his predecessor, Flat Tire, and Bitchfield’s own do-nothing illegal alien representative, Tricia Farley-Country Buffet (D-illegal aliens), for this too.
https://nypost.com/2024/01/20/metro/migrants-waiting-for-shelter-beds-are-using-this-nyc-park-as-their-bathroom/
Illegal aliens are sh!tting and pi$$ing in cups and leaving them at the doorsteps to people’s homes in NYC.
I know, diversity is our greatest asset and white supremacy is our greatest threat.
Stock up on rubber gloves.
Already need this over at Springside where our so called leaders who keep our city safe have allowed bums to set up camp. This even though the law abiding citizens can not stay in the park after dark. Walk through the park and you will find needles, feces and of course now yellow snow! Where is law enforcement and the health department? Here is an area to cut to if they are not going to do their job!
I agree with you but I rather have them in the park then setting up a tent city in down town or in the middle of park square
That is where the homeless shelter is and the social workers who can get them help or out of here
That recalls my September 20, 2023 proposal! I had hoped that it would lead to some sort of mobile park solution to house legitimate Pittsfield residents who are homeless and free from Boston poaching with on site supervision and counseling. Supervision protects the residents, counseling the same.
The homeless are a fact of every society. It is therefore proper that we accommodate them in a manner that does not restrict their ability to function and work, preferably, and do not encroach on property owners. I floated a proposal; they had been rejected. It is also proper that communities are able to self-govern their policies.
Petition to the City Council
The undersigned respectfully requests a Council of the Whole public hearing scheduled for a day certain to address the universal decline in neighborhoods, houses of worship and businesses because of the proliferation of homeless tent cities. Residents and business owners are demanding from the Ward 2 Councilor that we as a council act. The camps extend far beyond Springside Park. They are in Morningside – specifically the Carbulance property. They are in business lots on North Street. They exist on church properties, notably the Church of Christian Science. People from all three demand action.
The Health Department informs me that they will not respond to complaints. 1hey will not penalize property owners who tolerate unlawful occupation of their lots nor request law enforcement intervention to clear them. The lack of response leaves residents, businesses, and home of worship one acceptable option which is to leave town for a better place where these camps are forbidden.
The tents cities are a direct hazard to Pittsfield’s communities. They present the following:
• Public restrooms
• Open trash, unlawful trash dumping, and discarded food which attract rodents and are otherwise disgusting
• Drug paraphernalia and medical waste (discarded needles)
• Public bonfires
• Utility theft
• Aggressive behavior from tent occupants
• Trespassing
Injury to the public goes beyond aesthetic and children have handled waste from these camps requiring medical care.
The solution to these encampments is practical and the same as is imposed on all residents who do not comply with city codes: fine property owners who host parties that violate codes, enforce no-trespassing orders by removal of people from property they have no right to occupy.
The goal of this petition is two-fold.
1. Provide an opportunity for the public to petition their elected representatives directly on this issue.
2. Call for a strategy to compel the City to exercise its authority and protect our residents.
This is a code and a law enforcement problem that has been created by the City, and we as a Council must demand it be corrected.
Signed: Charles Kronick, Councilor Ward 2.
September 7. 2022
The proper use of the DEI office is to make sure that – all other things being equal – minorities, females etc. are given an advantage. Note that proper use is still a merit-based system, because the advantage is given only when the candidates are otherwise equally qualified.
As one who served on numerous hiring committees, I found that the system worked quite well, with diversity hiring occurring only when indicated, preserving the merit-based system.
!?
Ever Read Animal Farm by Orwell? All things being equal, some are more equal than others. We want to make you advantaged, but you are not getting an advantage.
Two legs good, four legs baaad.
G=eat point
He doesn’t like that book because there were no sheep scenes
There were indeed sheep scenes in that book.
“four legs baaad.”
Our only equity in life is death.
But democrats still get to vote when dead
2 + 2 = 5
What if a highly qualified woman shows up, but she is incredibly obnoxious in interviews? Does she qualify for an advantage?
Calling Maura Healy
She certainly did get advantaged in.
If she’s more qualified than the others she doesn’t need one.
So you give advantages to those less qualified.
What’s the point of interviewing?
Besides for themselves, what jobs have DIE created ?
