June 8, 2021
Hello Patrick Fennell,
Some blog posters write that the Lovely Linda Tyer is heartless and doesn't care about the working class and underclass residents of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. But I disagree with them because post industrial Pittsfield has been tanking for most of my life of nearly 46 years now. To blame the Lovely Linda is only a small part of the picture. Pittsfield is one of the most economically unequal areas in the state and nation. The Lovely Linda lives with her millionaire Accountant husband Barry Clairmont at the outer edges of Pittsfield within a few feet of the Hancock border in a gated community cut off from the rest of the community. The Lovely Linda has done very well for herself while the rest of Pittsfield is sinking lower and lower with no bottom in sight.
I believe that Pittsfield uses Perverse Incentives to keep the working class and underclass dependent on state and local government - including Pittsfield's Level 5 inner city public schools - and all of the not-for-profit Social Services agencies that make up inner city Pittsfield. In theory, state and local government should be using their limited public resources to invest in the people who live there, but in Pittsfield, they see the people as a means to shakedown big government tax dollars for their failing public schools and dangerous downtown sarcastically called "Social Services Alley".
It is similar to the Massachusetts State Lottery and Casino Gambling regressive taxation schemes. The average Massachusetts resident is financially illiterate and does not understand how economics works in government. They play the state lottery and gamble at casinos thinking it is fun and they might win some money, and the Beacon Hill politicians tell them that the money goes to public education and local aid. The truth is that it is all a financial scheme so the wealthy get to pay less in state and local taxes.
I remember back when Dan Bosley openly complained that casino gambling would cut into the state lottery profits. What Dan Bosley was really saying is that he wanted big business to pay less in state and local taxes with the state's multibillion dollar lottery without casino's taking a piece of the action. Let us all not forget about "The Bosley Amendment", which was a same day rider on Beacon Hill legislation that would have given big business in Massachusetts billions of dollars in tax breaks, which would have upended that state budget, but was quickly defeated.
Dan Bosley collects a state pension and other public perks from his time as a scheming bureaucratic North Adams State Representative on Beacon Hill. On top of that, Dan Bosley is a greedy Beacon Hill Statehouse lobbyist where he makes a 6-figure lobbyist salary selling out state taxpayers for the benefit of big business. Also, it has been written on blogs that Dan Bosley may take home a second state pension from MCLA, which would be for all of the pork he lavished on the old North Adams State College. I have a blog page that says that Massachusetts taxpayers should pay their state tax bills directly to Dan Bosley instead of to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to be more efficient in sending their hard earned tax dollars to the ultimate double dipper and shakedown artist in the over 400 year history of Massachusetts.
In closing, I hope everyone is seeing the real picture here! The Lovely Linda and Dan Bosley are two examples of state and local politicians screwing over the people and taxpayers who live in Massachusetts.
Best wishes,
Jonathan Melle
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June 9, 2021
I understand. The state dumps its underclass into post industrial cities like Pittsfield. The Lovely Linda takes Boston's grant money, along with the state's underclass. After all, dangerous downtown Pittsfield isn't called "Social Services Alley" for nothing!
Also, blog posters criticize Pittsfield's women politicians - Andrea Harrington, the Lovely Linda, Trippy Country Buffet, Helen Moon, Yuki, Dina Guiel Lampiasi - for Pittsfield's socioeconomic problems, but I know that Pittsfield's problems were bad way before these women held elected office in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
I have a Master of Public Administration degree. I have studied communities and public policy for many years of my life. State and local government politicians are supposed to be investing in the people who live there instead of being disconnected from them in her [Linda Tyer's] gated community near million dollar home and/or screwing them over with their [Adam Hinds'] stupid schemes to raise state taxes while buying a $690,000 home in Amherst, Massachusetts, to help the ruling elites being career politicians for life with their do nothing political hack so-called "plum jobs".
The people are the government's most valuable resource because they live, work, shop, pay taxes/rent, and enjoy their life in their community and state. Whatever happened to the proverbial George Bailey investing in the common people in the proverbial Bedford Falls community in the 1946 Christmas classic movie "It's a Wonderful Life"?
- Jonathan Melle
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Re: I am NOT a financial expert
I am far from a financial expert. In fact, people who know far more about financial matters try to explain big business and big government finances to me without me fully understanding it all. On the macro level, our country's entire economy depends on the financial sector. On the micro level, financial interests are hurting the bottom 98 percent of the population who are not very wealthy. Any time someone out there points this out, they are called Socialist or Marxist. What is my financial solution? I believe that the government should invest in the people who live in communities and states. I believe that government should ensure that all workers are paid a living wage and equitable perks. I believe that everyone should have affordable access to housing, healthcare insurance, public education, financial literacy, living wage jobs, and realistic pension plans with solvent social insurance, social services, and welfare assistance programs. I believe that poverty and other social and economic injustices are structural conflict and violence - class warfare - by the ruling and corporate elites. I believe that politicians are mostly disconnected from the people they represent in government. I believe that a majority of the ruling elites and corporate elites are only in it for themselves. It is the old "If there is no bread, let them eat cake" unevidenced quote by Marie-Antoinette, who was the Queen of France during the French Revolution prior to her execution by guillotine.
In Pittsfield, I think that the Lovely Linda living in a gated community cut off from the mean streets of inner city Pittsfield is a prime example of how economically unequal Pittsfield really is. I see Matt Kerwood's multimillion dollar slush funds as a slap in the face of the Pittsfield taxpayers. I see Mayor Linda Tyer and Matt Kerwood receiving $41.7 million in Biden Buck$ direct aid from U.S. Congress to the City of Pittsfield mostly being used for the benefit of the vested and special interests instead of the common people who pay their hard earned tax dollars to Pittsfield City Hall. I see Pittsfield politics record breaking nearly $180 million municipal operating budget as excessive. As I read in the Berkshire Eagle and on blogs, it is always, always, always, always...."Business as usual in Pittsfield politics!"
In Boston today [June 9th, 2021], Beacon Hill lawmakers advanced a state constitutional amendment to add a surtax to millionaires, which will kill small business in Massachusetts in the name of raising between $1 billion to $2 billion per fiscal year in new state government revenues. I wonder what the net financial benefit will be instead of Beacon Hill's one-sided financial analysis of the Millionaires surtax?
I am NOT wealthy by any means. I still think $100 is a lot of money to me at the end of the month. I am NOT part of the politically connected in crowd. In fact, I despise all of the corrupt politicians and their greedy financial donors.
- Jonathan Melle
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June 24, 2021
Critical Pittsfield politics Theory: Only a small group of Pittsfield voters participate in state and local governments because most people either don't care or know all to well that they will face retribution, including losing their job, vicious rumors, false reports to the police, and the like. When there is a state and/or local election in Pittsfield, the fix is always in by the incestuous one political (Democratic) party group of insider political hacks. Wealthy Ward 4 voters in Pittsfield decide each and every election in Pittsfield. The other six Wards don't matter or are insignificant in citywide elections. The politicians in Pittsfield do NOT live in the real Pittsfield of daily gunfire, Level 5 (or failing) inner city Pittsfield public schools, poverty, underclass, working poor, subsidized housing, homelessness, violent crime, and so on. The Mayor of Pittsfield - the Lovely Linda Tyer - lives in a wealthy gated community near the Pittsfield border with Hancock. Former Mayor Jimmy Ruberto lives in Naples, Florida full time, and upper class Lenox, Massachusetts part time. Pittsfield State Representative Trippy Country Buffet sent her children to Lenox Public Schools. Chrome Dome Adam Hinds recently purchased a $690,000 home in Amherst, Massachusetts, which is NOT in his legislative district. PAC Man Peter "Lobbyist" Larkin lives in a wealthy suburb outside of Worcester, Massachusetts. To be clear, Pittsfield's politicians - past and present - are DISCONNECTED from the real Pittsfield, Massachusetts! On Boston news, Pittsfield is called Lenox's "ugly sister". The New York Times real estate news articles says the Berkshires are hot, but to avoid Pittsfield's real estate market. North Street is called "Social Services Alley". Artist Gregory Crewdson shows large photos of post industrial Pittsfield as "A City in Decay" in museums and upscale art galleries in London, England, L.A., and NYC. Pittsfield is one of the most economically unequal areas in the state and nation because there are little to no living wage jobs in Pittsfield for the average working class family. The Boston Federal Reserve Bank did a grant-funded study exploring why inner city Pittsfield neighborhoods are so poor generation after generation. Matt Kerwood is literally sitting on tens of millions in his slush funds and Biden Buck$, but he still raised city and public school spending by the always predictable 5 percent on Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski. Inner City Pittsfield residents fear for their lives because of daily shootings, gangs, drugs, violent crime, and the like, yet they are always paying City Hall higher municipal taxes and fees for ineffective and lousy public services. The Berkshire delegation to Boston's Statehouse are all useless rubber stamp political hacks who do nothing but DISSERVICES to Pittsfield and Berkshire County. Pittsfield's U.S. Representative in the U.S. House is called PAC Man Richie Neal because he only represents K Street corporate lobbyist firms that have nothing to do with the people who live in his Western Massachusetts legislative district. Pittsfield's U.S. Senator Ed Markey really lives in an upscale suburb in Chevy Chase, Maryland. He ran for reelection last year of 2020 promising to save the world from global warming knowing that his $100 trillion Green New Deal was nothing but more hot air that will never pass into law in the Swamp. Pittsfield's U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren says she wants to save Main Street from Wall Street, but look at who is winning that class war as Wall Street closed at record highs again today (24-June-2024)! Governor Charlie Baker has yet to take responsibility for the Holyoke Soldiers Home debacle where 76 Veterans died of Covid-19, and now he is promoting disingenuous gimmicks like his 2 month long sales tax holiday proposal to bolster his image for next year's 2022 reelection to the state's corner office. Joe Biden has spent $6 trillion federal dollars in his first 100 days, and now he is bragging that he will soon pass his $1 trillion infrastructure bill. How many trillions of federal dollars will Joe Biden spend in 2021? I hope that Hunter Biden isn't managing the federal budget.
- Jonathan Melle
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June 25, 2021
I will put my commentary about Pittsfield politics in JON MELLE terms. Jon Melle grew up in Pittsfield during its decline, but in a nice neighborhood near Egremont Elementary School, while hearing stories about post World War 2 Pittsfield through the 1960s. Jon Melle knows that North Street is called "Social Services Alley" because the local underclass and working poor are dependent on welfare, social services, and disability programs; Jon Melle is a disabled Veteran with his dog who is an Emotional Support Animal. Jon Melle spent his young adult years in a state of mental illness with anxiety and depression because Jon Melle never had a chance to find gainful employment earning a living wage in Pittsfield/Berkshire County. To make matters worse, Jon Melle's father was a Pittsfield (area) politician when Jon Melle was 20.5 - nearly 25 years of age over from the Spring of 1996 - July 1, 2000. Jon Melle experienced Pittsfield politics first hand, it was (and still is) ugly. In 2021, Jon Melle reads Dan Valenti's blog and the Berkshire Eagle online about his native hometown of Pittsfield, Massachusetts from his new hometown of Amherst, New Hampshire. Jon Melle reads that inner city Pittsfield residents fear for their lives from daily shootings, violent crime, gangs, drugs, and the like. Jon Melle reads that Matt Kerwood has huge slush funds, along with tens of millions of dollars in Biden Buck$, but he (Matt Kerwood) still raises city spending and municipal taxes and fees by 5 percent per year. Jon Melle knows that the wealthy and politically-connected control Pittsfield politics, especially wealthy Ward 4 voters. Jon Melle knows that Mayor Linda Tyer lives in a wealthy gated community far away from the real economically distressed Pittsfield. Jon Melle understands that Jon Melle will never be able to afford to live in either wealthy Ward 4 or the Lovely Linda's wealthy gated community neighborhood of millionaires that is close to the Hancock border. Jon Melle understands that Jon Melle would have better odds of winning the lottery jackpot than having gainful employment with a living wage job in Pittsfield; those are horrible odds. Jon Melle concludes that Jon Melle should live and stay in Amherst, New Hampshire along with his relocated family from Pittsfield, Massachusetts because otherwise Jon Melle would have to live in or near inner city Pittsfield and Jon Melle would be right back to square one with recurring mental illness episodes of anxiety and depression because Jon Melle would be unhappy and unsafe in the real Pittsfield.
- Jon Melle
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June 25, 2021
I can walk fine. I am a disabled Veteran for my psychiatric condition. I don't smoke. I am fortunate that I get to avoid North Street and other proverbial "Social Services Alleys". While I would decline to ride and/or walk with Barry at 3 am around inner city Pittsfield, I would like to hear his (Barry's) thoughts on Matt Kerwood's creative Accounting schemes in Pittsfield politics that screws over the proverbial Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski family out of their hard earned money. But, I am sure he (Barry) would take his wife's side on the issue because his wife is none other than the Lovely Linda Tyer - the best Mayor of Pittsfield EVER!
- Jonathan Melle
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July 1, 2021
It depends of the State Reps level of corruption. The more corrupt they are, the more they get in public pay and perks. State Reps on Beacon Hill not only receive 6-figure public pay and generous perks, but then they retire and use their corrupt political connections to make even more money are registered lobbyists on Beacon Hill, which is on top of their taxpayer-funded state pensions and perks. In conclusion, if a State Rep is super corrupt, they can make millions of dollars in public pay and lobbyist salaries over the course of their political careers. I like to write to Beacon Hill State Reps and registered lobbyists about all of their taxpayer-funded pay and perks, and lobbyists salaries they take home over their decades of corrupt public DISSERVICE, but for some reason, none of them respond to my email letters. The political system rewards political corruption and lobbyists' greed.
SARCASM: I think they should vote themselves more 40 percent legislative pay raises, and I think greedy lobbyists on Beacon Hill should make even more money by screwing over the people and taxpayers of Massachusetts. I think that Beacon Hill lobbyist Dan Bosley should collect another 2 state pensions, and write 1,000 more op-eds in Western Massachusetts newspapers praising K Street's PAC Man Richie Neal for raking in millions of special interest corporate lobbyist donations per year. I think the retired Beacon Hill Salons should open more marijuana dispensaries and stink up more working class neighborhoods like the one behind Dalton Avenue in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. If I lived in the Allendale neighborhood in good old Pittsfield, I would look forward to waking up to stinky pot growing smells, sending my children to Allendale Elementary School that abuts 2 of GE's toxic waste sites full of industrial chemicals, and paying excessive state and local taxes to pay for it all.
