Dover Taxpayers forgetten no longer 14 June, 2011
Posted by David Anderson in Uncategorized.add a comment
I am pleased that free market and fiscal restraint has taken hold in the Capital city. We are closing a 3.6 million dollar shortfall without layoffs, tax increases, or utility rate increases. We have reduced the amount taken from the electric fund and are giving back money in the fuel adjustment as scheduled.
I am honored to be part of some important committees right in the middle of the struggle to improve our future. Legislative and finance, Parks. Recreation, and Community Enhancement (which includes the federal block grants), and tonight the mayor appointed me to be a director of the Downtown Dover Development Partnership. I also chair the Construction appeals board.
Tonight we advanced some important items. We advanced some pro-growth development ideas. One was to reclaim empty box stores and keep the ones we have with an abatement program which gives tax abatement to improvements or new leases which create long term jobs.
Another which just pleases me to no end is a streamlining of the zoning and permitting process. The only disagreement I had with the final product worth talking about is a reduction of the notification of neighboring property owners in the staff proposal from 300 feet back to 200 feet. I think in the long run, more information builds consensus and it was a small trade off for automatic approvals if the historic commission did not respond in 45 days and extending the time that approvals are valid, and many other provisions. Our zoning process has been killing jobs and now we have a chance. Ann Marie Townsend is my new favorite bureaucrat. My favorites are changing daily because so many of the staff are stepping up. In reality, I have too many favorites to name but hear is a start, Donna Mitchell, Bill Neaton, Traci McDowell and of course our new interim city manager, Scott Koenig. I look forward to working with Zak Carter as well.
We are off to a positive start.
There are still tough decisions. There were no raises in the budget except the ones for two unions contractually obligated. Non union employees received no raises. The Police are negotiating for raises this year, but I am not optimistic their is any money for that beyond the generous step raises in their contract. Tonight, we began the discussion about getting the other than pension post retirement benefits under control (OPED). I believe very strongly that we need to stop paying for Medicare Part B coverage. Current retirees do not need to worry. I think there would only be two votes to open that discussion up. It is a non issue. The question is should we continue to pay the premium for non-union future retirees? The unions gave that up and new employees do not get it. It is a two tier retirement arrangement that is patently unfair on its face as well as ever increasing in cost. When I look at proposed changes in Medicare, I get the feeling that premiums will go up an unknown amount and the city giving a blank check to pay whatever to a program that you have no control over is insane. The military doesn’t do it. The state doesn’t do it. The counties don’t do it. The federal retirement program doesn’t do it. Even Dover unionized employees do not have this benefit. It was an interesting experiment, but it has proven itself to be problematic. We need to cut our losses and focus on putting money aside to actually fund our future employee retirement benefits in the out years. That is my view. It may have gotten jeering from the employee peanut gallery, but in the long run it is best for both the taxpayers and employees.
We also approved in legislative and finance committee a review of the employee health benefits. Kent County pays less than we do per employee. We may be able to provide the level of benefits we desire to give our employees at a lower cost. We may need to pull out of the state system. We are actually subsidizing state employee’s benefits because we do not get any refunds when the costs are actually lower than projected. The money once given to the state stays with the state. I would personally like to avoid degrading the benefit package. We need to find more cost effective ways to provide those benefits. The employees deserve our support, but so do the taxpayers who are often forgotten.
Tax and rate payers, you are forgotten no more.
Councilman David Anderson
We won! 21 April, 2011
Posted by David Anderson in Dover, Kent county, Local, Revolutionary Reform.add a comment
Thank you Dover for electing me to city council.
David Anderson
Dover Residents, it is time for Jobs, change, and David Anderson 12 April, 2011
Posted by David Anderson in Dover, Jobs, Local.add a comment
In this economy, jobs are disappearing and our budgets are tight. This is true of families, businesses, and even governments. We face the challenge of generation. I believe we are up to it. We just need faith, vision, an action plan, and a willingness to work with each other. It is sounds simpler than it is, granted, but we are Americans. We can handle it. My experience serving this great country assures me of this fact.
I am in consultation with an economist to find some innovative ideas to make our city a better place to do business, but it does not take a PH. D in economics to see what we are doing needs to change. Unemployment continued to rise in Dover even when the national trend stabilized. We are now above the national average. My goal over the next year is to make Dover open for business.
