19 October 2014, Vol.1, No.70 > THE UNFAIR
SCHOOL-TAX-LEVY!
The
POCAHONTAS CRIER
‘When the Righteous
succeed the people rejoice,
But when the bad
govern, men groan!’ – Proverbs 29:2
[New Email address: pocahontascrier88@gmail.com]
THE UNFAIR
SCHOOL-
TAX-LEVY!
The disparity of trying to force
another school-tax-levy upon Pocahontas County at this point in time is really
appalling & then some! And the
placing of SELF-PITY articles in the local ‘Pokey-Times’
is equally appalling! All anyone has to do is apply a LITTLE COMMON SENSE to
understand the UNFAIRNESS of asking folks on FIXED-INCOMES, or those receiving
MINIMUM-WAGES, or those unemployed, or those about to have their
water-turned-off in Durbin & Marlinton pursuant to EXISTING FINANCIAL
PRESSURES, etc., and all the other Common Sense Reasons surrounding folks on
fixed-low-incomes to PLACE YET ANOTHER FINANCIAL BURDEN UPON THEMSELVES is more
of an INSULT to the People of this County than a necessity! WHO CAN REALLY AFFORD YET ANOTHER FINANCIAL LOSS OF INCOME IN
THIS COUNTY?
THE HIGH COST OF
FINANCIAL BURDENS:
(1)
The State of West Virginia takes
35¢ for EVERY GALLON OF GASOLINE and the Federal-Tax is close to 20¢ PER/GALLON
of fuel regardless of how much gasoline anyone puts in their vehicle. So for every
10-gallons that’s $5.50 IN TAXES for what it once cost to fill-up the entire
gas-tank!
(2)
Currently we have the county solid
waste authority forcing a ‘mandatory-fee’
upon every household in this county whether you bury trash in their open-dump
or not – to the point that upwards to ONE-THIRD of the approximate 3400
households left in this county have judgments against them for not paying the ‘fee’
that is SUPPOSED TO BE EXEMPT FOR SENIOR CITIZENS and anyone else on a ‘FIXED-INCOME’! Meanwhile Ed Riley
has controlled all the PCSWA funds for 25 years – instead
of the Office of the Sheriff by law – and Riley has in excess of $2.5
MILLION in CDs (Certificate of Deposits) – not to mention the $800,000+ that
seems to be currently missing or ‘misplaced’!
(3)
Then we have a few unfortunate
households in Durbin & Marlinton that have had or will have their water
turned off because of existing financial burdens – in
which folks have to choose between the BASIC NECESSITIES of Food, Clothing
& Shelter – or choose to pay for heat, water, taxes, or MEDICINE or
MEDICAL COPAYS…but not for everything
since there is not enough money each month to go around!
(4)
Now comes the School-Tax-Levy
request in which the ‘sob-stories’
are meant to make each of us feel sorry for the po’-School Administrators – EACH RECEIVING SALARIES of $80,000 - $125,000+ PER YEAR
– while almost 80% of the county is on SS, SSD, or MINIMUM-WAGE! Remember dear-ole self-serving Alice Irvine,
she held as many as THREE administrative positions at the same time and received
a salary for each putting her around $100+K per/year, and she even was in
charge of the Federal Grant money – until $500,000 of a $4-Million grant could
not be accounted for, even after a half-dozen accountants & accounting
firms keep trying to find those ‘misplaced’
funds on the ‘official-books’! Now Alice
is in retirement!
[And this is the same
Alice once married to the late-Dolan Irvine, the self-serving County Assessor
of three-decades+ who NEVER RAISED ANY TAXES ON HIS OWN LANDS – while
raising every other county landowner between 20% - 30% while he was county
assessor!]
(5)
Now consider this: the total number of students attending all
three schools in this county is around 1100 or less, yet
the School Board is receiving funds for 1400 students – via a ‘cap’ that Walt Helmick provided when he
was a state senator – so that’s over 300 students that DO NOT EXIST, yet
the School Board is being paid by both the federal & state for those empty
seats every day!
