LTE: Ambrose On Hiring Who?

March 11th, 2010 · No Comments

To the Editor;

I can sense the frustration in Jerry Sarrazin’s voice when I read his letter (Give business tax break for local hiring preference, March 7th Attleboro Sun).

When he says that we should “flush the toilet in Attleboro City Hall from the top down”, I sense further aggravation with the way the city is governed. First, like him or not, we’re stuck with the Mayor until he’s ready to retire from the job. That’s just the way things are in this city. Half of the city council would like the job, but none has the fortitude to mount a challenge for it. Losing a Mayoral race can and will end your political career in this city. As I’ve said before, the answer to some of our current problems are term limits for elected officials.

As far as hiring local Attleboro residents to get a tax break, it’s a nice idea in theory. However, how can any business limit themselves to hiring a local resident if three more ‘out-of-towners’ are more qualified? The local resident would also have to be more qualified to merit consideration. Jerry may remember that Peter Blais also wanted this concept applied to those applying for positions on the fire department. As a local business owner, do you hire someone from Attleboro who’s not the most qualified to get a tax break? Does that really help your business?

I agree with Jerry that the days of getting a job in the city that you live in is also a great concept. However, this dates back to the ‘mill days’ when people were able to get jobs at places like Texas Instruments right out of high school and stay there for 25 years. As he eludes “those days are gone” although some local businesses still do offer tuition assistance, knowing that a more educated employee can help their business and will probably stay at that company to further their career.

The only area where I sort of disagree is how to encourage manufacturing to come back? Tax incentives won’t do it alone. We need to change the mindset of the populous. It’s obvious to see how many inferior products come to us from Chinese manufacturing, but how many people will stop shopping at Wal-Mart to send that message?

Mark C. Ambrose

Attleboro, MA 02703

Tags: MBY Today · Opinion · Uncategorized