Good Old-fashioned class recognition and corrupt p
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4/3/2012
Oxford has the kind of government where about 100 people (out of about 6000) can decide how the town spends and gets money. When the housing bust happened, the town didn't adjust tax rates until two years later and then continued to over-value homes. They make sure the over valuation is around $100 so most people won't recognize the problem, or spend the $100 to appeal the rate. They recently built an un-necessary taj-mahal-like police station for a very unprofessional and small police force because most of the voters didn't even know what was going on. Friends of construction like this get emails to attend town meetings, others get their information by dialing to a silent TV station where town info is scrolled on the screen. Like everyone watches this kind of thing after working all day. Residents of this town pay the same tax rate as businesses, and businesses know how to minimize theirs. Think that's fair? The town negotiated with Charter TV for a discount for seniors. The discount?, $1.24 a month from the basic tier. Wow. After five months a senior could get a cup of coffee at Starbucks - and leave a tip. Got a complaint about a business that services the town in some way? Forget about it, they protect the business. The regular working people? Great. Some day I'm going to write a book about this towns' politics.
Dan | Oxford, MA