Montville Road Bridge

Montville Town got a grant to design things!

It is wonderful that we can now design the culvert over which the bridge could be built.  That will provide economic stimulus for some engineering firm but effectively do nothing for those of us unfortunate enough to live in the west end of town. 

The Montville Road Bridge was destroyed in the in the spring of 2007 and the road has been closed ever since.  It has been almost five years and still the town government has done little to fix the problem except give it lip service when it seemed politically expedient.  The project certainly has no priority in the town government’s greater scheme of things.

That should not be a surprise as the west end of town, and the people who live there, have not had any priority in the eyes of the any mayor nor most members of the council for decades.  Except, that is, when it comes to tax or election time. 

It will, most likely, take at least the better part of a year to award the design contract.  Then about another year will pass before the design is received from the engineering firm.  Once we have the design of the culvert, we can design the bridge; another year or two.  Next, assuming the town has any money at all, come the environmental impact study and permitting process; another two years at the very least.  Finally we get to the contracting and construction phase.  It will take at least a year for the contract, and six months to a year for the construction. 

By that scenario, we can expect the Montville Road Bridge to opened, with all appropriate ceremony, sometime in late 2020 or early 2021 (assuming Norwich cooperates - Kudos to Mr. McFee)

Taxes in Montville for 2012

Montville town and its citizens have some tax and budget related problems. 

One – Housing property values have decreased between 15 and 30 percent. 

Two – The costs of energy, supplies and labor are increasing at a high rate. 

Three – The loss of the AES Thames plant reducing tax revenue significantly. 

Four – Unemployment and underemployment are rampant and incomes have decreased or ceased. 

It should be noted that there are no relationships between property tax mill rates, the town budget, and the ability of people to pay the tax. 

On the face of it, the reduced property values would seem to be good news in relation to property taxes.  The lower the property assessment, the lower the taxes, right? 

The budget is the budget.  It is driven by the costs of energy, supplies and labor.  The costs of energy and supplies can be mitigated somewhat by careful shopping.  The only significantly controllable variable in the budget is labor.  However, labor costs are driven by unions and are essentially uncontrollable unless drastic measures are taken and the town is prepared to deal with the consequences (strikes). 

In that the town government is controlled by the Democrat Party, it is doubtful that the government will do much, if anything, to contain costs and the citizens will see the usual percent increase in the amount of the budget.  That increase will be dominated by the increase in labor costs mostly precipitated by the Board of Education. 

The revenue normally generated by the property tax will decrease, assuming no change in the mill rate, by virtue of the decrease in property values and the “loss” of the AES Thames property.  The AES property will still produce tax revenue because of the land but the valuation will decrease once the generation plant equipment is removed and the structures are torn down. 

To accommodate the budget, the town will adjust the property tax mill rate to generate revenue sufficient to match the budget requirements.  In making this adjustment, the town government will not take the ability of the citizens to pay the taxes into consideration.  The ability to pay has simply no bearing on the problem.  The lack of the consideration of the ability to pay is built into the basic tax structure and frankly, the Democrats don’t care.  If one can’t pay, the town simply sizes the property and evicts the owner (of course that further reduces tax revenue which further exacerbates the problem). 

The citizens of the town should standby for a huge increase in the property tax mill rate to compensate for the decreases in property values and the loss of revenue.  Taxes will increase as a result. 

The average monthly Social Security retirement check is $1183.50* before income tax (if any) and Medicare premiums ($99.90).  The 2011 tax on a property assessed at $250,000 was $5750.  For the retired worker who has the misfortune to own that property in Montville, it takes 5.3 of the 12 monthly checks to pay that property tax (not that the Democrats really care). 

For the unemployed, the situation is even worse. 

It will be interesting to see if the Democrats have any sensitivity at all for the people who have to pay the taxes.   

*  http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/quickfacts/stat_snapshot/  

Athens in New York

Seven “Occupy” people are dead.

The scenes in Athens are about to be duplicated in New York and Oakland.  We have seen vicious behavior wounding police officers and accidental injuring of protesters.  The disruption of commerce and travel echoes the Grecian happenings. 

What the majority of people inhabiting the camps fail to realize is that the “leaders” and spokespeople are advocating is the destruction of our economic system and the institution of socialism at best and communism at worst. 

