Did you feel the pain

Or will you shrug it off as not noticing. A comment made by the Deputy Mayor "The average householder will not notice it (a $49 yearly tax increase)" may come back and haunt him, it may not but what it does demonstrate is a complete lack of sympathy, empathy and condolence with joe taxpayer.
This budget is a lost opportunity to establish contact with the citizens. In this time of crisis we need to know that the rulers understand our pain. Unfortunately the council members, the majority of whom sit on indexed pensions, have felt the need for business as usual. The missed opportunity was the decision not to have a zero tax increase. Cutting $441,605 out of a budget that is $18.400,219 would not appear to be that difficult. Not all programmes are deemed to be life threatening and those are the programmes that we should be funding, others should be pared. But we do not know what programmes were on the chopping block, if any because the public was not informed of the consequences of a zero-based budget. I am sure if you told each councillor that $441,605 had to be taken out of the budget you would have had seven different responses. Ask the taxpayer and you would have had many more. Budgeting is not easy but in the absence of transparency it becomes harder for the public to accept it.
And to slough it off by presuming that the average householder would not notice it is irresponsible and arrogant. Unfortunately by saying it the DM has made himself look that way!

Paper clips

1. This guy may never get out of basic training alive - hazing could reach new heights of humiliation for him. Click here for the story of an army deserter who wears womens' panties.

2. Will obesity get you off a criminal charge? This guy is so big he left the house, for the first time in years, in a U-Haul van. Got to the court and the cops and the judge then came down to the van to see him. The prison system says that they can accommodate him if he is jailed. Bet you he comes out a helluva a lot thinner than when he went in!

3. Mark Bonokowski of the "Sun" writes about the profile of the homeless. In tracking the demographic of a Mens Shelter, in Toronto. He brings out points that the stimulus package will not fix. The majority of money is going to projects and retraining, but for what. These guys in the shelter are middle-aged uneducated and willing to work but can't find unskilled labouring jobs. Every single person boasting about the allocated funds talks about a "knowledge society" but what about the meantime. If municipalities can't afford the matching funds for the stimulus, if there will be increased welfare costs because EI hasn't been reformed, just how much can property taxpayers afford? Just how do you deal with the social devestation produced by government policies making sure that people who apply for assistance have to burn through every asset they own before being allowed to apply. What sense does it make to force people to sell houses and cars before they are allowed to get help. How do we have a productive society if we have to break it apart to restore it?

A sentiment after my own heart

Read this G&M article, I thoroughly agree

Let's start the week off with really old news

Grade separations, railway overpasses and subways have two things in common: they are expensive and disruptive, and not very popular. In both Brighton and Campbellford we have the situations of these future constructions occupying the the political arenas. In Brighton's case the railway safety project has been going on for years. The combatants fighting it out in Council chambers and open houses have been ploughing the same ground for years the only thing that changes is the cost. In Campbellford we have, the Mayor, Hector MacMillan trying to push the case for a second bridge. It was a campaign promise and as far as he is concerned it is "Damn the torpedoes full speed ahead." He is up against a pretty formidable group and has few visible supporters.
Both campaigns appear to be an exercise in political futility. For as we have seen in all Municipal confrontations the citizens lose. All the opponents of the bridge in Campbellford can hope for is that the approval process can be stretched out long enough to make it an election issue in 2010. In Brighton the Council appears to be waiting for the release of yet another study that the Council then can blame for its decision - yes or no.
But the people in Campbellford should look to history for inspiration and a similar situation in Cobourg in 1965. In that year the question of an overpass on D'Arcy St. became an election issue and the people who supported spending large sums of money were turfed. Perhaps that could be the fate of Hector if the locals up there take the long view.

Noting that Port Hope has now decided to replace a section of sidewalk on Peter St (the main thoroughfare to the Town - Hwy 2) for some peculiar reason has advertised this sidewalk as "an accessible sidewalk". Now what is the difference between an ordinary sidewalk and one that is accessible? The ramps at the curbs that's what. What municipality has been building sidewalks in the past years without making curb-cuts and ramps at the intersections? None I would suspect, it doesn't save any money and it is a stupid move. But if Port Hope wants to make itself look good in the eyes of its citizens it is a smart move by the bureaucrat in charge, but that's all it is - political spin.

If anybody stills think the OPP policing deal is such a good deal they should be looking at Brighton. In a contract renewal where officers costs cover the bulk of the contract those costs are going up 6%. As well fuel costs are increased, OPP Inspector Borton is quoted, "We're always about two years behind in the costing formula," Well you know we were promised a guarantee of the same fee for two years and many people questioned the next raise, now we can see the magnitude of that next step. read the story here

Finally we get the DM we want!

Has something happened at City Hall that we should know about? This would be a nice change of jobs, if it was to happen. I wonder what will happen to this graphic designer - blame the proofreader?




Ouch!, this is not something one wants to think about

End of week roundup

Are you all Obama'd out? Some of us apparently aren't, it wouldn't surprise me to see Newsworld reruns of the orgasmic Obamathon that ran all day yesterday. It's a wonder that Peter Mansbridge can even stand up after all the reporting that wet dreams are made of. I even had a friend admit to me that they watched it all day. Somewhat like the fellow who I met one Spring who had put on a few pounds over the Winter. "The Gulf War was on TV and I had the wife bring me the food it was so gripping" What did we do before TV?

For a mixed reaction to Yesterday look here
Joh Ivison of the National Post takes a look at yesterday's Obamathon with a typically NP eye. But, the entertaining part of his commentary, as usual, is the collection of comments under the article. A few good reference to the relationship between John Lennon and Ringo Starr.

