Get ready the way the house budget is being proposed it looks like massive cost shifting to the local communities. The most apparent will be the social service cuts and probable retirement contribution cuts.
Some people are claiming that the legislature is out of control. I am more of an observer than an active participant because I am a republican not a libertarian or a Benson Free Stater (if you remember when Governor Benson was in office he promoted the Free State Project).
There appears to be a concerted effort by the legislature to dismantle state government. Whether it is through the budget process or individual legislation, it seems to be getting out of control.
Some of the more memorable comments from one of our chairman are, when asked about how do towns avoid these huge down shifted social costs, was to do away with the local social service programs and there would nothing to down shift too. Another one was how a chairman hoped all the state employees would smoke so they would die early and take the pressure off of the retirement system.
Let’s just talk about one bill HB 231 that would down shift 11 million dollars onto widows of dead troopers (who are on the state insurance system) and those state employees who were seriously injured in the line of duty and forced to take a retirement or get fired. When I discussed this with some fellow reps the response was, “we all have to feel the pain”. My response was (I’ll clean this language up from the conversation), you don’t think they’ve felt the pain? The people in our district that voted against this was Matt, me, Donna,Tim and Patty.
Now we get to the proposal to lay off almost 800 Department of Transportation employees so they can privatize their jobs. This was tried in the past and it failed. Now there is another proposal to eliminate the seniority rights for our state employees so if they are within a few months of retirement, they can be laid off with no retirement package to help save money.
Public employees know there has to be changes to the system and are willing to sit down and work on there changes; but, they have to be asked.
There were bills brought in to a committee to continue to cost shift health insurance costs on to the retirees. One such proposal was if your retirement payments are $20,000 a year then you would have to pay a 100% of your health insurance which would have been upwards to $18,000 per year. In short with all of these proposals, the state has broken its word to the state workers and, not only are we short on money; but, credibility.
You can hear the democrats smiling on some of the crazier votes such as HB231. This bill will be the bathroom bill that the democrats proposed.
My prediction based on what has happened so far is the republicans will lose a minimum of 125 seats in the next election. I believe we have broken our word to the voters by the craziness of what is going on and the voters will not forget. I think it is important that you contact your local reps and remind them of what you wanted us to do when you voted for us.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
I THOUGHT I HEARD IT ALL!!!
The new rant from the lunatic fringe is Matt is a democrat, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA. There seems to be a panic over some well known and established democrats for putting up Matt signs for selectman; which is causing quite a stir. Some people are asking why this is happening. We don’t know if we have the answers; but Matt is grateful for the support in this race.
Matt is very independent minded and during the last election we ran our own state rep campaigns independent of the Tri Town establishment and just asked to be left alone to run our own campaigns. That didn’t happen and we were attacked during the campaign more by the local republicans. In fact one of the losers in the last state rep race is running for selectman now and is attacking Matt every chance he gets; I don’t know if this just sour grapes and a bruised ego or wanting to work hard for the community as a selectman. I think I have the answer; but, I hope the voters come to the same realization on March 8th.
Another person who is a former selectman that seems to be having some issues is attacking Matt (and me, so I’ve heard) as being democrats or RINO’S. People are laughing at this and watching some of these actors on the stage of stupidity and negativity perform.
First of all we treat people the way they treat us. During the last campaign for state office, we committed to work with anyone who was willing to work with us; in fact we liked some of the democrats that were running for state rep and treated them with respect knowing that it was obvious that our political philosophies were different. We have always tried to work across party lines to get the job done and we both like people in general.
I believe when the democrats saw what the lunatic fringe was doing to Matt with their outlandish vicious attacks not only against Matt; but, the rest of the board of selectman and their blatant attempt at taking over the town, they stepped in and many asked Matt if they could help. More than anything else this shows that Matt can work with anyone and can cross lines to get the job done and by doing so makes a better town and state for all of us, our gratitude and respect go out to them because some must be getting questioned as to why they are supporting a republican and have a sign in their yard.
In a recent ENL article on the number of right to know requests in the last few years there has been about 500 hours spent on these. If we figure that people with salaries between $10-$20 an hour or more have been digging up information then the town has spent $5,000-$10,000 in taxpayer dollars to obtain this information. Some of this is probably legitimate some is for harassment purposes against the town; so much for false claims that they want to save the town money.
Matt and I have talked to many people about the misinformation that these people are putting out. I still haven’t figured out why they are so angry. Are they angry at the people of Exeter for not following them? Are they angry at the board of selectman? Are they angry at the town manager? Maybe they are just angry with themselves and how their lives are going and taking it out on everyone around them. This is why we need to rebuke these people, tell some of them to put the cork back in the bottle and seek professional help. Exeter will move ahead without them, but as the great town that we are, we will move ahead.
Matt is very independent minded and during the last election we ran our own state rep campaigns independent of the Tri Town establishment and just asked to be left alone to run our own campaigns. That didn’t happen and we were attacked during the campaign more by the local republicans. In fact one of the losers in the last state rep race is running for selectman now and is attacking Matt every chance he gets; I don’t know if this just sour grapes and a bruised ego or wanting to work hard for the community as a selectman. I think I have the answer; but, I hope the voters come to the same realization on March 8th.
Another person who is a former selectman that seems to be having some issues is attacking Matt (and me, so I’ve heard) as being democrats or RINO’S. People are laughing at this and watching some of these actors on the stage of stupidity and negativity perform.
First of all we treat people the way they treat us. During the last campaign for state office, we committed to work with anyone who was willing to work with us; in fact we liked some of the democrats that were running for state rep and treated them with respect knowing that it was obvious that our political philosophies were different. We have always tried to work across party lines to get the job done and we both like people in general.
I believe when the democrats saw what the lunatic fringe was doing to Matt with their outlandish vicious attacks not only against Matt; but, the rest of the board of selectman and their blatant attempt at taking over the town, they stepped in and many asked Matt if they could help. More than anything else this shows that Matt can work with anyone and can cross lines to get the job done and by doing so makes a better town and state for all of us, our gratitude and respect go out to them because some must be getting questioned as to why they are supporting a republican and have a sign in their yard.
In a recent ENL article on the number of right to know requests in the last few years there has been about 500 hours spent on these. If we figure that people with salaries between $10-$20 an hour or more have been digging up information then the town has spent $5,000-$10,000 in taxpayer dollars to obtain this information. Some of this is probably legitimate some is for harassment purposes against the town; so much for false claims that they want to save the town money.
Matt and I have talked to many people about the misinformation that these people are putting out. I still haven’t figured out why they are so angry. Are they angry at the people of Exeter for not following them? Are they angry at the board of selectman? Are they angry at the town manager? Maybe they are just angry with themselves and how their lives are going and taking it out on everyone around them. This is why we need to rebuke these people, tell some of them to put the cork back in the bottle and seek professional help. Exeter will move ahead without them, but as the great town that we are, we will move ahead.
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