[speaker001:] okay Ray what do you think about taxes
[speaker002:] okay um too high obviously
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah I agree
[speaker002:] but my property taxes have been going up repeatedly uh over the last uh well this is going to be the seventh year in a row that they've increased
[speaker001:] oh really
[speaker002:] so um and they're always saying if you know if they don't raise taxes then they're going to have to lay off on uh the teachers they're going to have to lay of uh firemen they're going to have to lay off the police officers
[speaker001:] hum-um
[speaker002:] but yet they don't talk anything about the administration about cutting back on that end of it
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] they just they've they're in the middle of an expose now on the state and the City of Providence uh public works departments
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah
[speaker002:] and they've had TV cameras going around uh they wait at some of the yards and they follow the trucks as they come out uh at random
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] just to see what they do during the course of the day
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and there's not much that's going on I'll tell you I mean they're going to gin mills and and spending half a day in there drinking or they're going to other people's homes and doing work
[speaker001:] oh so you've got you have you have a little graft and corruption huh
[speaker002:] uh I think that's in any city or town I don't think there's any that are free from graft and corruption
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] uh if they could eliminate something like that
[speaker001:] um yeah you know the waste you know that's I think uh
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] I I think that's a big problem uh uh I don't do you think you get some good services for your taxes do you have a good school district do you have
[speaker002:] um I thought we always did I grew up in a town it was it's a small town
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah
[speaker002:] it's in Rhode Island actually I live in Rhode Island I work in Massachusetts
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] um but about uh six seven months ago they had a breakdown of all school systems and how many children actually once they once they get into the school system how many actually graduate
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and I was kind of shocked at the amount of dropout in our town
[speaker001:] yeah around fifty percent
[speaker002:] uh not quite but it was up there it was the forty percentile range
[speaker001:] yeah yeah that's that's pretty much I think nationwide it's you know the average is about seventy five percent uh complete school you know twenty five percent dropout rate throughout the country
[speaker002:] yeah that's
[speaker001:] for school districts I'm not sure how they figure that out if they do per pupil or if they look at just averages per school district and things like that but some schools I I don't know see I I live in a small community and um we don't pay much in taxes I don't uh this sets this is a farming community and the farmers control your property taxes basically and and in a sense you services we have uh probably what's considered the third worst maybe the fourth worst school district in uh in the in the state other than the city of Baltimore itself probably you know which is always I guess a low is a low streak so actually I think for the return on my taxes for my for my my uh state taxes that go to my school district and my services or whatever I think I get a pretty good return
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] but my employment tax you know the federal I don't think I get a good federal return at all I think locally I think property taxes on my house were twelve hundred dollars and that was that included state and local taxes so that was school district and snow plowing which isn't probably anything like that you have and that included my water and sewer um but I didn't think that was too bad
[speaker002:] um-hum yeah mine are right now they're two thousand dollars just a little over two thousand
[speaker001:] uh-huh do you own a lot of property just a or a small lot
[speaker002:] no uh a third of an acre
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and uh it's a colonial house that we have it's a saltbox it's uh twelve years old
[speaker001:] yeah um-hum yeah
[speaker002:] the uh plus the plus the personal property tax we get taxed on our automobiles
[speaker001:] oh do you
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] see we don't do that
[speaker002:] and then the the town also has a fire tax
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] so we get a fire tax added to
[speaker001:] the uh everything on top of that
[speaker002:] yep and it's the bulk of it's going for the school system
[speaker001:] yeah see I I yeah
[speaker002:] but we had uh when I when I got out of school I I went up and I worked in a in a missile plant up in uh Buffalo
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and up there they had like all our fire departments were volunteers
[speaker001:] right yeah
[speaker002:] they had uh the best of equipment and and the best of training a and it didn't really
[speaker001:] you mean you have a full-time fire department
[speaker002:] no full-time
[speaker001:] is that what you have now though in your town
[speaker002:] yes yes we've got all full-time fire departments
[speaker001:] oh how many about how my goodness see that's see that's down here um being a member of we have we have a couple full-time firemen but basically you know they well train the guys and they run the show and they live in the firehouse and you know and then most everybody else is volunteer
[speaker002:] oh okay and then you have call yeah