The lack of specific goals and the proliferation of statements inciting violence do not bode well for the safety of society or the people who live in it.  The “Day of Disruption” prevented ordinary people from getting to their jobs.  It would not be surprise if violence against ordinary citizens begins soon.  

Sooner or later the anarchists, communists, and criminals will completely take over the “movement” as the spirited and misguided, yet sensible, college students figure it out and go back to school. 

As that happens the “movements” leaders will, most probably, step up the physical actions against law enforcement forcing sterner responses and exacerbating the situation until we have full blown riots in the streets and more people die.  

Emergency Alert System Fails

It’s only funny because there wasn’t an emergency.

by John Hayward

11/09/2011

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47439

Today was the first test of the new Emergency Alert System, which is a centrally controlled version of the Emergency Broadcast System whose tests have been annoying the hell out of people for the better part of fifty years.  The idea is to give the President a way to alert the entire populace to a national emergency instantly, by seizing control of all TV and radio communications. 

In the event of a nuclear war, large-scale civil unrest, a massive cyber-attack, or a zombie apocalypse, you’ll hear a headache-inducing tone, followed by emergency instructions.  Unless we get attacked by an electromagnetic pulse weapon.  Then you’ll be alerted to disaster by the collective howl of millions of enraged cell phone users.  The EAS tone is less alarming.  

The test was a… well, “failure” is such an ugly word.  Let’s just say it was a “conditional success.”  As reported by the New York Times: 

Beginning at 2:01 p.m., viewers and listeners in many states said they saw and heard the alerts at the scheduled time, but others said they did not. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancies, but that was one of the purposes of the test — to find out how well the system would work in an actual emergency.  

Many of the reported failures affected cable and satellite television subscribers, and some were quite puzzling. Some DirecTV subscribers said their TV sets played the Lady Gaga song “Paparazzi” when the test was under way. Some Time Warner Cable subscribers in New York said the test never appeared on screen. Some Comcast subscribers in northern Virginia said their TV sets were switched over to QVC before the alert was shown.  

In some cases the test messages were delayed, perhaps because they were designed to trickle down from one place to many. A viewer in Minneapolis said he saw the message about three minutes late. A viewer in Chattanooga, Tenn., said she saw it about 10 minutes late.  

In Greensboro, N.C., a local reporter saw the alert on all the cable news channels but on none of the local broadcast networks. In Los Angeles, some cable customers said the alert lasted almost half an hour.  

Americans have become accustomed to their government spending staggering amounts of money on crap that doesn’t work, so today’s Emergency Alert System test was pretty much par for the course.  Compared to “green energy” programs, it was a smashing success, unless you happen to live in sparsely populated areas like Chattanooga or New York City.  Just keep your ears peeled in the future, as you will probably hear either a warning tone and important instructions, or a Lady Gaga song, within ten minutes or so of a major national catastrophe.

Montville Retirees to Lose Houses to Town Taxes

Essentially, nobody turned out to vote yesterday in Montville.  Of about 10,000 registered voters, it looks like only 2,234 voted; about 22 percent.  It was a poor showing.

Those of us who are living in Montville that are retired on a fixed income and those who are unemployed are doomed to lose their homes and vehicles to the town via tax liens.  A democrat controlled town government will spend huge amounts of tax dollars on unnecessary and frivolous projects while ignoring the infrastructure and taxing the low and moderate income populace into oblivion. 

So the apathetic herds of sheep that are the majority of Montville residents have once again passively submitted to the democrat elitist power machine.

