Just thinking.....Senator Brown to the rescue?

Doesn't it seem contradictory that Republicans who eschew Big Government, the "Nanny State," government bailouts, increased taxes, entitlements, should suddenly seek funding to address the dilemma's of their constituents?

In Let's ship jobs overseas......
there's a list of state senators and representatives who oppose increased taxes.
It seems a simple equation. If you oppose taxes, don't you also oppose the expectation of government services?

Brown surveys storm damage in Scituate
Politicians seek money for repairs; community reaches out to help victims

SCITUATE — Carmen Tirado has been stranded in the cafeteria of Scituate High School for five days. She and her family have been stuck at the town’s evacuee shelter since their house on Jericho Road flooded during Sunday’s nor’easter, and they are still waiting on any sort of aid to come through.

The Tirados’ situation was among those Senator Scott Brown witnessed during his tour of Scituate yesterday afternoon. The Massachusetts Republican toured the breach of the sea wall caused by the big storm and visited the evacuees remaining at the shelter.

“There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle,’’ Brown said. “We’ll need cooperation from the federal, private, and state agencies to solve the problems, and they are very large.’’

State and local officials say it could cost millions of dollars to repair damage left by the storm, which flooded dozens of residences, cut power to 1,000 residents, severely damaged the sea wall, and led to fires at two waterfront homes.

Even before the recent storm, Scituate was seeking other help. A storm damaged a stretch of the sea wall in 2007, and the town is still waiting for most of the estimated $800,000 in federal help for repairs from that incident.

The federal government, through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, awarded $100,000 to Scituate in 2007 as part of a small sea wall project. But the rest of the money will not come to the town until it begins the repairs, and the work has not yet started.

“The way FEMA works is the project work has to start before reimbursement can begin. . . . It’s still moving forward,’’ said James Mannion, the state Emergency Management Agency representative for Scituate.

State Representative James M. Cantwell, Republican of Marshfield, who represents Scituate, is attempting to secure funds from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, an agency that awarded $100,000 to Marshfield for sea wall damage from a storm in May.

In addition, he is hoping to establish a statewide fund in the future to assist with sea wall repairs for other communities.

“There are no current funds available, so what I’m trying to do is go at it from several different angles,’’ he said.

Cantwell is also pushing for more flexibility in Community Preservation Funds, which can only be used for low-income housing, creation of open space and recreation areas, and preservation of historic structures.

In the meantime, Brown and his field representatives collected information from Scituate evacuees to help them contact other government agencies for help.

For Brown, the story gave him hope for optimism.

“A lot of the folks down there have been saying that they are in fact very grateful for the response the community of Scituate has given them,’’ Brown said. “I mean, someone offered up their home, said, here, take it. . . . You don’t just see that anymore. It’s really refreshing to see and uplifting.’’