CLT
UPDATE
Thursday, May 8, 2003
Big Prop 2½ overrides go down at
polls
Selectmen Chairwoman Martha Swindell was in tears last night after the totals came in.
"I'll be blunt," she said. "The voters made a big mistake and I'm not sure why."
But if you listened to voters at the polls yesterday, the reason why was no mystery. Many simply voted against higher taxes.
"I just don't want to pay more money in taxes," said Robert McEvoi after voting at Smith School yesterday evening. He and his wife Susan, who works for an airline, both voted no.
"It seems like a lot of us have taken big pay cuts in our jobs, but when they publish the town salaries it's a little overwhelming," Susan McEvoi said. "When times are tough, no one's taking cuts at Town Hall. They're just raising taxes."
The Salem News
Wednesday, May 7, 2003
Danvers says No: Voters reject $25.8 million request
to repair, renovate town schools
"There'll be no new school and there will be layoffs," said School Committee member Debra
Johanson, after residents voted down both Proposition
2½ override questions by nearly a 2-1 margin Saturday.
Question 1, a debt exclusion for $86.5 million to build three new schools and renovate two, failed by 1,708 votes - 3,625 to 1,917.
Question 2, a permanent override of $1.6 million a year to address inadequacies in the School Department's operating budget, failed by 1,520 votes - 3,482 to 1,962.
"Looking at the numbers, it was not a matter of what the question was, it was a matter of 'Don't raise my taxes,'" said Saugus Pride President William Bean ...
The Lynn Daily Item
Monday, May 5, 2003
Saugus overrides fall short
Prop 2½ override defeat happily
celebrated in Danvers
Photo from the Salem News
Faced with a grisly picture of layoffs and major cuts for the schools and public safety departments, Town Meeting members voted overwhelmingly last night to support a Proposition 2½ override of $1.38 million.
Among the major items included in the override figure are raises negotiated for both municipal and school employees, retaining two police officers, keeping Abbot Hall open on the weekends, and continuing curbside trash collection.
The issue will now head to a townwide referendum sometime this spring.
The Salem News
Wednesday, May 7, 2003
Marblehead approves $1.38M override
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
After attending the Marblehead town meeting on
Tuesday night, Barbara and I needed a morale boost, and Danvers
taxpayers gave it to us on the same evening. Voters there defeated
another Prop 2½ override decisively.
Saugus did the same, overwhelmingly, last Saturday.
If you've attended a town meeting, you know how it
works. Those with their hands in taxpayers' pockets show up in swarms
and drive the municipal agenda. What they want they get ... and
usually, once they do they immediately abandon the hall.
Tuesday night I asked Barbara if those voting to
spend on everything were wired up like puppets on a string. Each time a
vote was called on any spending or override warrant item an overwhelming
majority of arms shot up. They lusted for a new
"pay-as-you-throw" trash fee but would happily settle for an
override as they want to spend even more on education "for the
children" anyway. Marblehead recently passed a major school
building fund override for some $50 million, if the town receives
state aid; more if it doesn't. If this new call for an override
passes, on top of the last yet-to-be-seen tax increase, the town's
property tax bill will rise an average of $279.
But fiscal conservatives were overrun by
tax-and-spenders at the Marblehead town meeting, as they predictably are
at every town meeting. We concluded that town meetings are not the place
to fight them.
CLT associate director Chip Faulkner leads taxpayer
groups in Wrentham. Instead of wasting his time at the upcoming Wrentham
town meeting, at which he's always an outspoken figure, he will
hold his first activists meeting for his next Prop 2½ opposition
campaign. (He's won 2 out of three so far!) Why bother resisting the
tide of special interests who usually have their way on their ground,
when it's strategically smarter to invest your time gearing up to beat
them at the polls ... where it can happen?
Last May the North Andover Taxpayers Association, led
by CLT members Ted Tripp and Chuck Ormsby, defeated a proposed $4
million override by a margin of two-to-one. There are three tricks to
defeating special interest property tax increases: organization,
organization, and organization.
In other communities across the state overrides are
passing, and in the present "the sky is falling" climate"
many more are coming. Don't get overconfident that one won't happen to
you. If you feel it won't, you might as well just leave your wallet out
on the front porch for the tax collector.
Congratulations Saugus and Danvers pro-taxpayer
activists! We know how much time and hard work your success required and
we hope your neighbors appreciate it as well. Enjoy your victory, for
you deserve it!
That's the lesson for today, fellow taxpayers.
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Chip
Ford |
The Salem News
Wednesday, May 7, 2003
Danvers says No: Voters reject $25.8 million request
to repair, renovate town schools
By Jamie Jamieson and Thomas Lake
Staff writers
DANVERS -- The answer is no.
For the second time in three years, voters yesterday killed a Proposition
2½ override that would have paid for a new middle school.
Fewer than 48 percent of some 7,250 voters who turned out supported the $25.8 million override.
As a cluster of "No" committee members gathered portside at Sam and Joe's for pizza, group leader Ann Marie Ruotolo raised a well-salted margarita and proposed a toast.
"To common sense," she said, "to the Holten-Richmond (middle school), to real democracy. And a lot of people in town are gonna sleep better tonight!"
Around 8:35 p.m. at the nearby Polish Club, the function room exploded in cheers as override opponents crowded around a tiny television set to hear the final vote count.
Victorious anti-override selectman candidate Randall Sparkas pumped his fists in the air; a few feet away, an old woman bellowed.
"Good Lord was lookin' down on us!," said Jack Fratus, chairman of the anti-override Danvers Taxpayers Association, who had played it safe by bringing two press releases -- one to be given out if they lost, the other for victory. "You know, when it comes to the pocketbook, people come out to vote!"