The same number of jobs AJ Enchill and the BBEC have created for non-family or friends and/or the same amount of black teachers Shirley Edgerton recruited in NC for PPS:
Zero Point Zero (youtube.com)
Between the two, the received $1,250,000 of non-taxable, non-reportable, income.
Noticed on Facebook that Mayor Maypo and his chosen councilors and city officials, White, Lampiasi, Kavey, Persip, Costa, Serre, Kerwood and others attended the Massachusetts Municipalities Annual meeting in Boston this past weekend. One of the many speakers they seemed glued to is no other than Mike Oba, Pittsfield DIE Officier. Don’t think Maypo has any plans on getting rid of the DIE position. Since the majority of the councilors and department heads are gay, they will never vote against this position. Also, wonder if us taxpayers footed the bill for this adventure? Of course, CC President White did not miss posting pictures of all his food and drink in Boston.
You paid for their hotel and meals. There is the meals and entertainment account for councilors to spend in Boston. I tried to kill it last spring.
We are all paying for Tricia, Smitty, John, & Paul’s many years in Boston, too.
“A government that robs the common taxpayers to pay Paul Marxism will always have the support of Paul”!
Expect other such expeditions for this crew. Heard there is already one being planned to go to Ireland. On your dime I might add.
At least Gerry Doyle had a call in show.
If Marchetti won’t cut spending he needs to resign and let Krol do it
Thing is, Krol COULD and WOULD do it. That’s why the Special Interests rallied to Peter.
John Krol was supported by the big spender named Jimmy Ruberto. I doubt it, Dan!
Yes, Jimmy Ruberto, best mayor of the 21st century.
That’s a pretty low bar by any standards
They were all failures Dan. He earns the highest grade for effort though.
It was a short century.
Hypothetical, Dan.
He lost in a landslide.
Get over it.
With some good help from the Eagle.
Good post! The Thorazine is working.
The Maypo Agenda, off the a flying start.
Yes I agree. Tonight on the agenda is a giveaway to someone who is taking a commercial building off the taxrolls for 5 years but we won’t lose money?? They say it will be made back, ha,ha, The article even quoted “current Ward 3 councilor Kevin Sherman”, ha,ha the hate rag should edit and look up their information the councilor for 3 is Wrinn. Also the proerty in question is bringing in $20,000.00 a year so I’m not sure how the city isn’t losing money
Not going to lose money because they will roll this into everybody elses taxes. Just like they do to subsidize all the local millionaire business s getting huge never ending tax breaks.
Didn’t Marchetti say he was going to come forward with a list of all the business s getting tax breaks and how long they have been getting them as well as how long they will continue to get them? Is Haddad still getting his and if so for how much longer?
Is there a reason a mayor might not want to discuss this with the taxpayers?
Dan, have you been following the story of the Battery Energy Storage System proposal or the hearing on the subject next month?
No. Can you fill us in?
Seems like a plan to accommodate huge storage container sized batteries in urban and suburban settings (to store electricity from variable power sources like wind and solar). Huge fire risk to be mitigated:
https://www.pnnl.gov/news-media/battery-energy-storage-systems-are-here-your-community-ready
I got a notice in the mail about an upcoming hearing on the 13th of next month at City Hall – tried to follow the links to the proposal but got the old “404 Not Found”. If you take the time to read this entire article there is a humorous DIE aspect to the whole absurd spectacle per the statements of our new city planner:
https://www.iberkshires.com/story/72973/Pittsfield-Looks-at-Zoning-Amendment-for-Battery-Energy-Storage.html
From the article: “To go beyond land acknowledgments, recognizing forests, riparian ways [good word! translates: rivers], and wildlife (hereafter, “the land”)[let’s not get bogged down in language and semantics] as living breathing members of our community that deserve to be protected in accordance with Native Nations’ and Indigenous Communities’ practices.” [What about non-breathing living things? What about batteries?]
The CDB thinking (loosely speaking) about future implications of large scale battery storage cuts to the core problem by acknowledging tribal deals and potential outstanding debts left over from the French Indian Wars.
With these challenges facing boards and design rooms, no wonder wheels, doors, and wings are falling off Delta jets.
Will the Battery Energy Storage System be located in between Pittsfield’s two capped leaky landfills?
Trump is a rapist. Republicans are good with that.
Ask Tara Reade about dementia Joe.
Acquitted. The Bidens are pedophiles
Nonsense. A civil jury found that Trump sexually abused E. Jean Carroll. You are allergic to facts.
