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May
04
2007
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The New Keith is the very definition of Governmental Corruption |
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Written by Dave Gould
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Friday, 04 May 2007 |
NEW BEDFORD, MA - Hollywood convinced us that governmental corruption takes place in smoke filled back rooms. This is not the case. Smoking indoors is illegal now. However, politicians do talk and occasionally do agree to support one side of an issue or an other. This is called a “chance meeting” and is the basis of much governmental improprieties. The trouble is trying to prove that such a meeting took place to the satisfaction of the law and an overworked judge. The “special favor” has been involved in politics since humans bartered quahog shells and tanned hides. Unfettered leadership, whether in the hands of a king or in the hands of less honorable government bodies or greedy corporate CEO's has been a plague that has haunted humanity for far too long. In defense of these unscrupulous people though, their power lay less in the sword and more in the quiet ignorance of the people they think they rule.
Wikipedia defines corruption as follows; Corruption is a general concept describing any organized, interdependent system in which part of the system is either not performing duties it was originally intended to, or performing them in an improper way, to the detriment of the system's original purpose.
That definition defines New Bedford's political structure perfectly. Pick any subject, pick any board meeting and I can find something amiss that could fit the above definition better than leather on OJ Simpson. The corrupt action may or may not be illegal. None of our councilors are so familiar with the law; they may engage in a corrupt act without even knowing they are doing so. On WBSM, Councilor Coelho once said something pertaining to the fact that councilors often vote for something because they just want to get along.
Last night, I attended yet another useless PIP meeting regarding the Keith middle school debacle. Since Evan Rousseau was not there to give the various government contractors and officials their well deserved 'What-For', my wife made sure this very important part of every PIP meeting was not lacking. There is nothing like an Irish temper. Through all the conflicting talk of what disease PCB's may or may not cause to eventually kill you, one point is never mentioned. The school should never have been built. We should not be attending PIP meetings, we should be at home watching The Gilmore Girls or ER. We should not be wondering how much in extra taxation Keith has cost us in cost overruns and continued monitoring. We should be buying more computers and providing more sports for the students. But we can't, because we listen to how mud moves in heavy rains and how PCB's affect your veggies. In the end Keith is a nice school and currently is cleaner than the outside air, but this is temporary. The millions it cost will be uncountable and the things we will never receive because Keith was built is a simple travesty.
I had a stroke in 1999 that affected my ability to recall memories efficiently, so my next statement may be muddled. But of all the councilors, I only remember Brian Gomes as being very loudly against building the new Keith. Leo may have slurred off a few words of protest too, but I can't say for certain. The Three Stooges of Kalisz, Leontire and Thomas with the assistance of many STILL EMPLOYED city leeches, the most visible of which is Scott Alphonse, essentially ignored the advice of experts and the protests of New Bedford citizens; hurried up and built the new Keith on a well known pile of contamination. Let's reread the definition of corruption. Corruption is a general concept describing any organized, interdependent system in which part of the system is either not performing duties it was originally intended to, or performing them in an improper way, to the detriment of the system's original purpose. The system failed to stop the former administration from now costing the citizens of New Bedford and Massachusetts $60 to $70 million more than they should have spent. The system (Mayor Lang ) is still trying to convince the citizens to “fah-git-about-it” and deal with the solution. The current Mayor is still employing the people who helped the former administration essentially steal from the citizens and he wants us to just put such things behind us.
So how much money are the citizens out? Depends how you calculate it. Last night, Mayor Lang very contritely said that the final number would be around $103 million. He hoped he would not have to use the whole bond just on Keith, but $103 is the magic number. Just for giggles we will say that $60 million is the extra dollars the governmental corruption that created the new Keith cost the tax payers. Just what does this mean? Let's play math games.
If every citizen in Massachusetts contributed to the Keith, then Keith cost everyone and extra $10 bucks in taxes. If every town in Massachusetts had one Keith then each taxpayer would have to pony up and extra $3,510 bucks. Good thing most cities and towns don't operate like New Bedford.
What if every person in New Bedford had to pay an equal share? Then the per person cost of the Keith corruption is about equal to $600 dollars. I'm throwing in the illegal aliens too, but they don't actually pay. What could the average citizen do with that extra $600 bucks? What would you do?
Since it is the actual owner of property who pays most of the tax burden, the question is what is the Keith corruption cost for each building. There are almost 28,000 tax bills sent from the Assessors office. This works out to $2,143 hard earned dollars.
Now an accountant will tell you that large projects are bonded out. Of course they are, but that means we – the taxpayer – is paying interest on top of the above simplified numbers. If a project is worthwhile and done above board, this is a good thing. But remember, the above amount is how much was stolen from taxpayers because many elected officials and appointed political hacks were not working for the good of the people. They were working for the good of themselves.
As far as Keith is concerned, the damage is done and the aftershocks will continue for decades. Just remember, this is an election year. Considering that New Bedford has a bad habit of reelecting people who should be wearing orange jump suits, I think my fellow citizens may have sadomasochistic tendencies. I and other can only hope that this is the year that we decide enough is just simply enough.
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