Monday, September 17, 2012

Debt = Slavery


Debt = Slavery
We owe, we owe, it’s off to work we go.

Finally! The debt schedules are now available. The long term debt schedule will be used to try to determine which bonds may be ready for refinancing to lower the cost of the interest payments.

The short term outstanding debt is the debt will we need to pay off or add to our long term debt…probably not a good idea to add it our long term debt.

The November 2, 2011 BAN for $1,900,000 was the short term borrowing for the Municipal building at 252 Baldwinville Rd. aka “the Boondoggle”.


The $1,900,000 was the amount that Jerry Skelton applied for the USDA loan. We do NOT have a USDA loan for this project. If you look at the long term debt schedule, the last scheduled debt payment is 06/30/2045. This debt is from the water department. This debt is a 40 year USDA loan. Further analysis will determine the interest and principal of these loans.

I want to state right here that I am NOT a financial expert. I am financially conservative in my own life. I am making these debt schedules available for everyone to review. Hopefully, there will be more analysis of our town’s debt at a later date. I hope will we will be able to restructure some our debt.

Debt is a major concern for the town and for our country. I believe we will need to prioritize major projects before we take on more debt. I will be writing a separate blog on the elementary school project.



I’ve included some short videos about money and debt:



I believe the problem of debt started with the creation of a central bank – the Federal Reserve which is a private corporation. I believe it is necessary to have an audit of the wind turbine project on the local level. On the Federal level, I believe an audit is necessary of the Federal Reserve – the Central Bank of the United States.

I encourage you to check out the website below:



Someone left a comment in a prior blog about the LIBOR Scandal and why we never hear talk of this scandal from our media in the United States. LIBOR is an acronym for London Interbank Offered rate.

This infographic will give you a simplified explanation of why the LIBOR scandals matters to YOU.

Longer videos

Money as Debt – full length

My opinions…supported by FACTS ! !

Julie Farrell

17 comments:

  1. It is easy to sit in town meeting and vote to do things that cost alot of money, if you do not look at the big picture.Does the light co. pay for their debt? Even if they do it comes out of our money! Bev.

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  2. I still don't fully understand how a non-selectman could sign for a loan that the town is held accountable for. How are we liable for this transaction? And how is this considered legal?

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    1. This is something we need to have answered. It does not sound ok with me. We will get answers, be patient! Bev.

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    2. Jerry APPLIED for the USDA loan without authorization. The USDA was all ready to give the Town the money...for 40 years at 4.25% interest on 1.9 million. We were able to stop that from happening.

      The 1.9 million was borrowed as a short term loan (BAN) for the municipal building. Of that 1.9 million over $600,000 was spent(foolishly in my opinion - got that Chris?) The town needs to figure out a way to pay back the $1.9 million of which $1.3 million remains unspent.

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  3. Maybe the accountant or the Advisory Board could put together a pie chart which shows the town's assets vs. debt. A visual may be easier to understand to most regular folk the financial state of the town. To see money coming in vs. money going out needs to be better understood by all citizens. With this understanding, maybe the people who are only interested in a new school will see the state of affairs. Its not that the town doesn't want a new school because they want other town buildings first, the town can't afford ANYTHING! We're broke. And maybe the people only interested in a new school will start asking more questions about how did we get to this spot. And then maybe they'll catch up in these discussions and see that there are people trying to fix this mess and work towards a better Templeton. Someone at the last BOS meeting thought the town wanted to fix ET school for town offices and was ignoring TC school repairs. They didn't understand the conversation was all about trying to get both schools listed as historical buildings in order to open up new funding avenues so that TC school can be repaired to be used for several more years and ET school could accommodate town offices and free up @$50k/yr in town expenses. We have to educate the citizens better about what is happening here. And we cannot rely on area newspapers to relay that information. Thank goodness we have Pauly's blog to get the word out!

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    1. Finding a way to educate people that do not pay attention until it directly involves them is the key to success. The woman who thought we were neglecting TCS obviously has not been paying attention. More people need to go to meetings, talk to freinds and neighbors, offer appropriate suggestions and constructive criticim. Before criticizing do your homework.

