Initially I got involved with this upcoming recall election. I wrote a few opinion pieces here and attended two meetings of the PAC formed to protect the existing candidates.

I dropped out because.. well, because I just don't care enough. Oh, I'll still be voting September 29th, and I'm still strongly leaning against "No Recall", but I'm not getting involved in the local politics around it.

I do get annoyed with the "fiscal mismanagement" charges that I hear from some. Remember this, please: Selectmen don't spend money, Town Meeting does.

Remember this too in regard to the complaints about the high costs of union employees (Fire, Police, DPW, etc.): if you rolled back all salaries and benefits to match whatever city or town has the lowest figures in this State, you still would have a big fiscal problem here in Middleboro. In other words, the real problem is NOT spending, it's lack of revenue.

I was talking to someone just yesterday about that and she challenged me with "How long have you lived here?" Her thought was, of course, that I haven't been here long enough to understand. Well, maybe not, but I've lived in another town, and I've had friends and relatives in still other towns, and I know this: whenever people don't want to face the reality that taxes need to be raised, there is always some group screaming "fiscal mismanagement". Often they have some horrible example they can trot out to display, but when you really look into the facts, it is usually relatively unimportant. Somebody "wasted" some money here or paid too much for that, and it may all be true and it absolutely shouldn't have happened, but it wouldn't change the reality that taxes need to go up.

So if people get upset enough by real or imagined mismanagement, heads roll, new people get voted in and.. nothing changes. The same "fiscal crisis" is ready to greet them and no matter what they cut, roll back or economize, they soon will need to raise taxes.

I also don't like the idea of recalling Selectmen because you don't like their position on the Casino. Again, Town Meeting made that vote, and most of us still think the casino will help Middleboro if it does come.

I guess that's why I don't care that much about this. I've seen it before, I know what reality is, and it's not going to matter in the long run. The "anti-casino" candidates aren't going to fix anything anyway, because whatever happens with that is out of their hands entirely.

So there we are. I'll be voting, but I won't be doing any campaigning.

Related Posts:

Recall
Run, Jessie, Run
Vote Influence
Voters Against Recall Rally
Board of Selectmen Candidates
Recall Election

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