Congratulations Jim Richetelly

Although only 80% of the actual vote has been tallied I feel it is safe to say that Jim Richetelli has won the election for Mayor of our town. Voter turnout was pretty low but when compared to the rest of the elections our town is pretty consistent as an overall percentage.

According to news 12 this is where it stands with the 80% of the count reported:

James Richetelli (GOP) 7,238 57%
Kerri Rowland (D) 5,439 43%

It is my opinion that Mr. Richetelli's lead of nearly 14% makes hin the undisputed winner. The likely hood of Rowland winning is slim as it would require the remaining 20% of uncounted voters to be 80% in her favor. This would be absolutely impossible, incredible and suspect given the 80% spread of 57% to 43%.

Tonight we can rest easy that our incumbent mayor has prevailed. Perhaps next election the Democrats will present a more qualified and charismatic leader to dethrone our incumbent. In a perfect world city leaders should not be dethroned on the basis of outlandish endorsements, or crazed advertising and spin, but instead defeated on the basis of greater Intelligence, competence, and qualifications.

To quote the Romans:

"What is popular is not always right, and what is Right is not always popular."

Milfords New Mill Rate Takes Effect on Jan 1, 2008

Like most towns affected by the new property assessments, Milford got assessed at the peak of the Real Estate Boom. The assessments done in 2007 were completed as Connecticut law requires every town to do. Our taxes are then re-calculated based on a new mill rate of which is based on 70% of your homes "real value" as of its assessment date. To explain this further, a mill is equal to $1.00 of tax for each $1,000 of assessment. To calculate the property tax, multiply the assessment of the property by the mill rate and divide by 1,000. For example, a property with a assessed value of $50,000 located in town with a mill rate of 20 mills would have a property tax bill of $1,000 per year. (In Milford our mill rate as of today is 31.77.)

2008 could be the year that breaks the backs of Milford's residents. This is of great concern to me because most of the towns frustrations are being erratically played out in this years municipal election for Mayor. To begin we must look at the fundamentals in our town and the areas town residents will be affected the hardest.

Inflation is affecting everything, this is largely due to federal policy of spending more than the nation can afford to pay. When America continues to borrow, borrow, borrow and then print money to pay our bills, the whole country gets quietly taxed by way of inflation. Simply put that $20.00 in your pocket loses its value at the rate of about a 1.5 cents a week. This happens every time consumer prices go up, and the money supply (M3) is expanded.

Energy, is at the forefront of these cost of living increases in town. Electricity is up 90% over the last 7 years, and Connecticut has the highest gasoline prices in the Continental USA, second only to Hawaii. Oil is at $94.00 a barrel making the cost of staying warm this winter the most expensive in history. Poor people are also affected as Bush just cut funding to the energy assistance program.

Mortgages, being in the mess that they are in and set to re-adjust in 2008, is causing the New Haven Milford area to lead the charge in the State Foreclosure fiasco.

Homeowners Insurance, has increased this year making the required home owner escrow payments even higher than usual. This escrow is also inclusive of many double digit increases in property taxes.

All our foreign made goods are expected to rise in value as the U.S. dollar continues to purchase less and less. The dollar has already lost over 50% of its value when compared to other major currencies. This makes all those inexpensive foreign produced "Wall-Mart" items more expensive.

Food costs are also up dramatically over the last five years making the cost of feeding a family that much more expensive.

The city and its tax policy is just struggling to maintain the existing infrastructure it already has in place. To lower taxes in Milford one would have to reduce the city services and size of the government. This is a very unlikely and difficult task, given that the largest employer in Milford is the city itself. Would the town support a hiring freeze, or 10% expansion of the teacher student ratio? This could be debated at the local level, but it is usually very unpopular because it gives teachers more work for the same pay.

These ideas, however, may be largely irrelevant because it is entirely possible that the city of Milford may be headed for a large and unexpected involuntary adjustment due in large part to macro-economic monetary policy of which it has no control over. Foreclosures are just the first sign that the city demand is greater than the provisions of the city residents. This is expected to accelerate further, as baby boomers go bankrupt on health care costs and the lack of good paying jobs continue to leave our state.

Currently Milford is at risk of mass real estate depreciation, this will put the Mill Rate out of kilter with the true assessed home values. Should the dollar continue its decline, our middle class homes will be all but unaffordable to the next generation of home buyers. Foreigners, however, will find great bargains on America's properties as currencies like the Euro, and Canadian Dollar continue to appreciate.

Sadly, Milford's position on the shoreline may become a great opportunity for foreigners to purchase second vacation homes here in the U.S. This may be good for our town as these vacationers would probably not have children in our local schools and would likely only be here seasonally. This would help our struggling mill rate of which is based on out of kilter assessments. The news today is that home prices across America are the lowest in 16 years. If this is true of our town as well than that makes the current mill rate deceptively higher than what you might think. For now the best thing we can do is be vocal about future State and Federal tax increases, stay out of debt, and get a good deal on a cord of wood this winter.

Milford Democrats Pumping and Spinning the Web.

This is an issue that I am an expert on. Having been the CEO of three computer companies, I have now confirmed what I suspected about the outlandish activities of the Milford Democrats to use selective "Progressive" information to Pump their agenda. This has also been confirmed again by another Independent candidate Running for Mayor whose name shall be mentioned as a comment in this blog after the election concludes.

