Today, I open Yu-Gi-Oh! cards from Wish. What's up, guys? We're back with another epic video, and today we're gonna be opening cards that I got from Wish. I ordered these over a month ago, and naturally, anything you buy from Wish, you should not expect things to go well, because I'm pretty sure one of the packages just didn't show up. It says it's still being delivered, or being whatever, sent, and it's still not here, so we're opening what we have, because I just gave up on that one. But first, we have a giveaway. I'll be giving away these three cards. We have Baby Dragon. We have the Toon World and a Monster reborn from Legend of Blue Eyes. All you have to do is like this video, be subscribed, turn on notifications, and let me know what you think we're gonna see out of Wish. Are there gonna be fake cards? I mean, I don't even know what to expect. We'll see if we actually got what I bought. We didn't get one package, I'm pretty sure. I don't know. We're just gonna open all of them. Let's see what's inside. I have no idea what to expect. I'm sure it's gonna be a little bit wacky, since it's from Wish. We did this video once before, and we actually got real cards, which was pretty funny. We're gonna see if that actually happens this time, so we have... What is this? 100 pieces. We got 100 pieces of cards, DIY. All right, Kybecorp, that's actually not that uncool. I was about to say not that cool, but it really is kinda cool. Then we have Company Across, Stu, okay, whatever.   If it's not, that'd be pretty cool. All right, let's see what's inside. Wish Order. Is it gonna come in clutch? Is it gonna give us something actually real, or is it gonna be very wish-like, if you guys know what I mean? You may, you've probably seen a video on Wish before. They're pretty wild. All right, what is inside? We have... Oh no, I hope they're not the stinky cards. Oh cool, they're anime cards. This is actually cool. So these are not real cards. So real cards obviously don't look like this, but these are like anime cards that a lot of people like. They're not pretending to be like real cards, which is the nice part about them. They accept their fageness, but they're still pretty sick. Let's see what we actually got from these anime cards. There's a blackland fire dragon right off the bat. Let's see if I know the names of these. A hundred, probably not, but Archvenom of Guilford, we've got the Gaia, Skull Servant, right arm of the Forbidden One, right leg, left arm, left leg, we've got the Exodia of the Forbidden One. That's pretty sick. I, cool to see that. Boom, this is your hand when you win the game, if you're Yugi. Trust in the heart of the cards. The deck, it senses my doubt. This card is useless. There you go. We've got a Silent Swordsman, level three, level five, we've got Silent Magician. Oh, that's level seven. Silent Magician level three, we got a... Wait, no level four maybe? And then level eight, Volkarian, we've got Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. We've got the, oh, the Grande Moth, made it into the thing. Where's the Picania Moth? Why is there no Picania Moth in here? Heavy Storm, good card, Catapult Turtle. This is Alligator or something. It's not Alligator Sword, I think it's like Cyber Tech Alligator, I think that's what it is. So I'm in Skull, we almost missed that. I think this is Kamori Dragon. I'm not just Celtic Guardian, Gold Sark. Well, Gold Sark, Hophagus, if you want the full name. Yate Attack, this is the one I can never remember, but it's like, I can never remember the name of this one. Swords of Revealing Light, we got King's Knight, Premature Burial, the Beast Skull, Dark Hole, the Magician of Black Chaos, the Dark Magician Girl, the Dark Magic Curtain, I think. Dark Magician, the Witch of the Black Forest, the Gazelle, Chaos Ember Dragon, Black Lister Soldier, the original call, the Haunted Gaia, Swift Gaia, the Fierce Knight. We've got Celtic Guardian, we've got Dragon Master Knight, Big Shield Gardener, Obelisk, we've got Total Defense Shogun, I think. Yeah, I always want to say it's a different name, but Luster Dragon, Caribo, we've got the Meteor Beed Dragon or something like that. I think this is Spellbinding Circle, the old Skull Art, we've got the Gaia, the Gaia the Dragon Champion, not the Gaia Magical. I was going to say the Magical Knight, like all the new ones. I'm turning into a new card fan. Oh no, I'm falling from my old ways. We've got the Lord of D, Dragon Captured, the Man with Graveyard, Labyrinth Wall, Marshmellon, we've got Copycat, we've got Magical Hats, Magic Cylinder, that took me a long time to remember those. We've got the Slate Warrior, the Garland Dolph or something like that. I think it's like Garland Dolph, Ring of Destruction, we've got Buster Blader, Panther Warrior, Thousand Dragon, Pot of Greed, Blue Eyes, White Dragon, Blood's Ultimate Dragon, Genzo Sangan, we've got Guilford the Lightning, Magician of Faith, Judgeman, Mirror Force, Mystical Elf, Time Wizard, Maneater Bug, Wing Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress Number Two, we've got the Monster Reborn, the original art, this one looks so good. Crush Card Virus, Scapegoad, we've got Card of Sanctity, Slife of the Sky Dragon, Graceful Charity, Gear Free the Iron Knight, we've got the Queen's Knight, Jack's Knight, The Illusionist's Faceless Mage, we've got the Empire Lord, Brain Control, Change of Heart, we've got the Feral Imp, Giant Soldier of Stone, Flame Swordsman, Wing Dragon of Raw, Silver Fang, there we go, Red Eyes, B Dragon and Curse of Dragon, I literally didn't know one and I was questioning another one, so we got like a 98.5 on our test, not bad, huh? Give me some props in the comments, so what do you think? All right, so not gonna lie, that's actually a pretty cool item from Wish, those anime cards are definitely nostalgic and really cool. Let's see what's in this next one. All right, we've got it open, inside we have, oh, we have a couple of things, interesting, I don't know what this is, all right, well, we're gonna open these one at a time, maybe that's why I wasn't sure if I got one, I don't know, well, one said it wasn't here yet, so I don't know. It's a package inside of a package, okay, all right, what is this? Another one, I don't know, what's it gonna be? What's it gonna be from Wish?  All right, we need the scissors, this is an opening very easily, let's do this. Let's go like that and we have, oh, it's the Golden Blue Eyes White Dragon, I remember buying this, this thing is really cool. Yeah, the Golden Blue Eyes White Dragon, Wish sent us a Golden Blue Eyes, well, they didn't send it, we bought it, but this is actually pretty sick. Yeah, this is definitely a really cool item, it's kind of weird, it's almost like faded back there, but I mean, this is a pretty sick item, Gold Wish card, I mean that's, Wish is coming in pretty clutch today, I don't know, was Wish the new spot for Yu-Gi-Oh cards? Is that where we need to start buying from? All right, that's pretty sick, there's also another one that was in there, they were shipped together, I guess. I think they're maybe from the same spot. All right, what is this? We have, oh is this a booster box? Now this looks fake, yeah, this looks like a fake item. We have a booster box of Battles of Chaos, who thinks it's real? Check it out, oh yeah, what's the giveaway here? Hey, what's up guys, how you guys doing? Yeah, the Battles of Chaos, this thing is looking real fake. Let's open it up and see what you can pull though, I love to see these fake cards though, it's so much fun to see like, if you guys remember the Cavalier Ride Pole Dragon, the Large Wing Newman Dragon, you guys remember those? Those were pretty awesome, okay, oh my goodness, look at these, you can't even like punch through it, it's so bad, oh my goodness, look at this, Battle of Chaos, not gonna lie, this actually looks pretty good, I mean like, not good, but like the dark color actually looks pretty nice, it like fits together pretty well. Let's see what kind of fakes we got in here. Oh my gosh, they're impossible to open. All right, Ghostrix, Ghostrix Shot, Dino Rufia Kent Regina, Dino Rufia, wait a