CLT UPDATE
Monday, April 14, 2008
Let's change Override Season back to
simply Spring
Cash-starved cities and towns across the state are
launching an all-out offensive on taxpayers’ pocketbooks, repeatedly
asking homeowners to ignore Proposition 2˝ and dig deep to pay for
everything from teachers to fire trucks to trash collection.
At least 50 Bay State communities already have announced they will seek
overrides of the property-tax-limiting Proposition 2˝ law this spring, a
number expected to at least double as towns scramble to cope with rising
costs and sinking revenues....
“This is going to get a lot worse before there’s any relief,” said
Michael Widmer of the nonprofit Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation. “What
I see is cities and towns undergoing this relentless year-to-year
squeeze that gets tighter and tighter.”
But Barbara Anderson, leader of Citizens for Limited Taxation
who helped craft the Proposition 2˝ law 28 years ago, said the crisis
stems from years of wasteful spending and soaring public [employee]
salary and benefit packages. She called on voters to reject overrides
and hailed a proposal by House Speaker Sal DiMasi to create a new state
agency to rein in municipal spending.
“What I’m hoping it will be is an assault on business as usual and
taxpayers say ‘no,’” Anderson said. “What we need is for taxpayers to
make it absolutely clear that the easy way out is not available - that
they won’t support tax increases. That’s the only thing that’s going to
save any of us.”
But Massachusetts Municipal Association director Geoffrey Beckwith said
most cities and towns already are at bare bones.
“Communities have been cutting back on services,” he said. “The choices
they face is whether to cut services more or consider an override.”
The Boston Herald
Friday, March 28, 2008
Prop 2˝ under siege in Mass.
Cities desperate for $$$
Faced with a sagging economy, voters in three of four towns
were in no mood yesterday to approve property tax increases.
Voters in the blue-collar towns of Holbrook and Chelmsford along with well-to-do
Harvard all rejected property tax hikes. However, Randolph voters approved a
multimillion-dollar infusion for its troubled school system, which is at risk of
a state takeover.
The votes were among the first key tests as Massachusetts enters a season of
overrides, municipal budget cuts, and battles on Beacon Hill over spending and
taxes....
Ultimately, though, fewer cities and towns could end up holding votes this year,
as voter fatigue sets in on tax increases, [Geoff Beckwith, executive director
of the Massachusetts Municipal Association] and other municipal observers have
said.
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
3 of 4 towns say no to overrides
Randolph OK's school funding;
Signs growing of tax fatigue
Talk of a nationwide recession dominates headlines and people
are struggling to deal with record high prices of oil and gas not to mention
rising energy, utility and grocery prices.
It is not, MetroWest municipal officials admit, the best time to ask local
residents to vote in favor of increasing their taxes.
With Proposition 2˝ overrides on the ballot in Ashland, Holliston and
Shrewsbury, and already approved in Natick, Hudson and Wayland, that's exactly
what officials are doing.
Of the seven overrides put before local voters so far this year, only one - in
Sudbury - has failed.
With the state and municipalities facing a looming financial crisis, Citizens
for Limited Taxation executive director Barbara Anderson believes
voters should oppose more overrides.
If the state's fiscal crisis worsens, she said, legislators and local officials
will finally have to begin making real reforms to spending at all levels, saving
taxpayers money.
"When things get that bad, it's the perfect time for reform," she said. "As long
as the easy revenue isn't available, then the only way out is to make changes in
the way business is done." ...
Other state programs, such as the pensions for public employees and special
education mandates, she believes, are ripe for similar reforms.
"This is the kind of climate in which to reform," she said. "When there is a
crisis, things happen."
In recent years, Anderson said, the climate for overrides has turned positively
frosty.
The MetroWest Daily News
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Overrides passing in tough times
As surely as mushrooms grow with the rain, spring brings any
number of proposals to override the limits imposed by Proposition 2˝....
Proposition 2˝ is the landmark 1980 ballot initiative that limited growth in
local property taxes and, among other things, ended school budget autonomy.
Simply stated, the measure limits a community’s total tax levy to no more than
2.5 percent of its total valuation, and also limits the actual increase in taxes
to 2.5 percent each year....