- Jonathan Melle
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July 19, 2021
Hello Patrick Fennell,
I read some news about Beacon Hill lawmakers this past weekend. The state Legislature received the over $48 billion state budget Thursday night and then voted on it less than 24 hours later on Friday afternoon. The vote was unanimous in both legislative chambers. How on Earth could anyone vote on a state budget without possibly being able to read and understand it? Does anyone out there know what is actually in Beacon Hill's fiscal year 2022 state budget? Also, the Massachusetts budget was passed 16 days late. Then, Beacon Hill lawmakers will meet this week (July 19th - July 23rd, 2021) and then next week (July 26th - July 30th), and then they go on there month-long August vacation paid for by many state taxpayers who don't get to take the entire month of August of 2021 off from work with pay and perks. Then, in Western Massachusetts, there was regional population loss in the state and federal redistricting data, especially in Berkshire County, which lost 4.8 percent of its population from one decade ago. However, the entire state of Massachusetts gained population, and there are now a little over 7 million people who live in the Commonwealth. Boston has the most political clout, while Western Massachusetts has the least political clout on Beacon Hill. The state redistricting of the state House of Representatives and State Senate seats will make matters worse for Western Massachusetts, especially in Berkshire County. The Western Massachusetts state lawmakers on Beacon Hill must understand that population loss is due to the lack of living wage jobs there. It is difficult for a young adult to stay in a city such as Pittsfield when he or she sees severe economic inequality, while the Mayor (Linda Tyer) and her millionaire Accountant husband (Barry Clairmont) live in an exclusive wealthy gated community near the Pittsfield/Hancock border. Pittsfield, Berkshire County and Western Massachusetts as a whole region are losing population, living wage jobs, and political clout in Boston because PAC Man Richie Neal, Chrome Dome Adam Hinds, Trippy Country Buffet, Shitty PIGnatelli, Paul Marx, and "the Mayor" John Barrett III are all disconnected from the majority of their constituents.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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July 27, 2021
I may have been wrong about Pittsfield Mayor Linda Tyer. She - like Ed Markey - blocked me from sending her my political email letters. I thought she wanted to hear feedback from the people who care about Pittsfield. She may be yet another typical politician who only wants "yes men" and "yes women" to tell her how great she is all of the time. Politics should NOT be all about the politician's ego. I am disappointed in Linda Tyer. I have written my disagreements with her mayoral administration over the years, including her record high municipal taxes, fees and debts/liabilities, her huge tax breaks and giveaways to out-of-town millionaires, her multimillion-dollar slush funds, her sitting on $20.85 million in Biden Buck$ direct aid to Pittsfield meant to help people, agencies and small businesses impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, her living in a millionaires-only gated community near the Pittsfield/Hancock border far away from the working and underclass residents of inner city Pittsfield, her being out-of-touch and inaccessible to her constituents, her many praises of Jimmy Ruberto's so-called arts and cultural renaissance that failed to revitalize Pittsfield's decades-long distressed economy, her lack of leadership during the Berkshire Museums sales of tens of millions of dollars in historic and valuable artwork, including two Norman Rockwell donated paintings, and so on. People can have disagreements and should be able to tell a politician why they disagree with them without the politician blocking them from contacting them. If I was a politician, I would appreciate feedback from my constituents and people who are interested in my work on behalf of the public, even if it was in the form of disagreements with my administration. I saw Mayor Linda Tyer dish out retribution to City Councilors Chris Connell and Kevin Morandi by taking away their City Council Committee and Subcommittee assignments, and allegedly harassing them so they wouldn't run for reelection in 2021. I should have known that Mayor Linda Tyer is not interested in democracy where everyone has an equal voice before their government. When one reads about governments throughout world history, it is always the case that authoritarian leaders only want to hear from those who will follow their orders whether it is right or wrong. While U.S. President Abraham Lincoln had his flaws, his administration had "A Team of Rivals" where he at least listened to different opinions during the Civil War. Back to Pittsfield politics, which is a provincial and insiders only one political party (Democrat) operation where one either has to kiss the dirty behinds of the corrupt state and local politicians or be blocked and blacklisted because the people know all to well in Pittsfield that they will face retribution until they give up on free speech and democracy. I have a vomit-like feeling in my throat right now when I think of Mayor Linda Tyer. Once again, I cannot believe I am so goddamned STUPID to believe that Pittsfield politics and the corrupt state and local politicians who run the show there mean well for the people and democracy. I hope I won't be fooled ever again. My native hometown of Pittsfield, Massachusetts is worse than authoritarian Communist China because at least everyone knows where the Chinese government stands, while Pittsfield politics makes a mockery of democracy, free speech, and listening to the people who live in and/or care about Pittsfield.
In Truth!
Jonathan A. Melle
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July 30, 2021
My responses posted on the Planet Valenti blog:
I don’t want the money! I want democracy, free speech, and politicians who listen to the people that pay their public pay and perks!!!!
Amherst, NH is a lot closer to Pittsfield, Mass than Naples, Florida. [Former Pittsfield Mayor Jimmy Ruberto lives in Naples, Florida. He is Linda Tyer's political boss].
If you only knew about my history with the 4 foot tall stinky marijuana former state senator then you would understand why I am a perpetual victim of Pittsfield politics! [Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior aka Luciforo - The inbred, dark Prince of Pittsfield politics who tried to destroy my life and my family since the Spring of 1996 (I was over 20.5-years-old back then) or for over 25 years now (I am 46-years-old now)].
True. I flip flopped about Linda Tyer in Pittsfield politics. She blocked me. I guess I don't count in her book. I should've known better, but I tend to think with my heart instead of with my rational mind. I would NOT make a good leader because I believe the lofty words that snake oil salesmen and saleswomen peddle to obtain and retain power. Please don't make fun of me for my psychiatric condition/disability. I am a peer support to human beings with mental illness. The alternative to mental health is self-medicating, abuse and isolation. I served our country honorably in the U.S. Army, and I am a respected service connected Veteran by our grateful country. Politicians will never silence me from speaking out on their corrupt public records. The Berkshire legislative delegation - Chrome Dome Adam Hinds, Trippy Country Buffet, Shitty Pignatelli, Paul Marx, and the Mayor John Barrett III - and PAC Man Richie Neal, and Ed "Maryland" Markey are all political hacks who only do disservices against the people they supposedly represent in Boston and in the Swamp. I have respect, while the aforementioned ruling elites only have power.
- Jonathan A. Melle
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July 31, 2021
I agree with you. PITTSFIELD POLITICS = DISSERVICES to Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski while the Godfather's loyal family gets richer and richer with their pay to play schemes. Jimmy Ruberto plays the role of Godfather perfectly in good old Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His lovely ladies - Trippy Country Buffet and Linda Tyer - serve their Godfather well in Boston and Pittsfield, respectively. Don't criticize the Godfather or his Mafia or they will block you. If you criticize the Mafia, then you must hate Pittsfield. My question to all of this crap or political theater in Pittsfield is WHY? It is 2021, not the 1950s. Shouldn't we all have moved past the Italian neighborhood, the Irish neighborhood, the Jewish neighborhood, the Polish neighborhood, the (fill in the blank) neighborhood? Shouldn't we all be integrated and work together for our mutual benefit for the good of society? My brother tells me that every area has provincial political insider's Good Old Boys and Girls proverbial family and friends networks. I respond to my brother that he is probably right, but that Pittsfield has it in SPADES! Pittsfield is stuck in another era that should be in one of the trash bins of history. People who came from Pittsfield always say that there are a lot of "Pittsfields" out there, but I still think that our Pittsfield is the most backwards place in the known Universe. The Boston Globe wrote that Pittsfield and the working and underclass areas of northern Berkshire County are "Service communities" to the tourist areas in southern Berkshire County. My mom, who is now in her mid-70s, told me that Lenox and Stockbridge always looked down at the working class people who lived in Pittsfield. The New York Times recently wrote a few years ago that Berkshire County's real estate market is hot, but to avoid Pittsfield. Gregory Crewdson shows large artistic photos of post industrial Pittsfield as "A City in Decay" in upscale art galleries and museums in London, England, New York City, and L.A. In closing, everything is falling apart in Pittsfield, but the one thing that remains intact is the Godfather's 1950s-like Pittsfield politics Mafia. It is so STUPID!!!!
- Jonathan A. Melle
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August 4, 2021
I will write it again. Deanna Ruffer's so-called economic development projects did NOT work in Pittsfield since 2004 with multiyear breaks through the Summer of 2021. She came on during the latter part of the first year of the 8 year long Jimmy Ruberto administration in 2004. She left Pittsfield for around 7 to 8 years, and she came back sometime during the third year of the Lovely Linda Tyer administration in 2018 - or for the past 3 years. She has been in Pittsfield City Hall for around 9 of the past 17 years. Perhaps she will qualify for a city pension and perks after she leaves Pittsfield in the future, but I don't know for sure.
Linda Tyer and her millionaire Accountant husband live in a gated community close to the Pittsfield/Hancock border. I believe that her millionaires-only neighborhood sends a clear message to the people and taxpayers of Pittsfield. That message is that she is above and removed from her constituents. Mayor Linda Tyer makes around $100,000 per year plus her perks. I read that many local people and taxpayers write that she is inaccessible and out-of-touch. Godfather Jimmy Ruberto runs Pittsfield politics - including being Mayor Linda Tyer's political boss - from Naples, Florida (and his part time Summer residence in upscale Lenox). If find it WEIRD that the ruling elites in Pittsfield are very disconnected from Pittsfield!
My view of Pittsfield politics since GE left town over 3 decades ago, but made Pittsfield into their dump, is that the ruling elites use Perverse Economic Incentives to make everything and everybody into sources of local revenue. The bigger the underclass in Pittsfield equals the more social services agencies, not-for-profit organizations, Level 5 (or failing) public schools, and the like. Pittsfield's huge underclass is a multimillion dollar per year revenue source(s) for City Hall (for Matt Kerwood to build upon his multimillion dollar slush funds). In addition, the higher the municipal taxes, fees, and public debts/liabilities in Pittsfield equals more sources of revenue for City Hall. To be clear, Pittsfield politics has become an efficient shakedown operation that makes GREEDY Lobbyist and shakedown artist Dan Bosley look like he isn't all that GREEDY after all.
The problem with it all is that business and government are supposed to be investing in the people they serves so that the people are able to invest some of their money back into the government and business. It is supposed to be a 2-way street, NOT a shakedown operation that only benefits the corporate and ruling elites. We the People are supposed to be building a strong middle class instead of Matt Kerwood's proverbial slush funds. The elites are NOT supposed to be screwing over the proverbial Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski family all of the time. The elites have turned basic economics into CLASS WARFARE in our country to benefit only themselves. The only two things that grow in our economy anymore are the elites' wealth and power, and our country's huge underclass. It is: "Heads the Haves always win and the Have-Nots are able to tread water if they are fortunate enough, Tails the Haves always win (with government bailouts) and the Have-Nots fall further behind and into the underclass". We no longer live in the risk/reward capitalist economic system that built the middle class after World War 2. We now live a rigged economy that no longer invests in the working class and provides social mobility to the masses. Again, our country's economic system is really CLASS WARFARE!!!!
Lastly, economic growth only happens in a very small percentage of our country. Most of our country, such as the rust belt of the midwestern swing states, experiences economic loss year after year and decade after decade. Pittsfield, Massachusetts is part of the huge swath of our country that experiences economic loss, while Wall Street and the ruling elites have been on the winning side of our current K-shaped economic recovery/recession.
Jonathan A. Melle
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August 8, 2021
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
I agree with Mad Trapper, blogger Dan Valenti. Pittsfield politics is no different than an old fashioned Mafia casino operation where the Suits and their wealthy backers get to pay to play, while the proverbial Kapanski family always lose on more levels than the Empire State Building without an elevator. Pittsfield politics is ran by wealthy Ward 4, who always decides who the Mayor will be, as well as the At Large City Councilors and the "Level 5" School Committee who actually defends the status quo, meaning failure. The rest of Pittsfield's other 6 Wards don't count in Pittsfield politics. That is the OPPOSITE of Democracy!
I wish to share my thoughts about Pittsfield, Massachusetts:
My native hometown of Pittsfield, Massachusetts is Exhibit A in post industrial decay. GE used to employee over ten thousands working class local residents post World War 2, but today, GE employs zero local residents, and GE made Pittsfield into its dump. Gregory Crewdson shows his large artistic photos of post industrial Pittsfield to privileged museum and art gallery viewers in London, England, New York City, and L.A. His art exhibits of Pittsfield are literally called "A City in Decay". Pittsfield is one of the most economically unequal areas in the state and nation because there are no living wage jobs there for the average working class family. The Mayor, Linda Tyer, and her millionaire Accountant husband Barry Clairmont live in a millionaires-only gated community in west Pittsfield within a few feet of the Pittsfield/Hancock border. Inner city Pittsfield has daily shootings and a man earlier this year of 2021 shot dead in broad daylight on North Street, is always in the top 10 in violent crime in Massachusetts as annually ranked by the FBI, has drugs, gangs, prostitution, poverty, homelessness, and so on. On a personal level, I don't blame Mayor Linda Tyer for living in a wealthy gated community in west Pittsfield because she values her personal safety, but I still think it sends an elitist message to the rest of Pittsfield.
Jonathan A. Melle
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August 11, 2021
Economic Development in Pittsfield, Massachusetts = An ever growing Underclass, Social Services Alley on North Street, Welfare Caseloads, Level 5 (or Failing) Public Schools, and Matt Kerwood's multimillion dollar $lu$h Fund$.
Pittsfield politics = Mayor Linda Tyer living in a millionaires-only gated community within a few feet of Pittsfield's border with Hancock, Wealthy Ward 4 running the show while everyone else loses, high local taxes with a long-term shrinking tax base and severe economic inequality (or the Ring of Poverty around North Street), and RETRIBUTION against Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski and anyone who advocates for them.
