With many prominent residents leaving and Chris Fiora moving to be near his West Chester position (easy commute for many current Middletown residents), my tea leaves said the levy would fail. I was so confident, for the first tome in 25 years of voting, my family chose not to vote at all, to test the hypothesis. It proved correct. Since that time, and a period of two weeks prior, I know and sampled an additional NO voters whom simply avoided the polls, or defeat would have been closer to 8-10%. The good news: a May levy will fail, an August levy will fail. Why? The message is flawed, the results dismal, and even in Middletown, when cash has to be put out, there better be a return. Note to Sam Ison- just because you say a district needs to move in the 21st century and our neighbors have them and we must keep up, is a woefully dismal, inadequate message. Bring it on School Board, it will fail again. You had the All Star team with Ann Mort, former Board member, bringing in votes, Tyus, rallying 2nd Ward, huge votes for Marcia Andrew, who could easily win a Mayor's race in the city (and should), and it was defeated. It won't pass until results move forward.

 

Parsing of words doesn't win, simply put, its not a willing formula.

 

CONSIDER 2- COUNCIL, Dan Picard, Dora B., Ann Mort, Josh L.

 

What we learned:  Middletown is a union town, and the union will go down screaming, hollering, and threatening. Pander and sell out to them, and you at least will get a seat at the table. Ann Mort effectively accomplished splitting the Ward 3 vote, and knocked out Laubach, although his confusion over national tea party interest and realities over local interests and issues. He lost many votes NOT for telling the truth- we all know the truth----but for supporting cash wasdted downtown. The apathy towards Mr. Laubach was greater the enthusiasm for the union getting two 'champions' for their objectives to keep the union strong. I add: Dan Picard may be on council, but unless he runs unopposed, he will never be a judge in Butler Cty in my opinion. He won because he talked without pen and paper, was prepared? No, people know his parents, their paper business roots, second generation, and more importantly, his willingness to shill for the union. Add the tarnished AK union guys, and its pretty easy to round up more votes than the other two (bundle DB in mix), as Laubach was a marked man and MANAGES union guys and Ann Mort, who is still battling the Forbes wind mill.

 

CONSIDER 3- I have known taxes were the only revenue gain the city could accomplish, hence MMF, 5 council members, and so on, their shills. The defeat of the school levy demonstrates even as clique driven and 'care out', quid pro quo Middletown is, future levies with failure to perform, and throwing out nonsense of revitalization is not selling.

 

The GOOD NEWS- people think with their pocket book and on occasion, their brain- Great! Getting a 2.25% tax rate is much harder than expected, so now the council and city will make hard choices.

 

So....what did we learn from Tuesday and events prior?

 

1. Large companies left knowing Middletown was dying.

 

2. Small companies left seeing big companies left knowing Middletown was dying.

 

3.  Rich residents left and are leaving knowing Middletown is dying who have incomes and assets which allow them to take a capital loss and buy new property.

 

4. Middletown class and upper middle class residents are leaving knowing their house asset is a capital loss, and will have to rebuild what they lost in 25-35 years in Middletown, but its worth it, because Middletown is dying.

 

5.  We learned FORBES was right.

 

6. We learned as Abe Lincoln once said, 'you can fool all the people some of the time, you can fool some people all the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time.' Even in Middletown.

 

7. We learned fire and police are reactionary, and passing the public safety levy did not prevent or reduce crime as it was advertised, but simply puts more in place to respond. We learned people and businesses don't want crime to be responded after the fact, but PREVENTED before it occurs.

 

8. We learned Bill Becker may be brought back to act as city manager (his contract expires soon with Libert Township), to deal with the union issue in 2014 and beyond.

 

9. We learned Thorn Hill Drive residents are coveted, and get nice favors.

 

10. We learned Middletown fire fighters run and respond as care transporters 5x to fire runs; and the ratio of income to capita costs for funding ratio is higher than any surrounding community. Should not EMT's through private entities be a logical alternative?

