The CCA’s quiet rooms

Oh dear, has she been discussing tax policy?

Merely discussing the possible formation of a committee to consider issues of tax justice was too “emotional” for CCA leaders, and the whole idea had to be scrapped.

By Linda Felaco

The discussion at the January 9 Town Council meeting of the possible formation of some sort of ad hoc committee to review the town’s tax exemption list and tax code pitted the town councilors who belong to the elitist Charlestown Citizens Alliance against the more populist councilors Marge Frank and Greg Avedisian. (Lisa DiBello was not in attendance to provide the requisite third vote.)

Council President Tom Gentz and Vice-President Dan Slattery made it quite clear that whatever limited discussion they might permit regarding any potential revisions to the town’s tax structure or tax exemptions would be conducted only in the proverbial smoke-filled room and that members of the general public were not welcome to participate, as that would be “divisive.” Their reasons included fear of the issue becoming “emotional” and fear that if any members of the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee were permitted to participate, it would end up being a backdoor way to somehow sneak the reviled homestead proposal back onto the table. Not that they ever breathed the word “Democrat” at any point in the discussion.

Indeed, the CCA council members denied even the possibility that there might be people living in Charlestown who are not wealthy. Slattery was at great pains to point out that at 1.8%, Charlestown’s poverty rate is among the lowest in the state. Though if everyone’s so comfortable financially, why did Marge Frank feel the need to announce the Shovel Brigade? Surely everyone can afford to pay someone to shovel their driveway; why would they need to rely on volunteers?

The fact is, as Planning Commission Chair Ruth Platner informed us last fall, contrary to popular belief, Charlestown is not a wealthy town and our median income is not even in the top half of all the cities and towns in the state. Which is technically true, although at 20^th out of 39 cities and towns, we’re basically right in the middle. Of course a median tells you nothing about the range of incomes, although it does tell you that whatever that number is, half of the town lives on less. And it seems pretty safe to say that if the incomes of nonresident property owners were included, the median would be higher.

Tom Gentz keeps his total tax bill low with
his untaxed classic Porsches.

So Slattery and Gentz are now both on record as being unwilling even to entertain the possibility that there might be anyone in town who has trouble paying their property taxes other than the ones who are already known to be delinquent—and according to Slattery, not all of those households are necessarily deserving of help, because some of them might be earning $80,000 a year but not paying their taxes because they maxed out all their credit cards. Meaning even though Slattery and Gentz successfully excluded the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee from the discussion of an issue the committee had raised and redirected the issue at hand from rebalancing the tax load that was skewed after last year’s revaluation to finding ways to help the poorest of the poor, they still didn’t manage to make the issue any less divisive.

Because in politics, there are always winners and losers, and no amount of high-minded speechmaking can keep political issues from becoming divisive. Gentz and Slattery may think it's not divisive when they deny the very existence of people in town who are not like them, but it is. If Gentz is so opposed to divisiveness, perhaps he’d be happier as president of the Rotary Club rather than the Town Council.

Anyone who wishes to see the face of divisiveness in this town need only watch the minutes of the beach pavilion hearing at the April 11 Town Council meeting. Cliff Vanover’s face was a mask of hatred and divisiveness when he stepped to the podium to threaten the council with retribution for daring to suggest that providing the tens of thousands of visitors to our beaches—including ourselves—with decent toilets might be more important than gifting the Charlestown Land Trust with more “open space.”

Yes, as Slattery reminded us, Charlestown’s property tax rate is low relative to other towns in the state. But somehow no one ever seems to mention that part of the reason our tax rate is lower is because Charlestown doesn’t offer many of the services other towns offer to their residents. So, for instance, if you’re unable or unwilling to haul your trash to the transfer station, what you don’t pay Charlestown for curbside pickup, you pay to private haulers. And we’ve done without decent bathrooms at the beaches for decades, and until recently kept our police and firefighters in substandard facilities, in order to keep our tax rate low.

Councilors Frank and Avedisian, on the other hand, were willing to entertain the possibility that there might be ways to distribute the tax burden more fairly. They felt that the committee should be more inclusive and wanted to allow citizens to nominate themselves to participate and have the council choose up to five of them. But without Councilor DiBello there to play kingmaker, neither side could get the requisite three votes and so neither motion passed.

Tom Gentz in his quiet room at the
Typ 356 Northeast Porsche Club.

A similar discussion coincidentally took place this past week on the campaign trail for the Republican presidential nomination. Frontrunner Mitt Romney gave a speech in which he stated that concerns about the distribution of wealth and power in this country are rooted in “envy” and attacked President Barack Obama for promoting the “politics of envy.” In a follow-up interview with Matt Lauer on NBC’s The Today Show, Romney said that discussions of inequality of wealth distribution and tax policy should take place only in “quiet rooms.” Which I gather is the modern-day version of the old smoke-filled room, now that smoking is all but banned pretty much everywhere other than in the privacy of one’s own home.

(Image:Pasdecabale.jpg by User:Rama)

Which got me picturing the thought bubble over Mitt’s head when he’s in his Quiet Room, away from The Masses. “Shall I have the turkey club or the grilled salmon?” he wonders while he’s formulating U.S. tax policy. Because of course for the 1% it’s a given that that’s how things work. They meet in their quiet rooms and decide amongst themselves how to divide up the pie and how to dole out the crumbs the rest of us get to fight over.

Where are the CCA’s quiet rooms, I wonder? Judging from the number of tone-deaf remarks I've heard in the Town Council chambers, the CCA seems to think the chambers are one of their quiet rooms. Though to all appearances, the CCA is unwilling to discuss the issue of tax justice even in a quiet room; they don’t want the subject discussed at all. And why should they? From where they sit, the system is working just fine. For Gentz and Slattery, they have their social circles, their fat pensions and portfolios, and life is good. Why stir up class warfare when you’re winning?