Montville Election Results - All districts reporting

Mayor                                      

Ronald K. McDaniel Jr. (D)       2,079

Donna Jacobson (R & U)            1,235

Town Council                            

Billy Caron (D)                         2,234

Gary Murphy (D)                       1,897

Laura Tanner (D)                     1,849

Catherine Buebendorf (D)        1,817

Dana McFee (R & I)                  1,727

Chuck Longton (D)                   1,699

Rosetta Jones (R & I)                1,466

Ellen Hillman (R & I)                   1,418

James Andriote Sr. (R & I)          1,382

Mari Jurczyk (R & I)                   1,369

Leon Moore (R & I)                     1,117

Board of Education                    

Dave Rowley (R & I)                 2,017

Jim Wood (D)                           1,955

Deborah Sue Reed-Iler (D)       1,860

Robert Mitchell Jr. (R & I)         1,779

Board of Assessment Appeals   

John Geary (D)                         1,790

Shirley Morphis (R & I)             1,220

Board of Zoning Appeals            

Ellen Lakowsky (D)                  1,987

Thomas McNally (R & I)            1,854

Douglas Adams (D)                  1,655

Al Wittkofske (R & I)                  1,364

Occupy Nothing…

Unfortunately I was more accurate than I wanted to be ten days ago.  There have been two deaths within the Occupy Movement (Vancouver and Oklahoma City). 

It is past time to end it.  Hopefully nobody else will die in the interim. 

I see more bad things happening if the “Occupy” events continue.  I don’t see the situation in some locations getting better unless the “true” protesters make the anarchists, “wackos”, and criminals go away. 

The problem with the movement continues to be that anarchist and criminal type people have either sized control of the faction or heavily influenced the “movement’s” leadership. 

We are too close to duplicating the scenes we have seen in Greece.  Cooler heads must prevail or the “movement” must end soon lest more people die.  

Montville Election 8 November 2011

What is really disappointing is that none of political parties or the candidates have put forward any solid plans regarding the offices they are campaigning for.  The mayoral candidate that has put forth concepts on dealing with budget planning and spending is Donna Jacobson.  Mr. McDaniel espouses a tired party line about education, infrastructure, and education without discussing where the money is going to come from. 

My choices for this election:

Mayor –Jacobson (I)

Town Council – Andriote (I), Buebendorf (D), Hillman (R), McFee (R), Jurczyk (R), Longton (D), Caron (D)

Board of Education – No choices here, 4 vacancies, 4 candidates

Board of Zoning Appeals – Lakowsky (D), McNally (R), Wittofske (R) 

Board of Assessment Appeals – No choices here, 2 vacancies, 2 candidates,

Reasons to not vote for someone:

Mayor – McDaniel (D) - Espouses party line, no stated plans or concepts to minimize tax burden 

Town Council –

Tanner (D) – Conflict of interest, employed by Montville Board or Education 

Murphy (D) – Conflict of interest, Chief of Oakdale Fire Department   

Jones (I) – Idealist with minimal real world experience or economic background; conflict of interest, son employed by Montville Board of Education 

Moore (R) – I really like his background but lacks sufficient experience in Montville affairs      

Board of Education – No choices here, 4 vacancies, 4 candidates

Board of Zoning Appeals – Adams (D) – Conflict of interest, Montville business owner

Board of Assessment Appeals – No choices here, 2 vacancies, 2 candidates  

Time To End It...

The Occupy Wall Street movement, in Oakland and possibly other locations, has been at least overshadowed if not taken over by anarchists, violence prone wackos, and criminals.  The movement is rapidly losing credibility in my view.  It is time for the sincere protestors to get out of the way and let law enforcement deal with the sociopaths. 

Another reason to end the encampments is the negative effect they are having on the surrounding neighborhoods and small businesses.  They are damaging the lives and livelihoods of the very people from whom the activists seek to gather support and empathy.  That certainly isn’t gaining them any brownie points with the general populace.

In God We Trust

Yesterday the House passed a resolution reaffirming "In God We Trust" as the official motto of the United States and supporting and encouraging the public display of the national motto in all public buildings, public schools, and other government institutions. 

The resolution was introduced by Representative Forbes on 01/26/2011.  The resolution garnered 64 co-sponsors. 

The resolution was agreed to by Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 396 - 9, 2 Present.  I wonder what the nine dissenters were thinking.

October Snow Storm

One would think that after Irene, people would have learned at least a little bit about being ready for power outages and supply chain interruptions caused by heavy weather.  Evidently they did not, particularly in the southwest quadrant of the state.  Judging by the reports on television, not a whole lot of people used the three months between storms between Irene and this storm to prepare for hard times.  
Don't forget to vote on 8 November!

Occupy Anything…

These times are becoming interesting.  I just hope it’s not related to the old Chinese curse “may you live in interesting times”. 