Berkshire delegation = Chrome Dome Adam Hinds, Trippy Country Buffet, Shitty Pignatelli, Paul Marx, and the Mayor John Barrett III who are currently on their over one-month August vacation and won't return to so-called "work" in Boston until after Labor Day. Beacon Hill is still sitting on over $5 billion in Biden Buck$, while the de facto part-time/vacationing Lawmakers do nothing for over one month.
In closing, I hope the proverbial Kapanskis of my native hometown of Pittsfield (Mass.) will stop Deanna Ruffer from her latest boondoggle in Springside Park.
Jonathan A. Melle
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August 14, 2021
Re: Class Warfare in Pittsfield and beyond
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
I posted a brief response to the growing underclass backfilling Pittsfield's long declining population numbers, as reported by the 2020 U.S. Census.
I posted the following: "I believe Pittsfield wants a growing underclass because it equals millions of dollars more in federal and state funds for its Level 5 public schools, social services, and the like. I call it "Perverse Incentives"! I believe it has been going on in Pittsfield for at least the last 30 years."
Please allow me to elaborate, which I shouldn't do anymore on your awesome blog, "Planet Valenti". Post World War 2, the working class and middle class in our country grew because of federal government investment in the working class and (primarily white) middle class population. There used to be high marginal federal tax rates on the wealthy back then, but it paid for the American Dream of a working class family owning a home and having financial security. So what happened? My theory is that after LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, along with his "Great Society" and "War on Poverty" public policies, the federal government no longer wanted to invest in the working class because blacks and other minorities now had equal legal protections in the workplace. The "white flight" post World War 2 suburbs now had to stop its racist redlining and the like. Since Richard Nixon, who succeeded LBJ, the federal government became very pro-Wall Street with Supply Side Economics, which has diminished the middle class for the past 50 years, while Wall Street and the Ruling Elites are all now worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars or more each on average. In 2021, we are currently in a K-Shaped economic recovery (for the Elites: Wall Street and Big Government) and recession (for Main Street: the working class and underclass).
So, one would ask me, what does this have to do with post industrial Pittsfield, Massachusetts? My answer is: EVERYTHING! Pittsfield politics sees its growing underclass as a revenue source(s) because the state and local politicians receive millions upon millions of dollars from the federal and state government for their Level 5 (or failing) public schools, social services, welfare caseloads, supersized relatively new jail, and so on. Instead of Pittsfield politics investing in the working class (like they are supposed to be doing) - the working class has long moved away from Pittsfield - the state and local politicians instead profit off of their ever growing number of poor people. I use the term I learned in one of my economics class back in college decades ago, which is PERVERSE INCENTIVES, to describe how Pittsfield politics - similar to Beacon Hill and the Swamp - does so many DISSERVICES against the common people and families who live there. I also believe it is one of the many levels of CLASS WARFARE that the ELITES wage against the common people and masses who do NOT understand what is going on in our country's broken political system.
I wish to illustrate my viewpoint about the mistreatment of the masses with the Massachusetts State Lottery and now casino gambling operations. All the lottery and casinos are to Beacon Hill Pols is a financial scheme of regressive taxation to have the common people and families pay billions of dollars in voluntary state taxes so that the politically connected, powerful and wealthy people and families and big businesses get to pay billions of dollars less in state taxes. The Massachusetts State Lottery actually recently bragged that they took in record "profits" for fiscal year 2020, which ended on June 30th, 2021. If the Ruling Elites were truthful, which they are NOT, then they would have bragged that they took advantage of the underclass, working class and financially illiterate population of Massachusetts and visitors to the tune of billions of dollars along with record lottery profits, in addition to all of the loot the state took in from its relatively new multiple casinos. The thing that bothers me the most is that millions of people and visitors in Massachusetts do NOT even to begin to understand that this is all yet another level of CLASS WARFARE being waged against them.
One would ask, so what does the Massachusetts State Lottery have to do with Pittsfield, Massachusetts? My answer is it is an illustration of how the ELITES in Boston through Pittsfield are PROFITTING off of the proverbial Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski family without the good Kapanski family of Pittsfield knowing what is happening to them because they don't understand how the ELITES operate in politics and Wall Street.
In closing, the only things that grow in our 21st Century economy are the Billionaires, Multimillionaires and Ruling Elites' money and power, and on the other end of the 2021 K-shaped economic recession, the only thing that is growing is our country's huge underclass, which has been growing larger and larger for the last 40 to 50 years. To be clear, the ELITES are waging Perverse Incentives, Class Warfare, and Racist public policies against the people they are - in theory only - serving in big business and big government without the common people and families understanding any of it.
I wish you would post my guest essay on your awesome blog sometime in the future, but that is your choice to make, not mine. Please keep up your good work posting about Pittsfield politics and beyond.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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August 19, 2021
The Script: The Lovely Linda tells the City Council that she lives in a millionaires-only gated community as far way from inner city Pittsfield as possible. Peter Marchetti tells the City Council to go along with the Mayor's agenda or face retribution. The City Council is rolling in tens of millions of dollars in Biden Buck$ along with Matt Kerwood's multimillion dollar $lush Fund$, and Pittsfield politics now want to hear from the proverbial Kapan$ki family that has been used by the ruling elites in Pittsfield as a proverbial doormat for generations. The School Committee always defends the status quo, despite its inner city public schools being ranked at Level 5 (the worst rating) by the state. In November 2021, voter turnout for the municipal and public school elections will be somewhere in the teens, while over 80 percent of registered voters may only watch blogger Dan Valenti's unnamed reality show on TV. Also, Beacon Hill lawmakers are still sitting on over $5 billion in Biden Buck$, while they are all on their month-long August vacation. Has Chrome Dome Adam Hinds, Trippy Country Buffet, Shitty Pignatelli, Paul Marx, and/or "the Mayor" John Barrett III reached out to you about how to spend their unspent billions? Where does all of the money go? Certainly NOT to Pittsfield, Berkshire County, Western Massachusetts, and the like.
Jonathan A. Melle
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August 21, 2021
I read the news article about the Lovely Linda's tour of North Street with the Eagle reporter. North Street businesses are NOT happy with Mayor Linda Tyer's leadership. They complain that homeless people are pooping on the street, teens are vandalizing storefronts, drug addicts and substance abusers are raising hell, shoplifters are daily occurrences because their are no cops patrolling the North Street, parking is problem, and City Hall talks at them instead of with the small business owners. There is little foot traffic on North Street, and most of the people there are only there for social services and/or they live troubled and sad lives. Mayor Linda Tyer calls North Street "a work in progress". The downtown arts scene experiment failed over one decade ago, yet the Lovely Linda still touts its short-lived seasonal success in the Summertime. Pittsfield is still losing population for decades on end. Even the state and local politicians do not really live in Pittsfield anymore, including Chrome Dome Adam Hinds with his $690,000 home in Amherst, Mass., Jimmy Ruberto with his condos in Naples, Florida and Lenox, Linda Tyer with her millionaire Accountant husband in the wealthy gated community, Trippy Country Buffet with her children sent to Lenox Public Schools, and so on. Pittsfield politicians don't buy into their own propaganda about the city's futile and redundant efforts at revitalization. Pittsfield politics is not even rational anymore. Instead, it is yet another government ran casino where the rich get to pay to play Pittsfield politics.
Jonathan A. Melle
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August 21, 2021
Hello Patrick Fennell,
While it is true that Democratic Party state and local corrupt politicians over the past decades ran Pittsfield (Massachusetts) into the proverbial ditch while mostly blaming GE for leaving the area around 1990, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party both suck balls. For example, did President Donald Trump help the rust belt states that put him in the White House in the 2016 election? The answer is NO. To illustrate, farmer suicide in the rust belt was at its highest level in years during the Trump administration, which included his stupid tariffs on China that led to China boycotting America's farming exports and then a large number of farmers' bankruptcies.
Also, Mayor Linda Tyer is not solely to blame for all of Pittsfield's socioeconomic problems. It has been many past decades of failed leadership in Pittsfield politics that has led to Pittsfield being called "A City in Decay" in Gregory Crewdson's art exhibits spanning from London, England, to New York City, to L.A. Do I believe that the Lovely Linda is out-of-touch living in her millionaires-only gated community? The answer is YES she is disconnected from the common people who are mostly protesting her failed leadership on North Street and elsewhere throughout the community, such as Pittsfield's inner city Level 5 (or failing) public schools.
Lastly, I don't believe government is rational anymore. Politicians from Beacon Hill to the Swamp are all on their months-long-plus August 2021 vacation, huge sums of stimulus and rental relief money are sitting unspent in every level of government, inflation is at decades high levels, the federal debt is increasing by trillions of dollars every fiscal year, the Swamp reached its federal debt limit and will risk economic catastrophe with a debt default, K Street corporate lobbyists are the real powerbrokers on Capitol Hill, President Joe Biden's shameful withdrawal from Afghanistan is an ongoing humanitarian crisis, and so on. The rich and powerful elites don't give a damn because they are all well taken care of, while the rest of us are fearing for our survival during the ongoing Covid-19 global pandemic.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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August 22, 2021
My proposal for Pittsfield's projects is to put them all in Linda and Barry's millionaires-only gated community neighborhood of elitist snobs in west Pittsfield near the Hancock border. Put the mountain bike project, the homeless who poop on North Street, downtown's Social Services Alley and all of the economically disadvantaged residents of Pittsfield, the Juvenile Courthouse and the teens who vandalize storefronts, the drug dealers, druggies and gangbangers, the drunks and the lowlifes, the prostitutes and the Johns, the Lottery retailers, the cigarette sellers, the booze outlets, the skunk-like marijuana odors, and all of the other socioeconomic problems in Pittsfield in the exclusive neighborhood where the sitting Mayor of Pittsfield - the Lovely Linda - lives with her multimillionaire Accountant husband Barry Clairmont. Lastly, while we are at it, relocate Pittsfield's two toxic waste leaky landfills that abut Allendale Elementary School - no thanks to GE - in Linda and Barry's backyard. What do you say to that? Turn the tables on the ruling elites, especially the out-of-touch Mayor Linda Tyer!!!!
Jonathan A. Melle
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August 23, 2021
Hello Patrick Fennell,
You make a very good point. Pittsfield profits off of Nuciforo's multimillion dollar marijuana business and other pot shops, state lottery tickets, out of area casinos like the one in Springfield, excessive fees and fines, and the like, but then the Berkshire Eagle runs a long news article about Pittsfield's socioeconomic problems that plague North Street and the ring of poverty that encircles North Street. Pittsfield cannot have it both ways. When Pittsfield takes all of the predatory industries' money from Nuciforo's marijuana empire and other pot shops, the state lottery, out of area casinos, excessive fees and fines, and the like, then Pittsfield is also taking in the socioeconomic problems that go with it.
Best wishes,
Jonathan Melle
On Monday, August 23, 2021, 06:09:03 AM EDT, Patrick Fennell wrote:
Jonathon;
Voters get what they deserve. Over six decades of Democrat rule in Pittsfield, that need pot shops, the lottery, casinos, extra fees, fines and taxes to keep the city alive. Says a lot.
Patrick Fennell
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September 4, 2021
Wealthy Ward 4 runs Pittsfield politics. They choose the Mayor, the 4 At Large City Councilors, the Ward 4 City Councilor, and the "Level 5" School Committee. Peter Marchetti campaigns for votes in Ward 3 and especially in Ward 4 because he knows that is where his bread is buttered every 2 years at municipal election time. He ran against Dan Bianchi for Mayor of Pittsfield years ago, and he lost to Dan Bianchi. He then got behind the Lovely Linda Tyer for Mayor of Pittsfield in 2015, and he dishes out retribution to anyone who opposes her failed leadership for over the past 5.5 years and counting. First, I think that it is wrong and undemocratic that one single wealthy Ward (Four) - among six other Wards in a city full of mostly working class and underclass mostly non-voting residents - has all of the clout in Pittsfield politics. Second, I believe that Peter Marchetti plays the same old tune at municipal election time to win over the mostly privileged voters who live in Ward 4. Peter Marchetti is a political operator who is Mayor Linda Tyer's middleman who does nothing but greases the old and broken political machine in Pittsfield politics. Peter Marchetti will predictably win reelection in 2021, and the proverbial Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski family will continue to get screwed as they always do year in and year out. Pittsfield politics is totally predictable because the same incestuous group of political insiders pull the same crap year and year out, while everyone else in Pittsfield either doesn't care and/or knows they will have to "Assume the position" with retribution if they speak out about City Hall's systemic corruption. To be clear, Peter Marchetti knows full well what he is doing!
Jonathan A. Melle
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September 14, 2021
Pittsfield Massachusetts is the least educated metro area in the state. Pittsfield's inner city public schools are rated Level 5 (the worst rating) by the state. North Street (downtown) Pittsfield is sarcastically called "Social Services Alley", and the streets that surround North Street are sarcastically called "The Ring of Poverty".
My view of post industrial (or post GE) Pittsfield is that the state and local ruling elites want intergenerational poverty, failing public schools, low educational attainment, high per capita welfare caseloads, social services government agencies and not-for-profit agencies, and so on because it brings in many millions of dollars in federal and state administered public revenues to Pittsfield's distressed economy. To be clear, Pittsfield economic model is severe socioeconomic inequality - such as Mayor Linda Tyer living in her millionaires-only gated community - so that Pittsfield can milk the system for social safety net government funds.
Lastly, I do NOT believe the ruling elites in Pittsfield uses all of its social safety net millions of dollars from Uncle Sam and Boston to help its huge underclass. Rather, Matt Kerwood uses "Creative Accounting" financial schemes to shuffle money around various city government accounts to build his excessive multimillion dollar $lu$h Fund$ that should belong in the pockets of the proverbial Mary Jane and Joe Kapan$ki family.