One person of concern, is my opponent who has been promoting feeble minded people to high office in government. At this point I feel very comfortable to say that Kerri Rowland is not qualified to manage thousands of employees and 160 Million in city budgets and contracts. My post prior to this shows, that in my opinion, and beyond a reasonable doubt, that I believe Kerri Rowland is either lying, or just ignorant about taxes, and what it takes to lower them. The actual tax increases relative to the CPI prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the city has just kept up with inflation. (Read my article on real estate below.)

This deception set aside, I would like to comment on a new and expanded uproar in Norwalk, CT regarding Bruce Morris. Morris, I discovered is much like Rowland in they they are both somewhat feeble minded and unqualified for office. I also think, that if they are left unsupervised, they will have unpredictable and catastrophic consequences to our town and state. Rowland, already demonstrated her feeble mindedness when she slammed our own town in the New Haven Register, by calling a section of it a "Drug infested area." Rowland also criticized Amann, who endorsed her, as presiding over a committee in Devon that in her opinion is a "waste."

With this aside, I must protest on behalf of the people of Norwalk and Milford who are going "nuts" over Morris, Rowland's insensitive comments, and the attacks on Richetelli. Most of us are aware of the local issues, but this bit about the Amann Norwalk embarrassment is too much to explain. I will share the thread here on the Morris/Amann fiasco now underway at www.yourct.com.

http://www.yourct.com/newzee/2007/10/18/norwalk-bruce-morris-and-the-anti-gravity-matter/#comments

Amann and the partisan politics of the CT blogs, are becoming increasingly dangerous to the prosperity of our state and town. I think that this pursuit of befriending feeble Minded people is to empower and control a party paradigm that is destined to fail. Perhaps, and if I may speculate, I believe this Morris thing is for their own gain. What I see is a disingenuous effort aimed at "chalking up" an easy vote in Hartford. It is my opinion that no matter how the Democrats justify this, the end consequence will culminate in the form of more party dissidents fed up with both parties.

People do not like deception, censorship, or spin that poses as if altruistic and noble. Shame on the Democratic blogs for playing these games. Shame on the "Progressive" blog boards for engaging in deception!

Mayor Richetelli Dropped by today.

The race for Mayor in Milford must be heating up, because Jim Richetelli and his entourage stopped by my home today. The mayor has been campaigning hard, I received three mailed advertisements from him in the last few weeks, and today a personal visit and a chance to to speak with him briefly.

Shortly after I announced my campaign a few weeks back I called Mayor Jim and spoke to his associate. My intention of the call was to discuss the issues here in Milford, and also register my views on issues regarding the state of CT; Since Jim Amman, my opponent, outright refused to meet with me, even after contacting both his local and state offices.

There is no chance that Mr. Amman did not receive my message, because he replied to a reporter at CT NewsJunkie that the reason he declined to meet with me was because he found my request "odd" and that in his opinion "opponents do not always meet." Once again today and for the second time I invited Mr. Richetelli to meet with me. It is my hope that after the election debacle wound down he will follow up. I also permitted the Mayor to place a campaign sign on my front lawn. We will give him time to follow up.

As an update to the events of my discussion today, and I must admit I was very vocal, I flat out told Mr. Richetelli that I object to Mr. Amman's current bonding pressure to run up debt in CT. I also told Mr. Richetelli that I find it amazing that Mr. Amann can find plenty of money to build a boardwalk, yet Milford has no money to assist the elderly, or any intent to help children. I communicated to our mayor that Milford having the largest boardwalk in CT is a disgrace and a misplaced priority. Milford should return that money to the now ailing SCHIP program to make sure Milford's children have proper medical attention.

Today was hardly the platform for a debate on such issues, and his staff was under pressure to get the Mayor moving door to door. One of his staff members seemed clueless about the boardwalk project of which I found odd. Apparently their energy is not in reading all the news at the moment.

My endorsement of our incumbent mayor is largely due to the fact that Kerry Rowland listed the following on her website as her credentials:

Kerri is a 1992 graduate of Boston College. Her accomplishments include:

BA English
BA Secondary Ed.
4 year Women’s Hockey
2 year Captain
AWCHA champions

Kerri’s work history includes:

· New Standard Institute,
Internet Marketing Manager (current)

· Head Coach Girl’s Hockey Notre Dame, Fairfield (current)

· Milford Rec. Dept.

· Milford ASA Umpire.

· Asst. Hockey Coach Sacred Heart University.

Its my belief that anybody, who has any experience hiring people, would find Rowlands qualifications as insufficient. In my opinion, to suggest a little league coach is capable of 80-100 Million a year in cash management decisions is irresponsible.

However, one issue I do agree with Rowland on, is that Jim could have done a better job in keeping our property taxes lower. But neither candidate is offering any security to the struggling elderly, and those near forclosure who fear our local government or bank will evict them. Some of the locals I know are afraid their property will be confiscated. They fear losing their land and/or home if they fall behind on their ever increasing taxes.

Many of these retirees are becoming victims of reverse mortgages, only to have the balance of their estates destroyed by CT's unfair inheritance tax. Should a person be fortunate enough to even have estate balances, will discover that attorneys pay all outstanding health and hefty medical expenses as a first priority.

Both candidates are a troubling choice for me as far as the issues go, but as far as the qualifications go, Kerry Rowland does not hold a candle to Richetelli. My opponent Jim Amman on the other hand thinks that her ridiculous credentials warrant his support. If Rowland wins the election it will be nothing short of having your kids little league coach in charge of 80+ Million Dollars a year. The Democrats ought to be ashamed of themselves for even nominating such a weak and risky candidate.

Rocco J. Frank Jr.