The “Occupy Wall Street” phenomenon is interesting, possibly too interesting. 

While I can relate to some of the things some of the protesters have problems with, I have to disagree with the tactics being used. 

I do have an issue with one particular corporation with regard to its labor and pricing polices versus the image it wants to project.  I do not, however, have any issues with capitalism, not in any way. 

I see bad things happening with the “Occupy Anything” events.  In fact bad things have already occurred and I don’t see the situation in some locations getting better any time soon. 

It is one thing to demonstrate to voice one’s protests, it is completely another thing to violate common decency, break laws, endanger public health, damage public/private property, and obstruct access to public/private facilities. 

I have a huge problem with local governments that aid and abet those who break the law and behave badly.  Yes, right here in Connecticut, not just California.   

The problem with the movement, as I see it, is that anarchist and freeloading type people have infiltrated the “movement”.  In some cases, it seems like they have either sized or heavily influenced the “movement’s” leadership. 

While I sincerely hope otherwise, I can see the scenes we have seen in Greece being repeated here.  If cooler heads do not prevail in the “movement” soon, someone is going to die.  

I Almost Forgot…

I almost forgot about this Blog page.  I haven’t updated it in about six months.  It started out as a place for me to vent about things in general but then morphed into firearms issues.  That morph led to my firearms issues website (http://sites.google.com/site/mythoughtsandstuff88/)

I do have thoughts about issues other than those related to firearms and the Second Amendment. And this is the place for them. 

I’ll start to updating this Blog at least once a week (on Saturdays probably)

General Update

So SB-1094 got me looking into what our state government was/is up to in relation to that general topic.  That turned into quite a project; one that I am still working on.  You can see that project at my website mythoughtsandstuff88.  After a while, I got curious about what our federal legislators were up to in the same area so I added that to the website.  It has kept me pretty busy writing a newsletter and updating the website.

I also have spent a good bit of time on my genealogy project.  I have the Thomas-Townsend-Harcourt-Potter line back to 1522 in England.  You can view it at http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/2014406/. 

I am still putting out my Grocery Alert newsletter although the rate of inflation in food prices is depressing.  I find it ridiculous that our federal government is denying that there is any significant inflation.  What a joke!

I have started vegetable gardening again after about 27 years.  Wow!  Time flies whether or not you are having fun.

That’s it for now.  I will update again when I think of it or something significant happens.

In The Middle Of The Night

I am up in the middle of the night because Connecticut has me worried again.  The proposed law (SB1094) under consideration by the Judiciary Committee is of major concern to me. (see the March 2nd entry below)

Felons can not own firearms.  (Chapter 952, Sec. 53a-217, Criminal possession of a firearm, Class D felony, minimum 2 year sentence)

Under SB 1094 possession of a magazine capable of more than 10 rounds would be a felony punishable by up 5 years imprisonment and a $5,000 fine. 

All firearm purchases are registered with the state.  If one owns a magazine fed gun the state knows it.  That establishes probable cause sufficient to raid homes to seize the magazines AND since one is then automatically a felon, the state will seize ALL weapons. 

The passage of SB1094 would subject ALL LEGAL gun owners to violent search and seizure whether or not in possession of 10 round magazines.  Not only would the owners housing be damaged but all firearms and related materials would be confiscated and the owner automatically convicted under SB1094 and Sec 53a-217.  Those convictions could bring seven years imprisonment and at least $5,000 in fines. 

It is laws like SB1094 that get people killed like those in Egypt, Libya, etc.  Laws like this will not stop a terrorist or an unstable person from engaging in a killing rampage. 

Quote for Today

“Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace.”  (James Madison)  


Right now the government has 1 (army) and 3/4 (press) of those things mentioned in the quote.

Connecticut Making New Criminals

Connecticut Senate Bill 1094  has been introduced and referred to the Joint Committee on Judiciary. SB 1094 seeks to prohibit the possession of firearms magazines that accept more than ten rounds of ammunition. If passed and signed into law, any person in possession of any magazine greater than ten rounds, who has not already surrendered the magazine prior to enactment or ninety days after enactment, will be guilty of a class D felony.