In the absence of any mandated limit on tax growth, local taxpayers would have
had to bear untold millions of dollars more in property taxes than has been the
case over the last 25 years. And yet, Proposition 2˝ also provides for
flexibility: “Overrides” allow communities to reset the taxation level and
“exclusions” allow them to take the cost of specific projects off-budget for
Proposition 2˝ purposes.
A Telegram & Gazette editorial
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Proposition 2˝ gives voters budget control
In 2007, just 34 percent of Proposition 2˝ overrides passed
in Massachusetts, while Bay State voters approved just $37 million of $96
million in tax hikes sought by local government officials.
The Boston Herald
Friday, March 28, 2008
Town haul$ fall short
Property taxes make up less of the total mix of state
and local taxes overall today than they used to. In 1977, property taxes
represented 49 percent of the state and local taxes collected in
Massachusetts. By 2005, that amount had fallen to 36 percent, while the
percentage from both income and sales taxes had grown.
The major reason property taxes have declined so much is the impact of
the tax-limiting law, Proposition 2˝, which since 1982 has put two
constraints on the amount of property tax a town can levy: no more than
2.5 percent of the total cash value of all taxable property in a town,
and no more than 2.5 percent above the amount taxed in the previous
year.
However, the research group MassINC has found that, on average, property
taxes are still higher now than they were in 1987, adjusted for
inflation....
In 2006, voters approved 54.3 percent of proposed Proposition 2˝
overrides; the following year, they approved only 34.9 percent of
them....
Barbara Anderson, executive director of Citizens for Limited
Taxation and the original driving force behind Proposition 2˝, has
also supported moving the burden for education spending from municipal
government to the state level as a way to reduce reliance on property
taxes.
The Attleboro Sun Chronicle
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Taxing issues for ratepayers
Across Massachusetts, cities and towns face the prospect of
deep cuts in what appears to be the grimmest fiscal year since 2003. Local
revenue and state aid can't keep up with such rapidly rising expenses as
employee health insurance, heating oil, and even street paving. School costs,
like special education requirements, are sapping local budgets. And now
beleaguered residents are seeing home values dip even as taxes continue to rise.
Town and city officials face a difficult choice: cut staff and programs, or ask
voters to override Proposition 2˝ and approve still higher property tax
bills....
Last year, 76 towns sought overrides to balance operating budgets, less than
half of which passed. About 50 are expected this season, a sign not that fewer
face budget problems but that many officials are now resigned to cut without
trying overrides, to avoid the divisiveness they often cause. This year, eight
communities have sought operating overrides; five have failed.
"More and more communities are going to hit the wall," said Michael J. Widmer,
president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. "It's not a pretty picture,
and it's going to get worse before it gets better." ...
Roger Blood, cochairman of the Brookline Coalition Against Unfair Taxation, said
supporters have unfairly bundled new spending with the package. "They invoked
the old override campaign playbook of 'You get an override passed by scaring the
dickens out of voters about what will get cut and who will get pink slips,'" he
said.
The Boston Globe
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Deep cuts loom across state
Expenses outpacing revenue and state aid
Fewer cities, towns seeking override votes
By Eric Moskowitz
More than 50 Bay State communities will be asking voters this
spring to approve tax hikes to cover budget shortfalls. Among the overrides
being sought are . . .
The Boston Herald
Friday, March 28, 2008
Override overdrive
The state’s cities and towns better start saving, State
Treasurer Timothy Cahill said yesterday, because they’ll need it to weather the
state’s coming economic storm.
“No matter how bad this year was, 2009 is going to be worse,” Cahill told the
Herald in a wide-ranging interview about the state’s economic outlook. Cahill
encouraged even cash-strapped cities and towns to try to save some of this
year’s local aid to help ease the blow next year....
Yesterday, Methuen City Councilor Joseph Leone said he agrees with Cahill.
“He’s 100 percent right,” he said. “The state used to be everyone’s bailout, and
that’s going to stop.”
But it won’t be simple, he added. “The state has to help cities and towns change
the rules and allow us the flexibility to operate in a business-like manner.”
