The Health Insurance Solution (For Salisbury City Council Members)

This became a hot issue when former Salisbury Mayor Barrie P. Tilghman did not place it in the FY10 budget. Three City Council members have selected to use the Health Insurance and one member has decided to opt out when open enrollment comes up September 1, 2009. Historically this has been offered to City Council Members however it is not included in the City Charter as a part of the compensation package for Council Members and the Mayor.

This issue needs to be properly addressed by codifying the compensation for Elected Officials to include health insurance, life insurance, and retirement in the City Charter. Once it is set, then a decision needs to be looked into whether or not to grandfather in Council Members who currently receive these benefits. My answer would be yes, to grandfather them in. No matter what their position was when running for public office on the issue.

My personal view is I do not feel health insurance should be offered to City Council members in it's current form. I believe it should be offered as it is to City Employees. They are offered several stages, the basic which is covered by the city and then higher levels where the employee is required to pay for a portion of the premium.

That is where I stand on the issue and hopefully the Council and Mayor with proper advice can come to a solution that is both ethical and legal. We certainly do not need to have this to deal with in the future.

UPDATE: This has become an issue that has sky rocketed into the stratosphere. By Monday morning this is going to be national news. Jonathan Taylor, owner of Views of a Salisbury Grinch, has filed an ethics complaint against City Councilwomen Terry Cohen and Debbie Campbell.

Libertarian Quote of the Day

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences."

P.J. O'Rourke (1993)

Friday's 2nd Amendment Quote

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."

Richard Henry Lee (who drafted the Second Amendment as well as the rest of the Bill of Rights) 1788

UN Agenda

The scary agenda of the UN.

"These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations."

UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 29(3).

Constitution Class by Micahel Badnarik - Part 3

Libertarian Quote of the Day

"Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries."

Douglas Casey (1992)

Thoughts from H.L. Mencken

"We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart."

H.L. Mencken

More Sacrifices Requested of Salisbury Citizens

In the FY10 budget for the City of Salisbury, taxpayers are asked to make some more sacrifices from their pocketbook. In the wake of a 1% sales tax increase and a sales tax expansion last year for the State of Maryland, now Salisburians are being asked to dig deeper.

The increases come in two forms, the first coming through an increase in the Water and Sewer fees. The second coming from the City Government not reducing the property tax rate percentile to offset the increase in the Phase in Assessment of Real Property Taxes. Businesses take the bigger hit as they pay 70% of taxes in the City.

Thankfully we have a revenue cap on the County Government as County Executive Rick Pollitt openly desires to make changes in the revenue cap to significantly raise revenues. City taxpayers are already paying enough and are quickly running out of pockets for the government to dip in to.

Libertarian Quote of the Day

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. "

Winston Churchill

Wednesday's Hump Day Bonus Quote

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

L Neil Smith

Libertarian Party Message - Freedom Watch

Promote Freedom! Tune in to "Freedom Watch," every Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. ET on FoxNews.com!

Fox News Channel’s Judge Andrew Napolitano hosts “Freedom Watch” every Wednesday at 2:00 p.m., Eastern time, on FoxNews.com’s “Strategy Room.”

It’s an online libertarian program with libertarian hosts and guests streamed live.

Your online support can help put Judge Napolitano’s show on television on the Fox News Channel!

Just go to www.foxnews.com/strategyroom every Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time to watch. Put it on your Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace and encourage others to do so as well. For those who are unable to do so, all the previous episodes are archived at www.freedomwatchonfox.com and the more views these videos get, the better.

The more the viewership for this libertarian program grows, the better a chance it will be broadcast on the Fox News Channel. Libertarian Party members can show their support by simply viewing and encouraging others to view the program every Wednesday from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. Eastern time.

The guest lineup for Wednesday, May 27, 2:00 p.m. ET is:

www.foxnews.com/strategyroom

* Congressman Ron Paul
* Thomas E. Woods
* Wayne Allyn Root (who will also appear on the Glenn Beck program later this week)
* Mike German
* Radio host "Mancow"
* Michael Maresco
* Sam Dodson
* Shelly Roche

Go to www.foxnews.com/strategyroom to watch today!

Libertarian Quote of the Day

"Whenever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been discovered that the best way to ensure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery."

Benjamin Disraeli, 1874

Interesting City Council Meeting Tonight

Tonight's Salisbury City Council Meeting was very interesting and the hot issue was Health Insurance for the City Council. Unfortunately, Councilwoman Debbie Campbell was not present to contribute to the discussion due to being under the weather.

Here is how the voting went on the agenda.

Adoption of Agenda - Passed Unanimously (4-0)

Consent Agenda - Passed Unanimously (4-0)
May 11, 2009 Minutes

• Resolution No. 1785 - appointment of Melanie L. Perreault to the Historic District Commission.
• Resolution No. 1786 - appointment of Muir Boda (yours truly) to the Recycling Advisory Committee.
• Resolution No. 1787 - reappointment of City Councilwoman Debbie Campbell as Council member on the PAC-14 Board of Directors.

