Articles tagged as

Budgets

Words for Concord

I just got home from a school board meeting and TMEW told me "hey, you HAVE to call <name here>; he’s an NH Rep?  OK, it’s 10:30pm but I’ll call. So, I did, and the question was "I am torn – vote yes, or vote no?" on several issues on which will be coming up … Read more

Manchester City Politics and Swimming Pools

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“You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and still come out completely dry.  Most people do…”  –Author Unknown

City pools…the latest whipping boy for the Alderman. Corriveau and Lopez want to charge out-of-towners, not make them go away.  Osborne dismissed it as minutia. Greazo wants to double-dip. Alderman Garth Corriveau said pools are a “luxury.” I would agree, Garth….let’s make this all about the “Haves and  Have nots!” Swimming Pool politics has it all! Apathy, Class warfare, taxing and spending, empire building, and demagoguing. Same old corrupt thinking.

Alderman Phil Greazo proposes to charge all users of city pools. Just one minor problem, Greazo…”WE ALREADY PAY FOR THE STINKING POOLS THROUGH THE TAX BASE!”

The UL reports in the June 1st story, “About 96,800 people who live in Manchester used the city pools in 2010…” That is 88% of this city’s just under 110,000 population. And, according to the data provided by Parks and Recreation only, 1,500 non-residents use the pools. But here is the real problem: these numbers are absolute bunk!

Anecdotally, here is where I think the numbers more accurately live: I think city pool use is more accurately +/- 12-16% of the total city population. With a staff of lifeguards on hand, the conditions prevail where public pools become babysitters by proxy. Here is my math…

(96,800 +/-16% = 15,488)  (15,488 / 2 = 7,744)  (7,744 +/-6 uses = 46,464) (7,744 +/-3 uses  = 23,232) (46,464 + 23,232 = 69,696)

I think non-resident use is DOUBLE despite Manchester Parks and Recreation assertions. Non-resident use most likely accounts for upwards of 25% of use. Heck, Why not? ITS FREE!!!( not Manchester residents)  Based on my own experiences at Livingston Pool, waiting there sometimes 40 minutes or more, the non-resident use is out of hand and isn’t tracked as well as it should be.  Here is what I think…More math…

(3,900 +/-$6 uses = 23,400)

I don’t think three non-residents or 3,000 non residents using the pools matters…until it is you, a city taxpayer, quietly watching and waiting at the fence…outside of the pool… roasting in the hot sun, while non-resident interlopers frolic about in the pool because it is, “free for them.” Under that circumstance, one non-resident swimmer is one-too-many.

Manchester’s Livingston pool is highly attractive. The net result, however has been a constant overflow of guests using that pool, while other pools in the city rarely see capacity use.  The pool clearly exceeds its bathing load because of high demand and the young staff is not equipped to properly manage the demand.

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A Funding “Solution” For Democrats Concerned about Budget Cuts

Remember all that stuff we didn’t have to have in the New Hampshire budget before 2006 when the democrats started piling it up into what has become our Billion dollar budget deficit? I don’t either. I’m not even sure what they spent it on which is why I am convinced I can do without it. All this caterwauling is clearly just cover for keeping the bloated bureaucracy alive so they can milk it for union campaign contributions.

Budget Graph

I know, it must be “graph day.” What can I tell you. Here’s another one from the Wall Street Journal via Freedom Works, based on CBO data. Note that Obama’s budget relies on taking money out of the economy in the form of tax increases. Those are your future jobs and raises unless you’d like to the Welfare life of equal squalor under socialst rule–where everyone is equal (equally miserable).

Great Plan Dick

Dick Durbin, Richard, Rick, Ricky, Dicky, Dickard, The Dickster Durbin is suggesting an intervention for his state of Illinois. Apparently the tax and spender state implemented an internet sales tax on retailers. They were thinking that it might help them with their budget problem; I guess they left Terie “Billion Dollar Deficit” Norelli in charge of spending over there as well.

Pay As You Throw Had To Go

The Merrimack Town Council bent to the will of the voters and scrapped plans to institute a pay as you throw program. That would have required residents to buy special bags for trash at $1.00 or $1.50 per bag, and you could only use those bags at the town dump.

School Voucher Kids Do Better

I Tweeted this earlier, but since I’m short on time, it is more than Post-Worthy. Apparently school vouchers result in a higher graduation rate at a lower cost to taxpayers–

Reverend Jackboot!?

UCCThe left always considers any comment by clergy, in the secular affairs of state, an affront to imagined Constitutional separations unless the remarks support their positions.  Such is the case with the Reverend Gary M. Schulte of the United Church of Christ (UCC).  With a fusion of left wing talking points and liturgical flair, he leapt the imagined Jeffersonian separation of State and Church, to express his objection to the budget passed by the New Hampshire House.

If taxpayers do not pony up to the government, in the form of a larger state budget, people will suffer.  The old, the weak, the children….But we’ve no idea just how much of your money Reverend Gary will need you to give to the Government to end the suffering, nor can we ever.  Distress always expands to meet the supply of publicly funded services available to reduce it. We just need more even though no amount is ever enough; just look at the failed states of California, Michigan and New York whose pursuit of social justice with taxpayer dollars has made them so bankrupt that they no longer have the money to care for much of anything at all.

But the UCC does not seem interested in that risk.  They are just another myopic Christian/Marxist fusion church that seems willing to advocate state power to achieve warm and fuzzy ends.  It is Social Justice, which is essentially communism.  And communism, being a godless secular faith all its own, has no issue with polluting and then subjugating institutions like the UCC to achieve its ends, even converting or subverting their purposes to advance the growth of statism.  They started with the language, which UCC has embraced, then moved on to policy, which they now advocate. And now we have Reverend Gary, who is probably a great guy who means well, rent seeking for the left wing agenda, with the full power and faith of the UCC behind him, asking politicians to spend more money on government, as if government is the answer.

But if you saw the UCC web site, you’d not be at all surprised.

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The Myopic Lament Of Cut Budgets

?Contemporarily, governments all over America, be they national, state, local or municipal, have come to recognize that spending is outpacing revenue. The 2010 elections were a message that we as a nation need to become more fiscally responsible and stop spending ourselves into bankruptcy. Consequently, budgets are being slashed, expenses trimmed and austere measures are … Read more

Big Ben, Parliament

Rumor has it Mr. Obama gave a speech yesterday about something. I didn’t watch it and with good reason. Been there, done that. Two faced, self contradicting, tired, and repetitive. Put another way, Big Ben, Parliament.

Municipal Outsourcing Works…

There is a city in Georgia that outsourced just about everything. The result? Better services, low taxes, no pension bombs, and money to spare.

Meet Terie “Billion Dollar Deficit” Vu.

NH Journal is reporting more fear-mongering from the left, and from the usual suspects. Teri “Billion Dollar Deficit” Norelli (D- scaring women and children), is promising us that the Republican Budget will ‘put peoples lives at risk.

Recovery From Irresponsible Democrat Budgets

To the Editor:

Every child knows which parent to approach for permission to do something risky, expensive, inappropriate, or too impractical.    The parent who says “No” is called “mean”, “uncaring“, “selfish”, etc.     

Some marriages have problems because over-spending threatens  financial disaster, e.g., eviction, inability to purchase real needs like food and health insurance.  Sometimes one spouse stands up to avoid the disaster, slashes expenses, sells expensive toys, cancels unessential services, etc.  Family members enjoying the excess spending may call these cuts “extreme” and the responsible parent “mean”, “uncaring“, “selfish”, etc.   

Across our country city, state, and federal governments have recklessly over-spent and over-committed future spending. 

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