Massachusetts is falling apart…

…and, bad economy or not, a lot of stuff needs to be fixed.

Several months ago, Massachusetts Treasurer Tim Cahill was on the FOX-25 Morning News.  He said that the infrastructure in this state is seriously in need of repair, and somehow, they will have to come up with the money to pay for this.  If some of the bridges are not repaired soon, we could possible face another disaster like last year’s bridge collapse in Minnesota.

So there will be a need for qualified Construction Managers; hopefully, tis time we can get some who will do a better job than the ones in charge of the Big Dig did.

If you are in the construction field, maybe this might be a good time to study to receive your CAPM certificate. That way, you will be qualified to be a Construction Project Manager, and make a lot more money than you are now.

You may think that you don’t have time to go back to school.  But how about considering studying online, at St. Joseph’s University?  You can keep your current job and study at your own pace.  They also offer convenient tuition payment plans, and financial aid is available for those who qualify.  You might even be able to get tuition reimbursement from your employer.

This has been a public service announcement from the taxpayers of Massachussetts…hoping that the state will hire Construction Managers who know what they are doing, and won’t take us into another Big Dig fiasco!

Don’t people check their statements?

News story:  Thousands Of Fast Lane Users Overcharged

Apparently, the equipment at the tolls that detects the number of axles on a vehicle is defective.  But still…don’t people read their statements every month to see what they’ve been charged?  Do these people even bother to get the statements?

Yes, the state has made it hard to get statements.  When we first signed up for Fast Lane, they only sent the paper statements for three months, and then they suddenly stopped.  When I called to complain, I was told that I’d have to ask to have them sent for longer than that, if I didn’t let them know I still wanted them, they stopped sending them.  I was NOT told this fact when I first signed up.

Also, back then, I experienced a lot of difficulty in logging into their website, so I couldn’t always see the statements there, either.  Fortunately, they have since inproved their site so that it works now.

Good thing for that, because now they want to charge $2.00 a month to get the paper statements.  They will still be available online for free, and they will even send you an email each month with a link to your statement.  Two bucks a month for a piece of paper is insane, so I signed up for the email reminders.

But still…the money comes out of either a bank account or is charged to a credit card.  We use a debit MasterCard, so the money comes out of our checking account.  That means we have to know the amounts each month so we can write it into the checkbook.  So if we were overcharged, we’d surely have  noticed this right away.

Even if we put it on a credit card and didn’t have to write it in the checkbook…don’t people look at their charge statements each month, so see what’s been spent?  Aren’t people worried about stuff like identity theft, in that they’d go over their statements with a fine-toothed comb to check for any unauthorized charges?

Also, don’t these people KNOW how much the tolls cost?  I bet these are the same people who are bellyaching about the upcoming toll increases…but they need to watch the news to learn that they could have been overcharged?

I dunno…in these tough economic times, you’da thunk that people would be more watchful as to where every penny goes.

When I first saw this story on TV, my first thought was about the fact that the transponder is tied to the car that it is mounted in, and wouldn’t the sensor thing know that?  But then I realized that people could try to cheat the system by buying a transponder, registering it to a regular car, and then putting it into a tractor-trailer.  Even though you’re supposed to sign up for a more expensive business account if you are using transponders in tractor-trailers, that wouldn’t stop some people from cheating.  So they really do need those axle-sensor thingies.

So now I suppose that fixing these will mean that our beloved governor will be pushing for both the gas tax increase, AND the toll hikes?  And raising fares on the MBTA, as well?  I also heard somethng a while back about trying to collect MA sales tax from MA residents who buy stuff in tax-free New Hampshire.  How they’d ever enforce that one, I don’t know, unless they asked for people’s IDs at the registers.  There is also that thing about increasing the hotel and restaurant tax, and no doubt he has millions of  ideas about other things that he can tax.

Here’s a suggestion…perhaps if they had been properly maintaining this stuff all along, rather than negrlecting it and letting it fall into serious disrepair, it would be much less expensive to fix?  You thnk?

St. Patrick’s Day at Old Sturbridge Village

This year, St. Patrick’s Day is in the middle of the week.  But the folks at OSV want people to be able to come out and celebrate there, so they will be holding their events the weekend before.

On the evenings of Friday, March 13 and Saturday, March 14, A Celtic Evening will be held at the Village.  The evening will begin with hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar at the Oliver Wight Tavern.  The the party moves over to the Stephen M. Brewer Theater, where Full Gael will perform traditional Irish/Celtic music.

