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Tuesday, 29 December 2020 10:29

Did we save money by regionalizing police?

Note: This article was originally posted on BarrettCommunity.com 

 

Question:
Did we save money by switching from Barrett Township to Pocono Mountain Regional police?

Answer:
I'm going through the "Public Safety - Police" total expense lines for years available to me and here is what I have:

[Updated 1/7/21 to include 2020's budget]

2010: $552,000 (When Barrett had 6 officers)
2011: ?
2012: ?
2013: ? (+ $100,000*)
2014: ?
2015: $709,000 (The year that Barrett police disbanded. Had 5 officers)
2016: $520,000 (Regional)
2017: $520,000 (Regional)
2018: $578,000 (Regional)
2019: $551,000 (Regional)
2020: $575,048 (Regional)

Monday, 15 February 2021 11:05

Can residents own their internet provider?

Friends and Neighbors - I want to share the following information about a small town near Westfield, Massachusetts that built their own fiber optic internet service. Would something like this benefit the people of Barrett Township?

The City of Westfield has been home to an experiment, of sorts, in which municipal internet has been made available to a majority of the homes in the city. Westfield Gas and Electric (WG&E) has developed its own ISP to give residents a choice for internet service beyond the monopoly of a private ISP.

Note: This article was originally posted on BarrettCommunity.com

 

My opinion is that the Local Services tax should be repealed because it drives away business and makes it harder to attract workers in Barrett Township:

Background - State Level:

  • The Local Tax Enabling Act of 1965 allowed Second Class Townships to collect Occupational Privilege Taxes
  • In 2004, the Local Tax Enabling Act was amended to allow for collecting "Emergency and Municipal Services Taxes"

Background - Locally:

  • In 2005, ordinance 141 was passed, known as "Emergency and Municipal Services Tax"
  • In 2007 it was renamed "Local Services Tax" when ordinance #155 was passed.

Editor's Note:

Didn't this go to referendum 2 years ago?

 

(The Center Square) – A bicameral pair of lawmakers proposed a constitutional amendment on Thursday ending the collection of school property taxes.

Sen. John DiSanto, R-New Bloomfield, and Rep. Perry Stambaugh, R-New Bloomfield, said Senate Bill 424 and House Bill 927 – if passed in two consecutive sessions – would allow voters to decide if the General Assembly should replace the levy with a combination of state and local sales and income taxes.

via the Chicken Chick:

Absent supermarkets in the late 19th century, the average American family raised chickens as a matter of necessity- if you wanted fresh eggs, you raised chickens, if you wanted roast chicken for dinner, you raised chickens. While it may no longer be necessary to grow one’s own food, countless families around the United States want to, but are forced to wage battles against zoning departments and municipalities for the right keep chickens.

How did we get to a place where raising backyard chickens is illegal in many jurisdictions? Being an attorney, I have a theory based in the history of zoning law, which will be important to understand if you need to fight lawmakers for the right to keep chickens in your town as I have.

Full Article

Monday, 08 March 2021 08:52

PA Budget Hearings Conclude - 2021

(via Rosemary Brown)

Department of Human Services

On Wednesday, we met with officials from the Department of Human Services for a two-part budget hearing focused on health and human services programs as well as budget cost requests. During our exchange, the secretary made a concerning statement – that in order to receive federal dollars, we must keep Pennsylvanians on state government programs. I expressed my strong concerns about this statement in the video below.

(via Rosemary Brown)

House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff (R-Centre/Mifflin) has announced plans to have the House Government Oversight Committee investigate the Wolf administration’s handling of nursing homes and other senior and long-term care facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, roughly half of all COVID-19 deaths in Pennsylvania are attributable to nursing homes. Questions remain about data reporting related to nursing homes and especially about a March 18 order from the Department of Health requiring nursing home readmissions from hospitals of COVID-19-positive patients, among other things. This order was even stronger than the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance regarding this issue.

Tuesday, 02 March 2021 12:35

Lockdown is Over?

Has anyone else seen these "Lockdown Over March 1st" graphics floating around? Do they have any real traction?

Blockchain has served as an effective Bitcoin platform "ledger" for a variety reasons: since 2009 it has proven resistant to tampering and hacking, it is decentralized, trackable, auditable, and open.  Instead of calling for a "recount" when races are close, a Blockchain-based vote counting solution would allow for accurate, real-time vote counting.  

However, is it going to work? And How?  
(I am seriously asking for help so please post a comment below if you can help sort this out!)

Two conflicting articles below:

(1) is the patent from USPTO issued to the USPS to build the system Feb 7, 2020
(2) is an article from MIT released on 11/6/2020 saying that it won't work.

Which is it!?

If you ever have to cut down a remaining stump of a large tree you will encounter the problem of it pinching and jamming up your saw bar between the wood with its weight. Instead of having to use wedges to keep the pressure off of your saw you can use this awesome trick.

  • “Let me issue and control a nation’s money and I care not who writes the laws.”

    - Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812), founder of the House of Rothschild.

More Inspirational Quotes

precision beats power