A Class D felony is punished by a prison term of 1 to 5 years and a fine of up to $5,000.  Class D felonies include Assault or larceny of an elderly, blind, disabled, pregnant, or mentally retarded; Unlawful restraint in the first degree; Disseminating voyeuristic material; and Incest.

SB1094 is set to be “fast tracked” through the legislature.  The proposed effective date is 1 July 2011.

The state proposes to turn tens of thousands of lawful citizens into felons with the stroke of a pen; and/ take millions of dollars of legal merchandise from citizens without any compensation.

SB 1094 is a bill in search of a problem, despite the recent media attention given to “large capacity” magazines; no correlation exists between the size or arbitrary capacity of a detachable magazine and violent crime. Owners of “large capacity” magazines are not criminals or individuals intent on committing atrocious acts; they are sportsmen or firearm enthusiasts who own the magazines for a variety of reasons, including sport, competition or self-defense.

Please contact your representatives in the legislature and the members of the Joint Committee on Judiciary here and respectfully urge them to oppose SB 1094 and any legislation that forces law-abiding citizens to surrender their property based on the actions of criminals who will not abide by this proposed law.

NOTE: The underlined portions of text are links to related websites.

And so it begins...

Governor Malloy has shown his true colors as a progressive liberal Democrat. 

I will admit that I haven’t seen his proposed spending reduction, government agency consolidation, and labor cost savings plans yet.  On the surface it seems as if he is going to essentially split the “load” between spending reduction and tax increases.  That would appear to be a fair approach.

However, he fails to realize the increased taxes in the third most taxed state in the country will at least slow, and probably kill, whatever economic recovery might be occurring in the state. 

By the way, in 2007, Connecticut was the fifth most taxed state in the country.  Does that tell you anything?

Some of the new sales taxes will impact the ability of some people to acquire the basics of life.  These include new sales taxes on haircuts and shoes (groceries next?).  The annual back to school clothing tax holiday is eliminated as is the $500 property income tax deduction. 

Currently the income tax rates for those couples filing jointly are:

3% on the first $20,000

5% on the excess over $20,000, but not over $1,000,000; and

6.5% on the excess over $1,000,000. 

Under the governor’s plan the rates for those couples filing jointly would be:

3% on the first $20,000
5% on the excess over $20,000 up to $100,000
5.5% on the excess over $100,000 up to $200,000
5.75% on the excess over $200,000 up to $400,000
6% on the excess over $400,000 up to $600,000
6.25% on the excess over $600,000 up to $800,000
6.5% on the excess over $800,000 up to $1 million
6.7% on the excess over $1 million

The Connecticut standard exemption for joint filers was $24,000 on a $48,000 Adjusted Gross Income (AGI).  The Connecticut standard “Tax Credit” was 15% at the $48.000 AGI level.

The governor hasn’t mentioned how these will be changed but I don’t think they will get any better.  Also, remember that the $500 property tax credit will go away.

It is obvious that these increases are aimed at the upper middle class, small business owners and independent contractors.  It may not seem like much but it, in addition to all the fees required by the state, will certainly cause at least a few businesses to fail. 

The current sales tax is 6%.  The new basic sales tax will be 6.25% on most things and 6.35% on some things (we don’t what those are yet).  The hotel tax will go from 12% to 14%.  I am sure that will encourage tourism in the state. 

I can only offer two bits of advice.

First, contact your state legislators to protest the more onerous tax increases and the lack of major government spending reforms (don’t count on the labor unions to help out). 

Second, if you are planning on purchasing any big ticket items, do it now or at least before the budget passes (it will, the Democrats control the state government).   

Good luck if you are on a fixed income and/or getting those non-existent pay raises.

An Unfortunate Prediction Comes to Pass

I have been predicting it; now here it comes.  Take a look at this…http://www.theday.com/article/20110210/BIZ03/302109398/1044.  Stock up on as much food as you can now.  The green progressives are taking control of the food supply.  Why is this country taking food out of the mouths of its citizens to make fuel when there are alternatives to food crops for the production of ethanol?  

I’m going to start gardening again this year.  I need to relearn canning and lay in a supply of jars, lids, etcetera.

You should also consider the fact that our federal government is telling us that inflation is so low as to be non-existent.  Have any of them bought groceries, gasoline, or paid the electricity bill lately?