North Andover voters
will be asked to decide whether or not to charge
trash pick up fees for the town on Tuesday.
The ballot measure is being sponsored and
supported by the same people who brought you the
$4 million override question last year. You
remember them don't you? Diane Huster and the
TUFF group predicted doom and gloom (47 teacher
layoffs) if you the taxpayers didn't cough up $4
million additional property taxes.
This year they are asking you to approve a
measure that would allow the town to charge for
trash pick up even though you already pay for
that service with your property taxes.
What could they possibly be thinking?
For one, they are not thinking about the disabled
and elderly residents living on a fixed income.
They're certainly not thinking about the young
family who is struggling to make ends meet in an
economy that has seen the shut down of Lucent
Technologies and a spate of state budget cuts.
No, no, my friends the only thing Huster and the
pro tax and spend forces think about is getting
their hands on more of your money.
Sure they can call it a trash fee, but we all
know that when you charge someone twice for the
same service that's not a tax it is extortion.
What will the town do with all that
"extra" money if the trash fee is
passed on Tuesday?
Well, they won't say.
That's right.
There is no detailed answer as to where the money
will go or what will happen to surplus money if
they collect too much.
You can be sure they would never give it back to
you, the taxpayer.
Fear not, citizens, they will find a way to spend
it, and you can bet once it lands in the black
hole of the school department Huster and her
rabid group of TUFF women will never question how
it is spent.
Just as long as the schools get it and the
teachers unions get taken care of.
If the town is really hurting for cash and
additional revenue is needed, maybe the
townspeople in North Andover should demand more
accountability for the way money is spent (or
wasted) instead of continually going back to the
well for more and more and more.
Just think back to the race for Governor last
year. Had Shannon O'Brien been elected she
certainly wouldn't have cut waste in state
government, by her own account she would have
raised taxes and continued to spend us back to
the Stone Age.
With Mitt Romney in office we see how easy it
could be to save the taxpayers money by
consolidating government services and eliminating
waste instead of raising taxes and not paying
attention to where it is going.
It is the same situation in North Andover.
That is, unless the votes reject the trash fee
ballot question and hold the town officials more
responsible for the way they handle your money.
Voting no on Question #1 is the only way you can
begin to accomplish that.
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