AllenN's blog

Every three years, the School Committee makes its most important decision, which is to negotiate and approve new contracts with the school unions. There are three unions; one represents the custodial staff, one for office support staff, and one for teachers. Collectively, these agreements commit the town to about $75 million dollars in spending over three years.

Often, at Town Meeting, speakers lament that we get locked into these contracts and have over-committed our financial resources. So it is very important that when the contracts come up for renewal, we tread very carefully.

I am a Scott Brown supporter, not just because he is a Republican, but because he is a moderate. And he is proving that nearly every week as he decides which Obama initiatives to support and which not to support.

But notice how his critics personally attack him when he disagrees with them, but praise him when he supports their position. Is it fair to commend him today and vilify him tomorrow? Isn't he the same person?

Town Manager Steve Ledoux has publicly stated that the union contracts he negotiates with the municipal unions will be "zero cost increase" contracts. This means that the increased cost to the town for all employee expenses will be zero over the next three years.

This doesn't mean that the employees will not get raises. The raises will be modest, but they will be balanced off with changes in the health insurance plans, so that the expensive plans will be phased out and lower-cost plans (HMOs) will be used by all.

When my favorite socialist, Barack Obama, was running for election, he claimed that he could cover his expensive social programs and unfunded mandates without raising taxes on the middle class. Remember that?

At first, he said that individuals making over $200,000 a year, or couples making over $250,000, would not see a tax increase under his administration. I never believed that assertion no matter how insistent he was in repeating it. Did you? Do you really think money grows on trees and the "wealthy" can pay for everything?

When Charlie Kadlec and I filed the Open Meeting Law complaint against the School Committees in Acton, it took over nine months for the Middlesex DA to rule that eight meetings of the School Committee and/or its subcommittee had violated the Open Meeting Law. This issue was explored by the local paper as well as on Acton Forum SEE ARTICLE.

How ironic that the anti-bullying task force came back to report on its findings at the May 6, 2010 School Committee (SC) meeting the very same night that the teacher's union decided to try to bully the School Committee.

I don't know what else to call it, when over 200 staff members (two-thirds of the AEA membership) show up at a School Committee meeting to protest being "disrespected" by members of the School Committee.

If you've attended any School Committee meetings, you know that many of the SC members do act disrespectfully to the public. I've seen it, and I've experienced it.

On Monday night, April 5, Town Meeting will be asked to approve the funding for the first of several municipal union contracts that have expired. This one is for the police supervisor's union, which is comprised of eight officers. (The others are still in negotiation and won’t be presented to this Town Meeting.) Article 12 is for the last three years and Article 13 goes forward another three.

Which political party is more corrupt? Republicans or Democrats?

Before you answer, be careful: It is a trick question.

The answer is both of them. More accurately, it is all of them.

The communists are corrupt, the fascists are corrupt, and the socialists are corrupt. The federalists and the whigs were corrupt. Royalty is corrupt.

Politicians aren't the only ones. We know many business leaders are corrupt. Lawyers, accountants, doctors and dentists can be corrupt. People we trust with our lives and our life's savings can be corrupt.

Acton’s budget system is a mess. As a town, we rely on property taxes, which is a stable source of revenue, but we also depend on fees and state aid. State aid is particularly fickle. Every few years, there is a statewide crisis and that trickles down to us, which causes a local crisis.

And in a downturn, like we have now, we choose to spend reserves instead of cutting back expenses. This sets us up for an override in a future year. These overrides are divisive and cause catastrophe if they don’t pass. This is a terrible way to manage long-term finances.

When President Obama says that his economic stimulus package is creating jobs, that is true. Several million jobs were created or saved by that spending.

When Senator Brown says that no jobs were created, he is also speaking a truth. If you create or save 2 million jobs here, but you lose 3 million jobs there, then your net is a loss of 1 million jobs.

But both politicians miss the point. It is very important what type of jobs you create (or save). We need to grow jobs that provide income, not expense. Let me explain.

