Mayor Thomas M. Menino, after saying for weeks that Boston's financial situation was holding strong amid the tumults of the economic crisis, instituted a city hiring freeze yesterday and announced several other measures designed to keep city services intact amid shrinking investment revenues and cuts in state grants to city programs.
How many times I gotta post it, readers?
Of course, "flushing . . . millions of dollars away supporting a highly profitable industry" when it comes to $300 million in taxpayer dollars for Hollywood is o.k., even as the price of a school lunch rises; paying $13 million for a computer software system that could have cost less than $3 million is all right because the winner was a close friend of the House speaker, even as my poorer-than-dirt district "has been struggling to close a $2 million budget gap."; the lottery shelling out "millions of dollars" for sports tickets for "lottery officials, their family members, and friends" is fine, even as schools are closing; making interest payments to banks to the tune of "a staggering $22 billion" for the Big Pit, as we call it around here, is required, even as bridges are neglected across the state; and again, paying off banks like UBS, who can "demand repayment of an additional $2 million a month beginning in January" while also receiving a "$179 million payment," while the state pension fund loses $1 billion dollars -- which still didn't stop the executive director from carving himself a nice "$64,000 bonus on top of his $322,000 annual salary."
Oh, and did I not mention the $1 BILLION dollar giveaway to the pharmaceutical corporations, even though "it's never been easy to turn a profit in biotech?" Flush that money away, too, taxpayer. Of course, the war looters were next in line for a handout. And should the state be appropriating money for a "multimillion-dollar reconstruction" of golf courses?
Nor is it RECKLESS to BORROW the STATE INTO OBLIVION so they can PAY INTEREST to BANKS while SITTING ON $2 BILLION DOLLARS!
Need one final insult, Mass. taxpayers?
See: Massachusetts Gives More Money to Hollywood
Yup, but they are going to CUT JOBS and SERVICES while telling us we need to keep the income tax!!
Don't you just get SICK of the BULLSHIT?!!!!
Menino predicted the city may be forced to postpone as much as $120 million worth of capital improvement projects, including maintenance and repairs of playgrounds, parks, sidewalks, streets, and schools. In addition, the mayor said he's not sure whether the city will be able to replace some $3 million in state grant funding that had been earmarked for community policing and firefighter training, so those programs may also be scaled back.
Trillions for banks and wars.....
"City government is tightening its belt just like families across our city," Menino said. "This is the beginning, as I look at it. What it's going to mean is we're going to have to work smarter and more efficiently."
So WHY the WAIT? Wasting money, etc, was JUST FINE until now, huh?
Interest revenue from city investments has fallen roughly $16 million short of projections so far this year. The mayor said he expects that shortfall to deepen in the coming months, and he predicted more cuts in state funding. State aid currently accounts for 21 percent of the city's $2.4 billion operating budget.
On Wednesday, Governor Deval Patrick announced more than $1 billion in state budget cuts, the worst single round of midyear budget rollbacks in state history. The city is expected to be directly affected by only $5 million of those cuts, including $2.1 million for firefighter training, $700,000 for special needs education, $300,000 for upgrading a South Boston community center, and $870,000 for community policing programs.
How about getting the money back from the corporate giveaways instead, huh, Amurkn (answered with silence from the elite agenda-pushers. Of course, the "liberal" Globe is looking out for YOU How much shit you gonna eat today)!!?
Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said the department will have to scale back some technology projects officials had planned in the next year. A plan to provide more distance learning for police officers will have to be delayed, as will a proposal to put more surveillance cameras in hot spots around the city.
Oh, NOW I am GLAD!! If the budget "crisis" means LESS TYRANNY, well then, STARVE 'EM!!!!!
The commissioner said he will scale back overtime, mostly for patrol officers who are sent to drive around areas that have recently experienced violence. Davis hopes there will be no reduction of Safe Street teams, groups of six uniformed officers who patrol some of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods. The teams, a cornerstone of the department's community policing program, have been credited with helping to reduce violence in some parts of the city.
So YOU SUFFER ANYWAY, Mass. taxpayer! No reduction on TYRANNY, though!
"The Safe Street teams are a very effective method," Davis said. "We're working very hard not to affect them."
The Police Department began trying to decrease spending before the governor's cuts, Davis said. For example, the department has reduced the number of take-home cars by 45 from its fleet of about 230, revoking take-home privileges for detectives working at headquarters in units like internal affairs, special investigations, and family services.
Why are ANY take homes? MY COMPANY doesn't give ME a CAR!!!!!!!!
"We're making common-sense cuts," Davis said. "I think that there is a general uneasiness about the overall picture, the economic picture, with the volatility of the stock market on top of reductions in revenue. People are concerned that it may get worse before it gets better." --more--"
Question; WHY did you not MAKE THEM BEFORE?
As for common sense, how about stopping the CORPORTATE GIVEAWAYS and BANK PAYMENTS first, 'eh?