Finally a touch of sanity in all of thus gushing over-reaction to normal people doing extraordinary things. A story about the first cop on the scene at a crash on the 400 yesterday. The TO Star story is here but the bit I really liked was the quote from that cop - Sgt. Dave Woodford. "While his actions appeared heroic, Woodford firmly dismissed such praise."A hero?" he said. "Absolutely not. We're trained to do these things. It's part of the job. It's what policing is all about."I'm not a hero. Jeez, I hate that," he added. "Hopefully we did enough to save his life. We waited what seemed like forever for the ambulance to come, but it wasn't. It came quickly, but in those situations, it can feel like forever.""

This I don't understand
There has been a furor about a published cartoon in the NY Post copied here. Black people and those on the left are going nuts about its racist undertones and implication. Here is an article by a Psychology Professor that puts the reasoning in some psycho-babble context. Basically I read it to mean that subconsciously black americans are haunted by the man-ape comparison. Strange for a 21st Century society of well-educated people. Obviously they all may have super large inferiority complexes!

Fiscal insanity - send in the clowns

If one wants to see the "deficit of ideas" in action look to two Western States in the USA - Nevada and California. The amount of revenue generated by usual taxes, of any kind, has plummeted and both States face huge deficits that cannot be controlled by usual Keynsian economics. Money has to be raised and in the case of California the "Govinator" has proposed tax increases, government layoffs and work week reductions as well as proposing that forty percent of the prison population be released. So what is the Republican response in both States - cut taxes. What stupidity, you can't raise enough money to pay the bills and the GOP response is to reduce it further - the mind boggles.

While on hoilday I caught Bill Maher on Larry King on CNN. The guy (Bill Maher) is the sanest fellow on the planet, but because he is a satirist nobody takes any notice. Ever noticed that Rick Mercer, in the guise of entertainment, makes most sense when he is ranting on Tuesday evenings. In Mexico bus travellers are entertained from time to time, by people dressed as clowns. The bulk of their material is satire against the government.
I suppose that in the case of California when the Governor is an actor one should expect the gap between art and politics to be diminished. But when all we can do is laugh at the policies and antics of politicians we are in sad shape.

The morning chuckle, from the Ottawa Citizen
A story like this only comes around so often, I bet the headline writers had fun (pun) with this one here

I am sure this opinion will be used as evidence

In an op-ed piece published this morning in the TO Star, Thomas Walkom posits that Obama is one of theirs not ours and should be seen as such. Read it here

I see the smoking in cars debate has hotted up, perhaps got 'em all lit up [enough of that - ed] in the Nationals. Lou, of Queens Park fame, is saying that there may be a glitch in the law. Sure is - the whole bloody concept! But Port Hope Police may not enjoy their fifteen minutes of fame because of a bad law. The facts are these; a cop in PH saw a 20 year old driver smoking inside a car which had a fifteen year old girl passenger. He got the ticket even though there wasn't a kid in danger of inhaling secondhand smoke inside the car. After the car was stopped "the kid" got out and immediately lit another one that the cop couldn't do anything about. If you want to stop teenage smoking, which is another subject, you have to ban possession of ciggies to people under age - not just ban underagers from buying them. (This post edited for clarity 8.54am)

Sanity in Port Hope: A new Chair of the Port Hope Police Services Board has been elected. The existing Chair was deposed in a situation reminiscent of an old style African coup. Jeff Lees was on holiday and not at the meeting and Mayor Thomson told reporters, "Jeff thought he could be reappointed. He's a member of the Board and on vacation" Good ole Jeff, perhaps secure in his own mind failed to do basic political things, like making sure when the vote took place and having the votes in his pocket. Or perhaps he was unaware that the vote was taking place at this meeting and the others sandbagged him. Either way this is a positive move for regional policing as Jeff has been a staunch opponent of it.

Another view of infrastructure funding

More about infrastructure!
The first reaction I had to the "bikelanes in the middle of nowhere" was here. After some more thought there might be a more problematic side of this situation.

If infrastructure funding is designed to boost the economy and complete projects that Municipalities need then we should look at the extra cost to taxpayers. Normal cost is the taxpayer cost of maintaing the Town without extra projects. Of course all Municipalities have wish lists and Councils want to look good by building assets that may or may not be used by taxpayers. Thes infrastructure projects are accelerated schemes that have been planned but not ready to be implemented because the Municipality doesn't have them money for the project just now.

But if the Feds & the Province come along and start handing out money for "shovel-ready" projects where does the Municipality find the matching funds? From the taxpayers, of course, and what's the impact on this year's taxes?

But the disturbing part of this topic is that because there was the matter of the 600 million dollars of unallocated infrastructure funds from the past two years' budgets. If this money flowing to the County now is "old money' can we expect financial stimulus or just help to the Municipalities with capital projects?

Back to the "bikelanes in the middle of nowhere"! Are bikelanes now the norm in bridge and road design and how much extra does it cost to widen a two lane bridge by approximately two metres? How many manhours do those two metres takeup, how much of a multiplyer effect does the extra concrete and rebar and asphalt produce. And how does this project help the unemployed?

The most disturbing partof this dole-out is this - if the County was going to build this bridge this year (it was) where is the rebate (the money saved by the Feds contribution) to the taxpayers going to go? If the County was going to build the bridge with a three way split then what's the big deal? This is just a normal political announcement with a hyper-spin from the local MPP and the unemployed have still been shafted!

WTF

"For the county, the Factory Creek rehabilitation and bike lane project on the first bridge on County Road 18 north of Highway 401 at Cobourg is getting $372,123 from each of the federal and provincial governments." CDS 13th feb

With due respect bike lanes are nice but on a bridge in the middle of nowhere where there are no bike lanes leading to it it does seem waste of money!