After a fun time here on Mr. Stamford’s blog, I’ve made the decision to start my own Stamford blog, and I hope you’ll join me there for more debate, discussion and discourse about our fine city (I also hope you’ll link to it so I actually get people to read it!).

My new blog can be found at http://streetsofstamford.blogspot.com. It’s still kind of rudimentary, but I’ll try to make it pretty as I go.

I owe many thanks to Mr. Stamford for giving me a forum for my first foray into the blogosphere. Mr. S.: As they say in the movies, we’ll always have Trump Parc…

Thanks everybody, and I’ll see you on the streets of Stamford!

JR

Continuing with the uplifting theme of things I hate, I just paid my Connecticut car (property) tax.

Each year it comes it only serves to expedite my search for a way out of this area. It’s like getting a letter directly from the governor saying, “Hey, time to fork over hundreds of dollars that my office can quickly spend on pork projects. Thanks for living here.”  Why can’t the state just slightly increase our income taxes and absorb this annoying fee. It would be a little easier to swallow and less paper work if it were included in our yearly state returns. Another idea is to just roll it into our real estate taxes (since I think a lot of the car tax goes to the city you live in?). This is just one of those taxes that were introduced years ago that will now be impossible to ever appeal.

Can some of these funds at least go to pay for improved service at the DMV? Every visit to the CT DMV has always been a complete and utter nightmare. Where do they find these people who work there? I don’t even want to know how much they are paid and what crazy pensions and benefits they must receive from the state. I receive better service at Burger King.

At least the state has stayed away from adding toll roads. Driving to NJ easily costs $20 now between all of the tolls and bridges.

I have little sympathy for the retired police officers who are seeking an increase to their pension.

Living on $900 a month from his police pension, John Braccia had to take a part-time job as a city custodian this summer to stay afloat.

“It got difficult,” said the Stamford man, 66, who retired as a city police officer in 1982 after 15 years on the force.

You only worked for 15 years and you get $900 a month and full health benefits?? You should be counting your blessings instead of complaining. What about the rest of Stamford’s retirees who worked for decades and receive no pension? What about the people who had the insight to actually save in retirement plans for their years after work?

The retired police officers signed a union contract and are getting the pension they were promised…end of story. If the pension is not providing them enough money, it should come as no surprise. They have known about the terms of the contract since they signed up.

So why do the tax payers of Stamford now have to help them out further when the city clearly does not have enough money.

Many of the police officers in this city make six figures and are very well paid. There is no reason they cannot contribute to their pension AND contribute to a retirement/savings account to live off of.

I am sick of people looking for free government hand outs. Yes, thank you for serving our city, but why should the government and the tax payers be responsible for your retirement? You contributed to a pension, the pension has not performed well enough to increase distributions, sorry but that is how it works. You want the tax payers to bail you out for your poor performing pension?

“It’s really a crime,” said Ralph Knapp, president of the Stamford Retired Police Association. “It’s not only a crime to the retirees but to the taxpayers of Stamford.”

Umm…Mr. Knapp, how is it a crime to the taxpayers of Stamford?? A crime that you could not plan for your own retirement?

In 15 years unions and pensions will be a thing of the past. So count your blessings that you even get anything.

I do like how the Mayor came out with a total bull shit answer which basically says f-you:

But Malloy said he supports an increase for retirees.

“I hope that the contract language and the performance of the pension will deliver an increase to them,” he said.

In other words, I will do whatever the city is obligated to do through it’s contract with the union. Fortunately for the city, that means you only get an increase when the pension fund actually performs.

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/ci_10162240