“Between medical insurance and pension costs and civil service work rules, we
don’t have authority and power over our own employees,” he said.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Budget forecast bleak
Cahill urges communities to hoard cash
Treasurer Tim Cahill and other state leaders have a message
for those officials: Times are changing.
“No matter how bad this year was, 2009 is going to be worse,” Cahill told Herald
editors and reporters during a meeting Tuesday, in which he urged communities to
set aside a portion of their annual local aid allotment to weather the economic
downturn that will be felt even more acutely next year.
That’s easier said than done, of course....
But taxpayers are growing ever more weary of being asked to pay more to finance
generous pension and health care benefits for city and town employees, while
their own earning power buys them far less. Just this week, voters in three of
four towns with Proposition 2˝ overrides on the ballot flat-out rejected
them....
Cahill’s warning comes on the heels of House Speaker Sal DiMasi’s speech last
month to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, in which he floated the idea of
a new state audit bureau to scrutinize municipal spending and management
practices. It all points to the simple fact that the equation has changed, and
cities and towns have no choice but to change with it.
A Boston Herald editorial
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Planning ahead for rainier days
Chip Ford's CLT Commentary
Given the opportunity, more voters are saying "No, no
more taxes, not for any reason!" At least on the municipal
government level this is possible, thanks to Proposition 2˝ and its
requirement for overrides and voter approval.
Across the nation, in fact around the entire northern
hemisphere of our planet, people are celebrating the arrival of spring.
Everywhere but here in Massachusetts, where instead we endure Override
Season.
The 2008 Override Season is in full swing as usual,
but it appears that, like last Override Season, more self-imposed property tax
hikes are being rejected than are passing. In many communities
some local tax-and-spend officials are rejecting even the idea of
wasting money on an election the outcome of which is preordained.
Taxpayers are beginning to recognize Override Season
for what it is: The annual city or town ritual that will never end
until local spending is brought under control. So long as year
after year revenue must rise to the level of spending -- instead of
spending based on available revenue -- overrides will sprout along with
spring weeds.
The situation which causes widespread fiscal chaos
annually is being recognized by more and more citizens and voters, and
even some elected officials. It's not insufficient revenue that's
the problem, it's the profligate
spending demands of municipal public employee unions. ( See:
The Ticking Time
Bomb -- Public Employee Benefits) The teachers unions and
school committees are
among the most rapacious and insatiable of the lot. The majority
and most expensive of
overrides sought year after year are to endlessly increase school budgets -- which
translates into greater benefits for "educators." (See the Boston Herald's
"Override overdrive" below for a list of purposes for a number of local
overrides.)
Until and unless these unions and their selfish demands are
confronted and brought under control, most tax hikes and spending increases will only
make their members fatter and bolder. Voters are beginning to realize that
every buck that leaves their pocket will likely end up in the pocket of
a "public servant," realize that already public employees have a more
comfortable lifestyle-for-life than they will ever experience. With
more frequency, voters are saying "No, enough is enough, not a penny
more for the unions."
Voting NO against overrides is the only means by
which spending
will ever be brought under control: Through necessity and tough
love. There
will be some pain at first -- budget cuts will of course be made where
they are most painful for the greatest number of citizens. But
when municipal officials finally get the message that tax hikes are out,
they'll have little choice but to confront the spending side -- where unions and
their ceaseless demands top the list. It's time for local
officials to start negotiating as much "in good faith" with taxpayers
as they do with union bosses.
State Treasurer Tim Cahill has already raised the
red flag, warned that municipal officials had better start preparing for
even tighter conditions in the year ahead. He has advised that a
portion of this year's municipal revenue ought to be set aside for the coming harder
times, not squandered as if it's business as usual. But is anyone listening, heeding his
well-in-advance warning?
The famous quote, when Willy Sutton was asked why he
robbed banks, was "That's where the money is."