second, all right, Ravenous Crocusaur Arcticus, all right. Dino Rufia, I love it, it's called Dino Rufia, that is incredibly funny. Dark Magician Girl, what? Dark Magician Girl kind of looks like a clay figure. Oh, what is this? The Chaos Nephthys, Zero Knight of Dark Realm, Dogmatic and Nexus, and our holo is the Blue Eyes Jet Dragon. I wonder if these make your hands smell weird. Yeah, they kind of have that weird smell to them. Blue Eyes Jet Dragon, actually looks kind of cool actually, this foiling, it's not pattern, but the foiling looks pretty shiny, I kind of like that. All right, we definitely have to open a couple more packs of this, because this is hilarious. So far, the names are actually pretty close to like the real names, but there are a few like Dino Rufia, which is pretty great. Instead of Dino Morphea, they're Dino Rufia. All right, we got the prescription. The Kingfisher, the Ice Age Ship. Gaius Saber, the Lightning Shadow, Laval the Greater. Malefic Rainbow Dragon, what is this? Oh, Arm Dragon Thunder, level 10. Went from a Starlight to a Common. Mast Hero Koga, it's like the guy from the original Red and Blue. Haman Lord of Strike and Thunder. And Apparition with Eyes of Blue, what? It's double stamped, it's a misprint. Apparition with Eyes of Blue, I'm pretty sure that's not called that. It's something about Eyes of Blue, but I don't think it's Apparition. So, pretty cool, pretty cool. By the way, I think we cut this back when we opened it, because it was at the top. And these do not fit in the box very well. Let's see what happened with this pack. We got the Arm Dragon Thunderbolt. Fabled Treason, the Dragon of Light Blue Eyes. Oh, his light blue eyes, they're so nice. We got the Sword Soul, Saddy. All right, let's pull this over here. Mindhacker, we've got the S'more Bird of Extermination. Hazy Flame Puritan, what a prophecy. And another one, Apparition with Eyes of Blue. All right, another Apparition, pretty cool. Let's do maybe one or two more packs to see what we can get. I wanna find something funny, because some of these are really funny. I mean, there's no Cavalier Ride Pole Dragon here, unfortunately, but some pretty cool stuff. We got the Dogmatica, by the way, wait, is there a gold card back there? Dogmatica Bray, we got the Nordic Relic Silvillian. We got the Siren. Obelisk, the Tormentor, God Hand Crush. Okay, okay, nice. My Intent Mutator, Dark Arm Dragon. Okay, I once had a fake one of these that got chopped in half, like they printed it like that and put it in the pack. DDD Head Hunt, I think that might've been the same thing. The Ira Hamaji, and we've got a gold card, Odd Eye's Rebellion Dragon, Gold Version. Pretty cool, actually, that looks pretty nice. All right, one more of these fake cards, because we don't have one more package we need to open for these Wish cards, these are so funny. I don't even understand how these are a thing. Like how, I guess these still sell. I mean, I just bought some, so there's some of them, but I guess other people are buying them too. It's not just me. All right, the Dragon of Light Blue Eyes, love to see them. The Leprous, the Withered Flounder. Pacellia, Ancient Flamvelle Deity. Illusion of Chaos, there's a cheap version of that. We've got a Recklessness of Punishment, XC's Combined, Dimension Conjurer, and we have Water Leviathan at Ignis Stair. Very nice, very nice, pretty cool. And by the way, if you see stuff like this, it is fake. I get a lot of messages all the time asking, like, hey, can you tell me what my cards are worth? And they're just like fake cards like this. So if you compare this to like a real card, like, let's just say we take this to Koichi, you can tell that the text is completely different. It's super chunky over here. The stars are different. They look, I mean, they're a lot more filled into the red, and then the text everywhere is different. There's no hollow, and it's just kind of, like a card that's really good, and it's a common, like, in a new set. Like, this doesn't really make sense. Yeah, it just doesn't fit. All right, we have one more item. We're gonna see what is inside so far. This has been a pretty funny video. A lot of, so we got some fake cards and some cool stuff, actually, which is pretty exciting. Oh, wait! Wait a second, are these real? Wait, I didn't, wait, what are these? Okay, I honestly don't know if this is actually part of this order, but I don't know where these would've come from. We have 15 Burst of Destiny packs. I did order like 10 Rise of the Duelist packs, and that must have been the one that didn't arrive. So I thought this might be them. I don't know, we have 15 Burst of Destiny. So, we might as well open these. I mean, let's see, if these are like fake or something, then we know they're from Wish. We might as well open these and see what we can get real quick. So, Flounderies and Street, okay, Penguin. We've got the Mimicking Man-Eater, the Double Disruptor Dragon, B-Tripper Squad. These feel like Europrint. I doubt that these are from the Wish order, to be honest. I don't know where these are from though. There's no name on the package. So, I really don't know what these are, to be honest. Okay, let's see, we've got Flounderies. Heavy Interlock, okay. Very cool. Let's just keep it going. Let's see what we can pull out of here. Let's see if we can get something nice out of Burst of Destiny. B-Tripper, Sword Soul, Blackout, that's a good card for Sword Soul. Penguin and Heavy B-Tripper, Mighty Neptune, very nice. I started playing Sword Soul on stream today on Twitch. So make sure you guys go follow me on Twitch. We've been doing Nuzlocs. We went all the way through an Emerald Nuzlocke hardcore, it was awesome. We did some Master Duel today. So if you guys wanna follow me there, make sure you go drop a follow link in the description. I would appreciate it. I've been doing a lot of streaming over there. It's been fun. Speaking of that, someone literally just followed me. I just saw it. Okay, we've got the gunk and sushi chips. You guys are hearing me, I guess. Sword Soul, it's Haya. Okay, we've got that. Magic Key Battle, more Sword Soul stuff. You'll love to see it. Next pack, what can we pull? I doubt these are from Wish, but if they are, Wish is popping off. Sword Soul, Auspice, Chun-Chun. This one's the one that I got waxed by in Auction Series. I actually stopped it a bunch, but it caused me to still lose. You know, Rip, Rip Auction Series. Let's see what we can get in this next one. Starry Night, Night Flight, we'll get the Reptiliant, a Bisckeeper and Flunderees in the Dreaming Town. Very nice, a few more packs. 15 total packs, I think, so we can fly through these a bit. These are still a nice set, for sure. So hopefully we can get some good stuff. Reptiliant, oh, do we get something? Oh, Sonic Tracker and Meowsklake. Nope, these Europacks, the foils are so much darker. You guys see this? Like how dark it is compared to the gray there. There's a foil in every pack, though, so it's really not like spoiling anything or anything like that. And there's no ultimates. Really Starlight's the only thing we're gonna get spoiled by Reptiliant, Penguin, Cupid Pitch, Flunderees in the Scary Sea, Nice Flip Frozen and B Trooper Squad with the Rebuild Deer, I should say. A few more packs. We've opened fake cards, we've opened Eurocards, we've opened some cool stuff today. Sonic Cascade, Cupid Pitch, B Trooper to Scent, another Ultra, where are our Seekerwares? Come on, give us an incredible Ecclesia. I'm down, I'm down. Or Starlight. Imagine we get a Starlight, that'd be so funny. All right, these packs are going everywhere. B Trooper, Sword Soul, another Blackout. Bisckeeper and Heavy Interlock. Sword Soul, Blackout. All these like Sword Soul cards are so cheap. And then also the New Despian, like Call of the Haunted card is like common as well. What's up with the commons being insane? All right, B Trooper landing. Sword Soul, Blackout, Bisckeeper, Penguin, Sunvine, Sowing and Giant Starfall. This is the one we kept pulling in dulings and it's an ultra rare. Is that card actually good? All right, a few more packs till we end this wish video. It's been fun, it's been funny. It's been interesting. There's been some weird stuff. The gold blue eyes was pretty cool. Reptilian and the stained glass of light and dark. Stained glass of light and dark, that's pretty funny. Three packs to go. Can we get something good? Sword Soul, Blackout, Magic Key, Heritage, Fangly and Ultimate Flag, Sip or Settron. Yeah, okay. These are all the cards I was pulling on stream today because that new set is basically Burst of Destiny. So we're pulling on kinds of different stuff. We got the Royal Ping, what's two more? A Bisckeeper, Undaunted, Cupid Pitch. Adoptum of Despia. All right, more Despia cards. All right, all right, fine, fine. And the final pack. Come on Burst of Destiny. Bless us with something good. Night Flight, Sword Soul, Mimicking Man of your Bug, Heritage, it's a Synchro! Sword Soul, Supreme Sovereign Changiing. That's not a bad card. We'll take that Ultra Rare. Not a bad way to end it, no secret rears though. If you guys enjoyed this video, make sure to subscribe to the channel for more epic content like this. Shout out to TCG Trust, your card's tome for a show, a tomato juice, Stanley, Mike, Nancy, Mimikeko, DraxStream, Moose and Junior Barting, and then it's high show JT Show, David FJ, Josh Evans, Clayton Fitzgerald, John Nolan, and Brett Palmer. Thank you guys for supporting the channel and I'll see you guys next time. Peace.


We'll call the meeting to order on this sweltering second day of July. This is Monday, June 18th. Well, it's definitely not Monday, June 18th. July 2nd. Sorry about that. Okay. It looks like a fairly reasonable agenda if there's any, if there isn't any additions. I've got one addition. Okay. Eden Specialty Ciders is looking for an outdoor consumption permit class 4 license for a pop-up tasting shed up at Pete's Greens. Eden. Who again? Eden Specialty Ciders. Up at Pete's Greens. Yeah. Is there a date for that? Well, you've got to put it on the agenda first and then we can get into it. All right. With that addition, would somebody approve the agenda please? Move that we approve the agenda with that one addition. Second. Second. I think the motion has been made and seconded to approve the agenda. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Consent agenda items, just the minutes from the June 18th meeting. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes of the June 18th meeting. Second it now. I'll second. Okay. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Public. There is none. The rest is up to you, Bill. Okay. Why don't we take care of the consumption permit first? So this came in today. The select board really ought to give its blessing or not to it before Beth can sign it. So Eden Ice Cider Company doing business as the Eden Specialty Ciders is evidently working with Pete Screens and they want a pop-up shed and a Princeton seating area. There's an aerial view of the mat. Is that the shed that's out there by the way tonight now? I haven't been up. So I get off at 100 as fast as I can. It's nice. So they are asking to be able to do this from July 1st to October 31st inclusive. So it's every day until the end of October, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and they will be providing, I'm sure they'll be selling the class for a license, says application for a license to sell by the unopened container and to distribute by the glass with or without charge manufactured beverages by the license under accordance to Title 17. So anyway, this is where I want to do it. I don't know any more about it than just this. Beth gave this to me this morning and fenced it attached to wooden shed on one of Pete Screens. Is this the best amount of beer and cider producers continue to pour into the state? Yeah. They've got the shed out there by the roadside now and it's facing in so the service area would be in here. Yeah. I don't see any reason not to do it. So having said that, would somebody love to make a motion? I'll make the motion that we approve the request for eating specialty ciders for a class for license at Pete Screens in Waterbury. I'll second that. Okay. Is there any further discussion? If we all approve, say aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. Great. Thank you. Tax right. So what I'm going to hand out to you is more than likely going to be the tax rate. If we get lucky, maybe the school tax rate will be lower. I doubt it. But as you know, you know, the budget wasn't approved until Monday last week. In fact, it was probably Thursday by the time it became law because the governor didn't sign the bill. And if he doesn't sign a bill, it comes into law within five days of passage or after five days of passage by the legislature. So the tax department has been pretty concerned that they weren't going to be able to get their work done and get the tax rates out. Typically, I get a form like this from the tax department that has the education tax and everything on there for the homestead and the non-residential rate. I did not get one like this today and neither did Beth or Carla. Dan Sweet, the appraiser, got an email from the tax department and forwarded it to me. So I have this information. Now, I was concerned because we all heard how the governor talked about wanting to keep the tax rate level and what happened was the non-residential tax rate stayed the same on a statewide basis. I mean, the residential homestead tax rate stayed the same on a statewide basis and the non-residential tax rate increased by about 2.5% or so. And the homestead rate is always adjusted. There's two adjustments that happen with the homestead tax rate. So if the legislature sets a rate at $1.54, what then happens is they look at the school spending in a particular town and if it's 10% higher than the block grant that you would get if you set that tax rate, your tax rate gets adjusted and it goes up by that same percentage. And then they also adjust it by the common level of appraisal and that is to equalize the taxes across the state. So our common level of appraisal is probably 98. something percent. So there is an adjustment. I was a little surprised, though, when I got the email from the state that the homestead rate is 7.1 cents higher than last year. So $1.61.83 as opposed to $1.54.73, which it was a year ago. Michelle Baker, the business manager at the school, is on vacation until Wednesday this week. I know that. I emailed her and the superintendent because I want to make sure that they think this rate is in the ballpark. And the only factor that I'm wondering about is, you know, the Legislature Act, I can't remember, Act 46 or 146, the consolidation.  And I think it was a $0.05 last year. And I know earlier this year there was talk about that they kind of, you know, played their shell game and that went away or went away partially. So I emailed the superintendent and Michelle to say, do we have a, is this $1.61.83 correct? I haven't heard yet. I'm almost certain it won't go any higher than this. So what I want you to do tonight when you set the tax rate is to set a school homestead rate at no greater than $1.61.83 and a non-residential rate at no greater than $1.60.13. And then if some reason between now and Thursday when we print the tax bills, I find out that this is wrong. I can adjust it. I think I'm holding out hope that is going to really be unfounded. I think this is probably the right rates. But in case it's not, I'd like to have the flexibility to lower it if I can. So you're hoping for credit basically based on this merger? Right. So-called merger. Yeah, we consolidated. We consolidated and I believe it was supposed to be a three-year benefit that your tax rate was going to get a benefit. And maybe it has. I mean, maybe it's baked into this number, but I just don't see it. And I don't have the means to calculate. All I get is this email. It's frustrating because I know the tax department wasn't happy that they had to wait because, you know, they didn't have the tax rate until Monday and only because they started working when the governor said, well, I'm not going to sign it so you folks can go ahead and assume that it's, you know, five days will go by. So they