It’s strike two for commissioners
Baseball season will soon come to an end.
The playoffs will begin and onto the World Series. Remember the movie, “Field of Dreams,” and the famous line, “Build it and they will come.”
Fayette County Commissioners Al Ambrosini and Vince Zapotosky were well on their way to building Fayette’s folly but a rain delay has occurred because of second thoughts by one commissioner.
Soon after taking their oath of office, Ambrosini and Zapotosky raised the cost of owning property in Fayette County. The millage rate was raised from 3.51 mills to 4.51 mills, a 28 percent tax increase. With one mill generating $4 million in revenue to the county. The years from 2012 to 2014 effectively removed from the economy of Fayette County a total of $12 million.
If the millage had remains the same for 2015, another $4 million will be extracted from property owners, bringing to the total amount taken by commissioners Ambrosini and Zapotosky to $16 million. Consider this action taken the first pitch. The umpire calls out strike one.
Two commissioners joined together to build Fayette County’s Hall of Justice and Rehabilitation, a $30 million facility financed over 30 years. With interest added of another $30 million, the total cost would be $60 million.
The question did arise. How to pay for it? The response was shell gas and gaming proceeds.
Excuse me but shale gas money will expire in 2027. Financing the folly for 30 years will bring the second pitch. A fastball on the outside corner, and the umpire signals strike two.
What will the commissioners do now? With two strikes, they will choke up on the bat and with one swing hope to put the ball in play. Doing something at this stage of the game would be doing exactly that, doing something.
The commissioners will now bring to the plate a switch-hitter in an attempt to deceive the crowd by using a righty instead of a lefty. The third pitch will be delivered on election day during the primary of 2015. If these same two commissioners decide to play again it will be up to the crowd to deliver the next pitch a called strike and the umpire will signal your out. Our of office that is.
Baseball is a game, but it is also a big business. Conversely, county government is not a game nor a business. The taking and misuse of taxpayers’ money to appease the wants and needs of a certain few will not be tolerated. The 3,500 signatures on petitions to stop Fayette’s folly will be multiplied five-fold next election. Who will be the beneficiary of these votes?
The unofficial anthem of the game of baseball, which is sung during the middle of the seventh inning goes something like this:
Take me out to the commissioners’ meeting,
Take the voices of the crowd away,
Buy me a prison an create new jobs,
I don’t care if I ever get re-elected,
Let me tax, tax the property owner,
If they can’t pay, it’s a shame,
For the Fayette County Commissioners,
It’s one, two, three strikes you’re out,
of the old con game.
Ed Zadylak is a resident of Connellsville.