Big Bad Contractors.............
Thinking on the ride home and wondering about contracting companies and their employees. Take P.J. Albert, the contracting firm that recently gave area drivers a smoother ride on Route 101, from Templeton to Gardner line, where do those employees go when their day is done? Do they go home to China or do they commute back to the moon? No, they live in cities and Towns and most have families and they have homes and cars and they shop, which means they support local business which in turn enable others to be employed. These same people pay taxes in the cities and Towns where they live.
Take United Water for another example, that company name was recently in The Gardner News as being a contractor that takes care of the city of Gardner water and sewer entities. Again, where do these people live, on the moon? I am pretty sure there is on worker who lives in Philipston, which means that is a family who pays taxes and those taxes in part go to support the Narragansett school district located in Templeton. Those employees of that contracting firm live in communities and pay taxes and all those things mentioned above. I think it can be assumed that the taxes they pay go towards salaries of municipal employees, who in turn live some where and do all the same things that happen in the big circle of life. We all pretty much begin in the hospital and end at the funeral home and along the way, we all pay taxes of some sort to support people and entities of some sort.
On a business plan, you pay in different ways, you hire out or rent equipment and or people, as in workers which you only pay out when you use them. When you take the rented piece of equipment back to the rental place, you no longer pay for that. likewise, when you hire a contractor, you only pay when you use them or for as long as you have contracted for them. When the job is done so is your financial obligation. Now when you own equipment or have people employed, you are responsible for them and for all the things that go with them, such as payroll, vacation, sick time, insurance, retirement and when they go and you replace them, it begins all over again and with some things, like insurance (medical) and retirement, you keep on paying except now you pay for the original person and the one who replaced the one who retired.
Now another subject, according to the 2014 annual Town report on page 45, it is recorded that the Narragansett Regional School district paid $217,862.61 for electricity. Perhaps they should get some LED lighting in there? The district also paid $413,295.17 for fuel.
Templeton spent $37,504.90 on Dave Smart, page 75, report of the treasurer.
Lastly, if we did an override and brought the tax rate up to $32.00 per thousand, there would be plenty of money to buy all the things the highway department wants, until that happens, highway and others will have to do things differently. Perhaps looking for grants or other ways to purchase equipment and perhaps Dave Smart can spear head that endeavor.
Jeff Bennett
Paul working for you.
Why didn't jeff tell you about the 5,000.00 per year the school district gets for the land lease agreement.The amount they charged the schools for electricity far out does the profits from the lease. Was the 400,000.00 grant given to the schools or did the TMLWP get it. Did they take all that grant money and spend it on a project that will never pay out to the town that some day may be on the hook. If the TMLWP can get their own solar panels to lower their bill why doesn't the school get any.
ReplyDeleteAfter all the new LED street lights you would think the charge to power them would go way down. Did it?
Only the cost to power them did but you and i paid that bill also. Why do the TMLWP purchase all the LED fixtures from MMWEC and not bid them out. Private companies who should get a shot and don't due to the monopoly with Municipal light plants. Would the price of over 400$ per fixture at one time be worth the power saved. Should we have to pay for any part of the power used in the private lights? The price paid for the private lights is not covered by the 5.00 per month charge,not to mention the light and labor to install them. Did we pay for the new LED light fixtures at the Ferncol state property? The cost to hook up the solar farm on farnsworth was over 104,000.00. So how does the money get spent that we pay extra?
I may be one of few, but I love the give and take between david and jeff. what we have is two smart people, no pun intended, that do not agree. what we, as tax payers can learn from these two, is a lot more that we will get from most 'TOWN OFFICIALS "..... keep it up!!!! jeff, half the people in this country pay no tax at all !!!! THAT is only a small part of the problem.
ReplyDeleteI think the essential question is what kind of government do you want?
ReplyDeleteWhat services do you expect for your tax dollar?
I don't favor big government and the costs that big government entails. I also believe that government has an obligation to provide the most or "best' service for the least amount of money. That's not how government works on any level.
At what point is it better to contract out services then provide them
in-house" ? And pay for those services with tax payer dollars?
When most people work they expect certain benefits including retirement. These are expectations held by most employees whether they work for a municipal, state or federal entity including military. Those are the "forever costs" that create an burden on the tax payers - always have and always will.
It's all about the PROFITS and contractors do more of that.Same goes for the TMLWP and the lawyers they employ for the guidance to fight the town. The Highway on the other hand has a limited fund to do what the town as a whole needs. Multipal projects once needed contractors and now don't. If i were a contractor i would be miffed too. The highway has saved this town a plie of money and made projects possible we would not be able to afford otherwise. Thank you for the note Brad.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has the right to their own opinion, like it or not. This give and take of ideas is fine, but it should not be personal. Get it you guys !! Last night the Advisory Board met with Mr. Markel and discussed the transfers that need to be made. Jeff is right, some of them were over the 3% that is allowed by law. As a group it was decided to have these done at a Town Meeting. Jeff is also right when he says the Town is not out of the woods yet, but we are getting close, and that is a good thing. We cannot go back to the way things were done in the past, living on money we do not have. A part time job can not turn into a full time job. Where is the money going to come from ?? It is up to the Department head to not over spend. The ides that if they blow their budget before the years end, and they think they can come back for more money, is not how things should go. Unless there is a emergency, the Advisory Board does not have to approve a thing. If I am wrong, I am sure someone will let us know.
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