started work on Monday. So they haven't had very long to do 246 different tax bills. Anyway, so right now the homestead rate is four and a half, almost 4.6% higher than it was last year, $1.6183, $1.445373 last year, the non-residential rate, $1.613, and that's 4.67% higher than last year. So there's not much we can do about that if it's lower, I'll set the lower rate, but I think this is going to be it. On the town side, we also had some disappointing news. The grand list went up a half a percent. We had hoped it was going to go up one and a half percent. You can see there the grand list for $2,018, $7,462,230, that's 1% of the total property value in the town. We estimated 7.5, 7.3 million. So we're below by a considerable amount about 1%, 9.5% lower than we thought it was going to be. There's a couple of things I talked to Dan Sweet today. We didn't have too many. We had three grievances. They made two minor adjustments, I believe, that don't amount to a hill of beans in the grand scheme of things. The state helps with the assessment of electric utilities. So the electric utilities, Green Mill and Power, there's two different lines. And last year, the value of the electric utility for Green Mill and Power was over $32 million. Now it's been dropped by $2.77 million to $30 million, $30 million, $210 million. $30 million, $210,100, I'm sorry. So that's 1% of their value. And Dan isn't sure why that number was dropped. If we had that $2 million, we'd still be below our estimate, but would be about 9 tenths or 1%, as opposed to 6 tenths or 4% up from last year. There were a few other ups and downs here and there, but we didn't make the grand list. Moving down the page, the general fund, $1,598,705, which includes all special articles, and then you see the highway fund and the library fund. And those total to $3,424,280. I'm going to ask you to allow me to set the tax rate, however, on the $3,386,780. You made a motion, Chris, at town meeting to add $37,500 to the budget to maybe sweeten the pot on 51 South Main Street. That didn't happen. It's not going to happen, and there's really no reason to raise that money just to set it aside. So what we will do is take the $3,386,780, which is the total of the $57,000 worth of special articles, excluding that you made for the parking lot, plus the general fund, plus the highway fund, plus the library fund. And if you... So we're raising about $61,000 more in taxes than we did last year. So we went up 1.83%, which is a little lower than the rate of inflation. Inflation was 2.1% year over year going into the first of January. So if you look at the black line right in the middle where it says 2018 tax rate, you take that number, $3,386,780, divided by the grand list, 7462,230, and it comes out to 45.38 cents. Last year when I did the calculation, it was 44.83 cents. So about 1.22% higher just on what the math is. Last year I recommended rounding down to 44 cents. The select board said, no, let's round up to 45 cents. We need some additional money in our paving fund if we can and with our fund balances and what we did for the budget this year. We did put more money in the paving budget this year. So I'm still going to recommend that we set a 45-cent municipal tax rate. That's 38,000-10,000 of a dollar lower than what the math comes out to be. And if you take that 0.038 and you multiply it by the grand list, if we round down to 45 cents, we could have a deficit of $28,356 if everything all year long came out just right on the money. We have a few places where we're going to get a little bit more money than we had budgeted. We're going to get about 6,000 more in pilot money than we budgeted. We're going to get about $6,800 more in current use money than we budgeted. I haven't got the Forest and Parks number yet but I think we'll probably be a little bit on the plus side there. And I'm not saying $28,000 isn't real money but if we end up the year with $28,000 in the red, we're not going to die. It's a manageable number right now. I showed you the budget report at the last meeting and our budget through half the year were a little better than we expected to be. So I think we can stick with our 45 cent tax rate. And if the school tax rate was staying flat, maybe I'd say, well, let's take the additional 0.038 but it's a higher increase than I think anybody was anticipating on the school side especially given all of what we've been hearing over the last couple of weeks. So my recommendation is that you set the municipal tax rate at 45 cents and then establish the Homestead rate at no greater than 1.6183 and the non-residential rate at no greater than 1.6013. And if you want to take it from there, ask questions, I'll be happy to help. But I think I've given you as much information as I have. Was there any suggestion from Dan as to maybe why a grand list didn't turn out as anticipated? Yeah, like I said, I think there's two things. One, that 2.77 million that we lost on the Green Mountain Power, that's more than half of the, almost half of the loss there. The other thing is that our common level of appraisal is creeping down a little bit. So I think he's when he is out in the field and if people raise questions, he's tending to maybe drop it a little bit because what that is, well actually that's the wrong way. We're at 98% as opposed to 100%. So that would be, that scratched what I just said there because it looks like overall we're a little bit under appraised because if we were at one, then it would mean we're right on and if we're at 98%, that means they think there's more value that we should be taxing. It looked like last year we were a little bit over 100%. Yeah, we may have been. I quickly looked, Chris, there's a few little ups and downs here and there. It's hard to say. Last year we were up a little more than 1% and this year, earlier in the year when I talked to him, there were things going on and I thought the one and a half was reasonable in good years in the past. We budgeted too. Now of course the higher grand list gets, the harder it is to get a higher percentage because that's just a lot of growth that you have to have but I don't have good reason except for the electric utilities, Chris. And that would come from, when you're saying green mountain power that would come from the dam? Yeah, there's the dam and that's where most of it is. I'm sure there's taxes on their power poles and lines as well but the vast majority of it, I'm sure is from the generation facility. And we knew that it was going to go down a little bit. Dan has asked the state for some explanation. Part of the explanation might be the fact that it's moving toward this kind of river operation that they can't store the water behind the dam and make peak demand electricity anymore. They can basically, what comes in, they got to keep a certain level on the dam and what comes in goes out. So they used to be able to stack it up a foot or two and then make power and bring it down a foot or two. So I think they had a two or three foot head that they could make peak power on and they can't do that anymore. I thought the discussion back when we had it about them because they were still talking about putting a different turbine in. Yeah, they've done that, I believe. And the gates have been repaired? No, the gates haven't been repaired yet. When the gates get repaired, then that's when they're going to just leave the summer pool. It'll be a year round at that pool. They won't drop it down in the winter. But I believe they are already operating on a runner river basis now, not a peak generation. So that's not as valuable to them, obviously on a day like today. If they knew this heat wave was coming, they would have stacked up that water over the weekend and then let it out. Yeah, what we knew it was going to be an appraisal loss. Right, so that may be part of it. So anyway. But from our perspective right now, I think we're doing well enough with our budget that I am comfortable recommending that we stick with the 45 cents and at least we hold our portion, whatever. I don't know what is it, $2, 50 cents. So it's pushing like, there's 70% goes to education, right? I know that when I stopped in to see you there a while back, I'd mentioned maybe getting a, and I know this will be in the next few weeks there if you get a chance. Try to get some kind of a consensus because we've held, you know, if we hold this tax rate at 45 cents now, that would be three years in a row.  