(6)
And let’s consider a $100,000
salary, for example:
$100,000 divided by 52 weeks = $1923 per/week;
Divided by a 5-day working week = $385 per/day;
Divided by a 7-day week = $275 EVERY DAY OF
THE YEAR! These amounts are
NOT for the school
teachers – but for
the school administrators! They
already make more in a single day than those
working @ Minimum-Wage make in a
week!
[These facts are not an ‘attack’ against the current school
administrators or the teachers – all their salaries are set by the State
Legislature – but these facts are being presented to show THE DISPARITY of
income between so-called ‘PUBLIC
SERVANTS’ and the average-income of those of us who make up the ‘PUBLIC’! The irony of the timing of this
request is that as a county we currently have the BEST SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
that this county has seen in the past half-century – BUT NO ONE HAS SHOWN HOW
THE RANK & FILE CITIZEN IS SUPPOSED TO AFFORD SUCH ‘LUXURIES’ as another
‘TAX’ – Usually affording ‘LUXURIES’ occurs during
times-of-plenty, not lean-years!]
(7)
Let’s further consider that the
school administrators receive a ‘severance-tax’ for each gallon of oil, each
cubic-foot of natural gas, every tree cut in the forest, and each ton of coal
extracted from West Virginia! THOSE FUNDS are
supposed to go to offset any additional expenses the school may require
– but how many remember that EACH school administrator received an 8% - 10% PAY
RAISE FOR THEMSELVES while 10 teachers & 10 staff-members were laid off
just a couple of years back? The
disparity is much worse as a reality than the necessity of yet another ‘TAX’ upon ourselves!
(8)
Consider also that once the new
WASTE-
TREATMENT PLANT is
completed at the base of Snowshoe, all homeowners on
the mountain and all those in the Public Service District, such as Durbin,
etc., will see a dramatic INCREASE in their monthly sewage bills! Do they really need an ADDITIONAL
SCHOOL-TAX-LEVY that is supposed to exist in 5-YEAR INCREMENTS? And aren’t our current county commissioners
currently contemplating ANOTHER NEW ‘TAX’ upon each household under the pretense
of ‘fire-protection’? What’s next – a new fire-engine every year
for each substation? Or new armored-Hummers
for the Sheriff & each Deputy?
(9)
And consider that BOTH Durbin
& Marlinton need
new drinking-water
facilities – so do those folks
really need an
ADDITIONAL SCHOOL-TAX-LEVY
that once implemented
can be RENEWED EVERY
5-YEARs?
(10) Don’t we all have to live within our current means –
regardless of income –
don’t we all just have to do
the best we can? Unlike school
administrators,
government
workers, or business-owners – the rank
& file
Citizen DOES NOT GET AUTOMATIC PAY-
RAISES! When was the last time SS,
SSD,
unemployment, or the Minimum-Wage was raised
to meet the current COST-OF-LIVING (COL) as the
Congress & State
Legislature VOTED TO RAISE for
themselves? THE DISPARITY IS TOO
GREAT!
Let’s face the realities of the
current situation – the total population of full-time residents is now down to
about 8400 Citizens – the majority of which are on ‘fixed-incomes’ in one form or another and at the bottom-end of the
economic -scale – so WHO REALLY CAN AFFORD YET ANOTHER
TAX TO TAKE FOOD & BASIC NECESSITIES AWAY FROM THE TABLE? The straight answer is – NO ONE! You can’t beat a dead-horse, you can’t get
blood from a stone, and you can’t collect TAXES in a WAR-WEARY-ECONOMY from
folks on fixed-incomes, being paid minimum-wages, or being unemployed! MAYBE IF WE HAD ‘UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE’ – as those in
Congress – and no more Medical 20% Co-payments for doctor, hospital,
Medicare & Medicaid, etc. there would be some bread left-over on the table in
the form of crumbs – but that will only occur IF the DEMOCRATS win a majority
in both houses of Congress! Until then… let the school administrators place ‘collection-cans’ at local stores & gas stations & Snowshoe
& Silver Creek so folks can drop in some loose change! And it’s shamefully
ironic isn’t it, that some of the very same folks pushing for a school-tax-levy
upon every household & property-owner in this county are the very ones
living on the property of the NRAO so THEY DO NOT HAVE TO PAY ANY PROPERTY
TAXES – or solid waste ‘fees’! Hypocrites
indeed!