Let's hope our local officials finally recognize and
accept "where the money is" when tax increases more often and
with greater frequency are rejected,
when draconian spending cuts on legitimate government purposes are not
tolerated, when finally they realize we're all onto the public employee
gravy train scam that's bleeding us dry. That's the honest place
to reject further wasteful spending. That's where the money is and
keeps going. Only then will Override Season fade away and allow us
to celebrate spring itself without the usual conflict among friends and
neighbors.
 |
|
Chip Ford |
The Boston Herald
Friday, March 28, 2008
Prop 2˝ under siege in Mass.
Cities desperate for $$$
By Dave Wedge
Cash-starved cities and towns across the state are launching an all-out
offensive on taxpayers’ pocketbooks, repeatedly asking homeowners to
ignore Proposition 2˝ and dig deep to pay for everything from teachers
to fire trucks to trash collection.
At least 50 Bay State communities already have announced they will seek
overrides of the property-tax-limiting Proposition 2˝ law this spring, a
number expected to at least double as towns scramble to cope with rising
costs and sinking revenues.
In Brockton, officials are bracing for as many as 40 possible layoffs,
in addition to the elimination of 28 vacant jobs, as the city faces a
$4.7 million budget shortfall.
“Layoffs are going to happen,” said Brockton City Councilor Bob
Sullivan, who predicted an override would fail because residents already
are struggling with a recent 60 percent water rate hike.
“People are going to get whacked on water and now layoffs. It’s going to
be messy in Brockton,” he said.
While state aid to cash-strapped cities and towns will be hiked $223
million this year, local officials say the increase is not nearly enough
to cover soaring health care, pension and energy costs. And the tanking
of Gov. Deval Patrick’s casino bill, which would have pumped $400
million into the state’s sagging economy, dealt another devastating
blow.
“If the override fails we are looking at deep cuts,” said Newton Mayor
David Cohen, whose city will decide on a $12 million override. “The
situation is very serious this year.”
The same dire scenario is being played out from Springfield to
Provincetown, leading dozens of towns to look to override Proposition 2˝
- the landmark 1982 law that restricts communities from hiking property
taxes more than 2˝ percent annually. For example, North Reading needs a
$1.2 million override and Canton needs $4.5 million to prevent school
layoffs for the second straight year.
“This is going to get a lot worse before there’s any relief,” said
Michael Widmer of the nonprofit Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation. “What
I see is cities and towns undergoing this relentless year-to-year
squeeze that gets tighter and tighter.”
But Barbara Anderson, leader of Citizens for Limited Taxation
who helped craft the Proposition 2˝ law 28 years ago, said the crisis
stems from years of wasteful spending and soaring public [employee]
salary and benefit packages. She called on voters to reject overrides
and hailed a proposal by House Speaker Sal DiMasi to create a new state
agency to rein in municipal spending.
“What I’m hoping it will be is an assault on business as usual and
taxpayers say ‘no,’” Anderson said. “What we need is for taxpayers to
make it absolutely clear that the easy way out is not available - that
they won’t support tax increases. That’s the only thing that’s going to
save any of us.”
But Massachusetts Municipal Association director Geoffrey Beckwith said
most cities and towns already are at bare bones.
“Communities have been cutting back on services,” he said. “The choices
they face is whether to cut services more or consider an override.”
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
3 of 4 towns say no to overrides
Randolph OK's school funding;
Signs growing of tax fatigue
By James Vaznis and Christine Legere
Faced with a sagging economy, voters in three of four towns were in no
mood yesterday to approve property tax increases.
Voters in the blue-collar towns of Holbrook and Chelmsford along with
well-to-do Harvard all rejected property tax hikes. However, Randolph
voters approved a multimillion-dollar infusion for its troubled school
system, which is at risk of a state takeover.
The votes were among the first key tests as Massachusetts enters a
season of overrides, municipal budget cuts, and battles on Beacon Hill
over spending and taxes. The state is facing a $1.3 billion budget
deficit, and the grim news is rippling down to cities and towns, not
only in the form of a lower-than-expected increase in local aid, but in
falling property values and diminishing excise tax receipts for towns.
"I think there's a lot of angst out there," said Geoff Beckwith,
executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. "The
choices for communities are between bad and worse. Do we raise taxes or
cut services? While there's not much enthusiasm for putting tax
increases on the ballot, officials realize local services are essential
for communities to be successful in the future."
