Quote:
Originally Posted by secondcurve
You have a nice fantasy but since it never will happen that is exactly why special places such as Camp Alton should be protected for all to enjoy. This isn't a liberal or conservative position. Enough said.
|
Not really - it's a conservative position to take a look at what you got in your bank account, what you're making for revenue and say yeah we can't afford this. Then turn to the tax payers and say do you really want your taxes to go up to pay for it? No? OK fine no deal we'll pass on it.
It's a liberal position to say we don't care how much it costs, this feels good, will be great for the town (even though we have no idea how or why) so we're going to "make an investment" AKA tax the town... and figure it all out later. Once we own it who cares it will have to be paid for one way or another and we have all these fat cat out of towners with huge mcmansions to tap into at will. Yes yes let's go after all the "rich people" they can afford it. What's not to love here? Let's go out and pat ourselves on the back now and loathe in our greatness.
Well let's look at this from a different perspective. That property would have cost the town money to acquire and no doubt on credit + interest. Real money. This was not a donation, or a grant or a trust given to the town. Who's going pay for it? The tax payers. While it is a noble idea to preserve these areas, this takes money and ya know some times you simply cannot afford it and this notion that the tax payers are nothing but an endless cash register that can be dipped into has to and will eventually stop. I for one would be pissed off if a portion of my hard earned money was being eaten up in taxes to pay for some park somewhere that is
not essential to the well being of the town.
That said if the town had that kind of cash on hand with nothing better to do with it and wanted to at the time buy it and preserve it, then that is an entirely different story although still a costly one. Then again I guess I am one of the few that believe that buying things you don't need on credit is absolutely insane.
Remember the purchase price is just the beginning not only does the town need to buy the property but then what? They would need to sink even more money into improving it... to the tune of how much and by doing what? Least we forget how irresponsibly any town government budgets and spends money. Then it has to be maintained, patrolled, etc... more money and management. Now how is this a money maker? You going to charge people to use it? How much really is the return on that even if you were to match the cost of state park entry. It's a pittance and I suppose in 250 years you might get back the original purchase price if your lucky. The whole thing would have been a net drag on the town. AH maybe we should put in a casino to pay for it.
I actually applaud the town for saying no, for looking at the bottom line and saying this has no ROI for the town, we see no benefit to doing it and we cannot afford to take this on. Plus again if the tax payers voted on it then the appropriate people made the ultimate decision, the ones would have ended up writing the check for it.
My thought is the best option for public preservation would have been to have the state do it, built a nice state park there, put in a massive boat ramp and parking lot. Sure would have beat that piece of crap they bought at the end of Alton Bay years later. The state is in a much better position to take on a project like that and has far more resources at it's disposal to have turned that into something decent.