We know we've got responsibilities coming down the pike and I had suggested to you try to get some type of an idea of what perhaps maybe next year's impact. I'm starting to look at some of those things. You know, we know what the full year police contract will be next year, you know, so it'll be another $180,000 so over what we have this year. So I'm beginning that work. It'll probably be into August, maybe, you know, before I can do anything, do anything really substantive that we can talk about. But yeah, I'm starting to gather that information and look at things. Yeah, paper projects and whatever, how that's all going to be handled. Okay, well, so then we need a motion to set the homestead tax rate at $1.61.83. Yeah, no greater than. No greater than $1.61.83. I think that's great enough. And a non-residential tax rate at no greater than $1.60.13. And a municipal tax rate at $0.45. Somebody like to make that motion? I will make that motion. Okay, you second it now? I second that. Before we leave this, there's just one minor other thing that we need to do. Down at the bottom of the page, you see in red there the people in town who live in the village that won't have a village tax now. They're going to save $0.13 on their village tax, so there'll be still some people in the community that will be feeling that they're getting a break from what they paid last year. But at the very bottom there, you notice that the veterans, and mainly for Matt's benefit, the state law exempts the first $10,000 of veterans homestead from taxation. So if you're a disabled veteran, I'm sorry.  The town a couple of years ago, it's probably more than five years ago now, I believe we exempt the first $30,000. We voted to do that on our own at a town meeting a couple of years ago. And the state allows you to do that, but if you exempt more than $10,000, you have to make it up locally. So down here where it says veterans 2016, you can see last year there was $667,300 worth of property that was exempted by the town above the amount that the state allows for exemption. Over that $30,000. Over that. So from the 10% up to $30,000, that's $667,000. So this year, the $10,000 worth of exemption that the state allows, you know, we don't have to make up was valued at $288,800. That's not on your sheet. The veterans exemption above $10,000 that we do ourselves is this year at $793,100. There's a few more veterans who have become eligible for this. So when you do the math, last year the add-on rate was 0.0014 and this year because, you know, the grand list went up and the tax rate went up, it's 0.0017, which will be added to everybody's bill. That's the formula to make up that credit that the veterans get. Right. So you take the exempt amount that's above the $10,000, so $793,100, you multiply that by 1%, and then you multiply that by the homestead tax rate and that equals $12,834 and you divide that into the grand list and it's 0.0017. So at the very bottom here, you'll see that all inclusive in 2018, over on the right-hand side, the homestead tax will be 2.069 and the non-residential tax will be 2.053 and one of them is up 3.15%, the other one is up 3.6%. So if it's all right, Mark, I'll just include that veteran's exemption in your motion, okay? Sure. All right. Okay. Any further questions or comments? There is none. All those in favor? Please say aye. So we will be running our tax bills on Thursday and hopefully they'll be heading out in the mail if not by Friday, certainly by the first and next week. Okay. Anyway. Discussion penalties for late filing? Yeah. So when we all file our income taxes, if we live in Vermont and are declaring a homestead, we're supposed to do that by April 15th and then there's other times during the year that you're considered late. And when the legislature established the current tax system that we have where there's two rates, the fear was that in the old days, the homestead rate was almost always lower than the non-residential rate. So there was a fear that people would be filing homesteads and it really wouldn't be. So either way, you're supposed to declare your homestead and it says the commissioner of the Department of Taxes shall provide a list of homesteads to each town listers by May 15th. The listers shall notify the commissioner by June 1st of any residence on the commissioner's list which do not qualify for homesteads.  So the state has established a penalty and it's really confusing. And I'm just going to read this to you. A couple of years ago we didn't have a penalty and we forgot to set it and then it was like, wow, there were a lot of changes. Leigh Ann can talk to you about all the downloads that you got from the state and there's a lot of work to produce a substitute tax bill, right? So it says the commissioner shall notify the municipality and the municipality shall issue a corrected tax bill and as may be determined by the governing body of the municipality it may include a penalty of up to 3% of the education property tax if you fail to declare your homestead. But then it says, however, if the property incorrectly declared as a homestead is located in the municipality that has a lower homestead rate than a non-residential rate or if the undeclared homestead is located in the municipality that has a lower non-residential rate than the homestead rate seems like both things they're saying there that the governing body may include a penalty of up to 8% of the education tax liability on the bill. And then it says if the commissioner determines that somebody actually attempted to commit fraud this way that the penalty is 100% of the education tax. If they didn't claim their homestead on purpose. If they intended to commit fraud and I don't know how one is oh well he just kind of decided to see if he could get away with it versus oh he really, you know, tried to screw the system. Last year we, the select board set penalties of 3% and 5%. And most of our people got the ones who got this at all got the 5% penalty. They were mostly people who should have filed homesteads and didn't and they had to get the penalty. So these folks could be folks that instead of filing as a homestead they took advantage of the lower tax rate of the non-residential. And for that there was a 5% penalty. But they didn't commit fraud. Otherwise it would have been 100%. The commissioner gets to determine who commits fraud. So we talked about this last year. To me, for this, this isn't like paying your taxes late.  This one, if people really didn't do it on purpose and some people, you know, Karen showed me a bill the other day that I think we had six changes of the same bill. It was not declared as a homestead than it was and then it came through and it didn't have its state payment on it and then they applied the state payment and added a penalty and then the person appealed that and then in the end the commissioner completely. So I've always said and I argued to the legislature that why can't this just be a flat fee? I mean why does it have to be, you know, if you have a $10,000 tax bill and you have a $4,000 tax bill and you forgot to declare your homestead why is it 5% and 5% it costs us maybe 50 bucks to, you know, go through the process of changing it. So the guy from NEMRIC says that we should do with the state allows, three and eight and he said that way between the two you'll cover your time. I tried to, I didn't think to ask early enough today and I called Karen after the, after 4.30 and I thought she told me how much we collected in these penalties last year but she said no it was Michelle and Michelle had already gone. So last year this like would set 3% and 5%. I'm just wondering if we really think it should be a flat fee as opposed to a percentage and the state law doesn't allow us to have a percentage, why don't we just set it as 3% for both? Do we cover our expenses at 3%? It's hard to say, I can't answer that. I guess that would be my only question with it. I understand the length of the latitude but if it takes that split of three and five in order for us to cover our expenses for, because it's not the responsible taxpayers' responsibility to pay the burden of somebody else's mistake. But I guess my concern is that for doing the same thing one way or the other and you know I've read this a lot of times and I still, but one of them says the municipality shall include a penalty of up to 3% and the other one says of up to 8%. So we could have it 1% each, but I'm not sure where we're gaining in fairness if we set one at 3% and one at 5%. It doesn't cost us any more to move your bill from non-residential to a residential and yours from residential to non-residential. But one of you is going to pay 5% from what we did last year. One of you is going to pay 5% and one of you is going to pay 3% and you've cost us the same amount of money. So maybe you want to make it both? Well one of them can only go up to 3%. So you can't make it any, you want to be fair, I mean if you want to be fair. You've got to say split the difference and make it four. But one of them can only be a three. What is the 3% one? What's the criteria for that? If the property identified in the declaration of this section is not the taxpayer's homestead or if the owner of a homestead fails to declare a homestead, the commissioner shall notify the municipality and the municipality shall issue a corrected tax bill that will include a penalty of up to 3% on the education tax of the property. However, if the property incorrectly declared as a homestead is located in the municipality that has a lower homestead rate, which we don't, we have a higher homestead rate. Yeah, for now. However, the property incorrectly declared as a homestead is located in the municipality that has a lower homestead rate than a non-residential rate or if an undeclared homestead is located in the municipality that has a lower non-residential rate than a homestead rate, I'm lost. You can say. It really sounds like if the rates are the same and you claim it's one and it's really the other, the 3% applies. And if you have differentiation in the rate at all and you're making a claim that is going to be advantageous to you, that that up to 8% then applies. That's what I'm kind of hearing out of that. So it is really that 3% penalty is, you know, labeled the burner in the wrong way. But there was no advantage to doing it. Doing it was wrong, here's your 3%. The other version is you're doing it to take advantage of the differentiation in the rate. So for that, you get to pay even more. So the 3% penalizes you for screwing yourself, right? For you screwing yourself. For not being able to figure out what the heck you're getting at. 8% is if you intentionally try to screw that. Well, not intentionally, because that would be fraud. That would be fraud, yeah. Anyway, if you want to do a three in five like we did last year, I can, you know. You know, I don't think this makes a ton of money in one way or the other for us. I don't think so. And as long as it's covering our expense. I'm not interested in making a ton of money. I'm just interested in what you've just done. All right. Our expense. So. Keep it at three and five. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, because, I mean, from what I'm hearing and what my mind is putting together on it is, there's somebody that's trying to take advantage of the system, they should pay a higher penalty. Right. Okay. Yeah. All right. So you made that motion? Yes. You seconded it. Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay. Thank you. 100 on 100, huh? Yeah. I mean, that's not the day. Oh man. I guess so. 100 on 100 relay race. It's a road race. It has been going on for the last 13 years. This will be 14. It is on Saturday, August 18th. And they are running this year from Trap Family Lodge in Stowe to Okimo Mountain in Ludlow. And we'll run through 18 transition points along the way. I think, you know, for the most part, they're on Route 100. They go down Stowe Street and then down Main Street. They do go down Stowe Street. They don't really cause us any issues. They sometimes put a porta-potty up in the Watery Center someplace. They're going to have their transition point this year. I can't remember where it was last year, but they're going to have a transition point at the Hunger Mountain Church. So they're going to start at Trap Family Lodge and then I guess the next runner will meet them at Hunger Mountain. They usually have their porta-potties and stuff at that transition point. They used to transition at Hope Davy field years ago. And then their next transition point is at Crossbrook School in Duxbury. So, you know, it says they're going to have one vehicle per team plus a few volunteer vehicles passing through the town over the span of a number of hours. They will have traffic control as needed. They typically don't need much. They've been advised about the Route 100 painting project. They're in contact with Barb. They have emergency medical teams that are available and then they do come through after the race has gone and kind of police the town and they'll pick up their signs and any other things. So, I don't see it's a big deal and I would just ask if you would authorize it. I'd like to make a motion to approve 100 on 100 relay for Saturday, August 18th. We can wrap it up. I'll make a motion to approve the 100 by 100 relay for Saturday, August 18th. I'll second that. Okay. Any other questions, comments? Being none, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. That's all I have. Early one for everybody, a motion to adjourn. I will so move. Aye, aye. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Thank you. Thanks man.


My name is Henard Padilla. Welcome to the destination in town. This weekend, we're going to showcase the Main Street Latin Festival. At this time, we are located in the 1400 block on Main Street. So this Saturday, August 25th. This coming Saturday, August 25th, from 11 to 10 at night. We're going to be celebrating the Hispanic Heritage Month. We understand that that's starting September 15th into October 15th, but we like to say that this is a kick-off for it, okay? This is going to be a 15 years. So we encourage everybody to come out. This is a family event, and it's going to be held right here, 13, 1400 block. The main station is going to be at the Washington intersection. And also, it's a free festival. So it's a family event. Come in. You can come in and out whenever you like. We're going to showcase a lot of Latin cuisine from different Latin American countries. Venezuela, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Cuba.  Ecuador is going to be there, too. So we're going to have a lot of fun, life entertainment on the stage, okay? Procortico Dancer, life man coming in. Okay, so it's going to be a lot of fun. Come and join us, okay? This is going to be our 15 years. I encourage everybody to come in and have a great time at the Main Street Latin Festival. Thank you. Thank you for everybody, the City of Colombia, and everybody else involved with the festival. We appreciate it. Thank you very much. Do people need to buy tickets? Oh! Again, it's a free ambition, August 25th. You know, so you don't need to pay anything to come in. You just come in, like I said before, August 25th from 11 am to 10 o'clock at night, okay? So come and join us. Well, the Main Street Latin Festival is starting in 2003. Obviously, it's going to be 15 years this year, okay? We started in the 1400 block, and now we are standing all the way to the 1300 block. So we got two and a half blocks. It's been a lot of fun, okay? My wife and I, we are kids at the one that put in this festival together. We don't have a committee. We just do it as we go, growing pains, okay? Again, we're growing as the community grows. And again, this is not just for the Hispanics. That's for everybody. I want you to come in and see how the diversity in the Spanish community is. Even though we speak the same language, we eat different types of food, and we listen to different music.