Voter turnout on the drizzly Tuesday was just under 47 percent. Override supporters had calculated they needed a turnout of 55 to 60 percent to win. Apparently, they were right.
Over at the Calvary Episcopal Church, override supporters and dozens of their children sat around a television set watching the results come in.
There was some cheer when School Committee candidates John Paskowski and Bill Bates won. Both are strong supporters of the override.
But the overall mood was somber.
"Yes" committee chairman Arthur Skarmeas didn't see it coming.
"I'm surprised," he said. "I thought we would probably win by some amount."
Skarmeas vowed supporters of the school projects wouldn't give up. "It takes a lot of work to get this idea into the minds of people," he said.
Three years ago the override lost by 1,800 votes. Last night the override lost by just 369 votes, he stressed.
Selectmen and Town Meeting members voted to put the override question on the ballot after Town Manager Wayne Marquis recommended it as the only fiscally sound method to finance the project. The middle school project was split off from the more costly high school renovation, and at the last minute Town Meeting trimmed the project's total amount by more than $2 million.
School Committee member Jean McCartin said the defeat of the override now puts pressure on the town to come up with another financing plan for the school project by the state's June 30 deadline.
"I just hope we can come up with a solution," she said.
It will fall to selectmen to call a special Town Meeting next month to work out a new financing package.
"We'll have to restructure the budget in order to fund the project," Selectman Mike Powers said. Cuts, he predicted, would have to be made line item by line item.
Selectman Ken Brown, who opposed the override, said it would be up to the town manager to recommend the necessary cuts to pay for the project.
Selectmen Chairwoman Martha Swindell was in tears last night after the totals came in.
"I'll be blunt," she said. "The voters made a big mistake and I'm not sure why."
But if you listened to voters at the polls yesterday, the reason why was no mystery. Many simply voted against higher taxes.
"I just don't want to pay more money in taxes," said Robert McEvoi after voting at Smith School yesterday evening. He and his wife Susan, who works for an airline, both voted no.
"It seems like a lot of us have taken big pay cuts in our jobs, but when they publish the town salaries it's a little overwhelming," Susan McEvoi said. "When times are tough, no one's taking cuts at Town Hall. They're just raising taxes."
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The Lynn Daily Item
Monday, May 5, 2003
Saugus overrides fall short
By Chris Stevens
"There'll be no new school and there will be layoffs," said School Committee member Debra
Johanson, after residents voted down both Proposition 2½ override questions by nearly a 2-1 margin Saturday.
Question 1, a debt exclusion for $86.5 million to build three new schools and renovate two, failed by 1,708 votes - 3,625 to 1,917.
Question 2, a permanent override of $1.6 million a year to address inadequacies in the School Department's operating budget, failed by 1,520 votes - 3,482 to 1,962.
"Looking at the numbers, it was not a matter of what the question was, it was a matter of 'Don't raise my taxes,'" said Saugus Pride President William Bean, who worked closely with Johanson on the campaign. "It's traditional Saugus."
While Bean and Johanson, along with Superintendent Dr. Keith Manville and School Committee member Frederick Rossi, said they were all deeply disappointed in the results of the vote, others were relieved.
"I was worried about the tax impact, and I was worried about the responsibility of the (Board of) Selectmen and the School Committee," said resident David Sterling. "Why not appropriate a certain amount and fix one problem, and then look at another problem next year?"
Johanson said doing one school this year wouldn't solve the problems within the system and that kind of piecemeal action would cost the town more money in the long run.
Resident Peter Bogdan said he was glad to see the questions fail because, "I've lived too long to create what I think is a monstrous plan."
Bogdan said he understood the School Department's plan to build and renovate the schools consecutively, but thought the plan lacked detail and safety measures.
Another woman, who asked to remain nameless, agreed with Bogdan.
"I'm on a limited income, but I have four grandchildren in school," she explained. "I would love new schools, and I would gladly pay $198 a year for each of my grandchildren if I thought it would stay at that rate."
Johanson said she didn't think it mattered whether they had offered a plan to do one school or all the schools, because she felt the committee would be criticized either way.
"I was elected to the School Committee and my job is to tell you what we need," she said. "We did our job, we informed the people and they've spoken."
Bean said the Saugus Pride Committee will regroup to decide how best to address the deteriorating condition of the school buildings, and Johanson said voters are likely to see the $1.5 million debt exclusion back on the ballot in November.
"The voters have spoken, the show must go on," said Rossi, shaking his finger. "But the problems are here to stay, and sooner or later we are going to have to do something about it."
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The Salem News
Wednesday, May 7, 2003
Marblehead approves $1.38M override
By Mike Gaffney
Correspondent
MARBLEHEAD - Faced with a grisly picture of layoffs and major cuts for the schools and public safety departments, Town Meeting members voted overwhelmingly last night to support a Proposition
2½ override of $1.38 million.
Among the major items included in the override figure are raises negotiated for both municipal and school employees, retaining two police officers, keeping Abbot Hall open on the weekends, and continuing curbside trash collection.
The issue will now head to a townwide referendum sometime this spring.
School Committee Chairman Larry DiGiammarino was one of the many individuals who pushed hard for the override to pass on the Town Meeting floor.
With the override, which would add $162 to the average property tax bill, the town could afford to pay the modest raises negotiated in good faith with teachers and not have to cut the equivalent of 14 full-time teaching positions, he said.
DiGiammarino said, "$162 is a small price to pay to keep our schools at the level they are today."
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