Jonathan Melle
This Is the Least Educated Metro Area in Massachusetts | State | homenewshere.com
homenewshere.com/news/state/article_39364ef5-dd78-5f77-afa5-b3003eb313cf.html
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October 6, 2021
I have followed Pittsfield politics for decades, and I find it to be both corrupt and totally predictable. The following are my observations: (a) Ward 4 runs the city and school district because wealthy Ward 4 always decides every citywide election, (b) It is more likely that one would win the $700 million Powerball lottery jackpot than be able to effectively communicate with City Hall Officials, (c) Civic participation in Pittsfield politics is met with retribution unless one loses all of their self-esteem and kisses the ruling elites' dirty behinds, (d) GE made Pittsfield Massachusetts into its dump, (e) Pittsfield is one of the most economically unequal areas in the state and nation because there are little to no living wage jobs there (unless one is politically connected), (f) City Hall always increases its yearly municipal and public school budget by 5% each and every fiscal year, (g) Pittsfield and Western Massachusetts always gets the shaft from Boston, (h) All of the politicians who represent Pittsfield from City Hall, the Boston Statehouse, and the Swamp are all totally disconnected from the people and taxpayers who live in Pittsfield, (i) blogger Dan Valenti writes about Pittsfield politics and beyond, but the ruling elites disregard his writings and continue on with "business as usual", (j) the proverbial Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski always lose to the vested and special interests, (k) Pittsfield politics is, indeed, like a Mafia with the "All in the Family" incestuous-like insider group of one political (Democratic) party hacks that pull the same crap year in and year out, (l) Pittsfield's inner city public schools are ranked Level 5 by the state, and they should be in state receivership to give the underclass families a shot at a decent public education, (m) Matt Kerwood used "Creative Accounting" to shuffle city dollars around various city accounts and build his unnecessary multimillion dollar slush funds that rightfully belong in the pockets of the aforementioned Kapanski family, (n) Mayor Linda Tyer living in her millionaires-only gated community in west Pittsfield near the Hancock border sends an elitist message to Pittsfield's diminishing working class and huge underclass, (o) North Street is sarcastically called "Social Services Alley" during business hours, and "the place to avoid" after hours, (p) Pittsfield has experienced decades-long losses in population, businesses, and living wage jobs, (q) I call Pittsfield's distressed local economy that only goes lower and lower every year "Perverse Incentives" because the city government makes more money off of Social Services and Level 5 public schools than investing in a working class economy with living wage jobs, (r) PEDA is 23 years old and counting and has millions of dollars in unfunded liabilities and is still mostly vacant and polluted with GE's industrial chemicals called PCBs and it is a case study in failed public management, (s) Pittsfield does not want to change or gentrify because it is always "business as usual" that benefits a select few politically connected con and shakedown artists, (t) Pittsfield's "Ruberto Renaissance" failed to revitalize the dangerous downtown and the city's distressed economy, (u) the Berkshire delegation to Beacon Hill only does DISSERVICES to the people and taxpayers in Pittsfield and beyond, (v) PAC Man Richie Neal only represents K Street Lobbyist firms that have nothing to do with the people who live in Pittsfield and elsewhere in his large geographical Congressional District, (w) Pittsfield's infrastructure equals a lot of deferred maintenance and unfunded liabilities, (x) it is more difficult for small businesses to operate in Pittsfield than elsewhere in the region, (y) Inner city Pittsfield is overrun with gangs, violent crime, drugs, homelessness and poverty, (z) Cliff Nilan tells everyone that "No one cares anymore" when people voice their concerns about Pittsfield's downward spiral, but I believe that people still love and care about Pittsfield.
Jonathan A. Melle
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October 15, 2021
I find Pittsfield politics to be the most Orwellian reality since Orwell wrote about Nazi Germany's impact on politics and national governments. First, Mayor Linda Tyer blocks my political emails because she doesn't like to read about my criticisms of my native hometown, including the fact that she lives in a millionaires' only gated community in far west Pittsfield very close to the border with Hancock, while the people she represents are mostly working class and underclass Pittsfield residents. Second, Pittsfield politics is a China-like one political (Democratic) Party system compounded by the fact that anyone not in the incestuous-like in-crowd are all blacklisted from both state and local government and the Dirty Bird publishing their letters to the Editor. Third, when one speaks out about how corrupt and undemocratic Pittsfield politics really is, they receive retribution from the ruling elites in Pittsfield and Boston. Fourth, in order to feel safe and secure in your job and life in Pittsfield, one has to either kiss the ruling elite's dirty behinds or not exercise Free Speech out of fear of retribution. Fifth, Pittsfield is one of the most economically unequal areas in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the entire nation because there are no living wage jobs for the average working family. Sixth, Pittsfield does not invest in the common people to have living wage jobs, but instead, Pittsfield uses "Perverse Incentives" to take as much federally funded and state administered public aid for its Level 5 public schools, Social Services Agencies, and high per capita welfare caseloads as it can get. Seventh, Ward 4, which has mostly well off households, runs Pittsfield politics because the voters who live there decide each and every citywide election year in and year out, which means the other six Wards have no real representation. Eighth, Pittsfield is still polluted with GE's industrial chemicals called PCBs that have caused cancer in thousands upon thousands of local residents, but the ruling elites' never do anything to fight GE to make GE pay for and cleanup its toxic waste pollution there. Nine, dangerous downtown Pittsfield is full of homelessness, poverty, Social Services agencies, drugs, violent crime, prostitution, and the like, and the area that surrounds North Street is sarcastically called "The Ring of Poverty", but Pittsfield didn't have to tank to rock bottom if there were real community leaders who didn't live in wealthy gated communities and were totally disconnected from the people they supposedly represent in state and local government. Tenth, whenever one writes about Pittsfield's distressed economy and political corruption, they receive the pat answer from Good Old Boys such as Cliff Nilan, "No one cares anymore". In closing, I wish George Orwell was alive over 71 years since his death in early-1950 so he could write a book about Pittsfield politics!
Jonathan A. Melle
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October 15, 2021
The government always makes the politically-connected vested and special interests a lot of money. Over the past 5 decades, most of the gains in income and capital went to the wealthiest households, while common people feel fortunate to either make a little money or cut even because the underclass grows larger and larger year after year. Due to the rigged political system, the elites on Wall Street and in the Swamp always wins no matter what happens, while the rest of us live in Social Darwinism or "Swim or Sink". It doesn't matter if the Republican Party or the Democratic Party is in power because the government always serves the same financial elites. The only real political party in government are the Incumbents or career politicians whose only job is to raise PAC money (from K Street) and get reelected with their campaign war chests.
In Pittsfield politics, the one political (Democratic) party ruling elites in Boston and Pittsfield are totally disconnected from the people and taxpayers they supposedly represent in government. The political hacks who run the show in Pittsfield Massachusetts count on citizen and taxpayer apathy and their use of retribution to serve the vested and special interests, while working and underclass families there have to live with Level 5 failing public schools, unsafe streets, little to no living wage jobs, high municipal taxes, fees and public debts and other liabilities, and their out-of-touch Mayor - Linda Tyer - living in a wealthy gated community.
Jonathan A. Melle
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October 16, 2021
I agree that the corrupt establishment Boston-based Democratic Party has failed Pittsfield Massachusetts and many other Commonwealth communities similar to Pittsfield. I live near Lowell and Fitchburg Massachusetts from my perch in Amherst, New Hampshire. From what I see, working class families live in Lowell or Fitchburg and commute to Boston because there are no working class homes or apartments in the expensive Boston area. Nashua has busses that take us into Boston, but the area that I live in does not have train services. The Northeast or "Bos -Wash" corridor is tailored to the financial elites, which means that most of us non-politically-connected common folk have no real political representation in government. In my neighboring town of Merrimack NH, Fidelity is a big employer of local people. My former neighbor who works there was awarded a trip to Hawaii and he proposed to his now wife there, and I heard that they recently had a baby together. We all have to live somewhere, and I suggest we learn to take the good with the bad, and enjoy life instead of always being mad that we have to pound sand.
Jonathan A. Melle
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October 16, 2021
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
As an avid reader of your awesome blog "Planet Valenti" about Pittsfield politics and beyond, I read about the Hess Gas Station Forest, Springside Park, chronic flooding at historic Wahconah Park, Silver Lake and PEDA's polluted moonscape, homeless people pooping on North Street, teens vandalizing North Street storefronts, potholed streets, urban blight, working poor neighborhoods with a lot of wear and tear unmaintained homes, and so on. I just read the letter to the Dirty Bird, below, about the Carousel on Center Street in Pittsfield falling into disrepair. Why does Pittsfield allow all of this rot? Doesn't the Gated Community Mayor Linda Tyer have any pride in the city she leads? Couldn't the inmates at the Berkshire County Jail maintain Pittsfield's land and streets on a supervised work release program and earn some money for themselves to get started when they are released from jail? When my brother and I were students at Pittsfield High School in the early-1990s, my brother and I volunteered to cleanup Pittsfield's land and riverbanks back then. I remember finding an unopened six pack of Budweiser beer cans during a cleanup of Springside Park when I was still too young to drink, and then giving it to one of the older volunteers. I am sure Mayor Linda Tyer could find young adults to cleanup Pittsfield like the late Mayor Ed Reilly did when I was a teenager growing up in Pittsfield decades ago. I am sure that high school art students would love to fix up the Carousel. I request that you please address this letter to Gated Community Mayor Linda Tyer and ask her for her thoughts on my open letter to you.
Thank you,
Jonathan A. Melle
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Letter: "What can be done about the carousel?"
The Berkshire Eagle, October 16, 2021
To the editor: I am always disheartened when I make a trip to the Center Street area in Pittsfield.
I drive by the Berkshire Carousel and see sadness. I feel extremely bad for all of the wonderful artists, painters and volunteers who put in countless hours of time and money to carve the horses, benches and all of the time, work, campaigning and money invested into this project, and now it sits rotting in place.
Is there nothing that can be done to get this project open and running again — maybe by next spring?
Judy Condron, Dalton
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October 16, 2021
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
Per your request, which I honor, of one blog post on your awesome blog per day, I won't publish my response to a blog poster writing to me:
"Linda ain’t so lovely anymore??????"
I wish to state for the record that I respect and have long supporter Linda Tyer in Pittsfield politics. That doesn't mean that I agree with her all of the time. Nor does it mean that I hold back on criticizing her public record and living in a millionaires' only gated community near the border with Hancock and being out-of-touch with the people and taxpayers of Pittsfield Massachusetts - which is our native hometown.
I think Linda is a lovely woman. I do not have a romantic interest in Linda. She is married to CPA Barry Clairmont, and I wish them a wonderful life together. When I lived in my native hometown of Pittsfield many years ago in 2003/2004 time period of about 7 months, I supported Linda Tyer because she is progressive, speaks out for human rights and advocates for the disadvantaged, she is warm and caring, and she loves the City of Pittsfield. Those are all things I care about and believe in. I supported Linda Tyer's two campaigns for Mayor of Pittsfield in 2015 and 2019 from my new hometown of Amherst, New Hampshire because Linda Tyer is a good person with a good heart who always tries to do well by Pittsfield, despite the mess she inherited in 2016 and Pittsfield's distressed economy and dependence on Social Services agencies.
I wish Mayor Linda Tyer would stop blocking my emails. I believe that she should hear from people who criticize her decisions and leadership style. I don't judge Linda Tyer for being allied with Godfather Jimmy Ruberto of Naples Florida and other Good Old Boys club politicians who have failed in the past. Every politician has to be part of a political organization to succeed.
After Mayor Linda Tyer's 8 years in the corner office, and given that Pittsfield currently has Level 5 public schools, systemic poverty and homelessness, severe economic inequality with little to no living wage jobs for the average working class family, unsafe inner city streets, high municipal taxes, fees, public debts and other liabilities, Matt Kerwood's multimillion dollar slush funds, and so on, I won't be supporting a third term for Mayor Linda Tyer from 2024 - 2027; not that it matters, of course. She has failed to help Pittsfield recover from its distressed economic state, even though she meant well for Pittsfield. I wish Linda Tyer well in her life after Pittsfield politics. She deserves it because she made a good effort as a public leader.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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October 19, 2021
Re: Open letter to Planet Valenti questioning the nonuse of huge sums of state and local cash
I will keep my post short tonight. First, why are Beacon Hill lawmakers still sitting on $10 billion in cash for a couple of months now? Second, why is Mayor Linda Tyer still sitting on tens of millions in Biden Bucks plus Matt Kerwood's multimillion dollar slush funds? Doesn't all of this state and municipal cash really belong in the pockets of the proverbial Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski family?
Jonathan A. Melle
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October 24, 2021
Hello blogger Dan Valenti, readers and posters,
I have followed corrupt Pittsfield politics for decades - I am now 46 years old - and it is always predictable. Ward 4, which is mostly middle class and upper middle class, decides each and every state and local citywide election in Pittsfield Massachusetts. That means that the other 6 city Wards don't really matter to the City Council and School Committee, as well as to State Representative "Trippy Country Buffet" and Paul "Marx", despite his Labor Union background. Ward 4, which is mostly white, does not have Level 5 public schools like inner city Pittsfield public schools, which is mostly non-white. In municipal elections, voter turnout is almost never more than 20% of registered voters. Pittsfield politicians only represent the city's vested interests, which are public employees' public school, police and fire department labor unions. The Mayor of Pittsfield raises municipal spending by 5% each and every fiscal year, along with raising fees, public debts and other liabilities that total in the hundreds of millions of dollars that the city knows damn well it will never pay back in our lifetimes. The Mayor and the wealthy Ward 4 backed City Council give millions of municipal tax dollars and breaks to out-of-town millionaires and other special interests, which means that they have no business raising operating budget spending by 5% each and every fiscal year for decades on end. Mayor Linda Tyer is still literally sitting on tens of millions of dollars in Biden Bucks plus Matt Kerwood's multimillion dollar Slush Funds for no good reason at all. For over 20 years now, GE has made Pittsfield into its toxic waste dump, including Hill 78's capped industrial chemical PCBs-filled leaky landfill that abuts Allendale Elementary School. 23 year old PEDA is heavily indebted with millions of dollars in liabilities that are as bad as its mostly vacant and polluted moonscape-like acres of land and polluted Silver Lake. Mayor Linda Tyer and the lousy Berkshire legislative delegation to Boston support making Lee and Lenoxdale into GE's dump they did to Pittsfield over the objections of thousands of voiceless local residents. GE bribed Pittsfield with an $8 million sweetener to close the deal to sellout Lee and Lenoxdale. The "Almighty Dollar" is all that matters to Mayor Linda Tyer and her wealthy CPA husband Barry Clairmont who live together in a millionaires only gated community in far west Pittsfield near the Hancock border. Dangerous downtown Pittsfield is called "Social Services Alley" and the underclass neighborhoods around North Street are called Pittsfield's "Ring of Poverty". Pittsfield is always in the top 10 cities in Massachusetts for violent crime, according to the FBI's annual data. Pittsfield is one of the most economically unequal areas in the state of Massachusetts, as well as in the nation, because there are little to no living wage job there for the average working class family. When one writes and/or speaks out about Pittsfield politics like I do, they lose their job faster than "a New York minute", but I had to speak out about state and local politics because my dad was a Pittsfield area politician over 2 decades ago. In closing, Pittsfield politics rules by strong-arm tactics in a distressed economy where the odds of winning the big lottery jackpot are greater than finding a living wage job for the average working class and underclass family - slim to none - and slim has left Pittsfield over 30 years ago with decades of population and job loss in Pittsfield - just ask or read Smitty Pignatelli's endless, hypocritical, redundant and annoying op-eds in the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) newspaper.