JUST
VOTE ‘NO’ ON THE SCHOOL BOND LEVY!
Also Just
VOTE ‘NO’ on the Boy Scout question! LET’S NOT CHANGE THE STATE
CONSTITUTION TO BENEFIT the Boy Scouts of America in Fayette County – above and
beyond everyone else – the ramifications are too far-reaching!
LASTLY, LET’S NOT
FORGET THAT THE INCESSANT WARS OF THE LAST THREE-DECADES HAS ALL BUT DRAINED
THIS COUNTY DRY…let alone killed, maimed & wounded untold numbers of
American Youth…who need long-term care! Meanwhile the ruling-regime now proclaims the
National Debt is $18 TRILLION = $1,000,000 PER/PERSON!
Well, at least THAT
SOLUTION is simple: LET’s REPUDIATE THE DEBT – Nationalize all banks –
and reinstitute the UNITED STATES TREASURY BANKING system and issue U.S Notes
as ‘debt-free-currency’, instead of paying
‘usury’ for the privately-owned
Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs) that causes the national debt – as was planned by
President John F. Kennedy right up to the moment the BULLETS took his life! We still have lots of work to
do to restore a proper balance – don’t
we?
This is Pocahontas
County – NOT ‘SHERWOOD FOREST’ IN NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND
– so
NO
NEW TAXES!
THAT’S WHY, as
important as this mid-term election is, ordinarily we’d say VOTE STRAIGHT DEMOCRAT to keep the SOCIAL SAFETY NET
& MEET the SOCIAL NEEDS of everyone – but since the two Democrat candidates
for County Commission are so inept by lacking the knowledge and skills
necessary to govern a county –
COMPARED
TO THE TWO EXPERIENCED REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES FOR COUNTY COMMISSION – we say
Vote
Democrat at every level EXCEPT for County Commission…
For COUNTY COMMISSION: VOTE FOR…
Charles
Wilfong who is perhaps the
most experienced and successful farmer this county has ever seen – besides
working for all farmers in this state in the leadership of the West Virginia
State Farm Bureau…
And,
Norman
Lee Alderman who has never stopped
trying to benefit the folks of this county in all his various efforts as a
school teacher, pastor, former county commissioner, and editor of his powerful Website
–
THAT’S
WHY…
On 04
NOVEMBER…there’s no excuse…
IT’S YOUR CHOICE…
TO CHANGE
THINGS FOR THE BETTER!
Just say ‘NO’
to those who want to keep this county in Poverty & Pauperism
– and –
Just say ‘YES’
to real Progress &
Prosperity for the future!
On Election Day –
YOU have a chance to elect two persons that will always put YOU first! They know that:
THE
GREATER COMMON GOOD ALWAYS COMES BEFORE SELF OR ANY SELF-SERVING SPECIAL
INTERESTS!
Keep up to Date –
Stay tuned to these Websites:
On
04 NOVEMBER it doesn’t matter
how you are registered – YOU CAN VOTE for:
CHARLES
WILFONG – ND
&
NORMAN
LEE ALDERMAN - SD
The
Pocahontas Crier is an independent Internet News
Service that has now endorsed
two candidates for County Commission
– CHARLES WILFONG & NORMAN LEE ALDERMAN –
in addition to providing in depth news reporting on important issues
directly affecting the Citizens of Pocahontas
County!
► The Pocahontas Crier is a free,
non-subscription, Internet News Service meant for entertainment in the true
‘muckraking’ tradition of questioning authority, challenging corruption, exposing impropriety and the appearance of impropriety, and
offering Common Sense Alternatives for The Greater
Common Good before Self or any Special Interests! We struggle for Social Justice on all fronts and are an integral part of The Crier Coalition of
Internet News Services comprised of
The Pocahontas
Commentator, The Pocahontas Crier,
Signal Fires of WV, & Rolling Thunder in association with
Echoes from the
Holl’r. ◄
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