Scranton, Pa slashes City workers' pay to minimum wage

[TMF]

I believe in the "working" man too. I work and pay taxes. That is where the local gov gets their money. If the local gov can't manage that money like big boys why should I feel guilted into paying more? It's my damn money. Every dime the gov takes from me is money that would otherwise go to my children's future. I'm not the one that mismanaged the money.

It's sad that these folks are having to suffer pay cuts, but that isn't the fault of the community.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

I read here that most of you are against the working person and think that the poor cities and towns are going broke because they're paying too much. Smart people can make numbers say what they want them to say. The cities won't let independent auditors get hold of the books because they don't want anyone to really know where the money goes.

All the police officers out there that are willing to be shot at and put up with the crap that they have to to keep the politicians happy and gaining enough votes for next election for minimum wage raise your hand. How about the fireman out there? Are you willing to walk into a burning building for minimum wage. These aren't the only ones. I missed a lot of working class folks out there that are worth a lot more than they get payed.

Sorry folks, I will always believe that a working man is worth a lot more than some politician sitting behind a desk smoking cigarettes and telling lies on the phone all day.

I doubt cops are willing to get shot. They understand the risk associated with the job. The fireman doesn't wish to rush into

a burning building, but sometimes he may have to as a part of his job.

I don't think anyone around here is against the "working man", as you put it, but what does that have to do with the

municipality living beyond their means? If the municipality runs out of money is it okay to just raise taxes and keep

on spending for the working man's benefit? I am one of those "working men", but for a private company. If it runs

out of money, I'm out of a job. Where do I go for money? Get another job is what I'll do.

There are enough questions for you to answer. You say you hate that smoking politician, but it appears he owns you.

[Dolomite_supafly]

Where I live my property taxes have when up by over 1/3rd in fours years. They have it down to a science.

My property taxes increase every year. They either increase the tax rate or they do mid term appraisals of the property to generate extra revenue. My appraised property value increased $36K in a couple of years. This was when the nation as a whole was seeing their property values decrease. And then on top of that they had a substantial tax increase. They do it every year but that particular year they said they were hard hit because of the downturn in the economy. I had to cut back so they should to but instead they increase taxes to make up the difference. When I moved here the taxes were low but fair, now they are well about most major metropolitan cities including Knoxville.

I talked to the state tax people about the increase and they said the increase was because of a new HVAC I had years earlier. I told them it was a $6K improvement so how could it increase my value $36K. He told me to quit being a "smarty pants". In the end they agreed to drop the appraised value but it still increased by $20K.

The problem is corruption, pure and simple. It isn't that the governments don't have enough moeny to run they don't know how to use it or use it for their own personal gain.

Locally there is a piece of commercial property that a guy bought and he actually bragged about how he was able to buy it for $1 million dollars. His brother is the appraiser for our county and that piece of property appraises now at $86K. It is in the tax records that the purchase price was $1 million dollars then the following year it appraised at $86K. Not only is the county not getting its fair share of taxes from this peice of property but the owner is able to claim a loss because the $1 million dollar property is only worth $86K now. This same guy is also waiting on his trial for being a ghost employee in another county. He apparently was paid $60K a year and never worked a single day. He said he is not guilty but there are two of them and they both have the exact amount of overtime and neither of them ever showed up for work. Oh and this same guy is on the appeal board for those who thought their taxes were increased too much. When I mentioned him as a example of what is wrong he let me know that his taxes increased also that year and that he was "hit hard".

I am sure this isn't the only property in the country not being taxed properly. We have a store that is in the middle of town and a gas station atteched to it. It is the only place in town to buy groceries and is owned by a prominent family. Realistically it should be valued 5x-10x what it is. They value of everything, store and gas station is only $88K. That is the property and the buildings.

In my county there is a lot of questionable stuff that is rumored to have happened. And even if 10% is true I am surprized people are not going to jail. I do know the sheriff's office and judicial system is being investigated by the state. We have the highest time served and dismissed rates in the state. And we are not talking about percentage points higher but multiples higher. I know my brother was arrested for fellony drug possession a few weeks ago and he was sentenced to time served four, YES 4, days after his arrest. And this isn't his first run in. He has had standoffs with LE as well as tried to kill my family and I. They even let him pay $244 to flatten the 9 months he had left on his probation. He was not drug tested or even violated when he was arrested when he was on probation. The reason? It is so they can keep beds open for other county as well as federal inmates. A country resident in a country jail costs the country money but house another county's inmate and get paid. All counties do it and it is considered a source of revenue.

I would not have a problem with my taxes increasing if the services increased but the exact opposite has happened. In the years that my taxes have increased the LE has been scaled back SUBSTANTIALLY. They even put in the newspaper that officers will not respond unless it is a life and death situation. There are times when we do not have an officer on duty, only on call. And even when the shift is full there is only 2 officers on. It is not LE fault, it is the county using funding as a political tool. I have even called to have an officer come out and had it ring and ring and ring. I finally had to leave a message and an officer called me back later to see what I needed. Well I needed an officer a few hours earlier.

We have county jobs in which the pay should not be what it is and those holding the position is because their parent had the job. I have been told that when the child takes over the postition they continue to receive the same amount as the parent's pay after working their all their life. There have been postitions created when times are good but now they can't just fire a relative.

Even our mayor, as sweet as she is, is part of it. The mayor receives $1 a year for the position of mayor. They take the position because of all the side benefits they know they will receive.

Dolomite