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With Amherst being blessed by the presence of both a Chamber of Commerce and downtown Business Improvement District, the idea of creating a $70,000 taxpayer funded Director of Economic Development may get bankrupted on the floor of Town Meeting.
Especially since that ancient legislative body has never been known as business friendly.
$70K is a lot of money, but considering what this person is supposed to accomplish over the hurdles they face dealing with NIMBYs, BANANAs, and government bureaucracy (Oh my!) probably not nearly enough.
After all, English literature professors make far less than Entrepreneurship professors and PR flacks make far more than front-line reporters.
A couple decades ago when then Town Manager Barry Del Castilho commissioned an expensive consultant he publicly admitted it was because, "We don't understand the language of business."
Considering the current pitiful 10% of our tax base that comes from commercial property, town government has still not learned the language.
So maybe an interpreter is in order. Especially someone who can demonstrate how to walk the walk, after teaching the talk.
Don't forget the new specialized support staff this new position will need. It would seem we can turn this into at least 4 maybe 5 new Town employees. Just think of all the great things we taxpayers will receive from this great idea???
ReplyDeleteBusinesses provide essential services and are taxed.
ReplyDeleteThe town provides fluff services and gets the tax.
Citizens get all the services.
Businesses also collect and pay sales taxes. These often are 2-3x the profit for the business (if we are talking gas, the taxes are more like 20x the profit).
Saying the businesses don't pay enough it way off. They provide services, jobs and everything else everyone asks for all the time, no vote needed ever.
This is like suggesting more regulations for landlords while setting up an affordable housing dept to solve the problems created by your permitting and decades of trying to raise property values at the request of citizens....and then wanting more taxes from your primary service providers to get it?
Larry, I think people locally need to work more and start paying for their own crap, or perhaps take their vacation money and pay for their kids schooling in stead of getting some blogger to try to get funds for families out of businesses.
BTW, when you tax a local business, it comes out of the employee budget, the only variable budget a company has. This is what folks like you have done to raises for the last 20 years----you have rerouted them to govt funding via taxation.
You owned a business once form what I hear. This website is a business. If taxes go up....what happens to your pay and your need for income?
Larry,
ReplyDeleteSince the governor cut the line item to support this position, the money is coming from the Healthcare Trust Fund. I worry that if an employee gets very sick the trust fund may need that money to pay the hospital bills. I do not think this is a wise idea. HBG
Any plans to do something on the natural gas moratorium?
ReplyDelete