Bucks
Rouse Conservation Easement, Tinicum Artists, Teen Driving, Catholic Lobby
Dear Friends,
Good
morning. Before I get to the reason why 50 state legislatures and the U.S.
Congress have outlived their usefulness, let me turn to several positive items
about
A few days
ago, one of my rowing friends put the finishing touches to a conservation
easement on his 36-acre farm in
Every imagined constituency wins with a conservation easement. Floura and fauna need no municipal services. Preserved land requires no schools, water and sewer lines or roads to be built. Residents are happy because taxes shouldn’t escalate. And real estate values increase.
Why?
Realtors tell me that most new buyers want to live next to land, which is protected from development. And while a property owner receives only half of the land’s value, he not only receives income tax advantages, but history shows that land with a conservation easement quickly appreciates to its original value. I’ll bet that Andy will be able to sell his 36 acres for more than $10,000 per acre some day…precisely because the land has a conservation easement on it.
It’s a win, win for everyone! I hope you readers who have land that you want future generations to enjoy will consider conservation easements.
The second news item also involves Tinicum. By a vote of 2 to 1, Tinicum Superviors will send revisions to a proposed ordinance regulating artists who work and sell their craft from their home studios to the Bucks County Planning Commission for review.
Supervisor Boyce Budd told me that the proposed ordinance will allow artists to perform their work in outbuildings or outside as long as they comply with all township regulations; allow artists to hire up to two paid employees to work on their premises; and allow for limited outdoor storage of materials subject to setbacks and buffering by trees, buildings or fencing.
Budd said that the proposed ordinance will not exempt anyone from regulations relating to noise, fumes, gas, heat, odor, glare, vibrations, storage or waste disposal; will not permit any show windows, display or signage other than what the current zoning permits; and not allow expansion of any commercial rights.
The supervisors want to protect the rustic and non-commercial look of Tinicum, while protecting the rights of its growing artist presence. “We’re trying to protect our people,” Supervisor Boyce Budd said. “I’m essentially very leery of law that intrudes into people’s property besides issues of health, safety, and so forth.”
We need politicians like Boyce Budd.
Item.
You could
build a case for throwing 50 state legislatures and the congress to the wolves. We’re two weeks from the midterm elections as well
as
First, would you take a guess why the legislature refuses to change the statute of limitations and allow past sex abuse cases to see the light of day? I can think of two powerful lobbies that don’t want the past to be revisited…the public schools and the Catholic Church. (There are tons of cases where teachers sexually abused children.) But neither public schools, the Catholic Church nor insurers want old sex abuse cases to resurface. It’s all about protecting assets rather than children, and the legislature’s turned a blind eye to righting the wrong.
Second example, teen driving.
Every state
legislator knows that a 16 year-old driver is more dangerous when he’s carrying
teen passengers. A teen driving with one teen passenger doubles the risk of a
crash. Two or more teen passengers create four to five times the risk as
compared with driving alone. A
But the
Theresa Podguski leads public affairs for AAA in the East Penn
Region, which comprises Upper Bucks and
“Without more restrictive legislation, parents can be stricter than the law,” she answered. “Parents need to be parents,” Podguski continued. “Parental involvement is critical in developing safe and prepared teen drivers.”
Isn’t it ironic that this week is National Teen Driver Safety Week?
If you’re as frustrated with the legislature as I am, why not contact your representatives? Ask them whether they’re willing to buck their legislative leadership and force action on these bills? Send them an email if you don’t want to use the phone.
Final item…Thomas Friedman’s case for a third party.
“There’s a level of disgust with Washington, D.C., and our two-party system- so much so that I am ready to hazard a prediction: Barring a transformation of the Democratic and Republican Parties, there is going to be a serious third party candidate in 2012, with a serious political movement behind him or her,” Friedman wrote for the New York Times (Oct. 3).
Friedman’s frustrated with our
stagnating two-party duopoly that has presided over
“We simply will not be able to do the things we need to do as a country to move forward with all the vested interests that have accrued around these two parties,” Friedman continued.
“We need a third party that will talk about education reform, without worrying about offending unions; financial reform, without worrying about losing donations from Wall Street; corporate tax reductions to stimulate jobs, without worrying about offending the far left; energy and climate reform, without worrying about offending the far right and coal-state Democrats; and proper health care reform, without worrying about offending insurers and drug companies,” Friedman added.
“These two parties are lying to you,” he concluded. “They can’t tell you the truth because they are each trapped in decades of special interests.”
A-men, brother.
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith