“Don’t wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig loves it.”

Mark Twain

Does anybody remember the television series, “Lost in Space,” 1965 – 1968? I don’t mean the movie that came out much later but the television show that nowadays would seem to be corny.

Our government at several levels reminds me of that television show. However, Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer for Tesla Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies Corporation during a recent meeting warned U.S. governors about possible dangers with the increase of research on artificial intelligence. I wonder if that was related to government.

The formal Windham Town Council meeting of July 11 was probably the shortest I have ever witnessed in Windham as there were no items of substance to be voted on and the meeting then went into a workshop where reducing property taxes for farmers and the elderly were discussed, along with another disgusting discussion about private roads in Windham.

Don’t expect much in-depth discussion on all three of those items in this column, including private roads and where some of the town councilors live because they seem to have a huge problem admitting where they live in their discussions at town council meetings and workshops. I will just state that it appears many of Windham town councilors reside on private roads. One citizen was nice and asked them where they lived during that meeting.

When it comes to tax breaks for certain farmers and elderly citizens in Windham I have to presume the details will take time to come up with. The best I can gather at the present time is that certain income levels would apply to both and the proposed property tax breaks would be taken from the municipal revenue sharing from the state of Maine that seemingly was never expected but received the past couple of years after the municipal budget of Windham was paid for only with local tax dollars.

All of a sudden here comes a couple of property relief programs, so how much revenue sharing money has the town received in the past without it being part of the town’s budget and where has it gone? I think we need an honest answer to that question or Windham needs new management. It’s not like I disagree with the two proposed programs, but revenue sharing, whether for schools or the town, is supposed to be used for tax relief and what I understand this year that must occur by what is written in the approved state budget.

Although I believe the following figures might not be set in stone here’s the newest figures from the state website on revenue sharing. It looks like municipal revenue sharing could be set at $732,036.97 and the increase for RSU-14 is $664,219.42 higher than projected in February 2017. There appears to be plenty of money in this year’s revenue sharing to fund some type of property tax relief so I will wait and see what happens. I also believe every property owner in Windham should receive some relief as well.

As far as the councilors discussion on private roads, I can only conclude that some of them have no problem at all beating a dead horse to death. Maybe some just don’t want any private roads in Windham or even worse, want the taxpayers of Windham to rebuild all private roads up to pubic road standards. I sometimes also think that some in town hall don’t like development but that might be just me. I must once again state that state law makes private roads a private matter. Sadly, if Windham had acted on private roads years ago I would have to guess that there wouldn’t be a problem today. The same can be said about the problems with the North Windham area and a sewer as well.

How about Seattle, Washington, which is giving citizens a $100 voucher to give to political candidates. Where did the money come from? Would you believe a $30 million property tax increase?

Lane Hiltunen of Windham believes politicians who benefit themselves while in office need to be jailed.