Life in Idyllic Sturbridge

Now I know I can sure be a pain in the you know where at times but having begun reading the Sturbridge Master Plan, Vision and Goals section, I was struck by a couple of things. Now I admit, this has been out since March 2011 and I am just reading it now, and it will become clear as to why I am reading it now by the end of this post.
I debated exactly which of my blogs I should post this to, but being a tea party person I thought parts of this fit right in with the tea party philosophy.

The first thing that struck me in the "Visions and Goals" section was that there are all these nice things everyone wants to see in town, bike trails, ball fields, water recreational facilities, regional transportation system and lots of open space. Admirable goals to be sure, but nowhere do I see anything about how these nice things, the public ones at least, are going to be paid for. Now the usual means used to pay for these things is through taxes, and who pays those taxes? The residents and businesses. Follow me so far? Good.

Now here is the problem as I see it, some of us (mainly me) can't afford higher taxes. I haven't had a raise for years yet everything around me costs more. Now the obvious solution would be to bring in more businesses and build more houses, but alas, the survey says, we need more open space and we need to control growth. So that means no new tax dollars, or am i reading that wrong?

And then there is the public safety section where I see we need a second dispatcher, more police officers and more firefighters. While I can't disagree that these are needed, where does this money come from? Again, through raising our taxes. And then there is the DPW and the need for more people to work there to take care of the new ball fields which as mentioned above we just need to have. Oh, and a new town barn would be nice.

So again I ask where will this money come from? The new eco-tourist industry? Let me know how that works out this summer when gas is $5.00 a gallon.

It sure would be nice if those of us who have been lucky enough to live here for most of our lives, and in my case, my maternal grandparents lived here most of theirs, and on my paternal side have owned property here in Sturbridge for almost 100 years, could afford to continue to live here. And even better than that would be if we could actually enjoy some of these really nice open spaces and recreational opportunities once in awhile instead of working all the time just to pay the taxes.

Author's Note: As stated over there in the upper left of this blog, this is my opinion, and not necessarily that of any other member of the Sturbridge Tea Party.