Jonathan Alan Melle
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October 27, 2021
The 1946 Christmas classic movie "It's a Wonderful Life" had an important economics lesson for community leaders. George Bailey used his small financial institution to INVEST in PEOPLE, while Henry Potter used his large financial institution to PROFIT off of and exploit PEOPLE. In George Bailey's Bedford Falls, the working class families were given a fair chance because his Building and Loans institution invested in them. In Henry Potter's Pottersville, the working class families were used as "chattel" and had no choice but to pay rent to live in his slum apartments.
For decades on end, Pittsfield politicians have not invested in the community's most valuable resource: The people who live in Pittsfield Massachusetts. Instead, City Hall has passed record high municipal budgets as its tax base has diminished, delivered Level 5 inner city public schools, shutout the general public from state and local government through retribution, and elected an elitist Mayor named Linda Tyer who lives with her wealthy CPA husband Barry Clairmont in a millionaires only gated community in far west Pittsfield within feet of the Hancock border. Pittsfield is noted as one of the most economically unequal metro areas in the state and nation. The working class and underclass - who are the majority of local residents - have no real voice in their corrupt state and local government.
The millions of dollars in state administered federal funds for social services and Level 5 public schools is too good for Pittsfield politicians to pass up, which I call "Perverse Incentives" that leads to more and more underclass people moving to and living in inner city Pittsfield. At least Pittsfield still has wealthy Ward 4 and other middle class neighborhoods, but "the Ring of Poverty" around North Street's "Social Services Alley" is unpleasant.
Lastly, one asks, why is it so important to INVEST in PEOPLE? The answer is because the people will in turn INVEST in the COMMUNITY by paying taxes, shopping at small businesses, working in living wage jobs to be able provide for their healthy families, and live in modest homes or apartments that will eventually be passed onto future generations. It is NOT Rocket Science to have a nice community, but post industrial Pittsfield has given up on that for a long time now.
Jonathan A. Melle
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November 8, 2021
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
The Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle)'s news article, below, states: "....the rise in assessed property values powering that market also might mean a larger tax bill — an average increase of about 5 percent...."
What else is new? I have followed our native hometown of Pittsfield Massachusetts' "Pittsfield politics" for many decades of my 46 year old life. For as long as I can remember, Pittsfield politics always, always, always increases its fiscal year municipal operating budget/spending by 5 percent. It is as predictable as the Sun rising in the East and setting in the West.
Matt Kerwood shuffles millions of city dollars around various municipal accounts so that he can build his multimillion dollar slush funds so that Gated Community Mayor Linda Tyer can say that she has sound fiscal management. The problems with this is that (a) Matt Kerwood's slush funds belong in the pocket of the proverbial Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski family, (b) city money allocated to certain departments goes to other departments or other unspecified places, (c) the local taxpayers are obviously overtaxed, and (d) Gated Community Mayor Linda Tyer is literally sitting on tens of millions of dollars in cash from Biden Bucks and Matt Kerwood's aforementioned slush funds.
Why would Gated Community Mayor Linda Tyer and Slush Fund Kufflinks Matt Kerwood once again raise municipal taxes/spending by Pittsfield politics' predictable 5 percent benchmark when the city is flush with tens of millions of dollars in cash? It is NOT even rational anymore!
Please share my email letter with Gated Community Mayor Linda Tyer and the old and new Pittsfield City Council and ask them about this. I would like to read their responses on your awesome blog, Planet Valenti.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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"In Pittsfield, home values — and the levy ceiling — are going up, but so are property tax bills"
By Meg Britton-Mehlisch, The Berkshire Eagle, November 8, 2021
PITTSFIELD — A strong housing market means that Pittsfield has more financial liquidity and a brighter future, according to Mayor Linda Tyer.
But, the rise in assessed property values powering that market also might mean a larger tax bill — an average increase of about 5 percent — for many city residents.
"We think we're in a really strong position, not only for this year, but in the years going forward," Tyer said. "I guess we could say that this is a COVID-19 silver lining that we have had, in our city, a lot of demand for single-family homes and not a lot of supply."
The mayor Tuesday formally will submit to the City Council the proposed tax rate for the 2022 financial year, which started July 1. This year, Tyer's administration is trying to raise about $94.7 million in property taxes — about $2.9 million more than last financial year.
If approved by the council, the residential tax rate would decline from $19.25 to $18.56 per $100,000 in assessed value, and the commercial tax rate would drop from $39.99 to $39.90.
So, why are tax rates going down, even though the city's levy is going up? Because property values on residential properties have seen significant increases in their valuation over the past year.
From fiscal 2021 to 2022, the average single-family home increased in value from $203,901 to about $222,073 — a change of about 9 percent. Under the proposed tax rate, an owner of an average single-family home would see an annual tax bill that is about $197 higher than last year's.
"This is good news, that people now have equity in their homes," Paula King, Pittsfield's chief assessor, said at a news conference Monday.
Single-family homes in Pittsfield account for about 59 percent of all taxable properties in the city, but this year they were responsible for about 81 percent of the overall $254.6 million change in assessed property values in the city.
Long story short: Higher assessed values on single-family homes mean City Hall is able to get more from the tax levy this year than in previous years.
"For many people in Pittsfield, their home is their greatest asset," Tyer said. "Having homes with values is as important for individual financial stability just as much as it is for community stability."
She said that the growth in residential property values means that, for the first time since 2015, the city no longer is constrained by its levy ceiling — the maximum amount a city can raise in property taxes in a given year.
Tyer is proposing that the city levy about $5.3 million less than its maximum potential levy — a move that she and city Finance Director Matt Kerwood said makes the city more attractive in the bond market and gives the city liquidity.
"By keeping that levy ceiling above what our levy limit would be, we're continuing to build in a positive way," Kerwood said.
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November 9, 2021
Tonight, Pittsfield politics will do the same thing it has done every fiscal year for decades-on-end: Raise its municipal budget spending by 5 percent.
Proposition 2.5 is a flawed state law because it is not based on financial data, but rather it is an arbitrary number that arbitrarily constrains municipal and public school district spending. Proposition 2.5 is 40 years old and very outdated. It is only a state law, and it should be easily repealed and replaced with real financial public policies that are driven by both state and local financial data.
Proposition 2.5 is really in place to give the Governor of Massachusetts and Beacon Hill career politicians a way to systemically underfund or lowball state aid to municipalities and public school districts for 4 decades and counting. I have received countless political emails over the years that say that Boston is not fully funding public education and municipal governments, but rather Boston is giving tens of billions of dollars in state tax breaks to politically-connected big businesses that are nowhere to be found in most of Western Massachusetts and other areas of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Boston Globe reported last Spring of 2021 that Beacon Hill gives $17.8 billion per fiscal year to big business. You may thank Beacon Hill lobbyists such as Dan Bosley, Peter Larkin and Stan Rosenberg for your tax dollars not going to your child's public education and your community's police and fire services.
For over four months now, Beacon Hill lawmakers have been sitting on $10 billion in cash. Why don't they use the money to provide aid to needed government services to help people and taxpayers recover from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic? I think we all know the answer: It wouldn't be business as usual from Pittsfield politics to Boston.
Jonathan A. Melle
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"Tax rates, levy ceiling, levy limits, oh my! Here's a quick guide to understanding Pittsfield tax season discussions"
By Meg Britton-Mehlisch, The Berkshire Eagle, November 9, 2021
PITTSFIELD — Tonight the City Council will vote on the roughly $94.7 million tax levy proposed by Mayor Linda Tyer. The levy would bring in about $2.9 million more to city coffers than the 2021 levy.
Tyer has said that rising residential property values has meant the city can lower its residential and commercial tax rate but what does all of this really mean for property tax bills?
What should I expect on my tax bill?
If you're a residential property owner in Pittsfield, your annual tax bill will likely go up under the proposed tax levy. That's a function of two things: rising property values and a rising tax levy.
"We have a levy that has increased by $2.9 million this year," City Assessor Paula King said. "Taxes are going up because our levy has gone up."
What's a levy?
The levy is the amount of money a city raises through taxes every year. King said that in Pittsfield the levy covers about 50 percent of the money needed each year for the city's budget. The other 50 percent comes from state aid and local receipts — things like motor vehicle taxes and service and rental fees.
But the tax rate is decreasing so my bill should decrease, right?
Not really. The tax rate — the tax taken per $1,000 in assessed value — is decided by how big the levy is each year.
In a year when the tax levy stayed the same as the prior year and property values went down, a city would have to increase the tax rate in order to get the same amount of money from taxpayers as the year before.
In a year where the tax levy stayed the same as the prior year and property values went up, the tax rate would go down to achieve the same amount of taxes.
"If your bill is going up then your property value has increased from the prior calendar year," King said. "The tax is multiplied by your property value by $1,000 of value."
Financial Director Matt Kerwood said if you're looking for a way to calculate your tax bill and see how it's changed, take the assessed value of your home, divide by 1,000 and multiply by the tax rate.
This year, property values across Pittsfield saw major increases and the tax levy increased. The mayor is proposing lowering the residential and commercial tax rate because the rising property values compensate for the bigger levy.
But my house looks the same as last year; why am I being assessed more?
King said it's not just your house or neighborhood that saw an increase in property values.
"We're seeing across-the-board property values of the residential class raise pretty equally," King said. "It's not like there's one section of town that's seen this huge increase, it's being spread throughout the whole community."
Property values are increasing because similarly classified homes in the area are selling for more money than they have in previous years.
Your home's assessed property value is its market value — or how much assessors believe your home would be bought for by an educated and reasonable buyer.
I thought there were limits on how much the city could levy?
There are limits on what a city can levy — in fact, in Massachusetts there's more than one constraint. Proposition 2 1/2, which became law in 1980, created limits on how city levies were set by establishing two kinds of limits.
One is the levy ceiling, which is set by taking the total market value of all properties in the city and multiplying that value but 2.5 percent. That dollar amount is the highest amount the levy limit can be. For fiscal year 2022, Pittsfield's levy ceiling is about $102.4 million.
The levy limit is the other constraint; it's the maximum amount a city can set the tax levy at each year. The limit has to be less than or equal to the ceiling and is based on a standard increase over the prior years limit plus any new growth in the city.
This year, Pittsfield's levy limit calculation was less than its ceiling, meaning the city had access to its full levying abilities, according to Kerwood. For the last six years Pittsfield's levy limit — not the actual amount being raised through taxes — has hit up against the city's levy ceiling.
Kerwood said that's because for much of the early 2000s, properties in the city were decreasing in property value. Since 2016 property values have been increasing incrementally. The major increases in the last year created more space between the levy limit and ceiling.
What do these limits mean for me?
Not much. "It doesn't have an impact on the individual taxpayer," Kerwood said. "It has an impact on the city's overall financial condition."
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"Council pushes off tax rate question in hopes that free cash can reduce the burden to residents"
By Meg Britton-Mehlisch, The Berkshire Eagle, November 9, 2021
PITTSFIELD — The City Council hopes to see whether free cash — leftover unrestricted money for last year’s budget — could once again lower tax rates for residents after several city councilors said that Mayor Linda Tyer’s proposed rate for the current financial year would be too much for their residents to handle.
The council voted 6-3 Tuesday night to table Tyer’s proposal to set the residential tax rate at $18.56 per $1,000 in assessed value and the commercial tax rate at $39.90 per $1,000 until the council’s next meeting, in hopes that the city’s free cash will be certified in the meantime.
The Tyer administration had hoped to get council approval on the rates that would allow the city to levy almost $94.7 million in tax dollars and help support the city’s $189 million budget.
But the administration quickly saw opposition to that request from Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi, Ward 4 Councilor Chris Connell and Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey, who said they’ve heard from many constituents that this bill would continue to price them out of the city.
Under the proposal the average single-family home — which increased in value from $203,901 to $222,073 in the last year — would see an increase of about $197 in annual property taxes.
The $197 increase represents about a 5 percent increase in the bill for the average single-family home — the most common property type in the city.
Kavey, Morandi and Connell were joined by future council members Charles Kronick and Karen Kalinowsky in calling for help for residents’s pocket books. The councilors said that inflation, rising gas and grocery prices and the economic challenges of the pandemic have eaten away at residents’ ability to take on more costs.
“I have residents that say they’re getting priced our and residents that on fixed incomes,” Kavey said. “I want to continue to see young professionals move in, continue to see young families move in but I also don’t want to price out the people who have lived here for 40 years.”
Ward 7 Councilor Anthony Maffuccio asked Finance Director Matt Kerwood and Chief City Assessor Paula King to calculate what tax bills would look like for the average single family home in Pittsfield if the city used $1 million in free cash towards the city’s levy needs.
The council has used this move before, voting in late 2019 to allocate $1 million in free cash to reduce bill increases.
After a 15-minute recess in the council meeting for Kerwood and King to run the numbers, the council was told that if the city allocated $1 million in free cash toward the levy need then the average single-family home property bill would increase about $152 instead of $197 — an increase of 3.88 percent.
The annual tax bill for a single-family homeowner would still come in around $4,077.
For the median commercial property in the city — which has been valued at $190,650 — the tax bill would decrease about $40 over last year’s bill.
Kerwood estimated that the city has about $3.3 million in free cash. He advised against using that money to cover a portion of city taxes, saying he felt it would hurt the city in the long-run.