I want to turn this city into a viable enterprise zone. I want to see us take advantage of programs that only a city or locality can administer such as the export grants to businesses through the SBA. I would like to see the community reinvestment money mandated by the Federal government from the banks stay here instead of flowing to Wilmington by setting up our own reinvestment fund. I want to see us streamline regulations and paperwork. I want to see us expand our tax credits for businesses that expand or locate here so we stay competitive with other localities in the state.
I am concerned that we are wasting your money instead of putting it in our community. One example is our water system. A top priority needs to be updating the well heads and repairing the leaks. I still believe we should have lined the pipes for a fraction of the cost and time of replacement. Our declining infrastructure is hurting our job creation. When our water system can only operate at 80% design capacity, it keeps industry from locating here. The infiltration in our waste water system or runoff is costing us $1,000,000 a year to pay the county for water that shouldn’t have been in the system.
That is $1,000,000 not helping our community. It could be paying for community police, youth programs, or repairing our streets. Maybe it could be helping us bring jobs here. Instead it is literally being flushed down the sewer.
This has to stop. Please help me stop it next Tuesday April 19th by honoring me with your vote for city council.
Sincerely,
David Anderson
P. S. If you would like to help, go to davidandersonforcouncil.com and contribute or volunteer.
My 400th Post–The Courage of the Modern Conservative 24 October, 2010
Posted by David Anderson in Action Item.add a comment
“The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding,” Justice Louis D. Brandeis.
If you have ever believed it was time to stand up for Americanism, believe it now. Free enterprise, free political expression, freedom of religion, and a free and independent America are at stake in this election.
I believe that American freedom has not been under such an assault since the height of the Cold War. What is worse is that the threat is not from agents overseas, but our own leaders. It is not from those who mean us harm, but those who mean us well.
Hyperbole, No. Let me make my case.
The Regime in Washington has taken every turn to shackle the American economy. The appointed admitted Marxists and Maoists to the highest positions not requiring confirmation. They are trying to impose new restrictions on the Chesapeake watershed which could devastate the Delaware economy. They are pushing new EPA rules on carbon dioxide which would give dangerous unconstitutional power to the EPA to run every aspect of American life in an effort to scare Congress into some form of Cap and Trade. Cap and Trade would cost 2.3 million jobs and each family $1769 to make their rich cronies billions upon billions. They are pushing a tax bill which would cost Delawareans 20,ooo jobs.
They are working overtime to dismantle America’s nuclear deterrent while at the same time eliminating the missile shield which was the result of two decades of work and innovation. We are a weaker nation and more vulnerable than anytime since Jimmy Carter and maybe Peril Harbor.
The courts are being packed with ACLU types who have unleashed a religious cleansing. We are on the verge of a secular/religious apartheid. The courts are trying to wipe America clear of any tradition of based upon faith. They assault the definition of marriage, they assault the right to post the Ten commandments, they assault the right to have a cross at a Veteran’s cemetery, they assault the military’s ability to maintain order and discipline in the middle of a war. Courts threatened to jail Americans for praying over a meal. Nativity scenes are challenged at Christmas. The mere criticism of the distortion of the so called separation of church and state is treated like a crime against the state.
They have raided the middle class to bailout their billionaire friends. We are stuck with the highest sustained unemployment since the Great Depression. The national debt is skyrocketing. We are no longer loaning it to ourselves. What foreign powers are not loaning us, we are printing. We have replaced monetary policy with the insanity that bankrupts nations.
Even the rule of law itself is under assault. The regime in Washington is trying to find backdoor ways to give amnesty to illegals and our own Amnesty John Carney has just declared his intent to back them.
Our values are under assault, our economy is undermined, and the rule of law is undervalued.
My friends it is time to get motivated. We need to fight for our country, our liberty, and our children. We need to tell our friends and our families that they need to get off the fence and in the trenches. This election is not about personalities. It is about survival. We can no longer afford the luxury of Coons, Carney, Flowers, Korn, or your local go along Democrat. The day to make a difference is November 2. If you are going to throw your vote away, stay home. If you are going to be serious, then you will vote for candidates who support the Constitution over those who would undermine it.
Those who won our independence… valued liberty as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty. –Justice Louis Brandice
My fellow patriots, where ever you are join with me in showing that courage necessary to secure that gift of liberty. Let the ring of freedom be heard loudly across America. Let it be heard so loudly that it will be an hundred years before the clanging of the chains of socialism is ever heard again.
Forget the odds. The Voice of Truth says trust, believe, and work for victory. The day is ours.
Natural Law applies to Economic Crisis 12 October, 2010
Posted by stoptaxing in Uncategorized.add a comment
Where does Natural Law, the 10 Commandments, our Republic, and Glen Urquhart
come together?