Award of Bids - Passed Unanimously (4-0)

• American Paving Corporation awarded contract to "furnish, deliver, and apply bituminous concrete paving on variety of city streets" for $175,898.50. There is also a clause that may require more or less funds depending on market price of asphalt.

FY10 Budget -

• Resolution No. 1779 - adoption of water and sewer rates. This increased water and sewer rates. Passed Unanimously (4-0).

• Ordinance No. 2078 for 2nd reading - adoption of FY10 budget. Passed Unanimously (4-0).

• To break this out a little, there was discussion on exhibit A and the ordinance stated "AND BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED by the Salisbury City Council that these summary amounts shall be spent under the limitations of the attached list herein known as the FY 10 Budget Items Adjusted by Council Exhibit Awhether the amounts are added deleted reduced or increased."

This is the Council's changes to the Mayor's Proposed Budget. The Council had reached consensus on every item with the exception of Health Insurance for the City Council at a cost of $21,429.00 that was not in the submitted budget by former Mayor Barrie Tilghman. On Friday, May 22, 2009, Mayor Ireton said he was going to submit corrections to the budget by adding this item back. He was citing historical precedent by previous Mayors who had added items back into budgets.

City Council Vice-President Gary Comegys offered an amendment that would officially place this item in the budget. By voting "NO" Council Members would be removing Health Insurance from the budget. Mr. Comegys and Mrs. Shields voted "AYE" and Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Cohen voted "NAY", the amendment failed because there was a tie. If City Councilwoman Campbell had been present and voted "NAY", they would have removed Health Insurance from Exhibit A.

Over thirty minutes of discussion on this issue, they finally voted and passed the FY10 Budget, with City Council Health Insurance. The other issue that rose out of this is there was no reduction in the Tax Rate Percentile to offset the increase of the Phase In Assessment property value, essentially raising property taxes.

• Resolution No. 1784 - Passed Unanimously (4-0). Approved the transfer of several small pieces of land to SHA for some work that needs to be done on the Rt. 13 Bridge that crosses Rt. 50. One piece will be transferred back to the city once the work is done.

City Councilwoman Terry Cohen offered an amendment to switch from a Program/Performance Budget to a Line Item Budget. There was no second so the motion failed.

Mrs. Cohen also made another motion that did get seconded and passed. It changed a particular Resolution into an Ordinance, I didn't catch the number. It did pass unanimously.

I have several concerns about the FY10 budget and a couple of other issues, the health insurance is one, that I will post about later this week.

Two Sentz - Thanks for the Plug

Thanks for the plug Two Sentz.

Gotta Love Michael Swartz's Perceptive Humor

"The Nation will live to regret what the Court has done today. I dissent."

— Justice Antonin Scalia.

"The Nation will live to regret what big government has done over the last several decades. I dissent."

— Michael Swartz, writer of monoblogue.

Michael Swartz from monblogue has this quoted in the upper right corner of his sight. It always gives me a chuckle because he is so humorously perceptive of the world. I don't hold it against him that he is a Republican, he is one of the good ones.

Too Much Legislation

"One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation."

Thomas B. Reed (1886)

Every time there is a problem or a crisis, those in government feel they must write new legislation. An example unnecessary legislation is Hate Crimes. It is already against the law to murder someone. Now say someone murders someone because they are gay or are of another race? We now have to make a law that makes the motive specifically for such cases.

What if someone kills someone just because they hate that person for being that person. They have never like that person, a personal vendetta that was years in the making and has nothing to do with race or sexual orientation. It is a hate crime, does it qualify?

The bailout legislation was ridiculous. They left certain wording in considering contracts that paid bonuses. Then ridiculed the companies that accepted bailout money for paying bonuses when legislation left it in. Then they want top tax bonuses at 99%. Congress has simply become a waste of time passing wasteful legislation that more than anything wastes paper.

We need congress to take two years off and not pass any legislation. We don't need more laws, we need more freedom.

Constitution Class by Micahel Badnarik - Part 2

Libertarian Quote of the Day

"The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people."

George Washington

Freedom Watch 5/20

Freedom Watch 5/20

Memorial Day Quotes - In Honor of Liberty

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived."

General George Patton

Freedom Watch 5/20

Memorial Day Quotes - In Honor of Liberty

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

Second Amendment to the Constitution

Memorial Day Quotes - In Honor of Liberty

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

The Declaration of Independence

Freedom Watch 5/20

Freedom Watch 5/20

Constitution Class by Micahel Badnarik

This is over 55 minutes. Michael Badnarik is a former Presidential Candidate of the Libertarian Party.

Monday's Prohibition Quote

"If the government can't keep drugs away from inmates who are locked in steel cages, surrounded by barbed wire, watched by armed guards, drug-tested, strip-searched, X-rayed, and videotaped – how can it possibly stop the flow of drugs to an entire nation?"

Ron Crickenberger

Sunday's Libertarian Sermon

"A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them."

P. J. O'Rourke

Freedom Watch

Libertarian Quote of the Day

"If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law."

Winston Churchill