Joe The Nerd

The Army of the Sane Makes A Stand

The Army of the Sane took the field when Commissioners Joe Hoeffel and Bruce Castor allowed the public to comment on a Tea Party-style budget that cuts spending with no tax increases.

    For the last two-plus years we have been subjected to the steady drumbeat of the insanity generated by the Tea Party. Those who weren’t yelling like idiots with tri-corner hats and snake flags were relegated to the sidelines. The battle is starting to turn. Montgomery County Commissioners Joe Hoeffel and Bruce Castor took the logic of the Tea Party to its outer limit. They went public with a Tea Party-style budget that cut spending with no tax increases. Then they allowed the public to comment on it. From about 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday the commissioners held a hearing where sane person after sane person stood up and said that you cannot cut things like libraries, the Montgomery County Community College, the park system, the …

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Joe The Nerd Ferraro

4:47 pm on Saturday, December 10, 2011

The schools are failing because selfish people like you got yours and are strangling the funding for the school system. The decade from 1997 to 2007 had a huge population boom. the decade before did not have 75% of the kids to be educated. The decade from 1997 to 2007 also had a lot of school districts updating their infrastructure - like building and maintaining schools. Starting in 2001 we also…   more ›

Hundreds Throng Commissioners Meeting to Support Threatened Programs

Many voice support for tax increase to cover budget shortfall

If the program-slashing preliminary budget the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners posted last week was intended to elicit a reaction from the public, it seems to have worked. Residents packed a courtroom at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown on Wednesday for a public hearing on the budget, some waiting in line for up to three hours to speak to commissioners Joe Hoeffel and Bruce Castor on the importance of the county parks department, library system, Montgomery County Community College, and other institutions threatened by funding cuts in the proposed $384.4 million operating budget. Having already moved the Board of Commissioners meeting to the courthouse from its usual venue in the eighth floor boardroom of One …

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Keep the Parks off the Block

Find a way to fund the parks.

  To the editor: We’re sending this email because the Montgomery County Department of Parks and Heritage Services urgently needs your help. Due to budget cutbacks, the county is proposing to close county parks, trails and historic sites and eliminate the department completely. What does this mean for you and your family? It means the trails you enjoy will no longer be available; it means the parks you appreciate visiting, to go fishing and/or boating, have a family picnic, or attend an environmental education program, will be closed; it means the rich history of some very special historic sites including Pennypacker Mills, will not be able to be shared through guided tours and seasonal events. In addition, any cutback from the 2011 budget …

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