What's going on, everyone? Sam here with late in sports cards. Drippin' 22, topstone black, baseball hobby, 12 box case break, number 21. Pick your team style. Gonna read off a list of our teams and names. Aaron K. Guardians, Andrew G. Athletics Cardinals, Brian F. Orioles, Christopher G. Dodgers, Drew P. with the blue J's, Jared V. Red Sox, Jesse K. Pirates Mariners, Jonathan Q. Reds, Joshua J. Twins, Metz, Kevin D. with the white socks. Long J. Brewers, Mark K. Padres, Matt B. Tigers Rangers, Michael V. with the Phillies, Michael H. Diamondbacks, Mike A. Braves, Nathan H. Royals, Fong L. with the Astros, Ricardo H. Reyes, Rob M. Yankees, Robert S. Rockies, Songla S. with the Angels, Steven W. Cubs, Victor F. Giants, and Wayne L. with the Nationals and Marlins. Good luck, guys. I'm gonna lie about six offers, actually. One sec, let me get this set up. All right, good luck, y'all. Thanks again for getting this filled up. I do appreciate that. Not gonna do a recap on these, unless there's something super crazy. Generally, everything's a hit, so yeah, there's only three randoms. This third one of this will be a random, and then the five stars at the end of the day are random. What do you want? I'm ordering everyone that's working their lunch and the people that are sorting and shipping just keep saying I don't know. One solo, base, Matt Olson base, purple, the dog, Ruhak, it's a 150, I'm in for that. Healy Magoos, perfect. We got Pirates is Cabrion Hayes. Nice one there for Pittsburgh, congrats, Pirates. Nice one there. First take, going to Pittsburgh. Got Andrew Vaughn base, Gavin Sheets rookie, and Refractor, Hoy Park, two 199. Nice one there for the Pirates again, Pirates doing well. So we've got Refractor, Reds, Tony Perez, 131 out of 150. That's, again, going to Cincinnati. Nice one there, big red machine. Beautiful auto, Perez always has as well. Yes, Dean, yeah, 12 box personal, right here. Sky Dean is really fluttering on the edge of getting timed out as well. A lot of timeout threats today. A lot of timeout threats. Yes, Jimmy, she'll be back next week. She was pregnant, so she had the last few months off on maternity leave. Jeremy Pena rookie, O'Neill Cruz variation rookie, and Jaren Durand, green atomic rookie, 42 out of 99 for the Red Sox, nice one there. That's Red Sox. We've got our auto is going to be Andrew Jones, nice one there for the Braves, congrats, Atlanta. So low tolerance, that's every day. There's a low tolerance of everybody every day, so that's very true, Dean. I always have a low tolerance of everybody. I have a low nonsense tolerance. Low tolerance for nonsense. That's why I have a very low tolerance of Blake all the time. It's always nonsense with Blake. I'm a nonsense, Kate. Yeah. No kidding. Elliot Ramos going to the John of the Ninja base and refractor Salvi Perez for the Royals, the 199. Grats Royals. Got auto coming up next, is going to go to the Dodger, Steve Garvey, nice one there for LA. Congrats, Los Angeles Dodgers, nice Hall of Famer hit right there, I think I might be wrong on that. Very nice though. Yeah, and everybody over on TikTok, we have Lincoln bio, if you want to join group breaks, we have a couple of group breaks still available for tonight. So definitely take a look. We are down to four spots to go on our first triple Grads breaks. Thank you there, Andrew. Gonna take a spot in T, T, T, T, T, T. Matt Chapman base, Brandon Crawford base. What do you like, Brandon? Brandon Marsh Green Atomic, 50 out of 99 for the Phillies. What? Z or Marvel? Ah, five Marvel. Got rookie of Jake Berger, refractor auto, going to the White Sox, 109 out of 150. Congrats, White Sox. That is true, Dean, all Dean has is Nonsense, it's very true. Dean's a big Nonsense guy. Hunter Green Rookie for the Reds, Hoseil 2-Vebes, Gold, Corey Seeger, going to the Rangers, seven out of 50, nice one there. Corey Seeger. Dean, we would be good friends then. Gold is Jordan Alvarez, there we go, Astros, 23 out of 50, nice there, Jordan. He's got H town, Space City. Gonna be going to Fong L, congrats Fong. All right, we're halfway through the case guys. And a lot of jerseys, that's true. Dean is known for buying a case of jerseys as a personal, multiple times. Oh, auto jerseys. Yes, yes. Whenever we get the leaf in, Dean will buy like 12 at a time, it's awesome. I do love breaking for Dean. There's Joey Bart, Shane Boz Rookie, Gold, Vidal Bruhan, 37 out of 50 for the Rays, there we go Rays. We've got, auto is gonna be Alex Kirilov, going to the Twins, nice one there, second year, Kirilov, congrats, Twins. Yankees fans, oh my man, I love the Yankees. So that's what I like to see. Yankees fans in the TikTok chat, that's always good. Yeah, Yankees fans live in TikTok. True, Josh Donaldson, Corbin Burns, Green, Javi Baez, two out of 99 for the Tigers. Rookie Auto is Lars New Park, going to the Cardinals. There we go, St. Louis, kind of four teams to go guys. And this one there, got a Guardians fan as well. I think I can rock with the Guardians. Knocked you guys out of the playoffs now. Four to fire frogs, oh yeah. We got a good hat today, I gotta show you guys after. Joe Adele, purple, Bryson Stott, nice one there, to 150. Got A's auto, is Jose Canseco, there we go, athletics. LaytonSportsGards.com, LaytonSportsGards.com, that is, link should be in the bio, if it's a real link would be my guess, but yes, plenty of group break spots, go to, wow, Matthew just almost sold us out, I believe. Down to one spot to go guys, just the Diamondbacks. $39 for the Diamondbacks. Went at Strippers today, from Wyrm dude, awesome. For some reason the last two Braves prospects have not played there, that have made it to the bigs. Michael Harris and Bongers and Bulls, give to the Strippers. Were they triple A? Yeah. What's up Jonathan W? Ooh redemption, I like that. Just the Diamondbacks left guys, thank you Matthew for taking a bunch of teams in the next break. I do like it six, it was pretty funny. It was pretty funny, Andrew Benentendi. Yeah, I got it six. There's Aaron Ashby and Orange George Springer for the Blue Jays to 25, that's 10 out of 25. And we got a redemption auto. Atomic Green Refractor Parallel. Atomic Green Refractor Parallel of, Wander Franca, going to the Rays. There we go, congrats Tampa. That is Ricardo H. There we go, Ricardo. That'll be number 299, let's go. I do appreciate the Holtby though, I'm gonna give that to my girlfriend, she's a huge Capsman. She really liked Holtby. The Guerrero Jr. And Blue Starling Marté, it's 57 out of 75. For the Metz, nice color match. Got a gold coming up. Of Andrew McCutcheon, 12 out of 50 for the Brewers. Dude, that's sick, I think that's Long J, right? Yeah, Long J, congrats man, that's sweet. Brewers Cutch. How many Brewers Cutch autos are out there? You know? And last one here, good luck guys. Time we got to this one. Perfect. Hey, what's up, Spearful? Gold baby. We got an orange auto to end it, nice. Pietalonzo. There's a green Jose Ramirez to 99 for the Guardians. Speaking of, there you go Jimmy. Nice Guardians hit for you man. And Kyle Lewis for Fractur to 1 at 99 for the Mariners. All right, see what we got on this orange now. See what this orange is all about. It's gonna be a Pietalonzo, 20 out of 25. I believe that is Jersey numbered. I believe he is number 20. Congrats on that Metz, let's go. What a last couple of boxes man. Joshua J, congrats buddy. Nice one there dude. Orange with the Metz is probably one of the coolest color matches you've played. Very good color match. Only one better is probably red for the Red Sox, but. That'll do it for the break guys. Thanks again for the fill. Coming up next we've got another top trim black.


