Got this e-mail today
What have we learned in 2,065 years?
"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance." - Cicero - 55 BC
Evidently nothing!
WRRB/Telegram District City Council Forum 10/18
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This forum is for all district council candidates; all candidates are here
today. Format: 14 total questions, 4 questions across districts (for all
candida...
6 months ago
9 comments:
That actually comes from A Pillar of Iron, Taylor Caldwell's fictionalized account of Ciceros life.
http://www.amazon.com/Pillar-Iron-Taylor-Caldwell/dp/0385053037
Cicero was a weasely douche but he did man up pretty good when Titus Pullo killed him.
The actual quote is: "The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign hands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall."
Yawnnnn
The reality is the city puts us deeper and deeper into debt each passing year. The unfunded pension and health care liabilty for retirees is in the 100's of millions and climbing every day , not unlike the nat'l debt clock on a lesser scale.
80% defined benefit pensions at 55 years old (or any age) aRE UNREALISTIC. Dittos for 2-3% annual pay increases when inflation is almost non existent.
Of course the city council will blamce the city manger & Scholl super b/c they are the CEOs who agree to these increases.
Time to can all the councilors including Konnie and no crying when some of you are handed your walking papers.
speaking of weasely douches...
Interesting Web site here:
http://worcesterwonderpwned.blogspot.com/2010/07/1000-bounty-for-id-of-will-ww.html
You wanna know why Rome is going broke? Look no further than the Chandler St paving project.
1 paver operator
2 roller operators
2 rakers/laborers
1 Laborer/helper
1 foreman
1 1 screw operator
=
8 Total men on paving crew
Number of detail cops 6 Priceless
I mean WTF.... how can Moylan in good conscience complain about inadequate funds for street re paving when he opts for $43 per hr cops over flagmen.
Why should the state be paying to raze the old Crompton Knowles buildings? Makes as much sense as the state paying for Worc's yearly under budgeted snow operations.
If they put up more NOLO's there and lets' assume for the moment they erect 40 NOLO units on teh site. That's $50,000 in land costs right off the bat before Main South CDC starts salivating over erecting more NOLO units.
Add in another few millinion more in 21 E clean up costs and viola.....land costs per unit will be in $100,000 range.
Survey: Do you support the Summer Nat'ls being hosted in Worc? Nay or Yea.
Worc. has been renting their street lights....huh.........??????....how long has this gone on for.
How many of you folks rent your interior lighting fixtures or your Micro wave or your toy rechargers from National Greed?
This what i mean about how the city uses our tax dollars.
Jahn,
Just a question here, one I wrestle with constantly where pensions are concerned.
Is it possible that part of the problem is we allow collective bargaining to be an all or nothing game? I'm no fan of pension liabilities, and I suspect they'll soon be the downfall of many a municipality. That said, I'm also not a fan of changing the rules mid-game, contracts being what they are. By which I mean, is it fair to attack the pensions of a DPW guy who's just playing by the rules he was given when he signed up? Seems to me, the ethically correct way to handle things would be for the Admin to declare publicly that going forward all NEW HIRES will be subject to new rules, some sort of 401k type system in exchange for pensions and new health care regs, while existing employees can either opt to stick with what they have in perpetuity or move the 'new' system. My biggest concern with stressed pension liabilities is that if we do hit the breaking point it'll be retirees and soon to be retirees who end up getting hurt most. While the young pups could potentially keep that breaking point from occurring simply by not adding to the mess.
Again, just a question. I think of my kid mostly on this one. By the time he's paying taxes, life expectancy being what it is, he'll be floating 4 generations of pension liabilities. 2 working and 2 retired. Something has to give, but I'm not sure that something needs to be either a rug pulled out, or municipal bankruptcy.
The last few daize Eye have read 2-3 T&G pieces re the CSX project and how it has for the most part been approved by the CC and is moving forward. Some of these articles did allude to "property acquisitions".
What to me was conspicuously absent was that if a particular property cannot be acquired then what? Unless I missed it, nowhere was the term eminent domain mentioned, a.k.a. amongst the local bar as condemnation. Also, although CSX would be the acquirer and not the city of Worc, the city sometimes fails to ante up enuff dineros when they take by condemnation proceedings. Witness one Medical City as Prima facia case.
What are the contingency plans if one owns one of these 13(?) properties and refuses to sell to CSX. Eminent domain takings do not nec. happen over night. Ask the city DPW what happend to a huge local state roadway project a few years ago and how the eminent domain takings got all loused up and to be completley redone and the project came to a standstill for more than a year.
Soooooooooo meanwhile back at the ranch, Gandpa was wondering to himself.......what of teh Blackstone Valley Visitors Center. If it's going to happen and if the Blackstone Banal District is going to happened, then is it not common cents.
I dew want two welcome all the loud exhuasts to town....or maybe I should say to Auburn, West Boylston, and other nearby locales, where they will lay their heads to rest.
Fear not, the land clearing for the new hotel (Hampton Inn?) is well underway at West Main St & I 290 in SHREWSBURY......a mere 300 yards over the Worcester line. No more Howard Johnsons Motel at College Square(razed by HC). no more Sheraton Lincoln (Holiday Inn) at Wincoln Plawa(razed-land lease expired). No more Holiday Inn opposite the RMV (condo'ed). No more Crown Plaza (MCPH'ed & dormitoried). Ok, we did add the new downtown Hampton Inn a few years ago. Shouldnt a city on the move be experiencing hotel room growth and not shrinkage? Opppps Beechwood also added 2 decades ago. Did I forget any other new hotels? OOOOOOOHHHHHHH yes, The Worcester City Motel in Shrewsbury nonetheless, has rec'd a face lift of late but like I say.......you gotta change the an area's "clientele", not just the facades or the buildings. E.g. new facdes in the VOP will sometimes yield slashed tires. Fear not, i wonder what a new roadway surface will yield....a new speedway/dragstrip?
Brendan, my understanding is that once these pension bennies are contracted (union negotiated) the city is on the hook. I have been told by variou ssourses the tab for unfunded medical ins. and retirement is somehwere in the vicintity of $500M, thats $1/2 billion for you Shrewsbury & Somerville edukated chaps.
Also from what i have been told the only way the city could take a hike on theses contractual obligations is bankruptcy and/or re negotiation going forward.
Brenda said:
"My biggest concern with stressed pension liabilities is that if we do hit the breaking point it'll be retirees and soon to be retirees who end up getting hurt most. While the young pups could potentially keep that breaking point from occurring simply by not adding to the mess."
Brendan we already hit the breaking point years ago on this issue. City retiress gettign hurt......surely mi' amigo you jest! Have you no mercy for the peons and puapers who have to pay the tab for these excesses.......a.k.a. as the taxpayers of Worcester. Please do not play that sympathy card with me when it comes so called "civil servants" These folks were allowed to unionize via executove order by JFK in 1961 and it's been downhill ever since for municipal finances. And this notion that they did make less in their paychacks and more in bennies than the private sector did hold some water years ago, but no more.
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