Yes and the E. Jean Cashroll for $5 million for her trouble. Now she wants $10 million more (minimum) on these TRUMPED up charges. A fondle here, a bustle there, and the next thing you know ol’ Jed’s a millionaire. Beats working for a living. Both trials were (a) a cash grab by Cashroll and (b) political in nature.
Plus her share of lies and fabrications. HL “I’m Not Mendacious” strikes again!
The jury agreed with her, Chucky. Tell us, why do you carry water for Trump?
NYC jury says it all….did I tell you that girl fondled me in the changing room stating she was only helping the items fit right? Do you think I could get $5 million?
Blaming the victim, as expected.
Of course you’d use the word “victim,” as expected. It’s the favorite word of grifters.
Dan:
A civil jury concluded Trump sexually abused Carroll. Your pathetic water carrying for Trump is laughable.
HLM
I get what you’re saying, but the political prosecution of an innocent man must be called out for what it is. Thanks for the comment.
Putin gets 100% conviction rate too, and he uses juries as well.
Your posts are ignorant and unamerican.
Could I call you Mendacious for stealing a dead man’s name?
You are comical. Like an octopus wearing a conch shell.
Your ignorance knows no bounds. Octopuses use conch shells to protect themselves from predators. It’s a creative survival tactic and far from comical, Chucky.
hah!
MA: he’s definitely NOT Barry. No way BC would go there.
Trump’s been indicted because he committed multiple felonies.
Biden is a traitor and the Democrats are fine with it
Your medication is low again. Bill Clinton and Joe Biden are rapists. Most Democrats are pedo’s. Are you?
Except a jury found Trump sexually abused E. Jean Carroll.
Communism comes to a house sale near you:
Choice excerpts. [] remarks belong to me:
Ms Davis digs deep into Hegelian economics.
“Davis also wants the bill’s language changed so that it isn’t just the portion over a million dollars that is taxed. She asked that the total “transaction of sales over a million dollars” be subject to the fee.” [It’s not that they are making money! They shouldn’t even own such a pad! It’s sooo wrong. Solution: restructure properties (subdivide) and sell below the 1,000,000 threshold. Want my house? The barn and the land are a separate purchase.]
& also…
“Davis, who is also on the Select Board’s Housing Committee and works for affordable housing nonprofit Construct Inc., asked lawmakers to approve the provision for the fee, but for it to not be “borne entirely by the seller,” as the bill’s language now states.” [We found a problem! Fixed it!!]
Nothing beats coming prepared with an ironed argument. Even a bad one is fashionable on Beacon Hill.
“Her reasoning for the shift to buyers is that they are likely not to mind paying the extra fee given all the assets of the town and the Berkshires that they are about to enjoy.” [Joseph Heller, Catch-22. Milo Minderbinder and ‘everyone gets a share’. This is the communist aspect of the South County Liberal. No one minds the state butting into your private transaction to snitch 1%. Everyone gets a share, afterall“]
What’s the use of being sanctimonious if no one likes you?
“It’s almost like a charitable donation,” she said of people who are eager to give money to the community. “Now they’re donating to the people that run the coffee shop, serve them in the coffee shops and clean their houses,” Davis said.”
[Home Run, Leigh! The buyers will feel a piece of their worth go straight up to heaven once they sign the contract.]
Entire Article: read it only if you have 5 minutes to toss out the window.
GREAT BARRINGTON — The burden to pay a proposed Real Estate Transfer Fee will fall on the buyer — not the seller — if Leigh Davis gets her way.
Select Board Vice Chair Davis had previously proposed a 1 percent fee on real estate sales over $1 million that the buyer and seller would split.
But after listening to the concerns of her constituents — particularly the many who are house rich and cash poor — Davis thinks only the buyer should pay.
The problem now is to convince state lawmakers to allow it.
Davis is trying. She testified before the Joint Committee on Housing at the Statehouse on Thursday in support of the local option Real Estate Transfer Fee — which is included in Gov. Maura Healey’s $4.21 billion housing bond bill — also called “The Affordable Homes Act.”
Great Barrington board to weigh taxing all home and commercial real estate sales over $1 million The provision is tucked into the bill, and would allow cities and towns the option to impose between a 0.5 to 2 percent fee designed to funnel a regular stream of money into municipal coffers for various affordable housing initiatives.