Since man’s beginning we have had to deal with weakness and
vulnerability. Moses and the 10 Commandments(1200 BC) helps,
Natural Law helps, and Religion plays a key roll.
One tends to overlook religion’s sustained importance in making
our Republic work. The Founders knew children required a found-
action in ethics & morals to rightly support our country throughout life.
Our candidate for the U.S. Congress is in step with our Founders: parents
lay the foundation for morals & ethics using religion as a key teaching tool.
Ask adults where they learned morals and ethics growing up, the answer most
often credits parents and religion.
The “sub-prime” mortgage meltdown is a current example of man’s weakness and
vulnerability where greed took over. We must not abandon the Founder’s formula that has
carried us this far. When jobs come back we will continue to face this challenge.
Vote for Glen Urquhart for congress and visit his web site: Glen4liberty.com
Jerome P. Broussard
Former FEC Chair explains why the Disclose Act bans speech 2 August, 2010
Posted by stoptaxing in federal, President Obama.add a comment
Bradley A. Smith explains that the Disclose Act bans speech which was legal even before the Supreme Court ruling striking down restrictions.
“You’d think that reducing corporate and even foreign influence over our elections would not be a partisan issue,” Obama said. “[But] the Republican leadership in the Senate is once again using every tactic and every maneuver they can to prevent the DISCLOSE Act from even coming up for an up or down vote.”
That’s false. The Supreme Court decision did not allow foreign corporations or governments to spend money to influence U.S. elections. That’s long been prohibited. The decision does allow U.S. companies with international shareholders to spend money on politics. The First Amendment rights of American shareholders should not be stripped away because of a minimal, non-controlling amount of foreign investors.
President Obama continued spinning, claiming that the bill is simply about disclosure.
“Nobody is saying you can’t run the ads—just make sure that people know who in fact is behind financing these ads,” he said.
Actually, Democrats are saying you can’t run the ads: if you’re a company with a government contract of over $10 million (like more than half of the top 50 U.S. companies) or if you’re a company with more than 20 percent foreign shareholders, you can’t even mention a candidate in an ad for up to a full year before the election. What’s remarkable is that these provisions would prohibit speech that was legal even before the Supreme Court decision. There are no similar prohibitions for unions representing government contractors or unions with foreign membership.
In a Monday conference call with reporters, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Senate sponsor of the DISCLOSE Act, claimed that it was “completely balanced” and “treats unions and corporations the same.”
Schumer was addressing an exemption he removed from the House bill which exempted large financial transfers among union affiliates. Nonetheless, three provisions remain that advantage Democrats’ union allies while restricting business groups: a threshold of disclosure that effectively exempts unions while ensnaring business groups and the aforementioned restrictions on businesses with government contracts and international investment.
Schumer simply removed one of many special deals for unions that was inserted the day before the House vote. This cosmetic change to the DISCLOSE Act does not change the fact that it plays favorites with First Amendment rights and rewrites campaign finance law to advantage the majority party mere months before the midterm elections.
In one of the most egregious aspects of the bill, House Democrats inserted a provision to exempt large, established interest groups such as the National Rifle Association and the Sierra Club from the bill’s disclosure provision. This would set up a two-tiered system of First Amendment rights: one standard for the most powerful lobbying organizations and a tougher standard for most other grassroots groups.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/Examiner-Opinion-Zone/Bradley-A-Smith-Democrats-mount-last-ditch-PR-campaign-to-spin-DISCLOSE-Act-99320164.html#ixzz0vPpBsFXE
Focus on the Delaware House 1 August, 2010
Posted by stoptaxing in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
By Donald Ayotte
Conservative Crossroads Staff Writer
One of the hottest and most important races in Delaware is in full gear, with Republican Candidate, Chris Weeks’ ground troops campaigning door to door for Delaware’s Fourteenth Representative District Seat.
Weeks is challenging incumbent Peter Schwartzkopf, the House Majority Leader for the privilege of representing the people of the fourteenth district. No matter where you live in Delaware, the results of this race will affect you.
Chris has been married to his wife Lauri for 17 years and has three children. “I’ve been an employee all my life and have been held accountable for my actions. As an elected representative of the fourteenth district, I expect to be held accountable for my actions. With me, it’s all about serving my constituency,” said Weeks.
Weeks stated that, much like retiring Representative George Carey, he probably wouldn’t sponsor a lot of legislation and doesn’t ever want to think of himself as a legislator but wants to be thought of as a representative.