Tickets are $25 per person/$23 for OSV members who order by March 6.  You can order online HERE.

There will also be a daytime event on Saturday, March 14 – An Irish Pub at Old Sturbridge Village.  A traditional Irish pub menu will be served at the Oliver Wight Tavern, and there will also be entertainment.  To see a sampling of what will be on the menu, and to make reservations, go HERE.

While you are there on Saturday, also check out the Maple Days event, where you can learn all about maple sugaring.  This will be happening every weekend throughout the month of March.

I think I would like to go to at least the evening St. Pat’s event, stay overnight, and visit the Village again on Sunday.  If we go, we’ll give that Super 8 motel a shot, it seemed to get some good reviews.  Surely it has to be better than that awful Motel 6.  You may well recall our rather disastrous last stay at that place.  NEVER AGAIN!  We do need to find a new place to stay in Sturbridge during the periods that the Heritage is closed.  They won’t be re-opening until May.

I don’t ask for much from a discount lodging place, except that it be clean and properly maintained, and that everything works as it should. The phone, TV clicker, heating system, and internet access should be functional, and I don’t want to see any loose shower faucets, as we did at that other place. I forgot to mention that in my long rant about the place…Mike tried to adjust the shower head, and it fell off in his hand.  He was able to stick it back on so we could use the shower.

Anyhoo, I will have to ask Mike tonight if he wants to go to this thing, and if so, I will make all the arrangements right away!

Don’t blame me…I didn’t vote for the guy!

Messychusetts governor Deval Patrick, that is.  I voted for independent Christy Mihos in that election, and I bet he’d not be throwing away OUR money as Governor Patrick is now.

I am absolutely livid over this whole 19 cents per gallon gas tax increase thing.  And you wanna know why?  Mainly, because he says that six cents per gallon of this money is going to go towards the MBTA, to fix it and prevent more fare hikes.

I want to know why people who drive, and don’t use the T at all, need to pay for this.  I’m sorry, but the people who ride it need to pay for it.  We don’t ride the T because it is dirty and skeevy and overpriced, and we end up being bused from Wellington and having to ride an even skeevier bus to Oak Grove.

As for the thing about the Mass Pike tolls, once again, let the people who use them pay for them.  We do use the Mass Pike, but not that often, and we don’t care if they raise the tolls, it won’t make all that much difference.

But Deval Patrick and his higher-ups have been quick enough to spend taxpayer money on themselves.  He did pay the state back for that Caddy, but how many luxury things, such as Outer Banks rentals and junkets to Las Vegas have been courtesy of the taxpayers?

Can you say *one-term governor*, boys and girls? I KNEW that you could!

Can you recession-proof your job?

It’s possible.  A lot of people are considering going back to school, in order to make themselves more valuable to their current and/or future employers.

However, look at what’s been happening with many of our local schools.  Brandeis University is hurting enough to decide they must sell off their art collection.  Harvard’s endowment has gone WAY down.  The city of Worcester wants to tax dorm rooms.  And UMass is raising tuition and fees…AGAIN.

Also, our wonderful governor wants to raise the gas tax here in Massachusetts by 19 cents a gallon, thus making us the state with the highest gas tax in the nation.  So, having to drive to work and then to classes can get very expensive.  Plus, there is the fact that as a busy professional, your time is limited, especially if you have a family.

This is why online learning makes a lot of sense.  The St. Joseph University Online Management Certificate Program is a solution for  busy professionals to attain their goals of moving up within their company, by learning all of the important principles of project management.

For example…Mike is an electrical engineer.  He does have a senior position now, but if he wanted to go further in the company, taking the Project Management curriculum would make sense.  He could take the courses at home, online, and work at his own pace.  No driving to classes, no worrying about getting stuck in traffic, high gas costs, or any of that.  And once he passes the exam and gets the certificate, he could stand to make a lot more money.  The median  salary for managers in his industry is $111,020 a year…not shabby at all!

Saint Joseph’s program will also provide PMP exam preparation. The Project Management Professional exam is a standardized test which employers all over the management industry will look at when considering candidates for hiring or promotion.

Some companies have tuition reimbursement programs, and you may be able to get your employer to pay for this certification program.  If not, Saint Joseph’s offers installment payment plans, and student loans are also available.

Remember, the more valuable you can make yourself to your employer, the less chance you have of losing your job.  It would certainly be worth the investment of time and money to further your education!