“We’re going to find ourselves in a cycle where as [property] values continue to rise and the [tax] rate continues to go down we’re going to see a series of increases,” Kerwood said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate to continue to subsidize that by throwing free cash at this when we get to the tax classification hearing process.”
Kerwood told the council that either way, they couldn’t vote to use the city’s free cash in this way until it’s been certified by the state’s Division of Labor Services. He told the council he had no idea when the certification might occur.
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November 10, 2021
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
I read the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle)'s news articles about Pittsfield politics under Gated Community Linda Tyer and Slush Fund Kufflinks Matt Kerwood's proposed tax rate 5% hike that got shot down by the Pittsfield City Council last night and the request to use the city government's "Free Cash" to lessen the 5% budget spending increase. What struck me about it all is that Tyer and Kerwood said they have an estimated $3.3 million in "Free Cash" and they proposed increasing the municipal budget by $2.9 million. If Tyer and Kerwood used all of the "Free Cash" funds for the increased tax rate, they would still have $400,000 in "Free Cash" left over. To be honest, I am totally confused by Tyer and Kerwood's financial management methods. I am not a municipal financial manager, but I am able to do basic math and budgeting. I would appreciate if you would explain Pittsfield politics' predictable 5% tax rate hikes on your awesome blog. I like to learn, and I like to read about finance and watch financial shows on TV. Lastly, are Pittsfield politics record setting municipal budgets, fees, public debts and other liabilities sustainable over the long term?
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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December 5, 2021
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
One of your blog posters wrote: "True with what JM tells us about social service alley, the offspring end up in schools here in Pittsfield. It is well known that the people who live off social services come to Massachusetts because of the benefits they can get. Unfortunately the government hasn’t realized that then the schools need the resources as well to handle the children. These children need more not less. But that is only part of the issue. The break down in societal norms would be number one in my book."
My response as to why I criticize downtown Pittsfield (Massachusetts)' sarcastically named "Social Services Alley" is that it shows the failure of state and local government to invest in its most valuable resource: The people who live and/or work in Pittsfield. The best example I can give is the 1946 Christmas classic movie "It's a Wonderful Life" whereby George Bailey invested in the working-class families who lived in Bedford Falls, while Henry Potter used them as chattel for his own personal and business profit. George Bailey saw the role of economics and finance as a means for working class people to own a home and be valued members of the community. While Henry Potter saw them as a means to have himself be the wealthiest man in the community. Please note, I understand these are two extreme opposite illustrations of public and business management.
In downtown Pittsfield, "Social Services Alley" is NOT investing in the underclass and/or working-class families who live in the "Ring of Poverty" around North Street. Instead, Pittsfield politics is using "Perverse Incentives" to take in as much Social Services and (Level 5) public education federally-funded and state-administered dollars as City Hall can get is greedy and corrupt hands on. Past administrations and now Mayor Linda Tyer, who lives in a mansion in Pittsfield's exclusive millionaires-only gated community within feet of the Hancock border, use these funds not as a means to invest in the people, but rather, as public revenue sources to always keep the vested and special interests happy year in and year out. After the politically-connected cronies all get their huge cut of "Kapanski Ka$h", "Kufflinks" Matt Kerwood shuffles the public funds around various city accounts to build and add to his excessive Slush Funds that should be in the pockets of the very people who are NOT being invested in by City Hall.
Another example of the government NOT investing in the people is the Massachusetts State Lottery, which reported its record year for state lottery profits after June 30, 2021 - after the end of the state's fiscal year. The lottery is nothing more than a financial scheme where the mostly financially illiterate underclass/working-class pay voluntary regressive (state lottery) taxes so that the aforementioned politically-connected vested and special interests, the mostly Boston metro area's politically-connected big businesses, and the wealthy residents all get tens of billions of dollars in tax breaks each and every state government fiscal year.
Career Politicians turned Greedy Lobbyists, such as Daniel Bosley, tell the people who live in poor communities such as North Adams that the state lottery is fun, and that the profits go to public education and local aid, which is sort of true, while they don't tell them that it is also regressive taxation - that mostly benefits the wealthy and politically-connected few - that most of the underclass and working class are unaware of when they buy their state lottery tickets with their limited financial means in hopes of winning "free" money. Over the past couple of decades, I have written to Dan Bosley about this issue, but it is always business as usual for the proverbial Bureaucrat Bosley, which makes him a wealthy guy whose political connections have paid off handsomely for him.
In closing, I was taught that the government is there to serve the people by investing in the people as the government's most valuable resource, but the reality of government is quite the opposite of those lofty ideals that were conveyed to moviegoers in the 1946 Christmas classic movie "It's a Wonderful Life".
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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April 1, 2022
Hello Patrick Fennell,
The politically connected in Massachusetts get to be on the public payroll with 6-figure and even 7-figure taxpayer-funded pay and perks. The proverbial Jon Melle and Patrick Fennell get to buy state lottery tickets, and so on. The career politicians in Massachusetts mostly receive 6-figure public pay and perks, while the taxpayers pay for systemically underfunded public education and public services. Is that the way government is supposed to work? Instead of the government serving the people and taxpayers, the proverbial Jon Melle and Patrick Fennell pay for DISSERVICES from the well compensated politically connected and career politicians. When will "Business as usual" ever end in government?
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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April 26, 2022
Hello Patrick Fennell,
Beacon Hill lawmakers are still sitting on billions of dollars in state cash. Why don't they invest some of their surplus funds into affordable housing for the at-risk homeless people and families in Massachusetts? I did my undergraduate research paper on homelessness in America, which was way back in the year 1997. Homeless people only live until 50 years old, and if they reach 60 years old then they are the exception. This Summer of 2022, I will turn 47 years old. If I was a homeless Veteran, I would only have a little over 3 years of life. I read about the affordable housing crisis in your Town of Great Barrington, and many southern Berkshire County families have to relocate to Pittsfield to find affordable housing. It is not right to make working class families relocate, and it is the opposite of the government investing in the people and the community they live in. Being a working-class family should not be a crime in our economically unequal society. If I was a big wheel career politician in the Swamp, I would be yelling at my colleagues there about the excessive federal spending, K Street lobbyist firms bragging about record earnings in 2021, and that the Swamp has become a Country Club for the Elites instead of a government of, by and for the American People. As for the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle), they only favor the progressive political agendas that put Pittsfield into the proverbial ditch.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
On Tuesday, April 26, 2022, 02:56:35 PM EDT, Patrick Fennell wrote:
The Eagle does not want to print the letter. Claim I lack the facts. Interesting isn't it?
On Tuesday, April 26, 2022, 02:20:56 PM EDT, Jonathan A. Melle <jonathan_a_melle@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hello Patrick Fennell,
I agree with your political letter. The Ruling Elites are a lot wealthier than the news media tells us. The Elites play financial shell games to grow their wealth, while the rest of us pound sand. Wall Street and the Swamp are the Elite's Country Clubs. Beacon Hill lawmakers are still sitting on billions of dollars in state cash. The local governments and public school districts, such as Pittsfield politics and public school system, always charges taxpayers top dollar for substandard public services and Level 5 public schools. To be clear, little guys such as you and me - Jon Melle - cannot win anymore.
Best wishes,
Jonathan Melle
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To the Editor.
Government local to federal are ALL mathematically challenged, corrupt, greedy, and incompetent. What do any forms of government do write? NOTHING! The last two-plus years have exposed them.
Let's look at one issue that has been longer than any of us have been alive, 'Affordable' housing. The government funds affordable housing by taxing property owners, including businesses, landlords and the elderly. The state forces 'Prevailing Wages' on municipal projects, so big wealthy contracting firms come into towns, take our money and leave. Small contractors, many restaurants and other businesses are left out of the picture. Toss in untaxed land and the locals get stuck with tax hikes and extra cost..
Then these families, many where Englis is a second language go to our lousy public schools. That becomes more expensive, lunch programs, free expensive field trips, extra transportation and special needs programs have to be paid for.
So when all is said taxes go up and many more people need assistance. The endless circle of stupidity continues. Tax dollars are NOT free grant money, prevailing wages make projects far more expensive and corrupt.
A simple way to have 'Affordable' housing is to work with landlords, through incentives, lower taxes, rehabilitating abandoned and rundown properties and getting rid of the racist prevailing wage. There will be more to do, but what government is doing now is NOT working.
The best way to end this stupid cycle is to vote out anyone presently in office now. They are not solution but continue to be the problem. Anyone who names a school and supports a registered communist is NEVER a person to have in your corner.
Patrick Fennell
Great Barrington, MA
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April 26, 2022
Hello Patrick Fennell,
When was the last time Beacon Hill lawmakers put the people first? To answer your loaded and sarcastic question, I don't know when that ever happened in the over 400-year history of Massachusetts politics. My own experience with Beacon Hill lawmakers was that they do NOT want to listen to someone like me. When I try to write political email letters to Trippy Country Buffet, Shitty Pigpen, and/or Paul Marxism, they are always blocked. When I read about proposed rules reform initiatives, most of the corrupt career politicians in Boston always vote them down. When I testified at a Beacon Hill Committee along with my dad, Bob who was an elected Berkshire County Commissioner, 23 years ago in the Spring of 1999 about the state abolishing Berkshire County Government, then State Representative Marty Walsh scolded me for pointing out the faults of Boston's Big Dig boondoggle pork barrel public works project. About a year earlier in the Spring of 1998, then Pittsfield State Senator Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior tried to jail me after he vindictively filed multiple state "ethics" complaints against my dad from the Fall of 1997 to the Spring of 1998. As a service-connected disabled American Veteran, I still believe that Governor Charlie Baker should take responsibility and apologize for his administration's mismanagement of the Chelsea and Holyoke Soldiers Homes whereby over 80 Veterans died during the outbreak of Covid-19. As a native of Pittsfield, I understand that Beacon Hill lawmakers always underfund state administered federal funds for local government and public school district state aid. I read about the Boston state Democratic Party Officials, who are all still in their political positions, running a homophobic smear campaign against Alex Morse during the Summer of 2020 when he challenged PAC Man Richie Neal. Imagine if Boston state Republican Party Officials did the same or a similar smear campaign against a homosexual Democratic Party candidate for U.S. Congress? There would be outrage, of course. I swear that Beacon Hill's public financial shell games mock distressed cities such as Pittsfield and the like with their tens of billions of dollars in state tax breaks every fiscal year for their politically connected big business campaign donors, while Pittsfield sells its state lottery tickets, booze, cigs, and pot, which are all regressive taxation schemes that allow the Boston area Pols to enrich themselves and their wealthy friends at the public trough for decades on end as corrupt career politicians.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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April 27, 2022
Hello Patrick Fennell,
The thing that bothers me the most about politicians - past, present and future all around the world - is that one has to kiss their dirty behinds and tell them how wonderful they are in government or else they either block you from communicating with them or they use fear and retribution against you. I believe that corrupt career politicians all have big egos, and they only want money and power so they can sit on their fat asses that they usual are in government for decades on end.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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April 28, 2022
Hello Patrick Fennell,
In response to your email whereby you wrote to me: "They ignore us anyway. Notice no one in office responds to these posts?", I believe that the corrupt career politicians are wrong to ignore us. Moreover, they should take the time to respond to our concerns and criticisms of their so-called work in government. The government belongs to the people, and the corrupt career politicians are supposed to be representing the people and taxpayers in government. But the reality is that they use the government as their sinecures whereby the Ruling Elites enrich themselves and their wealthy campaign donors at the public trough. To illustrate, let us look at my native hometown of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Beacon Hill's corrupt career politicians give away a little less than $18 billion in state tax breaks per fiscal year to their wealthy and politically connected big business campaign donors that are mostly in and around the Boston area - NOT in Western Massachusetts - while Pittsfield is in the other end of the Commonwealth. The Salons on Beacon Hill like to mockingly tell Mayor Linda Tyer, who is nobody's fool, and the like local leaders, how great it is that the state lottery had record earnings in fiscal year 2021, which means more state aid to her city government and Level 5 public school district. They are also like to mockingly tell her how legalized marijuana is giving her city government increased revenues. Of course, the state lottery and legalized pot (and so on) are all regressive taxation schemes that really serves to allow Boston's Pols/thieves to give away nearly $18 billion in state tax breaks per fiscal year to their wealthy campaign donors, while they give Pittsfield and the like distressed cities the proverbial shaft by systemically underfunding state aid going back generations. When the people and taxpayers who live in Pittsfield and the like distressed cities tell Chrome Dome Adam Hinds, Trippy Country Buffet, Shitty Pigpen, Paul Marxism, and the career Mayor John Barrett that they should be standing up to the State House and State Senate dictatorial and secretive leadership, they block our political email letters and never respond to us. Why do they ignore us? The answer is that they all earn 6-figure public pay and perks for part-time so-called sinecures in Boston. They are rewarded for being rubber stamp bureaucrats instead of state Legislators who represent the people and taxpayers who live in their state legislative districts. Then there is the Swamp. PAC Man Richie Neal rakes in millions of dollars every year from K Street corporate lobbyist firms, despite the fact that they have nothing to do with his largely rural C.D. Ed Markey really lives in Chevy Chase Maryland, which means that he has no business being a U.S. Senator for Massachusetts. Ed Markey always touts the Democrat's Green New Deal propaganda, which the entire world rolls their collective eyes at, especially the youth. Elizabeth Warren says she fights for Main Street, yet she supports Joe Biden, who takes in more money from Wall Street than any politician in U.S. history. Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden made over a billion dollars allegedly money laundering funds from adversarial countries such as Russia and China, which may be one of the biggest alleged tax fraud cases in U.S. history. The "Big Guy" (Joe Biden) is said to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, while Speaker Nancy Pelosi is said to be a billionaire. Who ever knew that the Swamp could make the Biden "Crime" Family and Speaker Nancy Pelosi so much money? It pays to be a corrupt career politician on Beacon Hill, and especially in the Swamp! Big government is really a big SCAM! I will go back to pounding sand about it all.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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April 28, 2022
Hello again, Patrick Fennell,
The news article, below, confirms that Beacon Hill lawmakers are still sitting on billions of dollars in surplus state government dollars, but the Massachusetts House rejected all of the Republican-led tax relief proposals. My solution is for the corrupt career politicians in Boston's Statehouse to lead by example and cut all of their public pay and perks by at least 50 percent while they are rolling in billions of dollars in surplus state funds. Instead of showing empathy for the people and taxpayers' financial pain, the Salons on Beacon Hill are being as greedy if not greedier as Beacon Hill's greediest registered lobbyist Dan Bosley, who is said to collect not one but two state pensions plus all of his other public perks which is on top of his 6-figure per year pro-big business lobbyist salary, by the well taken care of state lawmakers still taking in as much taxpayer revenue as they can get their dirty hands on. If ever there was a time for a second Western Massachusetts led Shay's Rebellion against the elitist Boston Pols, this week's actions in Boston marks the spot with a bullseye!