Davis, who is also on the Select Board’s Housing Committee and works for affordable housing nonprofit Construct Inc., asked lawmakers to approve the provision for the fee, but for it to not be “borne entirely by the seller,” as the bill’s language now states.
She said she wants to “ease the burden on full-time cash poor residents who depend on the sale of their homes to fund their retirement.”
Davis also wants the bill’s language changed so that it isn’t just the portion over a million dollars that is taxed. She asked that the total “transaction of sales over a million dollars” be subject to the fee.
Last year, Davis began driving the proposal as the town continues to suffer from a lack of available rentals and the high cost of available housing.
Great Barrington needs more affordable housing money. So a town board member testified at the State House to support a tax on $1 million real estate deals
It’s a place where the median home sale price last year hit $783,000. Local wages can’t keep pace with that.
It’s a statewide problem that Healey at the hearing called the “single greatest challenge facing our state,” and one that is hamstringing the economy. The bond bill includes a long list of earmarks and initiatives that includes creating more housing. All of it, Healey says, will boost the economy.
“The commonwealth faces an increasing housing shortage,” Healey writes in the introduction to her bill, filed in October. “The demand for both market rate and affordable housing has significantly increased.”
She said the state has to “produce 200,000 homes by 2030 to tackle the existing housing shortage and meet growing demand.”
‘Drowning’
It’s the second time Davis has testified in the Legislature in favor of the transfer fee as she and other town officials struggle to solve a housing problem that morphed into a crisis during the pandemic.
Great Barrington is in danger of losing its charm and livability, she told lawmakers. It’s already lost workers who can’t afford to live where they work. At least one large employer — Fairview Hospital — can’t fill five health care positions, she said.
“We are drowning,” Davis added.
Using rental and other economic data Davis calculated that it would take an 80-hour work week for a service worker making $19 an hour — that’s $4 above minimum wage — to afford a one-bedroom apartment.
“Hardly enough time to kiss your kids and put them to bed,” she said at the hearing.
Davis told The Eagle that if the bill isn’t changed so that only buyers pay, the town will have no choice but to stick to the state’s language — if voters at annual town meeting agree to pass it.
Her reasoning for the shift to buyers is that they are likely not to mind paying the extra fee given all the assets of the town and the Berkshires that they are about to enjoy.
“It’s almost like a charitable donation,” she said of people who are eager to give money to the community. “Now they’re donating to the people that run the coffee shop, serve them in the coffee shops and clean their houses,” Davis said.
Davis wasn’t alone in testifying for the transfer fee. Keith Bergman, a municipal adviser and chair of the Concord Municipal Affordable Housing Trust, told lawmakers that the town has has been trying to get approval for the fee since 2019 in a town “where the people who work here cannot afford to live here.”
Not everyone thinks the fee is a good idea. Jay Ash, the former secretary of the state Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, who is now president and CEO at pro-business lobby, Massachusetts Competitive Partnership, told the committee that he hears from developers “an awful lot that they are not going to be building anytime soon here” should a transfer tax and other similar measures be implemented.
Gov. Healey only became interested in the housing shortage after the invasion of illegal immigrants. Massachusetts residents didn’t rate for any concern because the housing shortage has been going on for a long time, especially here in the Berkshires. Neither Healey or anyone on the far left cared about it until now. Just another example of more concern for the illegals vs. concern for Americans.
That’s true. No one there cared a bit two years ago. And, Pat, they still don’t care.
The SCOTUS has sided with the Biden Junta and Criminal Aliens, in their violation of Article 4 Section 4 of the US Constitution.
Coming to a city or town near you. Diversity!!!
A recent case out of Massachusetts illustrates how the Biden administration’s negligent open border policies and local sanctuary laws mingle to endanger the American public. It involves a Haitian national who entered the United States illegally at the end of 2022 through the port of entry in Brownsville, Texas. Instead of getting deported, the migrant was issued a notice to appear (NTA) before an immigration judge like hundreds of thousands of others in the last few years. Months later the 31-year-old man was arrested by Boston Police for rape and indecent assault and battery on a developmentally disabled person.
https://www.judicialwatch.org/illegal-immigrant-with-notice/?utm_source=deployer&utm_medium=email&utm_content=&utm_campaign=tipsheet&utm_term=members
But, but, but, China Joe Xiden has all the gullible fools, aka- democRAT voters, believing that “white supremacy is America’s greatest threat.”
