PelhamToday received the following letter to the editor from Jim Pitt:
The budget survey put forth recently by the Region was a feeble, skewed and pointless attempt to illicit the responses that the administration wanted. Each question was designed to get the same response. Raise taxes to just maintain present services. Cut taxes and slash services. Well of course the only civilized response was to raise taxes, possibly quite a lot. There was no mention of freezing salaries, reducing staff, cutting useless programs or getting back to the basics of municipal governance. That would be sacrilege to the administrative class that runs the region.
One program that appears to be a bottomless pit of taxpayer despair is Niagara Transit. Pelham is told we need to send upwards of $1,000,000 to pay our portion. The Town of Pelham has access to on demand mini-vans, no bus routes, no stations, just mini-vans.
It's curious that the administrative class and their elected allies love to claim that they would be better compensated in the private sector. That to get the "best" we must pay the most, 9% more on average, and don't forget the defined pension and gold plated benefits packages. Yet when you look at the private sector, when faced with economic headwinds, numerous layoffs are the norm. They can't hold out their hands to the unrepresented taxpayer. They answer to the marketplace, which is unforgiving. The taxpayer needs to become unforgiving as well.
Jim Pitt
Fonthill