Best wishes,
Jonathan Melle
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"Massachusetts House rejects Republican-led tax relief proposals"
By Chris Lisinski, State House News Service, April 25, 2022
BOSTON — House Democrats kicked off debate Monday on a nearly $50 billion state budget bill by rejecting Republican-led efforts to weave tax relief into the annual spending plan.
Massachusetts raked in more than $5 billion in surplus tax revenues last fiscal year and is running at least $1.5 billion ahead of the current year's projections, performance that — coupled with more than $2 billion in federal American Rescue Plan Act socked away for future use — has generated a steady hum of calls for relief.
Gov. Charlie Baker has pressed recently to share the excess revenues with taxpayers in the form of rate relief, but so far has failed to convince lawmakers. Democrats shot down proposals to temporarily suspend the gas tax, lessen the impact of the estate and capital gains taxes, and boost a tax break for senior citizens.
Monday's decisions keep pieces of Baker's tax relief package in limbo. While legislative leaders say his proposal could still find success outside the budget process, the House votes show a lack of interest in paying for the recurring tax breaks in the annual budget, and leave questions about possible future plans.
Rep. Nicholas Boldyga, a Southwick Republican, sought to incorporate a trio of tax changes into the House's fiscal 2023 state budget: reducing the short-term capital gains tax rate from 12 percent to 5 percent, doubling the threshold at which the estate tax kicks in from $1 million to $2 million, and increasing from $750 to $1,755 the circuit breaker tax credit for Bay Staters ages 65 and older.
His amendments mirrored sections of Baker's bill, which is larger in scope and calls for roughly $700 million in tax breaks. The lame-duck governor's push for tax relief remains before the Revenue Committee, which currenlty faces a May 4 deadline to decide its fate but could seek another postponement.
Rep. Mark Cusack, a Braintree Democrat who co-chairs the Revenue Committee, described all three of Boldyga's amendments as "premature." He said his panel is "working diligently" on the governor's package but did not specify any plans to advance tax relief for a vote in the House.
The House also turned aside the latest attempts to halt collection of the state's gas tax, a levy Republicans have unsuccessfully targeted for weeks amid surging gas prices and the broader impact of skyrocketing inflation.
The House rejected a Rep. Paul Frost amendment that would have paused collection of the 24-cents-per-gallon gas tax for 60 days. Frost said he aimed for the suspension to take place during the summer months, when many Massachusetts families are traveling and the Bay State's tourism business surges.
His amendment called for the state to use money from its General Fund to cover transportation costs funded by the gas tax, such as road and bridge maintenance, during the two-month holiday.
The Auburn Republican pointed to neighboring Connecticut, where Democrat Gov. Ned Lamont signed a bill pausing collection of the Nutmeg State's gas tax from April 1 to June 30.
Legislative Democrats for weeks have resisted calls to lift the gas tax on a short-term basis. They previously argued that pausing collection could harm the state's bond rating and have been unconvinced by S&P Global Ratings's pronouncement that such an outcome is "unlikely."
Taking aim at Frost's amendment on Monday, Transportation Committee Co-chair Rep. William Straus contended that the proposal "does not do what the sponsors say."
The Massachusetts fuel tax is paid by distributors, not directly by consumers at the pump, according to Straus. He said about two-thirds of the gas tax revenue haul — roughly $50 million per month — "is paid by only 10 of these distributors, sometimes called Big Oil."
Straus, a Mattapoisett Democrat, said House leadership "is exploring the idea of different kinds of possible credits for those who are actually being hit with higher energy costs in the commonwealth," but did not offer details of any action the House might take or project a timeline.
The House rejected another gas tax suspension amendment from Republican Rep. Peter Durant of Spencer on a voice vote, and then laid aside one from Boldyga after deeming it too similar to Frost's.
Gas prices have begun to tick upward again in Massachusetts after dipping below an earlier peak. AAA Northeast said Wednesday that the average price for a gallon of gasoline was $4.13, up six cents from a week earlier and 12 cents lower than a month prior.
The group's analysts said prices face "opposing forces" of fears that China will experience a COVID-induced slowdown and that less Russian oil will enter the market.
"As long as the price of oil stays elevated, the price at the pump will struggle to fall," AAA Northeast Director of Public and Government Affairs Mary Maguire said in a statement. "Consumers may be catching a little break from March's record-high prices, but don't expect any dramatic drops."
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On Thursday, April 28, 2022, 02:48:05 PM EDT, Patrick Fennell wrote:
Our politicians in Massachusetts are lucky, more than 50% of the voters are either dead, stupid, connected or pure idiots. Only a moron would want to pay more for awful, expensive and incompetent services and pay part-time corrupt legislatures full-time pay with perks everyone else is jealous of.
Who in their right mind can justify the salaries and perks to our entire congressional delegation? They are all TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!!
Patrick Fennell
On Thursday, April 28, 2022, 02:09:14 PM EDT, Jonathan A. Melle <jonathan_a_melle@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hello again, Patrick Fennell,
I cannot believe that the Massachusetts State House of Representatives voted to pass the nearly $50 billion state government's fiscal year 2023 budget on Monday, April 25th, 2022, by rejecting a Republican push to include tax relief in the budget including efforts to temporarily suspend the gas tax, lessen impacts of the estate and capital gains tax, and boost a tax break for senior citizens. The reason why I am disbelief is that Beacon Hill lawmakers are still sitting on billions of dollars in surplus state cash. The corrupt career politicians in Boston's corrupt Statehouse should have used that huge amount of surplus state money to lower state and local taxes for the working-class, Veterans and senior citizens, but instead they voted to increase judicial system salaries, who are really a bunch of politically connected state government public payroll patriots. The corrupt state lawmakers placed 1,522 budget amendments in the fiscal year 2023 Massachusetts state budget. Instead of taking the time to actually so-called work on state legislation, they lazily use state budget riders to pass their bills on Beacon Hill. In closing, this is a prime example of state government at its very WORST!
Jonathan A. Melle
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"House bulks up, approves $49.7 billion fiscal year 2023 budget"
By Chris Van Buskirk, State House News Service, April 27, 2022
The House passed a $49.7 billion fiscal 2023 budget Wednesday evening after adding nearly $130 million in spending through seven mega-amendments over the course of three days.
Speaking from the floor of the House at the outset of the debate, House Ways and Means Chair Rep. Aaron Michlewitz said the state has witnessed a “roller-coaster revenue experience” over the last four years, including the last two in a pandemic.
“[The] budget that is before us today presents the commonwealth with a unique opportunity to be forward-thinking while solving some immediate needs by investing in the middle class as we start to tackle some of the challenges the post-COVID world has created,” the House’s chief budget writer said Monday. “This once in a generation opportunity allows us to build for a better future, one that is more resilient, more equitable, and more rewarding for all of us in the commonwealth.”
Lawmakers dispensed with 1,522 budget amendments through a number of large packages that were split up by subject category. The House approved the first on Monday, which included $500,000 for the new Genocide Education Trust Fund, a program lawmakers have said will help younger generations learn about some of the world’s worst mass killings and genocides.
Representatives worked through three more consolidated amendments on Tuesday, adding another $88.3 million in spending and approving language outlawing child marriage in the state and increasing judicial system salaries.
The House added another $33 million Wednesday through three more mega-amendments covering energy, environmental affairs, and housing; state administration, constitutional officers and transportation; and economic development.
Rep. Josh Cutler said the bill includes $137 million for the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, a $20 million increase over last year, and $15 million for MassHire, which he called one of the state’s “key cogs in our workforce system.”
“These one-stop regional career centers serve as a conduit between job seekers and businesses looking to fill positions,” Cutler said. “Since March of 2020, more than 100,000 workers in Massachusetts have turned to MassHire for career counseling, job search support, and referrals to vocational training.”
House Democrats rejected Monday a Republican push to include tax relief in the budget including efforts to temporarily suspend the gas tax, lessen impacts of the estate and capital gains tax, and boost a tax break for senior citizens.
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April 28, 2022
Re: What is the difference between a corrupt career politician and a sexy prostitute?
What's a few billion dollars in state government cash among the corrupt career politicians on Beacon Hill anyways? You and I don't matter to Chrome Dome, Shitty Pigpen, Trippy Country Buffet, Paul Marxism and the career Mayor John Barrett. When they are all as wealthy as Speaker Nancy Pelosi, we should tell them to stuff it all up their dirty behinds!
What is the difference between a corrupt career politician and a sexy prostitute? The sexy prostitute takes her hands out of your pockets after you run out of money, while Chrome Dome & Shitty et al don't, even after you passed away.
Jonathan Melle
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Saturday, April 30, 2022
Hello Erin Leahy at Act on Mass,
I wish to state that I admire and support your work as the leader of the advocacy group Act on Mass. Also, I always look forward to receiving your weekly "Saturday Scoop" political emails about Beacon Hill politics. That being said, I am disappointed with your political email today, Saturday, April 30th, 2022. How can you possibly write that this past week's Massachusetts fiscal year 2023 state budget, passed by the State House of Representatives: "the final product is….good. I mean, it’s really, really good!"?
Erin, there were multiple proposals in the state budget to give state tax breaks to senior citizens, Veterans, working class commuters, and so, as well as Governor Charlie Baker's supply side economics tax cut proposals, which were ALL rejected by the corrupt career politicians on Beacon Hill. Erin, Beacon Hill still has billions of dollars in surplus state government funds. The corrupt career politicians cannot say that they don't have the financial resources to provide tax relief to the people and taxpayers who need it the most during this time of 40-year high U.S. inflation. They are really being selfish Solons.
Erin, the State Senate passed sports betting in Massachusetts with only a voice vote, which means that no one knows how each State Senator voted on the bill. ALL gambling schemes are really regressive taxation schemes. When the state lottery bragged about it record earnings in fiscal year 2021, it really meant that those who can least afford to pay state taxes paid more (voluntary gambling) tax dollars than ever before. Beacon Hill plays financial shell games, which goes over the heads of many of the people and taxpayers because they are poorly educated, financially illiterate, and they don't understand institutional political corruption. The more regressive taxation schemes equals the corrupt career politicians giving away more billions of dollars in state tax breaks to their politically connected big business campaign donors, which also means more earnings for greedy Beacon Hill registered lobbyists such as Dan Bosley, who is said to collect two state pensions on top of all of his other public perks funded by state taxpayers.
Erin, I believe that your heart is in the right place, and I hope your advocacy group will produce real reforms (but I will not be holding my breath) on Beacon Hill, but you are really off base today.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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Saturday, April 30, 2022
Jonathan,
After just three formal sessions, the House passed their budget on Wednesday, which came across the finish line at $49.7 billion.
And the final product is….good. I mean, it’s really, really good!
Here’s the deal: Massachusetts is currently enjoying a sizable revenue surplus. In other words, we collected more taxes than we were prepared to spend in 2023. That revenue, plus a boatload of federal Covid-relief money, has placed Beacon Hill in a rare situation: they are swimming in cash. The question is what they should do with it.
In his budget proposal, Governor Baker wanted to use the surplus to cut taxes, disproportionately benefitting the ultra-wealthy. Instead of taking the bait, the House passed a budget that would put that money towards education, housing assistance, and supporting individuals affected by the criminal justice system.
All the advocates and community members who have been fighting to fund these critically underfunded services should be proud, and we should celebrate these victories!
But it wouldn’t be an Act on Mass analysis without talking process. Let’s dive in.
State House Scoop
Top-down & opaque: the budget process
The short and the long of it is that only a handful of extremely powerful people decide the $50 billion budget, namely the Speaker of the House and the Chair of Ways & Means. All the other reps are allowed to ask for their priorities to be included, but ultimately what is and what is not in the budget is decided by Mariano and Michlewicz. How and why they make their decisions is entirely out of public view. Heck, most rank-and-file legislators have no clue.
Reps can file amendments to the budget proposal, but the fate of these amendments, too, is decided by those same two men. Budget amendments (over 1,500 of them in this case) get combined into giant "consolidated amendments" divided by category. Decisions about what amendments make it into a consolidated amendment and which are left out and effectively killed, are also made in private closed-door meetings.
The floor debate for the budget acts less like a debate and more like a rubber stamp for policy predetermined by those in charge.
Luckily for the people of Massachusetts, we were granted much of what we’ve been asking for. But we can’t rely on a revenue surplus or federal funds to fully fund our state every year. Yes, this budget was great, but imagine the budget we could have if we (1) implemented progressive revenue and (2) opened up the budget process to input from the people that stand to benefit from it the most? What could a democratically-crafted, sustainable budget look like?
Budget floor debate
The House addressed over 1,500 amendments to the budget in just three days. (Or, to put it more accurately, leadership compressed 1,500 amendments into a handful of mega amendments and then passed each of those nearly unanimously.) Here’s how things shook out:
Monday: The House passed the first consolidated amendment (aptly called “Amendment A”) which dealt with education and social services. Republicans fought for a slew of tax break amendments, including a freeze on the gas tax, raising the estate tax threshold, and lowering the capital gains tax, all of which were easily rejected by the Dems.
Tuesday: Consolidated Amendments B, C & D were passed on Tuesday, dealing with elder affairs, public safety, and public health. Tuesday’s session also included a major policy victory: language to ban child marriage was added to the budget. Better late than never: this bill has passed the Senate and died in the House for the last four years. It will be the author of this newsletter’s absolute pleasure to remove this bill from Act on Mass’ oft-cited list of popular progressive bills that haven’t passed.
Wednesday: On the last day of debate, the House took up and passed Amendments, you guessed it, E, F & G, which tackled topics including transportation, energy, housing, and labor. Rep. Tami Gouveia offered a further amendment which would have added funding towards retrofitting buildings with green technologies. This was rejected on a voice vote.