Yeah, Pete White supremacy
Didn’t tRumpy get convicted of rape, oh I mean sexual assault. He only makes fun of developmentally disabled people so I guess that’s ok Rube.
UFS Star trashes reporter for gotcha question Mayor isn’t there for the fight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbByBBQBmLE
Saw Marchetti’s first TV show. Needs work. Pete have Valenti or Gaetani give you some tips on how to carry a one man show.
both excellent choices! I was thinking the pan handlers could lend him a hand.
It’s the perfect form of communication for Marchetti. One way.
Dan and G shows were great. Stooge and Marchetti boring as hell. Staus Quo shows.
Both of their shows were horrendously bad.
And Marchetti is such a talent.
Name one good show on pctv?….
So the new city council shows up to do the job of the people, the one they were elected to do. Oversight of the budget being the most important to the electorate. And right on cue comes the compromised media slapping down their efforts to rein in taxes. It looked to me like the special interests wanted to yank the chain early and get these people back into puppet mode. Shame on them. They are not your friend. They are a major part of Pittsfield’s runaway tax problem, having never seriously questioned bloated budgets or wasteful spending. It is almost like they have, in a shadowy way, a lot of control over the corner office. What was that guys name again and who does he really work for?
It will be interesting to see how these willful councilors react to the Rutberg scolding.
Wait until May budget hearings.
Thatd, which is of interest, will not be reported by the Eagle. This is the time the councilors would write an editorial to answer the editor’s rebuke.
Marchetti renamed Kufflinks and Morales. Nothing is changing.Status Quo. And Dan. Persip said at the DIE hearing he was shocked the vote for that wasn’t 11 -0. Kronick ink was in the minority.
Ah being a minority hurts!
So while the city of Pittsfield, Ma. has tons of money for ball parks, pump tracks, dog parks, pickle ball courts and the equivalent of four botanical nursery’s along its streets, it cannot or will not put postage on its census envelopes.
So, this time, I am going to just assume that they do not consider the census a priority and they would know better than I. So into the garbage with it. I did think perhaps Marchetti would change this ignorant policy but he has not.
Snark,
Price of stamps up again on top of it. These people will nickel and dime the sh!t out the people. I hope those who could afford the upfront cost bought a roll or two of the Forever Stamps.
I have Bunch of for e v u h s…..I’m mo concerned about the seven eight o’clock deliveries. This a Ho comes one night with a headlamp on his head as I’m looking out the window.
Marchetti was so thrilled with the D a r e graduation. Pot stores all o er the city. REMEMBER capeless saying marijuana was a gateway drug? Is Marchetti going to ask the Mayor in North Adams-about the excerise challenge our former mayor flats was involved in with the n a mayor.
Amused so is a nothing councilor. Glad to see her entourage supported her. Status Quo.
Council Grades:
Wrinn D
Conant z%z%z%
Kavey A
Persip D
Warren C
Lampiasy F
Amuso F
Costa A
White D +
Serre C-
Bandani ZZZzz
Maypo: Staus Quo
Kavey spoke ad nauseam about his ponderings upon how Chapter 90 funds should be apportioned among the wards. Chapter 90 is your tax contributions that are used for road work. He argues that two wards, 2 & 6 receive unique funding (Community Bloc Grants.) Therefore, residents of those wards should expect a smaller share of Chapter 90. In my first year, Ward 2 got only 200 feet and not an inch in the neighborhoods. The error in his thinking is that CBG funds are restricted to distressed neighborhoods such as West side and Morningside. His theory leaves the other neighborhoods perpetually unserved and essentially robbed of their tax contributions.
I give that argument an ‘F’
“Political language – and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists – is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind” — Orwell, from “Politics and the English Language.”
yes
It can be done online, though the website that taxpayers pay 100s of thousands for makes this free blog look like it’s run by a billion-dollar tech company. Really they want people to get dropped from the voter rolls so that the union puppets can claim any criticism is from a tiny minority that should be ignored
Yea, even Biden had free postage on the envelope he send me looking for a hand out and bragging about killing babies, and LGTBQXYZBS. That’s when my grandson had enough and said he wasn’t reading any more of it to me. I told him to take it home and throw darts in it. FJB.