The Calm Before

With just 2 days to go before we reach a milestone for the Blog's first topic; I AM SO VERY WORRIED.

Easton's politics and economic situation are old news to too many people. Up here on the Hill it isn't even "Topic One" when it comes to living in the city. Traffic trumps taxes. The Express and the Call have steered their front page and above-the-fold emphasis away from us. This is a good thing and a BAD thing.

It's great that the negative police press is gone for now. Those men and women have a tough job to do everyday, and the stress of Valley wide scrutiny can't be helping. I just hope we get on the right track and get the necessary improvements made. That's really all the time I want to take for that... Right now.

It is unfortunate that the city's financial standing is no longer news. This week's council meetings (Tuesday's 3pm Economic & Finance Committee Meeting and Wednesday's 6pm regular City Council Meeting). Are set to shape a large part of the 2006 budget which is supposed to be year one of our five year plan to avert economic disaster. The lack of buzz could be very detrimental to a fair execution of the amusement tax.

One of the blog's contributors had a conversation with a Councilperson this afternoon. He expressed his concerns with the possibility of the tax passing with such unfair concessions to the State Theatre. The Councilperson said that the tax was poised to pass with the Theatre's agenda intact, because not compromising to the Theatre would draw a negative lobby from the Crayola Factory and the College.

This really doesn't make sense to me. I can see a few reasons why the other organizations would not want to see the tax pass. But I do not understand why they would want to see the State get a tax break while they are still paying full price. Maybe they hope to receive similar consideration from the city in the future.

Back to the lack of interest...
So here we are, starting a week that will significantly affect the finances of every city resident, and it's looking like business as usual. If this week's committee and council meetings are filled with executives and not RESIDENTS then a lot of people are poised to be outraged when they read about where they stand when it comes to being taxed.