NONPARTISAN JOKE THAT SPEAKS THE WHOLE TRUTH

As found circulating on the Internet…

 

While walking down the street one day a US senator is tragically hit by a truck and dies.

His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance.

"Welcome to heaven," says St. Peter. "Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we're not sure what to do with you."

"No problem, just let me in," says the man.

"Well, I'd like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we'll do
is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you
can choose where to spend eternity."

"Really, I've made up my mind. I want to be in heaven," says the
senator.

"I'm sorry, but we have our rules."

And with that, St . Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes
down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself
in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse
and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians
who had worked with him.

Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people.

They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar
and champagne.

Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly guy who
has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a
good time that before he realizes it, it is time to go.

Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator
rises...

The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St. Peter  is waiting for him.

“Now it's time to visit heaven."

So, 24 hours pass with the senator joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing.

They have a  good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.

"Well, then, you've spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now
choose your eternity."

The senator reflects for a minute, then he answers: "Well, I would
never have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but
I think I would be better off in hell."

So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell.

Now the doors of the elevator open and he's in the middle of a 
barren land covered with waste and garbage. He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls from above.

The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder.

"I don't understand," stammers the senator. "Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Now there's just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable.  What happened?"

The devil looks at him, smiles and says, "Yesterday we were campaigning…

Today you voted."

POLL RESULTS - What action would you prefer the Wallingford Board of Education make regarding Wallingford Public Elementary Schools?

Redistrict Schools - rebalance the current population across the eight elementary schools - 17 (20%)

Reconfiguration - doing away with K-5 schools for a K-2, 3-5 structure - 26 (31%)

Stand-by - take no action for the 2010 - 2011 budget and make plans for the 2011 - 2012 budget - 28 (34%)

Take whichever action that keeps the budget as low as possible - 11 (13%)

Votes so far: 82
Poll closed

Technorati Tags: budget,expense,finances,taxes,Wallingford,Board of Education,schools,reconfiguration

Wallingford - Contact information for the Mayor and the Town Council…

MAYOR - ELECTED OFFICIAL

• William W. Dickinson, Jr. (203) 294-2070

TOWN COUNCIL - ELECTED OFFICIALS

• Robert F. Parisi Chairperson -the2parisis@sbcglobal.net
• Gerald E. Farrell Jr. Vice Chairperson -gfarrelljr@att.net
• John LeTourneau - shadeone@sbcglobal.net
• Rosemary Rascati - roscati@sbcglobal.net
• Vincent Cervoni - vcbluzman@hotmail.com
• Craig C. Fishbein - attycraigfishbein@yahoo.com
• Nick Economopoulos - eco22@sbcglobal.net
• Vincent F. Testa, Jr. - vtesta@comcast.net
• John Sullivan - CouncilorSullivan@snet.net

Town Council Secretary - towncouncil.wlfd@sbcglobal.net  (203) 294-2155

Technorati Tags: Wallingford,Town Council,contact information,email

Summary of Wallingford’s budget outlook

As published in the Record Journal Wednesday February 17, 2010

2009-10 budget: $140,379,896
2009 grand list: decreased by 0.04 percent to $4.3 billion
Approximate loss of tax revenue: $300,000
School system budget, 2010-11: Expected to request $89 million, a 4.7 percent increase

Technorati Tags: finanaces,expense,budget expense,Wallingford,taxes

Teachers’ wages

An editorial written by By Richard P. Harkawik P­resident, Wal­lingford E­ducation Association – as published in the Record Journal on Saturday February 20, 2010

A common misconception concerns the salary increase Wallingford teachers received as a result of the last contract nego­tiations. The belief that all teach­ers received a 4.2 percent in­crease in salaries this year is not accurate.

The 4.2 percent represents a percentage of last year’s salary account.This “pool” of money is then used to first pay the cost of increments that are part of the contractual salary schedule; the remainder is then applied to all teachers as an increase. Thus, a 4.2 percent increase does not add 4.2 percent to all salaries. In fact, the majority of teachers re­ceived a 2 percent increase this year, as opposed to the national wage increase average of 2.8 per­cent. Much time was spent dur­ing negotiations in determining how we could “fix” the salary schedule so that it would be more evenly balanced between the different steps, and to make Wallingford more competitive in attracting and retaining quality teachers.

In fact, Wallingford lagged be­hind almost every other town in New Haven County when salary schedules were compared. In or­der to make Wallingford’s salary schedule more equal with the other towns, the 4.2 percent in­crease was necessary. Addition­ally, the teachers also made sev­eral concessions to help this happen: a step freeze this year, and the addition of one step in the schedule. Teachers now have 13 steps; other town unions have between 3 and 5 steps.

