Monday, April 9, 2018

Does the County Board Ever Listen to Voters?

Hey, Yupette,

Does the County Board ever listen to voters? Not apparently when it came to the County Board's FY 19 Budget. The FY 19 Budget is "balanced" by cutting popular services which are socially useful and cost little (Arlington Independent Media and monthly secure paper shredding, for example) while spending huge amounts on special interest activities and their constituencies, bicycle trails, all weather soccer fields, aquatics, Taj Mahal recreation centers and schools, and "regionalized" neighborhood parks, so-called affordable housing, and health services.

I took the photo of the monthly shredding event in the Trades Center on April 7th. Hundreds of Arlington residents stood in the cold waiting to shred old bills, tax documents, etc. The program costs $20,000 per year. Did anyone at 2100 do a cost-benefit analysis on this program and on other programs and services being cut? Why start these and other low cost programs and services (WERA-FM is another) if they're going to be cut a few years later?

But we're dealing with one-party government that's controlled the County for almost 40 years, so anything is possible. If they think I'm going to re-elect any one of them based on their party's attacks on Donald Trump, the NRA and local country clubs they're living in a Limo Liberal fantasy world.

Paul, 22204