In Holbrook, School Committee chairman James Hathaway said the defeat of
a $2.8 million override, mostly for schools, would cause the elimination
of varsity sports and crushing cuts to staffing levels.
"I don't know how we will even operate next year," he said.
Voter consent is necessary for property tax increases under Proposition
2˝, because the hikes would exceed 2.5 percent a year.
Roughly 50 towns and cities may ask their voters to approve Proposition
2˝ tax increases this year. So far, voters have been reluctant to
approve increases. Although Natick approved a $3.9 million increase last
week, tax hikes have failed in Holland and Sudbury, while Duxbury voters
rejected one tax hike but approved two others.
Ultimately, though, fewer cities and towns could end up holding votes
this year, as voter fatigue sets in on tax increases, Beckwith and other
municipal observers have said. Some cities and towns are looking to
raise additional money by instituting or increasing fees for such
services as trash collection or after-school activities
"Over the last three years, more than half the communities in the state
have seriously considered overrides," mostly to support annual operating
budgets, said Beckwith. He added: "Cities and towns are facing very
large budget gaps, the same as the state. But they have fewer tools to
deal with them than the state does. They basically have property taxes
and fees."
Chelmsford's first attempt to override Proposition 2˝ in 16 years to
boost its operating budget lost by 1,150 votes, and Selectman Samuel
Chase, who supported the $2.8 million tax hike, lost his bid for
reelection. His opponent, Eric Richard Dahlberg, had opposed the tax
increase.
"I knew when I came out for the override, it was a long shot, but it was
all I could do, because I believed it was the right thing to do for the
town," Chase said.
The override's failure, school officials said, will force the closing of
an elementary school, among other cuts.
In Harvard, voters who approved a tax hike last year rejected a $786,000
override to support town and school budgets.
In Randolph, the only town where overrides passed yesterday, school
officials sold an override of nearly $5.5 million as a way to avert a
state-threatened takeover of its beleaguered schools, which have been
ravaged over the last five years by more than $12 million in budget
cuts. Voters there also approved another $411,322 for the Police
Department and $200,000 for the Fire Department.
"Randolph took its town back tonight," said override supporter Jack
Smolokoff. "That's exactly what happened here. There are a lot of very,
very happy people tonight."
Of the towns voting on tax hikes yesterday, Randolph appeared to be
facing the toughest financial situation. Voters rejected four property
tax increases in the last five years or so, most recently $4.2 million
in March 2007 for the schools and the town.
Last fall, a state agency characterized the Randolph cuts this decade as
Draconian, contributing to declining state test scores. The development
prompted the state Board of Education in November to declare Randolph an
underperforming school district, and the board has given the district
until June to prove the community is committed to turning around the
school system. Otherwise, the state board may put the system into
receivership.
Randolph school officials interpreted that message to mean that the
override must pass, and many residents went out in full force to
convince voters to say yes.
Abundant support was evident at the polls last evening. Outside the
Lyons School polling place, Beverly LaFleur, an officer manager for a
real estate company, said: "Hopefully it will pass, especially with the
state not having a budget in place. The cities and towns have to depend
on themselves. No one is going to come in to rescue you."
At Randolph High, another polling place, a man carried a big yellow
cardboard sign that read, "VOTE NO."
"I am the only no sign in this whole town," said the man.
Globe correspondents Matt Collette, Joyce Pellino Crane, and Taryn
Plumb contributed to this report.
The MetroWest Daily News
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Overrides passing in tough times
By Peter Reuell
It's no secret times are tight.
Talk of a nationwide recession dominates headlines and people are
struggling to deal with record high prices of oil and gas not to mention
rising energy, utility and grocery prices.
It is not, MetroWest municipal officials admit, the best time to ask
local residents to vote in favor of increasing their taxes.
With Proposition 2˝ overrides on the ballot in Ashland, Holliston and
Shrewsbury, and already approved in Natick, Hudson and Wayland, that's
exactly what officials are doing.