Hi, everyone. Joe for Jaspy's casebreaks.com coming at you with our last filler. In fact, the only filler we had to do to knock out that flawless baseball that's coming up in the next video. But right now, we're going to do 2023 Bowman Baseball Blaster Box number seven. Big thanks to this group for getting in on it. There are the teams right there. And let's roll it and randomize it. Five and a four, nine times four names and teams. Different dice roll for the giveaway part. All right. So five and a four, nine times, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and ninth and final time. Five and a four, nine times for the teams. Two, three, four, five, six. You've got the M's down to the J's. There's the first half of the list right there. There's the second half right there. And let's sort by team. That's right. Frank is. All these acronyms that I don't know. It's kind of like we've got it too. Got RTs, PYTs, RNBs, TRTs. We've got acronyms too. That's right, Frank. You're among friends. All right. Thanks, everyone, for the fill. Always appreciate it. Always appreciate hanging with you and breaking with you and just spending time together. We appreciate that. Let's see what we got out of here. Paper not being shipped in this particular filler break. The whole purpose of this break isn't the cards, but of course it's the flawless spots that were given away, of course, although we'll save that paper. Justin Crawford's put it. We'll save a Justin Crawford for Frank and the Phillies from Frank to Francisco. This is going to go to Frank Lynn with Francisco. And Ellie Della Cruz just raking, raking. All right, we've got a Spencer Jones. We've got a Masataka Yoshida. We've got a Corbett Carroll. We've got some things here. Jaspies, we have the breaks. All right, now let's see who's going to get into the next break. Let's gather everybody's names, one through 30. New dice, new list. Let's see who's going to parlay their way into flawless. It's going to be the top six after 10, six and a four. Good luck. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and 10. All right, so from seven through 30, that's a deep question of Rex. Do I believe in love? I do. I believe in a thing called love. Just listen to the rhythm of the heart. Steve, down to Eric, seven through 30. Sad times, but I appreciate all of you trying. Top six, though. Happy times for you. Dan is happy. So is Nathan, Frank, Matthew, Frank, and Steve. You got it. All right, so congrats to the top six. We'll see you in the next video for the break. Jaspiescasebreaks.com. Bye.


So, as you were studying economics before we get to the post-Soviet stuff, I do have one question about access to reading people like Milton Friedman, or maybe not maybe that's probably a little bit too extreme, but like let's say Samuel Sin or something like that. Did you ever get to read these people? How were you able to learn something more about Marcus? Okay, probably it's a good moment to just to tell a little story about how I was writing my thesis, some kind of the PhD thesis on economics, and how I used the stuff that you are mentioning on such type of stuff. All these foreign economists were not only available, they were strictly forbidden. You could not find it. You could not find it in the library, nor in the bookshops, just they did not exist at all. So, and if you're a student, you don't need to do it, you just need to go to the library and to read Karl Marx or Friedrich Engels or Vladimir Lenin, or some people who would just based their studies on this Marxist-Leninist approach. But if you're somewhat of moved forward, if you're already some kind of promoted to be some kind of applicant for writing PhD thesis, you have slightly more rights, so that way you can apply for participaticals, reading in the special reading room of the public library in St. Petersburg, special Saltikov-Shidrin public libraries, essential one, actually very good library. But for that purpose, you need to go through particular procedures. In my case, procedure was such, I was the assistant professor, I was writing my PhD, but I was also assistant professor in the chair of international economic relations. So, and I was giving course on international economic relations, international economic organizations and so on, and I decided, because I never read it, and I decided to read something from the bourgeois economy, so that is why. And I needed to get access to this particular room, which is a special, it's called Spetskhrana, the reading room of special approach, special kind of permissions to get there. So I written a special letter explaining how badly I need for writing my PhD to read this bourgeois stuff. And I went with this letter to the head of my chair, so this professor has signed this letter. After that, with this letter, I went to the dean of the department of economics, he looked at this, okay, so he signed it. After that, I went to the vice rector of St. Petersburg University, which is a pretty high position, because university had that time about six or seven thousand professors and about 20,000 students. So that is why it's not something you can do easily. You can kind of sign a special time if he has this time, you know, you should be there anyway. So this is the third signature you needed. Sorry? This is the third signature you needed. Yes, it was a signature, so he gave me, actually, nobody gave any problem, so certainly it would be some particular situation that says, oh, no, you are not allowed, and that would be a ten-ish. Fortunately, they all signed. And finally, I went with this piece of paper to the head, to the director of the public library. Also he read this letter in which I explained how badly I need to read. Sam Wilson, economics, the basic stuff of the, as I remember exactly, it was a textbook of 1962 edition. The Sam Wilson 1962 edition. And I got it in 1984, so it's kind of 22 years after in St. Petersburg. And when finally I was given access to this particular room, which was open only eight hours. The whole library was open for 13 hours from 9 in the morning until 10 p.m., so it's a 13 hours. This special room was open only eight hours from 10 in the morning until 6 p.m., so it was shorter. And I went there and I found this, Sam Wilson economics, it was only copy of this book in this library, which means only one copy of this book for whole St. Petersburg, for whole St. Petersburg region, and maybe for the whole Northwestern Russia or Soviet Union. So maybe the other place where Sam Wilson could be found, it would be Moscow, that's all. So one of the rules of having access to this room was not having any paper with you, no any notebooks. Just with you that you can carry out of this room. You can have a special notebook with numbered pages. And the person would check upon your arriving into the room and living room, whether all these pages are in the same place. And you cannot take this notebook out of this room. You can just make notes. It's possible, you're allowed to do. But you need to leave this notebook in this particular room in special place. So that is why, okay, that was a procedure to get to this particular book or similar books. Okay, I got it. I started to read Sam Wilson. I was not very much impressed, trying to speak. I don't know why, but it just, it did not impress me. It, it sound very strange. And especially in Sam Wilson textbook, there was a particular chapter about whatever convergence or some kind of about the importance of kind of have special relations with the Soviet Union, Soviet economy, not so bad. It is, it can develop very fast.  Because it's kind of, they told me about this bourgeois economy, but it's something really, but it's really, it's kind of, it's a very bad stuff. So that's why I was not very much impressed. But instead of that, since I already got into this particular room and I found what is there and it was not very much impressive, I went to something which was absolutely open and which served to me as a very important element of my education, economic education. It is statistics. Public library in St. Petersburg had huge collection of statistical publications from different countries, kind of the regular statistics, kind of annual books or yearbooks, annual statistics. For United States, Canada, Sweden, Germany, France, whatever, for almost all countries in the world. Plus, international financial statistics from the IMF, annual publications, monthly publications, and some kind of on particular topics. And because it was mostly numbers, no many words. So they would, the authorities did not consider this dangerous for some kind of poisoning minds of Soviet people. So that is why it was open. Because who would read numbers? It's absolutely not interesting. I found it's absolutely fascinating. Because I look on some kind of concepts, I found very interesting money supply. M0, M1, M2, M3, what is it, I just, I look into explanation, because they have a little explanation there. And I look for numbers for each particular month, for each particular year, item kind of constructed to this time series. I look into what is the money supply, what's the credit admission, what's the budget deficit, what the national accounts. And I studied what students in normal universities in the West do study in their, during their courses, studies through statistics that was available in, from the Soviet Union in this library, thanks to IFS, International Financial Statistics, thanks to Government Finance Statistics, GFS, from the EMF, thanks to the annual statistics publications from different countries. And through that, just I got a basic understanding of the modern economics.