“The people of Delaware, and especially the fourteenth district need a breath of fresh air when it comes to representation,” said Weeks. “I’m ready to debate my opponent Pete Schwartzkopf, anytime or anyplace.”
“Far too many politicians want to be quarterbacks. I see the job as being the lineman, clearing the way for working people to do what they need to do. Representatives need to be just that, the representatives of the people. This seat in the state legislature is not Pete Schwartzkopf’s seat, it’s not my seat, it’s the people’s seat.,” said Weeks.
Speaking about jobs, Weeks stated that the engine that drives jobs in the fourteenth district is tourism. He stated that a multitude of businesses in the district are driven by the tourism industry and those businesses hire many people. Weeks said that many legislators have a limited view of the tourism industry. “They need to have a larger oversight of the importance of the tourism industry to our district and not drive the tourist to other locations by legislating heavy taxes and fees.
Statewide, Weeks believes that there is not a magic bullet to rebuild the job market in Delaware but instead, America needs to regain its manufacturing capability to create jobs.
Weeks is one of many professional class Americans that never wanted to become a politician. He doesn’t consider himself a politician but instead a concerned citizen who wants to serve the people of the fourteenth district and Delaware in making competent decisions for the people of his district.
This new class of candidates is not only showing up in Delaware but can be found in many states throughout the US. They are concerned citizens that are working class people not professional politicians but instead they are people who love America and want to help their fellow Americans.
Republished by permission from a new email newsletter Conservative Crossroads. Contact depolitics@gmail.com to be forwarded to it.
Spending Reform 27 January, 2010
Posted by David Anderson in Uncategorized.add a comment
How is freezing spending at artificially high levels fiscal conservatism? A freeze (on only 1/6 of the budget) would permanently lock in the baseline that increased with the stimulus bill and past budget. The ruling regime is slick, but the loony left is too dumb to know what they are doing so it may be defeated. The freeze would save 15 billion out of a 1.4 trillion deficit. The President increased the spending baseline 140 billion for these programs in the last year and 1. 5 trillion over the next 10 years. The freeze would take it back to to 1.25 trillion in increases over the next ten years. That is like spending 200 dollars eating out and then taking the toll free road home to save fifty cents.
How about tackling entitlement reform? Why are talking about everything but that? A Presidential and Congressional, bi-partisan commission there would pay dividends. We don’t need to give it extra constitutional powers. We, the people, just need to pay attention. Entitlements are the long run threat to the economy. Any plan which ignores that fact is just window dressing.
If you want real spending reform, change the rules. This is inside baseball, but it may be the way to win the game. Follow me on this. Mandate that all 13 spending bills be out of house committees by the 2nd week of July. Any bills that are not will be combined into a continuing resolution. The bills would then go before a committee of the whole one by one in the third week of July through the first week or two of August. The larger ones would be given up to 3 days and the smaller ones a half a day. Any member would be able to offer amendments to cut funds. If any member wants to increase spending in one area on the bill, they have to cut another area. Any spending increase would require a suspension of the rules which requires 290 votes.
The effect of this would be to allow the Ron Paul’s, blue dogs, and others not on the favored committees to offer amendments on the record and in the open. It would make every member own the budget. It would allow us to hold people accountable. The way the game works now is that the bills are put together in ways that no one outside of the favored crowd knows exactly what is in the bill. Both parties keep fiscal conservatives off of the appropriations committees in any numbers. They manipulate the rules to keep amendments to a minimum. If you want to truly change the system, open it up. Strip the lobbyists, power elite, and revolving door (between Congress and Special interest groups) staff of their power. Give it to the people we elected. Until we do that (either with this proposal or some other), we are just talking about reform.
Biden not running 26 January, 2010
Posted by David Anderson in Uncategorized.add a comment
Beau Biden is running for reelection not the Senate. It is official. Who is running?
Huckabee beats Obama 26 January, 2010
Posted by David Anderson in Uncategorized.add a comment
Governor Huckabee’s “populism” may not excite Rush Limbaugh, but independent voters love him as well as most Republicans. One Republican beats President Obama right now according to Democrat leaning Public Policy Polling. He is Mike Huckabee. Team Huck is organizing in Delaware. Look for a future post. Rasmussen shows similar popularity.
Huckabee is in many ways the opposite of President Obama. He has 10 years of executive experience. He is Conservative, people oriented, and in favor of thoughtful change. They are far different on the issues. Governor Huckabee also appeals to the average person and eschews elitism. He is a modern conservative who favors the individual over large institutions. He reflects much of the public mood.
Stop overTaxing Our People 