Letter: Mike Bloomberg, An Active Voice for PittsfieldLetters to the Editor,
01:05PM / Monday, August 29, 2016 | |
To the Editor:
Those of us who understand the history of Pittsfield know that we're a far cry from our heyday. We're clawing back, but we need the help of our next state representative, Mike Bloomberg.
Tricia Farley-Bouvier has generally voted the way I would on most topics. I've spoken with her many times, she's a wonderful person, and I think she would be well suited as a state rep if the times were better ... But she has taken a passive role in Boston – others generate ideas, bring bills to a vote, and if somebody else in the state wrote something that benefits Pittsfield, Pittsfield benefits. Even the letters supporting her note the "quiet way” she has supported Pittsfield. She is treading water and we're ebbing and flowing with the tide.
No more passive voice. No more treading water. No more "quiet way." We need an active voice in Boston.
Pittsfield has an income problem and we've maxed out our property tax revenue. I bought a house two years ago (the second time I've bought a home in Pittsfield) and the property tax increased $150 a month immediately after I closed. If I had sent that $150 as an extra principal payment, I'd have saved $38,000 in interest and paid off my house six years sooner – but I got a tax increase.
We don't need clever ways to add taxes to existing citizens and businesses (like the proposed mileage tax and discussions on taxing non-profits the incumbent has been supporting). Pittsfield needs to increase revenue by growing the tax base.
Mike Bloomberg has a background and education in urban economics – he's studied cities, how their economies work, how they grow and collapse. He understands how the energy costs in Massachusetts hurt us in our competition for businesses with neighboring New York state. He knows that to address crime we must address the poverty that breeds it. And he knows how to give something for our educated sons and daughters to return to after college.
He understands the national models for revitalization like Asheville, N.C., and how to bring that model here. A strong, walkable city core full of local businesses with a sense of place, a sense of Pittsfield.
We need positive language, we need new energy, we need action. We need Mike Bloomberg. On Sept. 8, I'll be voting Mike Bloomberg for state rep. I hope you will, too.
Evan Hickok
Pittsfield, MA
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