Throw the Bums Out!

For too long Woonsocket has been on a downward trajectory and the voters here now have their best chance to make a change.

One of the candidates said it best at the candidate forum at Chan's, the signs entering the city say, "Woonsocket, a City on the Move." The only problem is the city is moving in the wrong direction.

For years this city has been run by a couple of ruling families if you don't believe me, even a contributor to the very conservative Anchor Rising site believes it to be true. My contention is that while Rome (Woonsocket) burned, these Neros (Baldellis, Cotes and Briens) fiddled on and made deals that secured their positions in the city but did little to help the average resident.

Maybe these families decided not to advocate for the supplemental tax bill because they own so much property in the city and it would have impacted them more negatively than anyone? Maybe they voted against taxing those making more than $250,000 at the same rate as the rest of us because it would have affected them more than us?

One option being pushed by Mr. Brien as a solution to the city's fiscal woes is a waste to energy plant. Woonsocket is a small (in area) city. How would the truck traffic affect typical residents? The cost of natural gas is lower now and any new facility would have to reduce tipping fees to compete. Not to mention, doesn't the city already have enough of an odor problem with the Synagro plant?  Having an odor complaint policy already intact, it should be easy to call to register how you feel about more odors being released into the air in the city.

The one thing that can't be overlooked is both Jon Brien's and Lisa Baldelli-Hunt's complicity in voting for the 38 Studios deal that handed $75 million dollars to Curt Schilling. Jon Brien was only one of three co-sponsors and now claims he was used. My reply to that is, Mr. Brien, you're either a very bad lawyer for allowing your name to be added to anything without your knowledge and without asking any questions if you did willingly co-sponsor it; or, you're a very bad representative for agreeing to co-sponsor while getting nothing for your constituents in return.

Now that the city is in a fiscal mess, put their by Ms. Baldelli-Hunt's unwillingness to compropmise on a supplemental tax bill because she was trying to ice the mayor out of serving on any budget commission. Again, an example of thinking of herself first before her constuituents.

Both Brien and Baldelli-Hunt claim they didn't push for it because there was no concrete plan for spending. However, now that there is a budget commission in place, neither Brien or Baldelli-Hunt has attended a single meeting. Republican Chris Roberts even brought up that fact at the candidate's forum.  My question to the legislators is: If you're so concerned for the future of the city and wanted to monitor what was being done, why didn't you make the time to attend any of these meetings? 

The answer is simple enough, all they care about is getting re-elected, that's why neither made the difficult choice back in June and why neither is onvolved today; so they can have political cover if residents don't like a particular facet of what the commission decides.

It all comes back to a sense of entitlement, both Baldelli-Hunt and Brien think they can win on name recognition alone and deserve to do so because they are the Woonsocket royal families.

Please show them at the polls tomorrow that there are no royal families in this country, this is America, we are a democracy and the voters are the ones who decide when it's time for a change.

Thank you and please make sure to vote for change on Tuesday, Sept. 11.