Of the seven overrides put before local voters so far this year, only
one - in Sudbury - has failed.
With the state and municipalities facing a looming financial crisis,
Citizens for Limited Taxation executive director Barbara Anderson
believes voters should oppose more overrides.
If the state's fiscal crisis worsens, she said, legislators and local
officials will finally have to begin making real reforms to spending at
all levels, saving taxpayers money.
"When things get that bad, it's the perfect time for reform," she said.
"As long as the easy revenue isn't available, then the only way out is
to make changes in the way business is done."
Were it not for the financial instability left in the wake of
Proposition 2˝'s passage, she said, the state wouldn't today be sending
out millions in local aid to cities and towns.
"When Proposition 2˝ happened, it was the end of the world," she said.
"The Legislature ran around in circles blaming everybody for a few
months, then they came up with this brand new concept, a thing called
local aid."
Other state programs, such as the pensions for public employees and
special education mandates, she believes, are ripe for similar reforms.
"This is the kind of climate in which to reform," she said. "When there
is a crisis, things happen."
In recent years, Anderson said, the climate for overrides has turned
positively frosty.
"In the last three years, it's become tougher," she said. "In the last
couple years, more overrides have failed than passed, and this year is
not going to be an exception to that. This is the year the pressure can
finally get some reform started.
"Resisting overrides is not only good for the taxpayers, bottom line,
it's good for the commonwealth. In my opinion, taxpayers have a
patriotic duty, as citizens of Massachusetts, to resist overrides."
MetroWest residents, however, don't seem to be getting the message.
Of the four override votes already held, three passed - in Natick,
Hudson and just last week in Wayland.
While he admitted asking residents to support increasing their taxes was
difficult, Wayland Selectman Michael Tichnor said the town made every
effort to avoid an override before putting one on the ballot.
"The message we tried to get out is we are a very well-managed town," he
said. "We are fiscally responsible, and we show fiscal restraint."
Leading up to the override, he said, the town took steps to increase
revenue and cut expenses, including negotiating new contracts with
several unions and consolidating several of the town's elementary
schools.
"I think that resonated with voters," he said. "There's no fat in our
budget. By not passing the override, we would really have to undertake
major cuts which would devastate every department.
"It's nothing we undertake lightly," he added. "It's something we don't
like to do, it's something we don't want to do. (But) I feel we've
looked under every stone. We've looked everywhere, and we just have
nothing else we can cut without cutting core services and programs."
In Hudson, meanwhile, voters overwhelmingly approved a debt-exclusion
override to pay for a renovation and expansion of the town's senior
center, a fact Executive Assistant Paul Blazar believes helped the
measure pass.
"A debt exclusion is different," he said. "It's not a permanent
override, it's for a very specific purpose, and it was a purpose people
generally support."
In Sudbury, the only town in the region to reject an override this year,
Town Manager Maureen Valente believes economic concerns led to many of
the no votes.
"The news keeps coming in that so many indicators are not going well,"
she said. "This isn't a good time to be asking people to raise their own
taxes. When an affluent community like Sudbury doesn't (pass an
override,) it's a real sign of what's going on in the economy."
The Telegram & Gazette
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
A Telegram & Gazette editorial
Tax talk time
Proposition 2˝ gives voters budget control
As surely as mushrooms grow with the rain, spring brings any number of
proposals to override the limits imposed by Proposition 2˝.
Already, more than 50 of the state’s 351 communities have plans to
consider an override of some kind. Locally, that includes Shrewsbury,
Spencer, Ashburnham and Northboro. Many other communities are discussing
the possibility, even as finance committees, selectmen and school
officials put in long hours in search of balanced budgets.
Proposition 2˝ is the landmark 1980 ballot initiative that limited
growth in local property taxes and, among other things, ended school
budget autonomy. Simply stated, the measure limits a community’s total
tax levy to no more than 2.5 percent of its total valuation, and also
limits the actual increase in taxes to 2.5 percent each year.
Proposals to exempt capital projects and operating budgets from the
strictures of Proposition 2˝ appear each year. In a slowing economy,
however, it’s little surprise that the number of proposed overrides is
larger than usual.