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    2. I know the situation Anonymous 8:55& 9:56 are referring to. It kind of irritated me a little, but then I thought at least this person showed up at a meeting. This is a start. I have a problen with the school letting things fall apart, only to tell the town the repairs are over $5,000. now you can fix it. I wonder how long it has been since anything on the school in Templeton Center got painted? I wonder, if it is just the generation of "I want it, so I should have it," that this younger generation has such a bad case of tunnell vision. Only paying attention to what interests them, and the hell with everything else! To bad the world does not work that way. Maybe these comments, will hit home, and we can get a few smart, foreward thinking younger people to step up and help out. Remember the town being the trunk of a tree ? Nothing else will get fixed, or done, until the tree is healthy. We older people have nothing you younger people can catch, but wisdom, some hard earned, experiences, alot of those, and the willingness to share all of these. Like my grandmother always said "you can't put a old head on young shoulders." Bev.

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    3. Maybe Will. can do something with this. It sure would be great to reduce the debt we have. The interest on a 40 year loan? I wonder if anyone else in the world, does this? I bet they don't. Bev

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    4. What I find most disturbing about 40 year loans, is that 40 year loans completely destroy any capital plan you might have. Look at the water department -
      a 40 year USDA loan for major projects that do not have a useful life of 40 years.

      That means you need to fix the things you repaired or built with the 40 year loan BEFORE 40 years has elapsed BEFORE the loan is repaid thereby burying yourself in debt. Kinda like the water department.

      The only way a 40 year loan would make any sense is if the project you are building will last longer than 40 years. The DOR has issued guidelines for the useful life of different things ...like roofs, roads, buildings. None of those things last for 40 years without some type of major overhaul or repair.

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  4. The fact that the LIBOR scandal is not reported in the news is proof that the mainstream media is in bed with the government to keep us stupid. The fact that the Occupy movement is not reported in the news is another example. The government along with the banks is screwed if the average american wakes up and understands the horrible acts that have been done on our backs with our money. The Occupy movement is not a bunch of out of work smelly kids trying to start trouble. They are people who are pissed about what has happened to our country. They are all ages, from all backgrounds. If everyone fully understood the corruption that has been allowed to occur, then every american citizen would be taking to the streets to voice their disapproval and demands for reform and for the crooks to be held accountable. Both parties have dirty hands and both parties do not want these scandals to be fully understood. This is not a conservative vs. liberal issue. It is a much farther reaching issue than that.

    PS-If someone was a manager of a town department and had run the dept well, they would be proud to discuss their operations and be forthcoming with any information that was requested. The fact that the Light & Water management is resisting requests for information on the operations proves they are not proud of their management and have things to hide. This is a serious serious situation here. The BOS needs to address this and if it is met with more resistance to cooperation, then maybe a new manager needs to be hired to clean it up.

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  5. Could someone answer a question on the short term debt. if we bought 252 Baldwinville rd for $400,000.00 and we paid for enginering plans etc. but no way did we spent 2.4 million why do we have 2.4 million showing in debt? where is the money? and why haven't the selectmen addressed this.

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  6. Would someone please put in layman's terms what each loan was for. So we can all understand this.

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  7. Can the current Chair of the selectman ask DO, BC or GS and or whoever else that was involved in the 252 purchase to come to a meeting and explain to the townspeople what the reasoning behind the astronomical USDA loan was? Someone needs to be held accountable and isn't it up to the selectman to make this happen?

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  8. Wow! If I were GS, I'd sell my house and get outta Dodge. The more info that comes to light regarding the past 10 years of doing business in the town's name as well as the L&W Dept is frightening. Only in America can you get a $2M retirement package for bankrupting a town.

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    1. If I had my way, the town would put a lein on his house and everything else he has. Don't forget Pauly's investigation. That is still a plan, I know I will never give up on it. It will all come out in the wash, trust me. Of course this my opinion, Bev.

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  9. audit/audit/audit when will we get our 8,000.00 worth?
    when,hows it going and do we get a copy when they get it?
    better yet have a ticker tape of loss/cost of the windmill
    projects,then we will know day to day our losses.
    wind does not pay off, it gets shut off!

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    1. I say sell advertising on the dam thing. You know, I talked to John Oliver, he helped us get funding for the windmill! I did not have the heart to tell him it is a lemon, oops Bev

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