Senate passes sports betting bill with no recorded votes
After pointed criticisms from Speaker Mariano, the Senate finally voted on and passed a bill legalizing sports betting on Thursday. This has long been a priority of Mariano’s (if I were Speaker I’d probably prioritize medicare for all or lifting the ban on rent control, but that’s just me). The bill now heads into conference committee where the key differences between the House and the Senate versions will be ironed out, including whether betting on college sports would be allowed.
The Senate did not post online or make available by request the results of the Senate Ways & Means committee vote to advance this bill, despite the fact that their rules call for them to do so. Even more mysterious, the bill was passed on a voice vote, although a senator had initially requested a roll call.
Take Action
IT'S HERE: Happy Ballot Question Weekend of Action!
A massive thank you to all our volunteers who are out collecting signatures for our Transparency ballot question this weekend! If you’re at home reading this on Saturday, it’s not too late to join for Sunday! Sign up for a quick and fun 2-hour signature collecting shift in a district near you:
SIGN UP FOR A 2-HOUR SHIFT >>
Can’t volunteer but want to support the campaign? Donate!
Today marks a crucial end-of-month deadline, and we’re still in the red when it comes to funding our ballot initiative. Clipboards, pens, photocopied signature papers and flyers aren’t cheap. (Ok, the pens are cheap, but the rest are expensive I promise). Help us reach our goal of getting the question on the ballot in 34 districts by chipping in today before the midnight deadline:
CHIP IN TODAY >>
Thank you for making it all the way to the end of this meaty Scoop. For those of you in Arlington, I'll be gathering signatures outside Stop & Shop today and tomorrow. Come sign the petition as you grab your groceries for the week! There might even be an Act on Mass sticker in it for you.
In solidarity,
Erin Leahy
Executive Director, Act on Mass
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July 14, 2022
Hello Patrick Fennell,
(edited)....As for the lovely Linda Tyer, I disagree with her blocking the people from sending her political emails. So does Smitty Pignatelli (Shitty Pigpen). So does Tricia Farley Bouvier (Trippy Country Buffet). So does Paul Mark (Paul Marxism). So does Ed Markey (Maryland Markey). The corrupt career politicians from Pittsfield politics to Beacon Hill to the Swamp have all enriched themselves at the public trough, while the people they block from emailing them have fallen behind. That is NOT how the government is supposed to work, and they know it, but power and the Almighty Dollars is too much for any of them to pass up.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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July 14, 2022
Jonathon;
Linda is a BRIGHT BLUE Democrat! How could this happen. Democrats claim to be the party of free speech and democracy! They claim Trump is a racist Nazi!
Dr. Jill just called Latinos breakfast tacos. Who can forget Joe's visit to a 7/11. Robert Byrd was Joe's mentor.
So again how can Linda block you from free speech, she a democrat?
Sounds like you are bad mouthing the wrong politicians. At no time did Trump ever censure the press, or anyone on BIg Tech. Linda has though.
Patrick Fennell
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July 14, 2022
Yes, the lovely Linda Tyer, the wealthy Mayor of Pittsfield politics, has blocked my political emails to her at times. I don't live in her elitist Gated Community lined with Mansions and Lexus luxury cars. I am not a provincial state and local Ruling Elite either. I never receive any kind of reply from her office. I am not an important person in her world of overtaxing the people and small businesses in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in return for Level 5 public schools and substandard municipal services. I have criticized her secretive public financial management shell games full of Creative Accounting schemes and multimillion dollar $lu$h Fund$ that tries to hide Pittsfield's hundreds of millions of dollars in public debts and other liabilities that will never be paid off in our lifetimes. I point out that North Street is sarcastically called "Social Services Alley" and that dangerous downtown Pittsfield is surrounded by the sarcastically called "Ring of Poverty" neighborhoods that most people avoid. I have written about the 24-year-old PEDA debacle that has millions of dollars in always increasing liabilities with no financial plan to pay for the polluted postindustrial so-called business park. I have written about Nuciforo's Berkshire Roots stinking up abutting residential neighborhoods with his skunk-like marijuana odors with no action taken by City Hall. I have written both praises and criticisms of the lovely Linda Tyer over the years.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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July 17, 2022
Hello Patrick Fennell,
Please don't get me started about Pittsfield politics. Peter Larkin is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. When one looks up state and local corruption in the proverbial dictionary and the like, he or she sees a picture of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Peter Larkin did not live full time in Pittsfield when he was a Pittsfield State Representative. He was married to a wealthy woman medical doctor who worked in Worcester. He lied about his per diem travel pay, which was alleged fraud against the state taxpayers. Peter Larkin was in GE's pocket when the Doyle debacle sold out Pittsfield with the 2000 Consent Decree that made Pittsfield into an official dump. GE paid Lobbyist Larkin millions of dollars over the past over two decades to pull their shit in Pittsfield with the corrupt EPA to leave GE's toxic waste industrial chemicals called PCBs in the city and county, and all the way down to the Long Island Sound.
Peter Larkin snuck in a rider to state legislation to pass a law that teaches public school children abstinence only sex education. I wrote Peter Larkin a lengthy letter many years ago about why he was wrong about teenage sex and masturbation, but he never sent me a reply. In early-2004, I asked Peter Larkin to sign my nomination papers for Berkshire-based State Senator, and he yelled at me for asking him. Shitty Pigpen said to me, "I don't sign nomination papers". Daniel "Bureaucrat" Bosley also declined. None of these corrupt career politicians support grassroots democracy.
Pittsfield politics charges state and local taxpayers over $200 million per fiscal year for Level 5 public schools and substandard city services. It would be like me being an illegal "Bait and Switch" sleazy salesman who offered to sell you Mayor Linda Tyer's mansion and Lexus luxury cars in her elitist Gated Community within a few feet of the Hancock border, but then I sell you a room at the Pittsfield YMCA and a taxicab ride to Silver Lake.
Pittsfield's teenage pregnancy rate and high per capita welfare caseload rate doubles the statewide average, which means that the entire community is failing its underclass. Poverty is intergenerational, and once a teenager or young adult has an unplanned baby they cannot afford to care for, we as a society are all looking at 50 to 100 years of paying for the underclass. Multiply that figure by a factor of two to three, and you have an ugly picture of inner-city Pittsfield, which have over 1,000 gang members living there.
Most young adults with the means to do so flee Pittsfield, as well as North Adams, because they don't want to be in the low gene pool underclass in the economically unequal Berkshires. Pittsfield's tax base has been shrinking for the past 50 years now. Pittsfield has lost thousands of people to population loss. Pittsfield has lost thousands of living wage jobs that are never coming back in our lifetimes. Yet, Pittsfield politics always increases municipal spending by 5 percent year after year going back to the mid-1980s.
I took public financial management courses in graduate school, and public spending is supposed to be based in economic reality by using financial formulas (ratios) to meet the needs of the city and state. I would like to see Mayor Linda Tyer's version of economic reality and her use of financial formulas (ratios) when she passed her recurring record high municipal budgets over the past 6 years.
Similar to the classic Godfather movies, Pittsfield has 4 families who run the show there. Nuciforo (aka Luciforo) used his corrupt political connection in Pittsfield City Hall and then in Boston City Hall to be one of the first marijuana businesses to be permitted to grow and sell pot. Nuciforo's father was a Pittsfield State Senator before Nuciforo continued his late-father's political legacy in Boston. Nuciforo's father was a Pittsfield Judge. Nuciforo's late-Aunt was Pittsfield's first woman Mayor, as well as a career college Professor at Berkshire Community College. Nuciforo's Uncle was a Pittsfield State Representative.
Just like Peter Larkin, Nuciforo never lived full time in Pittsfield during his time on Beacon Hill, which ended in disgrace because he was allegedly illegally double dipping as the Chair of the State Senate Finance Committee while at the same time serving Boston's big banks and insurance companies as a corrupt Corporate Attorney.
All of Nuciforo's corrupt political, legal and marijuana careers have been written about in the Boston Globe's news stories and editorials over the years. It is all a matter of public record.
We live in the 21st Century, but Pittsfield is stuck in the 1950s, and Pittsfield politics is run by Mafia-like political bosses, such as Luciforo! My dad, who turns 78 in a couple of days, was a Pittsfield area politician a couple of decades ago, and I had the painful and unfortunate negative experiences of witnesses both Pittsfield politics and Beacon Hill politics myself. The whole lot of the corrupt career politicians from Pittsfield to Boston are ASSHOLES! They do NOT care about the people and taxpayers they are supposed to be representing in City Hall and in the historic State House. Where I live now in Southern New Hampshire, I am only a one-hour drive to Boston, my cable lineup is in the Boston television market. I still watch the Boston news, and I still see Beacon Hill lawmakers doing DISSERVICES against the people and taxpayers of Massachusetts.
I studied public administration in graduate school at UMass Amherst from Fall 1997 to Spring 1999, and I understand all of the shell games that Governor Charlie Baker, Senate President Karen Spilka, and House Speaker Ronny Mariano play against the low to moderate income people, families, small businesses and taxpayers. I wish I could explain to the people just how inequitable and unfair their public policies are throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, all the way west to the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) have blacklisted most to all of my political email letters. I am blocked from emailing Maryland Markey, Shitty Pigpen, Trippy Country Buffet, and Paul Marxism. I never receive a reply from the rest of the Solons who still allow me to email them.
We were never meant to have an Oligarchy of financial, corporate and ruling elites who use the government to enrich themselves at the public trough, while the people are being systemically screwed over by them. That was never the vision of the Founding Fathers, who mostly owned Slaves but who also fought for Classical Liberalism in the 18th Century. I wish there were more people such as you (Patrick Fennell) and I who wrote about political corruption, greed and racism year after year. I am all too happy to blog everyday about all of the corrupt career politicians failed public records. They all deserve to be called out for the diminishing middle class and always growing underclass. Pittsfield is Exhibit A in the people and taxpayers losing ground financially and otherwise due to state and local political corruption!
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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August 26, 2022
Challenger Paula Kingsbury-Evans says that North Adams State Representative John Barrett III misled voters on the issue of transparency when it comes to Beacon Hill's sausage making. I agree with her because the entire Berkshire State House of Representatives legislative delegation to Boston voted against House rules reforms. From Boston to Pittsfield, the news media and public advocacy organizations do not have access to the State House's public business dealings. The State Representatives fear the top-down State House leadership, and they most often rubber stamp their secretive legislation that mostly does DISSERVICES to the people they represent in Western Massachusetts and other regions of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that are not in the Boston area. Beacon Hill lawmakers giveaway a little less than $18 billion per fiscal year in state tax breaks to already wealthy Boston area big businesses, while they push (voluntary) regressive tax schemes such as the multibillion-dollar Massachusetts State Lottery products on a mostly financially illiterate low to moderate income population. Public education is always systemically underfunded. Municipal governments are systemically financial constrained to the point of the local residents always being overtaxed for mostly substandard public services. Beacon Hill lawmakers vote themselves huge legislative pay raises that cost state taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, and every two years they happily receive up to three pay raises that put their public pay plus perks that total well above $100,000 per fiscal year. Beacon Hill lawmakers take months off from so-called part-time "work", but they are still well paid for doing nothing. When Beacon Hill lawmakers retire from their sarcastically called retirement on Beacon Hill, they often become greedy registered lobbyists, marijuana businessmen, and so on. It would be too good to be true if Beacon Hill lawmakers passed Sunshine laws that opened up the cooked books in Boston, but it will never happen because the Almighty Dollar and Power enriches the corrupt career politicians and their wealthy campaign donors at the public trough. There is no transparency on BeaCON Hill.
Jonathan A. Melle
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"1st Berkshire District challenger Paula Kingsbury-Evans says State Rep. John Barrett mispresented Beacon Hill transparency at North Adams forum"
By Josh Landes, WAMC Northeast Public Radio | By Josh Landes, August 25, 2022
Recent Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts graduate Paul Kingsbury-Evans is challenging State Representative John Barrett in the September 6th Democratic primary in the 1st Berkshire District. Kingsbury-Evans, who has made governmental transparency a core piece of her platform, says Barrett made misleading statements about the issue at a candidates forum in North Adams Wednesday night. The state representative, who served as mayor of North Adams from 1984 to 2009, took office in a 2017 special election and went unchallenged in 2018 and 2020. WAMC was unable to reach Barrett for comment on this story. Kingsbury-Evans spoke with WAMC this afternoon:
PAULA KINGSBURY-EVANS: Right now, there are no required roll call votes on the floor, which means that the votes are not made public after they voted on the bills. The committee votes are not made public. And often more than not, the legislators have less than 72 hours- It's usually a couple hours before the vote that they are given the bill to read. And so one thing that I am really wanting to change in the state house is giving every legislator ample time to read the bills, because I don't understand how they're supposed to vote on a bill that they haven't gotten a chance to read and truly understand and how it will affect their district and their constituents.
Paula Kingsbury-Evans' social media post directed at State Representative John Barrett III, posted on August 25th, 2022.
WAMC: Now, today on social media, you took aim at your opponent, Representative John Barrett III, for misrepresenting transparency rules in the legislature. Could you break down for us where you think Mr. Barrett was wrong in his assessment of the transparency of the state governance?
One thing that he said was that it's only the last vote that matters on the floor. And I really, completely disagree with that statement, because it matters to everyone- It matters for everyone to know who is voting and why they're voting on it. And when it's only the last floor vote that's counted, you can't really get a true understanding of why they were voting that way and who everyone was that was voting on the bill. So you can't go back and talk to those people and ask them why they didn't vote that way and try to change their minds and see it from a different perspective. And, yeah, so he said that, and he also mentioned that our state house is more transparent than the Senate. And without having roll call votes at every vote, I don't see how it could be more transparent than the Senate.
When you hear Representative Barrett misrepresent how transparency happens on Beacon Hill, what are the implications of that for the constituents that he serves?
So, because a huge part of this is government transparency and educating voters, when Representative Barrett spoke last night about how there is a lot of transparency, and through my research and talking with other legislators, I've learned how little transparency there is, I felt it was very important to share this information as soon as I can and give him the opportunity to correct himself, because our district deserves a state representative that is going to be frank and honest, and be a true representative from the state house to the constituents and from the constituents to the state house.
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