To some, the annual wrangling over Proposition 2˝ represents failure —
either on the part of government officials to budget responsibly or of
taxpayers to provide proper funding for local needs.
In fact, the authors of Proposition 2˝ did their work extremely well,
balancing the need to keep the growth of property taxes in check and
providing for fiscal flexibility when the need arises.
In the absence of any mandated limit on tax growth, local taxpayers
would have had to bear untold millions of dollars more in property taxes
than has been the case over the last 25 years. And yet, Proposition 2˝
also provides for flexibility: “Overrides” allow communities to reset
the taxation level and “exclusions” allow them to take the cost of
specific projects off-budget for Proposition 2˝ purposes.
While Proposition 2˝ puts a lid on tax growth, voters also have the
option of raising their taxes in order to provide additional funding for
specific projects or budgets that merit it.
In that sense, Proposition 2˝ contains the seeds of its own success,
giving voters on either side of any issue real financial incentives to
take the floor and make their case year after year.
The Attleboro Sun Chronicle
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Taxing issues for ratepayers
By Ted Nesi
The Pilgrims landed in Plymouth Bay in 1620. But it took another 26
years before they introduced what would become one of their most lasting
legacies - the property tax.
Nobody in Massachusetts seems to like the property tax. Clyde Barrow,
with the Center for Policy Analysis in Dartmouth, said property taxes
are regressive, and place a particular burden on homeowners.
Property taxes make up less of the total mix of state and local taxes
overall today than they used to. In 1977, property taxes represented 49
percent of the state and local taxes collected in Massachusetts. By
2005, that amount had fallen to 36 percent, while the percentage from
both income and sales taxes had grown.
The major reason property taxes have declined so much is the impact of
the tax-limiting law, Proposition 2˝, which since 1982 has put two
constraints on the amount of property tax a town can levy: no more than
2.5 percent of the total cash value of all taxable property in a town,
and no more than 2.5 percent above the amount taxed in the previous
year.
However, the research group MassINC has found that, on average, property
taxes are still higher now than they were in 1987, adjusted for
inflation.
Perhaps another reason property taxes are unpopular is because local
governments are so reliant on it. In 2005, property taxes made up 43.8
percent of local government revenue in Massachusetts, far above the
national average of 27.9 percent, according to a paper from the Federal
Reserve Bank of Boston.
And that reliance has only grown in recent years, as state aid was cut
back. The same paper found that from 2002 to 2004, when state aid
declined by 6.9 percent, local governments increased property taxes by
7.3 percent.
But the appetite for higher taxes may be waning.
In 2006, voters approved 54.3 percent of proposed Proposition 2˝
overrides; the following year, they approved only 34.9 percent of them.
Override supporters often point to the impact budget cuts will have on
education.
But even the state teachers' union argues overrides are not the answer.
The union's president, Anne Wass, said it would be better if federal and
state governments provided more aid to local schools.
Wass suggests closing corporate loopholes as one way to increase state
revenue. Her union also supported Gov. Deval Patrick's proposal to
license three resort casinos in the state, which failed in the House
earlier this month.
Barbara Anderson, executive director of Citizens for Limited
Taxation and the original driving force behind Proposition 2˝, has
also supported moving the burden for education spending from municipal
government to the state level as a way to reduce reliance on property
taxes.
Barrow and other analysts say the state Legislature should give cities
and towns more options, like restaurant and hotel taxes, for raising
revenue. Patrick has pushed a similar proposal. The Federal Reserve
paper listed other options, including local sales taxes, public utility
taxes, and local income taxes on individuals or corporations.
But so far, Barrow said, "The Legislature has been absolutely unwilling
to provide them with any alternatives."
In fact, he thinks state leaders prefer the current situation.
"Nobody loves a fiscal crisis more than the leaders of the House,
because they love having cities and towns come crawling to them," Barrow
said.
Right now, though, it looks as if groveling may be the only other
option. This year's annual report on municipal finances from the
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation concluded: "With local aid increases
likely to be limited for the foreseeable future, cities and towns will
be increasingly dependent on the property tax to support local
services."
