Much is at stake in the upcoming election

To the Editor:

This next election could be one of the most important elections of our times, local, state and national. The issues before us range from closing our borders and illegal immigration to welfare reform, tort reform, fighting crime, including ever expanding and overly expensive government in which we are being told that our government doesn’t have enough money to fund our military needs and sustain a lengthy war against terrorism and let me throw in our perilous economy and local, state and national debt, etc.

Our country is broken because of decades of liberal initiatives that defies gravity and the willingness of most civil servants to support politicians solely based on demands that are now bankrupting our governments.

For decades the unions have plotted against honest hard working taxpayers getting politicians elected for the soul purpose of protecting endless provisions and early retirements and pensions that are out of this world i.e. the average pension for fire and police working only 20 years is approximately $5,000 per month not including the Cadillac of healthcare that costs approximately $20,000 annually upon retirement.

Our $94.8 million budget is an outrage. If our town was to privatize most of our services including regionalizing, developing a stand-by certified system for fire and police including privatizing the rescue aspects in which 95 millions of the time they are not fighting fires in addition to cost effective school vouchers this alone could cut our budget by millions; perhaps 30 percent.

Because of a one-party system that has been in control for over 70 years our town now has approximately 600 retirees costing millions annually just for healthcare. Built-in overtime for minimum staffing requirements to accommodate up to 8½ weeks vacations, three personal days and 20 sick days annually is in the millions. Longevity bonuses some as high as $9,000 annually is additional hundreds of thousands more. Severance packages are approximately $40,000 upon retirement in which town workers can accumulate up to 180 vacation days, 160 sick days and the reminder of the 15 holidays and three personal days. Note: half that amount is also calculated into their pension amounts. Also, their pensions are based on what they earned over their last three years in which many workers can earn approximately an additional $25,000 annually in overtime. Is it any wonder that just recently our mayor pleaded for residents to keep an eye out for people taking our recyclables, treating poor and destitute people like criminals. The reality here is our town is truly broke and can’t spare a dime?

Let me also note, over the years running for office asking residents to sign my nomination papers I have been told such things as, “Please don’t ask me to sign anything because I don’t want to cause any trouble for myself.” This year a local businessman refused candidates placing signs on his property out of fear of retaliation; this is the true face of our local Democratic iron fisted union controlled government.

Other reforms that will never come about via the above would be to put the contracts and budgets on a database in which residents could simply type in questions and the answers would be at their fingertips. We should provide forums for candidates that would make the playing field fair. Also, municipalities must have arbitration authority addressing their finances and how they provide for their services, etc.

In closing, I dropped out of the mayoral election for the good of our town to give independent mayoral candidate Ernie Pitochelli the opportunity to prove himself. He is an honorable man who served our country and always questioned the budgets when he was a councilman.

Peter A. Filippi III

Johnston