Bill Marks
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On the article Mass AFL-CIO President Praises Swampscott Decision on Home Rule
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On the article Rep. Ehrlich's Plastic Bag Legislation Seeks to Sack Pollution
Bill Marks
7:01 am on Thursday, May 9, 2013
ReplyI haven't read the bill, but could someone please provide a complete definition of the types of bags included in this legislation. Are they including trash bags, sandwich bags, freezer bags, and other such useful daily containers? Or is this limited to only bags used to carry groceries and other items from grocery, convenience, and other stores?
In other words - is a limited ban even plausible or is this just another feel-good type legislation that accomplishes nothing. My concern is that politicians continue to focus on these outier issues while the economy continues to sputter and government growth continues unabated.
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On the article Town Meeting Part I: Home Rule Petition Defeated and Blower Restrictions Supported
Bill Marks
7:02 am on Tuesday, May 7, 2013
ReplyLast night was a sad night for Swampscott. The town meeting members refused to address fiscal responsibility by voting down the home rule petition. We appear to be wasting time debating social issues - like the leaf blower ban - the health and noise concerns are dubious at best - instead of focusing on fiscal restraint. The members seem to want to continue to put restrictions on residents without offering any relief from our increasing tax and fee burden.
Earlier this year, a permit fee (with accompanying excessive burdens) was put in place so that now it is too costly for anyone to paint their home. Now their telling us we can't clean up our yards unless we hire an army of workers to manually clean up.
Guess what; now houses won't be painted, yards wil become overgrown and our property values will decline. Due to the increasing tax burden, I would love to sell and get out of this town, but I can't because no one wants to pay the taxes to live in a town with so many restrictions.
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On the article Summertime Ban on Residential Leaf-Blower Use Proposed
Bill Marks
1:36 pm on Friday, May 3, 2013
Pat - As someone who has to work 12 hour days, just to keep current with my rising property taxes I really feel for you. You think the leafblowers are load and distracting, just think how load and distracting the constant chattering of 5 men manually raking the yard will be - considerig their 1 hour job (1 man) has now been turned into a 5 hour (5 man) job. Or worse yet, maybe your neighbors will just let their leaves blow into your yard. If you go looling for your hammock, it's the object buried under that pile of leaves.
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On the article Summertime Ban on Residential Leaf-Blower Use Proposed
Bill Marks
7:29 am on Friday, May 3, 2013
ReplyI must voice my opposition to such a proposal. If one moves to Swampscott, one has made the choice to live in an Olmstead community surrounded by many trees. Trees have leaves that require maintance year round. Don't limit the freedoms of those of us who choose to live among the trees. Should you personally not like the noise of leaf blowers, then move to a leaf-free community.
This current fad of creating a bigger government that limits the rights of individuals needs to be stopped. I used to live in central PA and in the 1980's and 90's many people were moving to the country, once there, they started to complain about the smell of the cows and they wanted to pass legislation to prohibit the farmers from grazing their cows. This is the same thing - people move to an area because of some unique feature then they get upset that along with the positive of that feature, comes a few negatives.
In this case, the people being unneighborly are the ones trying to impose their restrictive beliefs on their neighbors.
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On the article How Much Money Does it Take to Raise a Family in Swampscott?
Bill Marks
9:32 am on Tuesday, March 26, 2013
ReplyUnfortunately Rep. Ehrlich's non-response is not due to a "one-time" letter, but rather the way in which she has conducted herself since being elected to office. As someone who manages a private business, I don't have the luxury that when times get tough and I don't have enough revenue to cover my expenses of voting myself a revenue increase to cover my shortfall. Instead I have to look to improve my cost structure and look at alternatives that will allow me to expand my customer base with people willing (not through government force) to pay for my product increasing my revenue stream and allowing me to grow my business, thus hiring additional people so that all benefit.
The answers that I have seen come out of Rep. Ehrlich's office have been to force people to pay more taxes, thus slowing the economy as money is actually removed from the process. Tax increases only shifts money, it doesn't CREATE money(in fact it is a drain and removes money from the overall economy.). Money is created (and revenue increased) when an economy grows and I'm not hearing any solutions from those currently in elected office that will grow the economy, but rather shift money from private to public coffers thus stalling everyones ascension up the proverbal economic ladder.
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On the article How Much Money Does it Take to Raise a Family in Swampscott?
Bill Marks
7:10 am on Tuesday, March 26, 2013
ReplyI believe the number cited is low. One of the main costs that is ignored in this study is the increasing share of taxes that are being taken out of a family's income. Please take note Rep. Ehrlich, my property taxes have DOUBLED in the past 8 years (my income has not). We were recently hit with a 2% tax increase on January 1st to fund social security and our Governor has proposed multiple ways to increase taxes on working citizens.
That leaves less and less net income for families to live. Gasoline costs continue to increase (and our legislature is discussing raising it even further by introducing added state gas taxes), proposed toll increases, and other fee increases make it more difficult for working families to continue to live in Massachusetts.
The state government must cut her expenses and lower tax rates so that working citizens can gain a little breathing room so that we can pop our heads above the water of debt that has been imposed by our state government.
As an aside, I wrote a similar letter to Rep. Ehrlich's office a few weeks ago to let her know that the rising taxes are negatively impacting the working citizens of Massachusetts. That we need her and other legislators to take an active role in cutting expenses. No surprise, I never heard back from her office. So come election time, remember Rep. Ehrlich apparantly sides with big business and government unions and cares nothing about the needs of those who continue to vote her into office.
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On the article Larger Classes and Teacher Cuts Loom if Governor's Budget Fails
Bill Marks
7:10 am on Tuesday, February 19, 2013
ReplyWe must say NO to the Governor's budget. The government has drained every available cent from us working people. We have no more to give. Budgets must be cut across the board. With each tax increase, the economy contracts. Unemployment will increase as working Americans will have less money to spend; we are a consumer driven economy and the more money taken out of the economy and shifted toward government the less actual money will be collected - both by government and the businesses that are trying to contribute to the economy's growth.
Government and government spending are the reason why our economy has stalled for the past 7 years. We must reduce government cost and interference and allow working Americans to keep the money they earn and spend it as they like Guess what; if we use our money to remodel our houses, go out to restaurants, buy clothes and spend on other consumer needs, employment will increase and tax collection of actual dollars will increase.
It is now time for government to tighten their belt, we working people have sacrificed for 7 years while Obama and Patrick continue to increase our taxes and driving our economy down. Enough is enough! -
On the article TELL US: From Calls to Mailers, Which Candidate Has Bugged You the Most?
Bill Marks
7:17 am on Friday, November 2, 2012
ReplyElizabeth Warren. She is unable to state two truthful statements in succession. I am at a loss how anyone can support her.
Bill Marks
7:03 am on Friday, May 10, 2013
Of course this layabout is happy the Home Rule Petition was defeated. Unions stress to their members to take, take, take. They don't understand the meaning of giving. Union members are always looking for their "piece of the pie," but they never want to supply any of the ingredients!
Defined benefit plans are unsustainable. Due to the current and future demographics of our society, defined contribution plans are the only reasonable way to save and provide for one's future. The problem is that these plans require individuals to be responsible. Union members and their nanny-state mentality want everyone else to take care of them.
I'm tired of supporting all of these people who refuse to care for themselves. Steve Tolman needs to take some responsibility and advise his members that they do the same, or there will be no one else left in this state who have taken the self-initiative and self-responsibility of bettering themselves and providing the tax revenue that is supporting these layabouts!