 

11. FORBES was right----Middletown is dying.

 

12. When running an election campaign- messaging is important. Even in Middletown, dummy down tactics and nuances don't sell. Lets all chip in $55 Mm for a failing school to get $40 Mm for a building.....just is a loser, PERIOD. More so in Round 2 and 3, when the sit at home voters like my family, will vote.

 

13. As known in business, 'think global, act local', works in politics/. Don't think like a global tea party fiscal guy, and stray off on downtown revitalization. Of course, the unions still bring out their megaphone, and yield same results JL.

 

14.  Middletown is a union town, with AK, police, fire, and teachers. Who wins? You decide.     

 

15. When city and schools are coupled, one cannot be saying we are rebuilding downtown, when the other (school) states its moving east. When you don't speak out about failures, you go down by the same failures. City fails, schools fails, and residents take the hit. No more taking hit until exit strategy in place.

 

16. School want to pass levy, same with city? Better have some 'carve-outs' just like ObamaCare, because the horizon shows large companies left, small companies left, rich residents left, and the only Robin Hood left in the resident.

 

Exit stage right becoming a very attractive option.       

 

1) It will put them in box to account for sewer collection funds.

 

2) It will put them in penalty box to charge huge fees for the 5:1 ration of utilization of few population using fire depart5ment for ambulance runs (spread true costs overt to those whom actually use services, not all.

 

3. It will drive down demand for housing and businesses in city even further, which hinder and effect school system and other directly correlated entities. So goes city, so goes school district.

 

Detroit is here. Middletown is where the US is projected in 2040 where % GDP is 40% just servicing debt interest. Middletown always leads in categories that are harmful, a laggard in those that are beneficial.

 

 

We pay taxes for Fire , EMT and Police.....The problem comes from maintaining those services. All responses from the services should be billed at a cost recovery rate to the end user. Fire response a hourly rate is billed to the person who is liable. Response to auto accident, Services are billed to driver at fault. Police response, services are billed to the guilty party.

And collect them, no soft billing.........Gain judgement, attach bank accounts or liens on property......

Look at those services the same way we look at water/sewer, the tax pays for the infrastructure/equipment...But the city bills for the use of the water/sewer....Why should other public services be any different. 

The people who have no need of those services are penalized by paying for use of them by others.

Like the other day, I went to doctor ...........Because I try to eat good and exercise, I am penalized for it. Because I had no need for my doctor, after 2 years I am considered a new patient and must pay a fee.. 

The schools are now slowly slipping into an ECOT format, everywhere. Children are learning math via YouTube videos, we are slowly creeping into the electronic teaching, which should lower costs...Computers require no raises, benefits or breaks. 

People will cry that computers will leave behind those who have a learning disability.......That is fine then the teacher can direct their resources to those in need with one on one instruction as needed. If additional intervention is needed, bill the parents or seek out grants...

Ironically , years ago I was the one who presented this solution to my hometown of Trenton , they had made the statement about moving the police dispatch to county if funding could not be found. They said a tax increase to pay for the streetlights would free up enough from the general fund to keep the dispatch. I proposed a street light fee on every water bill, everyone has a water meter so the tax was spread evenly to all residents, not just those who have income or property.

Personally I like the dark, wish there were no lights at night...........it is so peaceful. 

They will never answer, in reality it doesn't matter now....What are you going to do..........Tar and feather them?  Quit worrying about the past, the future is on the way.......Learn from the past and lead the future. Make them tow the line and keep it tight, the problems will jump ship... 

That is fine, but what about police and fire...........It is the city's fault if they do not collect or contract for a lower rate.....Or one option another community implemented was to charge a membership per year for services and if they had not paid, the fire dept would watch the house burn , just protecting those around it. 

http://www.firehouse.com/news/10472820/tennessee-fire-department-watches-house-burn-again" rel="nofollow - http://www.firehouse.com/news/10472820/tennessee-fire-department-watches-house-burn-again

Harsh but true......$75 fee