CCA
Party’s apparent answer: raise property taxes
By
Will Collette
The last time we had numbers for Charlestown, unemployment was December and the rate was 6.1%. Just a couple of days ago, DLT released new numbers and our rate is now 8.5%. That's a jump of almost 40%!After waiting almost three months to update Charlestown’s unemployment rate, the state Department of Labor and Training posted three months’ of data, covering January through March. They also revised the figures for the last quarter of 2014 as part of an overall year-end review and revision.
The resulting numbers for Charlestown are terrible. Until these
new data emerged, the last number we’ve had for Charlestown unemployment was a
December rate of 6.1%. It turns out that number was wrong – the actual figure
was 7%, and the data for October and November were also revised upwards. Charlestown
ended 2014 with an average unemployment rate of 8.7%, a full percentage point
higher than the state’s annual 2014 average of 7.7%.
Going
into 2015, it gets even worse for Charlestown. The figures for the months of
January, February and March show Charlestown unemployment climbing to 8.7%,
8.4% and 8.5% respectively, again far worse than the rest of the state[FN1].
In each month, more than 350 Charlestown workers were collecting unemployment
benefits[FN2].
On
top of high unemployment, Charlestown working families also face yet another major property tax increase – the
seventh in a row – when the data show one out of every 12 Charlestown
workers is out of a job. At this month’s regular Council meeting, the Town
Council comprised entirely of members of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance is
expected to send an unjustified 2.36% property tax hike
before voters in a special June 1 election. The hearing on this proposal will
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| Lots more below the fold so please continue reading to put these numbers in context |
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| "We're in power...we don't care about you and we don't have to!" |
Our
CCA-controlled town government doesn’t even acknowledge that we have an
unemployment problem or that Charlestown is an unfriendly place for existing
businesses and an inhospitable one for business prospects.
Why
should they when the CCA Party’s leadership, prime constituency and donor base
are upscale retirees? And many of them, including three out of them CCA board
members, live out of state for most of the year.
In a sick way, raising property taxes - again - may be a logical reaction for the CCA Party since it might added encouragement some struggling working families to leave Charlestown and take their school-age children with them. Getting rid of families with children has been a pretty clear goal of the CCA Party since its inception.
While
Charlestown has no control over the larger economic and political forces, there
are many things that Charlestown could do – on its own, with the resources it
has in hand – that could help change our dismal unemployment statistics.
In
fact, I’ve reported in a number of specific, realistic things Charlestown could
do, on its own and with little or no expense, to improve the local economy. I
summarized them here, but they are just a start.
My
brother-in-law told me about a great idea they use in the town of Dartmouth,
MA where he works as the town’s chief environmental officer. If a business
wants to move into Dartmouth or a local business wants to do some major
expansion or project that involves any regulatory issues, the town sets up a
one-stop meeting. That way, the business owner can sit down with all the right
town officials at the table and cover all the issues at one time. It not only
costs Dartmouth nothing, it actually saves the town money by streamlining the
process.
It
also builds good will.
In
Charlestown, we make businesses undergo the Death of a Thousand Cuts before the
CCA-controlled Planning Commission and Zoning Board. Indeed, it seems that the
only kinds of businesses that get a free pass to operate from the CCA Party are
quarries
and gun shops.
It’s
a matter of priorities. Charlestown under the CCA places a higher priority on
acquiring more open space and, truth be told, in encouraging people and
businesses to leave, while discouraging new residents and businesses from
coming into town.
For
the well-off retirees and vacation home owners, life is better with fewer
people and more open space. On May 4, I expect a good number of them will come
out to speak in support of a proposed $2 million bond issue to buy more open
space, when half of Charlestown’s land is already open space.
Despite
that, the CCA Party will argue that it’s good for our tax base to take more
land off the tax rolls. Seriously. Better grazing land for unicorns.
I
expect this same CCA Party constituency to scream their disdain for a citizen
petition to put a $1
million bond question before the voters to improve and expand the
recreational facilities at town-owned Ninigret Park. Many within the CCA base
want to see human
activity curbed in Ninigret Park and will howl with rage against any
expansion plan.
The
state’s new unemployment data for Charlestown puts many of these issues into
stark relief and raise the question of sustainability.
How long can this town
ignore the problems of working families largely living in north of Route One
while pandering to the expensive demands of the wealthy retirees and part-time
residents who own property south of Route One?
How
long will the CCA Party continue to raise property taxes before people stop
believing their high-heaped bovine excrement about how low our taxes are?
How long can we let the CCA and its political supporters wage class war on middle-class Charlestown residents before we fight back?
Maybe
we’ll be surprised on Monday night and some voices might be raised against our
narrow-minded and short-sighted town leadership.
FOOTNOTES
[1]
Here’s how bad Charlestown compares with the rest of the state for the first
quarter of 2015. In January, our unemployment rate was 7.4% compared to the
state’s 8.7%. In February, we were at 8.4% compared to the state’s 7.0%. In
March, we hit 8.5% which the state average was only 6.9%.
[2] Of
course unemployment statistics only cover those workers who are collecting
benefits. It does not include those long-term unemployed who have exhausted
their benefits. Nor does it include people who are only working part-time when
they want to work full-time, or who are otherwise underemployed (e.g. working
in a job for which they are grossly over-qualified). It doesn’t include people
who have given up or decided they would prematurely “retire.”
