Your opinion on your local government?

[AlonzoMourning23]

I admit, local government has never been something I've been particularly informed about. But I was looking up my local representative in the state house today, and was a bit suprised. His name is James R. Miceli and voting for this guy is like a local tradition. He's been in in the Mass house since 1977 and has been re-elected every time. I admit he's a nice guy, my family once owned a business next to his insurance company and I met him on multiple occasions. But, ask anyone why they vote for him and they'll tell you "He does so much for the community". or "He's gone to bat for the community many times". Ask them anything more and they won't have an answer. What are his positions? What has he done for the community? What are his plans for the community? Most people don't know.

Last election I even almost voted for him, simply because he was the guy I had heard of, he was a democrat, and I didn't know his challenger. After thinking a bit and realizing I didn't know any of his positions I decided to just not vote for a state rep. Glad I did. Looked at his voting report card, he voted against abortion rights, voted against same sex marriage, voted against animal rights (or at least against positions supported by the SPCA), recieved an A+ rating by the NRA.

Also, which I found slightly humorous, he's listed as a democrat, but recieved an F rating in terms of how often he follows the democratic platform.

If anyone else wants to look at how their congressman vote, just go here: http://www.vote-smart.org/index.htm

[lily]

Interesting link, Zo. I pretty much know about my Reps. Also, not to take the topic off topic in one post, but years ago I got interested in watching our local city council, just because I heard so much about the fights they had......they even showed the meeting in bars! Not much has changed except the faces, they stil argue more than they do anything, but at least I know the ones that actually do something!

[Cobra]

I think my local government sucks, always raising taxes but I live in the county and my parents work in the county/another town so no big deal. What is though is the huge flooding problem that they haven't fixed and say will cost millions of dollars to, if they do anything at all which they're not. Just bickering back and forth to each other. The roads suck in the county or the one I drive on. Dangerous and turning into gravel, they were planning on fixing part of it and dug up some trees on the side of the road and made some spray pain lines, months and months ago. haven't touched it since.

[Buck Laser]

Austin is a pretty good city in most respects. People in city and county government, as well as planners seem to share a commitment to balanced growth, and careful preservation of natural resources. As everywhere, the developers are the bad guys, always trying to infringe on flood plains, cover too much with concrete, etc. But the proceedings of the city and county councils are pretty open, and I think we're a little above average for mid-sized cities in the US. Our population is about 675,000, but still growing. Traffic is a bitch, but longrange highway plans will relocate the heavy through traffic on I-35 to the east of the city.

In November, voters approved revenue bonds for a new library, park district improvements, hospital improvements and, I think, some new mental health facilities. New moderate income high density housing is being developed down town, which will ease transportation crunches to a minor degree.

Since property taxes and sales taxes are the main means for raising revenue, many residents fear rising property taxes will force them out. On the other hand, my property taxes are lower here than they were in IL. That's due to the senior citizen tax caps. But Texas urgently needs a state income tax in order to gather needed funds in a more equitable manner. They'e one of the last states in the union without an income tax.

[firefox]

Mmm... Bonds.... No new taxes now, TONS more for the next generation! But it's ok, that will be the next administration/taxpaying generation's problem not ours.... >:(

[NortheastCynic]

I live in Boston and I'm a libertarian, what the hell do you think I think about my local government?

-NC