The contract itself was ap­proved by the Board of Educa­tion and the Town Council, dur­ing the worst of the economic crisis. Both had the opportunity to reject it; neither chose to do so. It was not long after this con­tract was passed last year that teachers were asked for give­backs. This year, again, we have been asked to make concessions. One has to wonder why agree­ments are made if the intent is not to honor them.

The process of negotiating a contract involves give and take. Wage increases are negotiated in the context of other components, such as insurance co-pays, premium shares, and other ben­efits. Aiming for this balance,the contract was negotiated in good faith, and we now look to the mayor and town council to honor their commitment to the education of our town’s children at the level of excellence they have always received from the teachers of Wallingford.

Technorati Tags: Wallingford,opinion,schools,wages,salary,contract,union

Wallingford’s grand list shrinks by 0.04%

So here is the five minute summary:

• The grand list has decreased by 0.04%
• This is a decline of about $300,000.00
• For the purposes of budgeting, the practice has been to assume that the grand list will generate between $700,000 and $1 million of new revenue from taxes alone for the town

The view from here is even dimmer; what this means is that an increases in costs and expenditures which include capital purchases as well as increases in salaries are going to come 100% on the backs of the tax payers as there is a loss of revenue instead of an offsetting gain from growth.

With revaluation coming up it will be interesting to see how much of that is going to land on the backs of Wallingford’s businesses and the residents of town.

Technorati Tags: Wallingford,taxes,budget expense,finances,grand list

AGENDA – WALLINGFORD TOWN COUNCIL

TOWN OF WALLINGFORD, CONNECTICUT

REGULAR TOWN COUNCIL MEETING

Town Council Chambers

February 23, 2010

6:30 P.M

AGENDA

Opening Prayer – Father Gary Simone, Most Holy Trinity Church

1. Pledge of Allegiance

2. Roll Call

3. Consent Agenda

3a. Consider and Approve Tax Refunds (#563 - #596) totaling $9,025.60 Acct. # 001-1000-010-1170 - Tax Collector

3b. Consider and Approve a Transfer in the Amount of $2,000 to Fuel Crisis Community Acct # 001-3070-600-6810 from Contingency-General Purpose Acct # 001-7060-800-3190 - Mayor

3c. Consider and Approve a Resolution authorizing the Mayor to enter into a contract with Capital Community College, 950 Main Street, Hartford, CT and the Wallingford Fire Department and designate Peter Struble, Fire Chief, as the administrator for the EMT-Paramedic internship program for the purpose of furthering paramedic education of students – Fire Chief.

3d. Acceptance of Grant Appropriation of $2,399.40 to Revenue Highway Safety Acct # 001-1050-050-5883 and to Police Overtime Acct # 001-2005-101-1400– Police Chief

3e. Approve Minutes of Regular Town Council Meeting of February 9, 2010

4. Items Removed from the Consent Agenda

5. PUBLIC QUESTION & ANSWER

6. Consider and Approve a Transfer in the Amount of $75,000 to Materials and Supplies Acct # 001-5015-401-4100 from Contingency-General Purpose Acct # 001-7060-800-3190 - Public Works

7. Discussion and Possible Action regarding the Board of Education requests for proposals for strategic plan, transportation analysis, facility use/redistricting – Superintendent of Schools

8. Discussion regarding outside advertising on Board of Education property – Councilor Economopoulos

9. Discussion and Action with regard to the Town Council Procedures – Chairman Parisi

10. Executive Session pursuant to §1-200 (6)(E), 1-210 (b)(5)(B), 1-210 (b)(7) and 7-232a of the Connecticut General Statutes to discuss the possible acquisition of transmission assets by CT TRANSCO – Director Pubic Utilities

11. Executive Session pursuant to §1-200 (6)(D) of the Connecticut General Statutes with respect to the purchase, sale and/or leasing of property – Mayor

Technorati Tags: Wallingford,Town Council,Board of Education,budget,taxes

The FROM WALLINGFORD that wasn’t – Choate and a piece of the town budget

by Jason Zandri

NOTE – This was my submission for this weeks FROM WALLINGFORD article. The Record Journal could not use it the way I had submitted it so I have presented it below as originally submitted and in its entirety.

They explained the reasons to me and I understand their position and their decision.

Since there’s not enough time for me to create a new submission ahead of the publication deadline I believe the paper is going to run something else in the place of FROM WALLINGFORD this week.

