Bundle O’ News
by Bill Dusty
As I prep to take a week’s break from The Intruder (while on vacation up in New Hampshire), I’ll leave visitors with a bundle of news bits from my inbox and elsewhere…
MAGIC SHOW AT LIBERTY STREET BRANCH LIBRARY
Short notice – set your skepticism meter on low and stop by the Liberty Street Branch Library in Springfield on Saturday, August 8, for a 1:00pm magic show featuring magician Ed Popielarczyk.
LYSAK PROMOTES SENIOR CENTER FOR INDIAN ORCHARD
Springfield City Council candidate John Lysak, in a press release issued Wednesday, pushed for the establishment of a senior center for Indian Orchard’s elderly residents. In the release, Lysak asked why a community center in the neighborhood was not being used to provide such a service. The building, located at Myrtle Street Park, lacks air conditioning, but Lysak said that should not be a deterrent to opening a senior center there.
“I would be more than willing to use a portion of my pay as a City Councilor to offset the cost of placing air conditioning units into the building,” Lysak said in the release.
FENTON DOWN ON THE BUSINESS TAX RATE
Meanwhile, Ward 2 City Council candidate Michael Fenton recently took a stand against the business tax rate in Springfield. Currently set at $36.98 per $1,000 valuation, the highest in the state, Fenton said in a press release that the rate places too much of a burden on businesses in the city and gives Springfield a bad reputation.
“Essentially, we are telling businesses that Springfield is not open for business,” said Fenton in the release.
The City Council voted this past December to increase the business tax rate from the previous $32.04 per $1,000 to today’s $36.98.
At the time, Affiliated Greater Springfield Chambers of Commerce President Russell Denver was quoted in a Republican story as saying the increase would make Springfield an unattractive choice for businesses looking for a place to set up shop. “That is going to put Springfield at the highest commercial rate in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” Denver said of the increase. “That is not something you want to be proud of.”
Fenton is calling for a lowering of the tax rate, saying that any short-term loss in revenue would be made up for by attracting more business to the city.
In contrast to the business tax rate, the residential tax rate in Springfield is currently set at $17.68 per $1,000.
GOING ON THE ATTACK
With all the recent problems facing Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno – from “Wienergate” to the recent city-wide power outage, to the lawsuit filed against the city regarding “21-and-under” nights, one person in particular has been having a field day passing out press releases critical of the Mayor’s job performance.
Springfield City Councilor Bud L. Williams, who is making a run to replace Sarno as mayor, has been busy issuing press releases aimed at showing off the Mayor’s most glaring weaknesses. The press releases themselves keep Williams in the news without him actually having to do anything newsworthy on the Council. It’s a tactic that has proven highly effective in past election cycles – in particular the last mayoral election held in Springfield back in 2007. The challenger in that election battered then-Mayor Charles V. Ryan all summer long on a number of issues, most notably Ryan’s support for the newly-instituted trash fee. That challenger was none other than Domenic Sarno, who would later topple Ryan in an electoral upset.
Observers at the time were often critical of Mayor Ryan’s seeming disinterest in countering the accusations and assertions made by candidate Sarno. Indeed, it appeared to many that Ryan was attempting to keep himself above the political fray – forgetting, perhaps, that he was in fact a politician. (On that note, did Ryan really need to vote in favor of the Finance Control Board-imposed trash fee? Even if in his heart he supported it, he could have still voted against it knowing it would pass anyway. At least then he would have been on record as opposing it, depriving his opponent of one less bullet in their political duel.)
Fast forward to today and Mayor Sarno seems to be taking a few pages from Ryan’s failed playbook. Other than a few remarks from his office, which have received scant mention in the press, Sarno has been largely silent on Williams’s claims against him. Is it “un-mayoral” to issue press releases in response to the attacks of a challenger? Perhaps so.
In any event, the continued headlines Williams is making as a result of his barrage of press releases will only mean more trouble for Sarno down the road. And the releases are likely to get even more voluminous as the election season rolls on.
VIDEO BREAK
Below is one of my older videos that I dredged up from a couple years back, entitled “Life After Death.”
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