I am a believer in the two-party system of government. This belief was formed during a long-ago political science class which proposed the premise that in order to be legitimate, elected officials had to receive over 50% of the vote. This bedrock principle could be violated when you have a viable third-party candidate and the system allows someone to win when they have a plurality but not a majority. Electing candidates without majority support is fraught with danger for democracy.

April 1, 2010

(BOSTON) - Gov. Deval Patrick, citing the rising cost of automobile ownership in the Bay State, has announced a new program to allow "every working family access to a brand new vehicle at a reasonable cost."

Citing his recent decision last February 11 to cap rising health insurance premiums for small business, Patrick said this is the next logical step. "Getting to work is a right that every working family has. And we need to get our citizens back to work. If having a new car is necessary to achieve that goal, then I'm all for it."

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has entered into a Faustian bargain with the public-sector employee unions, and that decision is going to cost taxpayers in Acton (and around the Commonwealth) a bundle.

State law gives public employees the right to negotiate their own union contracts so long as they agree not to strike. (Introduction to the law is here: http://www.mass.gov/lrc/publications/gb-introduction.pdf. The full explanation is here: http://www.mass.gov/lrc/publications/gb-all.pdf)

Health Insurance Reform, Part 2

In the first post, we discussed the so-called "death panels" and how the government would have to get involved in individual health-care decisions that are now made by patients, their doctors, and their insurers. We also talked about the potential demise of the best care available in the world when government mandates and cost-controls are imposed on doctors' salaries.

In this part, we will examine what happens when additional mandates like mandatory health insurance are added to the burden on business.

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From President Obama on down, we have heard repeatedly in the healthcare debate that Americans have a "right" to affordable health insurance. In my view, this is the critical issue and perhaps the reason why Democrats and Republicans have not been able to (and perhaps never will) reach a compromise.

About six or seven years ago, in what I remember was my first Acton Town Meeting, I was in the audience when someone got up to complain about the budget being presented that night.

"This budget is out of balance. You are using one-time revenues, called Free Cash, in order to fund operations. This is unsustainable."

That statement seemed self-evident. I knew from "Accounting 101" that one-time revenues shouldn't fund recurring operations. It leads to overspending.

The Beacon, Acton’s weekly newspaper, is clearly suffering.

For this political observer, it takes about 2 minutes to read through the paper these days.

There are no compelling “letters to the editor,” unless you want to read "thank you" notes.

The news articles typically rehash what has happened at this or that local committee meeting. Nothing is covered consistently.

With the surprising results of the latest election cycle, where Republicans won the New Jersey governorship (beating incumbent Jon Corzine), perhaps some voters are getting a bit more suspicious of President Barack Obama's message of change. Perhaps some are beginning to wonder if change is always good, even when you don't know what the change is going to be. Many of the proposals we've been hearing lately from Washington are downright scary.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has taken many steps that have foreseeable results that are detrimental to the citizens and businesses in the state, yet our leaders seem oblivious to the logical results from those actions. Our politicians don't care when they make decisions that have a net-negative effect, so long as their constituencies are protected.

The issue we are all paying for now is the increase in the state's sales tax, from 5% to 6.25 - 7%. This is a 25% - 40% increase and is going to prove detrimental to all of us, directly or indirectly.

PART TWO: Government-employee unions are initially to blame; secondary blame goes to voters.

Massachusetts is leading the nation in its support for the Democratic Party and President Obama. And these guys are endorsed and supported by labor unions, which in the public sector are paid for by the government using tax dollars. These generous salary and benefit increases are obviously payback for their electoral support.

PART ONE: Unbelievable deficits and obligations.

There was an eye-opening article in the Wall Street Journal this past week (9/5/09, p A11), entited "Warning: The Deficits Are Coming!" (with shades of Paul Revere warning about the British invasion....) The alarm is being rung by David Walker, an economist and former head of the General Accounting Office (GAO) under President Clinton, who was responsible for auditing the government's books. He now works for the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which educates the public about the need for fiscal prudence.

Welcome to the Acton Forum! I am happy to introduce our new "Blog" feature.
This will allow residents who have something to say to write about it and