StopLouBarletta.com

Mayor Lou Barletta wants to sell the Hazleton Water Authority to the highest bidder and if anyone tries to stop him, murder, rape, and anarchy will ensue.  Barletta claims that if he can’t sell the Water Authority for a quick buck, Hazleton will collapse into a heap of rubbish.  Worse, the residents of Hazleton, now drug addicted serial killers, will spill into the surrounding towns and cities.  What will ensue will be nothing short of a Biblical plague of pain, suffering, and horror.  Or something like that.

Barletta appeared this week on the Sam Lesante Show and spoke about why he needs to sell the Hazleton Water Authority and what would happen if he wasn’t allowed to do so.  As reported in the Standard Speaker…

He said the 13 municipalities in addition to Hazleton where the authority sells water have a stake in the city’s well-being.

“If the City of Hazleton crumbles, we would lose our police department, our fire department … The crime and decay will reach out,” Barletta said.

And if that weren’t enough to scare the living crap out of all of you, keep this in mind.  Without the money from the Water Authority Sale, Barletta will have no choice but to raise everyone’s taxes to the point where people will have to begin selling off their children just to afford food.  Again, as reported by the Standard Speaker…

If the city doesn’t make the sale, however, Barletta said he expects taxes on a home assessed at $100,000 would increase by $3,057 during those five years. He said he does not think most taxpayers could afford the increase, nor does he think the city could continue to maintain roads or provide the current level of police and fire service.

Get that?  Higher taxes.  Widespread crime and decay.  No police or firefighters.  This is what will happen if Mayor Lou isn’t able to sell off the Hazleton Water Authority.  Yes, Barletta admits that the sale will probably result in higher water bills for Hazleton and all the surrounding areas currently being serviced by the Water Authority.  However, as Lou himself points out, that fee hike is nothing compared to the tax hike he will unleash if his grand-plan is thwarted.  Besides, think of all the money that the city will raise if it sells the Water Authority.  Right?

Not so fast, according to Chris Paige.  Paige, who is running against Barletta in the 11th Congressional District Republican Primary, says that the profits promised by Barletta are the stuff of pipe dreams and fiction.  According to Paige, who held a Townhall Meeting last night in Hazleton, Barletta’s numbers are a bit off.  As reported by the Standard Speaker…

According to the mayor’s presentation, the city stands to generate $1.5 million annually by investing proceeds from the sale of the water company into an irrevocable trust and in a solar power generation facility to be constructed on city land near the municipal airport.

Paige said Barletta’s investments would have to yield 14 percent in order for the projected profits to become a reality.

“Fourteen percent per year with no risk? Even Bernie Madoff only promised 10 percent,” Paige said.

Paige termed Barletta’s plan a “get rich quick scheme” and said, “Hazleton’s problems weren’t created overnight and they won’t be solved overnight.”

So now the plot thickens!  Not only will Barletta’s planned sale of the Water Authority probably result in higher water fees for the fine people of the greater Hazleton area, but the profits promised from such a sale may not ever materialize.  If true, selling the Water Authority will make things worse, not better, for Hazleton.  The city will still be near financial collapse, police and firefighters will still have to be laid off, taxes will still have to be jacked up, up, and away, and on top of all that, the cost of clean drinking water will be increased, as well.  But despite all of this, Lou Barletta still wants all of us to just go along with his plan and trust him.

Trusting in Lou Barletta is the real source of this whole mess.  The people of Hazleton trusted in Barletta and elected him, multiple times, to the rank of mayor.  And what did they get in return?  One of the worst economies in the state.  Businesses are closing, homes and store fronts are sitting vacant, and the city’s finances have been thrown into the toilet.  Lou Barletta would like all of us to believe that everything is fine and that he’s got everything under control.  Hell, he even says as much on his website.  And what’s even scarier is that this man, who’s already ruined a city, now wants a shot at playing Congressman.

Lou Barletta must not be allowed to become a US Congressman.  He has shown, repeatedly, that if given the opportunity to make things worse, he will.  In fact, even when you think that there’s no possible way that he can make things worse than they already are, he will surprise you.  Lou Barletta has screwed the city and the people of Hazleton so far into the dirt that it will, if they’re lucky, take a generation for them to see daylight again.  And as the country slowly eeks its way out of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, we simply can not afford to put a man like Barletta in Congress.  Because he will find a way at screwing all of us.  It’s what he does.  Lou Barletta should not be elected to Congress.

See also: Hazleton for Sale…Maybe and Chris Paige to Challenge Barletta in Hazleton

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

So what do you do if you’re the mayor of a city in financial distress?  Have a fire sale!  After years of bad decisions, chasing businesses out of town, wasting tax payer money, and illegal use of funds, Hazleton is now on the verge of financial collapse.  Indeed, under the “leadership” of Mayor Lou Barletta, the city of Hazleton has suffered mightily.  Now, running out of options, Barletta is planning to try and sell the Hazleton Water Authority to try and keep the city afloat.

So this is what it has come down to?  Selling off Hazleton piece by piece?  True, selling the Water Authority may raise funds in the short-term.  However, the Water Authority isn’t the source of the problem.  A shrinking tax base and the financial consequences of Barletta’s inept leadership are the reasons Hazleton is on life support.  So what happens two years down the road when the city is still on the verge of financial collapse?  Sell some more stuff?  Anybody wanna buy a bridge?  Or a school, perhaps?

Also, if the Water Authority is privatized, it’s a safe bet that rates for Hazleton residents, as well as residents of other cities serviced by the Water Authority, will shoot up.  This will only add to the financial hardship faced by the residents of Hazleton.  Mayor Barletta is pushing ahead with brutal tax increases and city service cut backs.  All of this will have the effect of further harming the long-term health of the Hazleton economy.  Seriously, why would anyone want to live in Hazleton at this point?  Well, I guess if you like being financially raped, maybe…

And with all of this going on, Mayor Barletta is still pushing ahead with his campaign for the US Congress.  As our nation inches out of one of the worst financial meltdowns of our time, can we really afford (literally) to have people like Lou Barletta making decisions about our economy?  We’ve already seen Barletta’s version of a financial stimulus plan: Tax the hell out of everyone and sell off everything you can get a quick buck for.  Clearly, this is not the type of representation we need in Washington and we can do better than Lou Barletta.

Mayor Lou Barletta has already demonstrated, time after time and year after year, that he has the God gifted ability to take a bad situation and make it worse than anyone could have possibily imagined.  The city of Hazleton stands as a brutalized monument in tribute to Barletta’s failed leadership.  The city is teetering on the brink of financial collapse, her businesses are closing and/or relocating out of the area, and her assets are being put up for auction by the man responsible for it all.  Lou Barletta should not be elected to the United States Congress.

See also: Lou Barletta Tries to Re-Write History and Barletta Makes More Excuses for His Failures

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com