You knew it would happen. Today’s Daily Times has letters by both Phil “tax & spend” Tilghman and a teacher whose husband, another former Wicomico County Councilman, Wm. McCain, was in Rick Pollitt’s right-hand pocket during his term. Surprise – they bemoan the decision to defer further funding for construction of the new Bennett Middle School for a year and berate the County Council for doing so.
They remind me of myself as a child, whining when my dad said we could not afford to get a color TV or a new car that year (and sometimes the next one, too) and pointing out that they were, at the time, on sale and that prices would be higher next year. Fortunately, there were no “IPAD’s” back then.
The Pollitt-Frederickson is simple – get the school funding back on track before the reality of the next (FY2012) County budget is revealed. Revenue will be down significantly, and that trend will continue in the following year. Worcester County recently recognized that its property tax revenue will drop by about $10 Million in the next two years. Queen Anne’s County will be dropping or not replacing about 60 employees next year; Frederick County about 35. Rick has remained silent on the County’s prospective revenues, however, and does not have to submit a proposed budget until April 15 (or later if the Council agrees to the postponement).
Pollitt is now pushing a scheme to obtain “alternative funding” to build the school, which would be rented from a private owner/investor at a huge cost to the taxpayers. The County’s “public information officer” probably is writing a press release right now. For general details about “alternative financing”, see this blog’s recent post:
23 comments:
And where do these idiots think we are going to get the money now or next year? Where do these idiots think we are going to get the money to find alternative funding and pay for it?
I have an idea for Fredericksen, Phil Tilghman, Rick Pollitt and Mrs. McCain, Pay for it yourself!
Elections have consequences!
Politicians like Tilghman and McCain, amoub others, put us in the hole we are in, and it's time to stop digging
This reminds me of when my young son tries to see if I really mean 'No' when I say it.
He will ask 3 or 4 more times.. he may even try to go ahead and do what I told him not to do.
I tell him-- 'I said no. I meant no.'
End of discussion.
There are also consequences for him going beyond the first 'no'.
Let's see if the council really means 'no'.
anonymous 11:23, one of the best comments I have seen here in quite some time. Simple, yet right to the point. Thank you.
You know, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. They choose to do it in the paper, while you choose to do it in a blog.
Truthfully, both sides are whiney little brats. Just read the comments from those that are against the project.
If I want something and don't have all of the money, I also can go and look for more ways to get money. I have collected cans, sold lemonade, etc. This is no different than the BOE going out and looking for creative financing for this project.
I'm sure there aren't a lot of contractors that do new school construction in the Wicomico area. Which one is close to the officials that want to move forward with the project so badly?
Joe:
Isn't Phil Tilghman the one who pushed for that huge county tax increase about 10 years ago that resulted in the citizens passing the tax revenue cap, which he then opposed and still does.
If he is for something, better look out and vote against it.
Prince Philip of T strikes again.
12:57pm Then why didn't they go out and look for alternative financing instead of asking the county to borrow the 16M?
Right now alternative financing only means it will be much more expensive and their actions to try and do this just shows me they will stop at nothing, even though the county is broke.
Are these "general details" actual details about the alternative financing being considered here, or just generic possibilities? Do we really have any facts? One would think that comments might be reserved until we actually know what we are talking about. Novel idea, don't you think?
5:53 PM you are an idiot. The County Council has the right to delay this project and I and the majority of citizens are happy with that.
"Alternative financing" to you liberal morons means money grows on trees.
I'd like to know when anyone thinks this county will ever have 49 million to build a new school. The short answer is never. Even in a great economy the county will need to sell bonds in order to build this school. A total re-design of the school will still require the county to borrow the money. It really amounts to borrow it or borrow it later.
7:12, How do you know that the Majority of citizens are happy with it? We have a loud spoken minority around here and a silent majority. Sounds to me like just the loud mouths are against it.
7:21pm "It really amounts to borrow it now or borrow it later?" No, it really amounts to when you can pay it back. You can't borrow money without looking to see if you can pay it back. At least in my household that's how it works.
Joe, I wish that you would reject the posting of anyone who calls people he doesn't agree with "moron" and "idiot," such as 7:21, who mangaged to use both words. Just because one doesn't agree with someone else's point of view doesn't give him the right to such name-calling. In fact, it tells us much about the writer. I happen to agree with the sentiments of 7:21, but I will not reduce myself to name-calling. The liberal use of such words as "idiot" is becoming more and more commonplace. It's time for such writers to expand their vocabulary.
anonymous 8:58, 7:21 did no such thing.
Maybe 8:58 is a little dyslexic, but you get the point. How about that 7:12? I agree with 5:53 and 8:56, and I'm neither liberal nor an idiot/moron. Usually when one resorts to namecalling, it's because they have nothing more intelligent to say.
The teachers' union (as opposed to the teachers themselves) needs to be told to go perform a physical impossibility on themselves. When are they going to have furlough days and have to do without any pay increase whatsoever like the rest of the county employees have done?
Joe Holloway said it perfectly at today's council meeting, I'll try to quote it properly:
"We did not delay the building of Bennett Middle School, we put it back on schedule. Bennett High was not scheduled to be completed and occupied until next fall, but they completed construction a year early."
Matt Holloway also read a letter of support from an organization affiliated with the State Department of Education that said that it's future funding decisions would not be prejudice to the Council's decision to push back the school's construction and stated that it applauded the Council's respect for utilizing State funds.
Frederickson's and Pollitt's arguments have been discredited.
WAY TO GO COUNCIL!!!
In a reasonable person's life, they know that it's not possible to spend what they do not have. To borrow, is to mortagage your future and anything you presently have. If it's anything less then life threatening, I refuse to borrow, so basically, I choose to never borrow, and to do without temporarily, until the time, that I have more then a sufficient amount of funds saved. Why should local or federal government conduct business any differently then the way the private sector does? They shouldn't, because it's really your money that they're spending, not theirs, and YOU should ALWAYS have the last say on anything regarding YOUR money. The proof is in the pudding, look at our government and our country today. Wasting someone else's future tax dollars doesn't work.
Proof is in the puddin, just made some tapioca. Home-made.
There are alot of things that could be done better by capitalism, private companies could run them better and achieve better results.
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