With all the discussion lately regarding the Board of Education budget, reconfiguration, and what the Council and the Mayor will or will not approve there had been a number of different questions that have come up in the different discussions at some of the meetings and online.

Should we fire all torpedoes and raise the taxes?

Should we cut here and fund there?

Should we tap the rainy day fund and if so how much?

What are we planning to do about next fiscal year's costs?

One of the questions that came up from one of the parents that I found interesting and that I followed up on personally was with respect to the number of students that are housed on the Choate campus and attend schools in the Wallingford Public School system.

I thought there was a logical question in this topic.

There are some housing units (a few) on the campus that ARE taxed and ARE feeding into the town’s tax base, so the families that live there and are using the school services are, in effect, paying in (regardless of who is footing the actual tax bill).

There are also other housing units to consider. These are other buildings on the Choate campus that also house Choate students and their families where that real estate is not assessed for tax purposes. In some of these other housing units there are younger siblings and they are students that go to the elementary schools in town.

In an effort to find out what the cost impact was to Wallingford's bottom line with respect to this situation, I decided to contact Superintendent Menzo to see if he had these numbers or perhaps just the number of students that attended Wallingford public schools that lived in these untaxed housing units. As it turned out I needed to follow up with Headmaster Shanahan at Choate to get this information as Superintendent Menzo did not have this data.

I emailed Headmaster Shanahan and asked: how many students attend Wallingford Public Schools and live in housing belonging to Choate that are not assessed for tax purposes?

I didn’t expect the number to be really high (I was figuring about 20 to 24 students – guessing off the top of my head).

I thought it was a simple sounding question but it really wasn’t because there is a little more to it than just what I was asking.

Here is the response that I received.

OUR RECORDS INDICATE THAT WE CURRENTLY HAVE 12 CHILDREN FROM 7 TAX-EXEMPT HOUSES ATTENDING WALLINGFORD PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

BUT CHOATE IS CURRENTLY PROVIDING A HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION FOR SOME 56* WALLINGFORD CHILDREN, 50% OF WHOM  RECEIVE SUBSTANTIAL (I.E. $2.4 MILLION) OF SCHOOL FINANCIAL AID.

[ONLY 30% OF NON-WALLINGFORD CHILDREN RECEIVE FINANCIAL AID.]

*CHOATE THEREBY IS RELIEVING WALLINGFORD PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS OF THE COST OF EDUCATING THESE 56 STUDENTS EACH YEAR.

This just goes to show you that sometimes there is a little more to a simple question than what meets the eye.

Where some felt there was a burden (and I admit at face value I initially thought there was too) there was actually a benefit.

Wallingford may be footing the bill for 12 additional children but we do not have to carry the burden for an additional 56 high school students. That is a net savings of whatever the cost burden is of 44 students.

I am sure that raising these points is going to have some of the nit-picky crowd coming up with a bunch of counterpoints. Some of the comments may well have some justification but the way I see things in this instance and with specific regard to the Board of Education budget, Wallingford is coming "ahead" of the game with a cost savings with respect to the net additional students.

For me, that is a little ray of sunshine in an otherwise bleak and overcast budget forecast.

Technorati Tags: FROM WALLINGFORD,opinion,Wallingford,taxes,budget,Board of Education

POLL RESULTS - Town planner files grievance over suspension, what action should the Mayor take? Linda Bush is seeking the removal of the disciplinary letter from her file and to be made whole for any and all losses.

The Mayor should keep his original judgment (suspension of Linda Bush) and deny the grievance

43 (97%)

The Mayor should change his original judgment and reinstate Linda Bush and make her whole

1 (2%)

Votes so far: 44
Poll closed

Technorati Tags: Linda Bush,Wallingford,suspension,Town Planner

VIDEO - Wallingford Town Council Meeting - January 26, 2010

Since the mayor has given the order to stop providing the Town Council and other meetings online, I have decided that in light of fact that there are other towns coming online to do this that I will provide the meetings as I am able to.

It’s your town – get informed and get involved.

Wallingford Town Council Meeting - January 26, 2010

Technorati Tags: wallingford,council,meeting,video,Town Council

VIDEO - Wallingford Zoning Board of Appeals - January 19, 2010

Since the mayor has given the order to stop providing the Town Council and other meetings online, I have decided that in light of fact that there are other towns coming online to do this that I will provide the meetings as I am able to.

It’s your town – get informed and get involved.

Wallingford Zoning Board of Appeals - January 19, 2010

Technorati Tags: wallingford,zoning board of appeals,meeting