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Plymouth Township [Michigan] - Fire Reform, Not Taxes

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reproduced from: Rattle With Us – Michigan Tea Party
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The following article was written by Mr Bob Doroshewitz. The Township held the special election he refers to and the voters voted down the millage by a margin of 84%. Mr Doroshewitz is a Plymouth Township Trustee who is running for reelection. Mr Doroshewitz spoke at our last RWU meeting and was given a warm applause and recieved much praise from the membership:

Fire Reform, not taxes, the right solution

On February 28, Township voters will be asked to approve a new Special Assessment District (SAD) for fire that effectively grants future Boards unlimited taxing power and strips you of your authority to vote on future millage increases. If passed, the SAD will enable Boards to assess up to 10 mils for equipment and an unlimited amount for employee and other operational costs.  

 

It is on the ballot as a result of an employee backed petition drive, not by sponsorship of the Township Board.  That makes it different from anything we have ever seen or probably will ever see again.  Tax increases are almost always initiated by Boards, not by employees driven by self preservation who masquerade as neutral citizens concerned for the well being of the community. It is not the government asking you for money, but rather the employees of the government who are desperate to hold onto lucrative pay and work rule packages that are long overdue for reform.  We don’t need to keep throwing more money here but instead need to change the way we spend the money we have.  The role of government is to deliver services to its citizens at the best possible value and sometimes it takes a complete overhaul to do that.

 

While the majority of the Board is clear that the fire delivery model can and should be reformed, and can be done so with service levels equal or better than we have now, the employees – through its petition drive – have told you that the only viable answer is to preserve the status quo and the only way to preserve the status quo is to raise taxes.  Many of you were coaxed into signing a petition that put forth false claims that promised you’d pay just one mil for five years, a claim not backed by the law.  Further, fear mongering tactics scared some into believing no one will come to your aid in an emergency.  To that, I can only say that we live here too. And as raw human nature goes, no elected official in the history of the world has ever voted for change that would put his own family in harm’s way.

 

You have seen facts and opinions, points and counterpoints and you may not know what to believe.  But the numbers – the pay levels, lucrative lifetime benefits and long periods of on-the-clock idleness are indisputable. 

 

Many of you shook your heads in disbelief at these facts as life changed for you a decade ago when your benefits were cut by that company we’ve all heard of. And as the world of the private sector employee has changed, then so must that of the public sector employee. But you can’t understand why that hasn’t happened and neither can I.

 

The problem is that the lifetime benefits are a ticking time bomb, one that will explode on the next generation.   No money is set aside and nothing in any petition drive made provision to do so.  Passing a one mil tax will do nothing more than push the costs down the next generation of taxpayers, those least able to complain.  Your children and your grandchildren.  

 

In just a few years, health care liability will eclipse a million dollars per employee and it won’t be long until the Township spends more each year to pay employees no longer working here than it does for those that do.

 

For months, I watched in astonishment as the wife of a firefighter and her lawyer   berated and then sued the board, demanding a millage vote that would fool the public into believing there will be no mess for our kids to clean up.  Their plan is the equivalent of paying the minimum on a credit card now and letting the interest pile up for someone else to pay later. Bill the kids seems to be the mantra.  After all, it’s easy to feed off the future as the future is unable to speak for itself.  Unconscionable, disturbing, you pick the adjective.

 

The Board could have taken the easy way out and come to you with a small temporary hole plugging millage. Chances are you would have supported it and just shrugged off the increase.  We could have given in to the picketers, petitioners and pamphleteers.  But we didn’t and that should speak volumes to you.

 

Soon enough it will be our turn to pass the torch – let’s do so with a bill stamped “Paid in Full” and demand reform over new taxes.

2012-08-03 16:05:29


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