[speaker001:] so there's like a core of like each station has like two or four full-time then everybody else is a volunteer
[speaker002:] yeah we got volunteer I mean uh we used to have volunteer up here
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and now they're all paid
[speaker001:] um
[speaker002:] which is you know I don't know we can there's a lot of things that can be done because federal taxes are out of sight because of
[speaker001:] yeah oh that just federal taxes just more and more and more and less and less services you know
[speaker002:] that's it they just keep
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] they don't cut anything
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and it just feeds on itself and I don't think there's anything that anyone ca n do anymore
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] it's just grown to such proportions
[speaker001:] yeah such it's just out of hand I agree you know the the whole idea like around here um you know after Desert Storm or whatever we have a plant here that feeds one of the military contracts that should be cut you know that they advised on cutting
[speaker002:] oh yeah
[speaker001:] but because of Desert Storm now they said well we can't cut it so they put it back in action now granted everybody around here was happy because it keeps two or three hundred people employed
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] but you know if we don't cut some of these nationwide you know some of these expenses just have to be cut if we don't need such a large army and we don't need if the military comes out and says we don't need all these planes then why does Congress say tough take them anyway you know
[speaker002:] well it's like the the tanks now everyone's after the tanks they're the you know like the the Mach One is it the Mach One Abrams
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] um I don't know how much it costs let's let's round figure just say a million dollars now for a million dollars you can produce probably a thousand handheld antitank weapons
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] rockets
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and you give them to a thousand peasants you don't even have to train them
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and out of one of those thousands one of them is going to hit now you take out a million dollar tank with a with a you know
[speaker001:] with a one thousand dollar antitank weapon
[speaker002:] right but they're but they're still going with the with the mechanized it's like the it's like the old days when they had the cavalry they didn't want to give up their horses to go for Jeeps or whatever they were doing then
[speaker001:] yeah  and you know a million dollars do you know how many people that would feed and clothe and get off the welfare rolls and get and keep in school and you know if we uh I just
[speaker002:] right yep and
[speaker001:] in some ways I just don't
[speaker002:] you talk to them and you talk to like the big aircraft companies and all they say well if they didn't spend the money and they didn't then they're overruns and if didn't cost a hundred dollars for a hammer uh you would put a lot of people out of work
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] but those people you put out of work you could you could rechannel their energies into making a rapid transit system in this country
[speaker001:] that's right oh I agree with you a hundred percent you know our direction has really you know solar energy uh you know there's been some recent great discoveries in solar energy surprisingly because there's there's no money invested in it
[speaker002:] that's right no um in fact in fact TI just announced some breakthroughs in solar energy
[speaker001:] yeah a big thing uh-huh yeah
[speaker002:] you know some flex
[speaker001:] a flexible solar material that it can be woven over top of something it could be it could be put on the top of airplanes to help power the plane
[speaker002:] yep yep yep
[speaker001:] you know it uh it just it could be put on the top of automobiles to
[speaker002:] it's being channeled into special action groups by special action groups and they just keep the taxes keep going
[speaker001:] right uh they just keep yeah it that just
[speaker002:] just for those just for those groups and we've got like the the uh Groton Connecticut
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] where they make the subs
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and we've got a division in uh in uh Quansett that does it that does the same thing so when they announced the contract up here for that latest
[speaker001:] hum-um
[speaker002:] uh sub I guess uh Newport News said they were going to sue the government because of you know blah blah this and blah blah that whatever it was but it's generating jobs up here for us but it's really it's really not if you look at the whole you know it's generating jobs for a few people
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] if they channeled their energies if they go back to like when Roosevelt put put in the C C C camps and they built border ways for the reservoirs and you know highways and bridges and yeah um
[speaker001:] right  and highways see that's a big problem we have um I'm originally from Pennsylvania and the biggest problem we have in Pennsylvania is that almost every bridge
[speaker002:] oh okay
[speaker001:] that in Pennsylvania was built during the Eisenhower administration uh within was in the City of Pittsburgh
[speaker002:] is that right
[speaker001:] and there are yeah because see they Eisenhower put through money for uh though it probably didn't affect Boston it went the uh a highway from New Jersey west
[speaker002:] was it was it funded by by special bonds or
[speaker001:] I'm not sure what it was but it was uh Eisenhower I guess thought that you should be able to move tanks across the country