The Boston Globe
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Deep cuts loom across state
Expenses outpacing revenue and state aid
Fewer cities, towns seeking override votes
By Eric Moskowitz
In Canton, middle school students idle in vast study halls because
electives have been pared and teachers have been laid off. In Shirley,
selectmen recently removed 103 light bulbs from Town Hall and may switch
off some streetlights to reduce electric bills. And in Brookline, where
single-family homes regularly fetch $1 million, officials are seeking
the first override in 14 years to avoid layoffs and the mothballing of a
fire engine.
Across Massachusetts, cities and towns face the prospect of deep cuts in
what appears to be the grimmest fiscal year since 2003. Local revenue
and state aid can't keep up with such rapidly rising expenses as
employee health insurance, heating oil, and even street paving. School
costs, like special education requirements, are sapping local budgets.
And now beleaguered residents are seeing home values dip even as taxes
continue to rise.
Town and city officials face a difficult choice: cut staff and programs,
or ask voters to override Proposition 2˝ and approve still higher
property tax bills. In Beverly, for example, officials tried to avoid a
tax hike by drafting a budget that would cut 61 full-time positions and
close two elementary schools.
"It's very difficult medicine, and something we'd all rather avoid, but
we're on our own," said the city's mayor, William F. Scanlon Jr., an ex
officio member of the school board. "The state can't help us, and we
have to find a way to live within our means."
In Canton, meanwhile, officials who saw a $3.95 million override fail
narrowly last year are trying again this year, asking voters to approve
a larger tax increase, about $4.5 million, even as the economy has
worsened. The alternative, they worry, could cause services to erode and
do long-term harm to the community.
"Things fall apart a lot faster than they're built up," said John
Bonnanzio, outgoing chairman of the School Committee. The schools would
receive about $3.5 million from the override, which would be spread over
three years, to restore some of the past cuts and forestall new ones.
About half of the school districts in Massachusetts are planning some
reductions next year, and one in four expect the most visible cuts, like
teacher layoffs, program reductions, or steep fee increases, said Glenn
Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School
Committees.
The last statewide budget crisis occurred five years ago, when Mitt
Romney slashed local aid to address a deficit in one of his first
official acts as governor. At that point, communities had had a decade
to recover from the previous recession and reap the benefits of a
booming late-1990s economy. But now the communities' budgets haven't
caught up to where they were before the last crisis. State aid had
increased somewhat in the last few years, but the 351 cities and towns
combined this year still receive $566 million less from the state than
they did in fiscal 2002, adjusting for inflation, said Geoffrey
Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association.
The state budget for next year is unlikely to provide enough aid to
towns and cities to avoid widespread local cuts, Beckwith said. Governor
Deval Patrick's casino proposal failed, knocking out a potential revenue
source. However, his proposed budget includes a local aid boost for
schools in the coming year.
Other longer term measures to help cities and towns financially may not
be in place to help for the new budget year, which starts July 1. House
Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, for instance, wants to help communities
restrain insurance costs by buying into the plan for state employees
without needing local union approval.
Proposition 2˝, passed by voters in 1980, puts officials in a bind by
capping the increase in a community's annual tax levy at 2.5 percent,
not counting taxes on construction and other new growth, though voters
can override the limit. But with a looming recession, the same residents
who are eschewing home repairs and car purchases may be reluctant to
approve overrides.
Last year, 76 towns sought overrides to balance operating budgets, less
than half of which passed. About 50 are expected this season, a sign not
that fewer face budget problems but that many officials are now resigned
to cut without trying overrides, to avoid the divisiveness they often
cause. This year, eight communities have sought operating overrides;
five have failed.
"More and more communities are going to hit the wall," said Michael J.
Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. "It's not a
pretty picture, and it's going to get worse before it gets better."
Brookline was able to avoid both cuts and overrides for years in part
because of new taxes generated from home and condo renovations. The town
also increased parking fees and fines, and saved money by making
municipal buildings more energy-efficient. This year, though, the town
needs a $2.1 million override to balance the budget and prevent cuts,
said Betsy DeWitt , a Brookline selectwoman and cochairwoman of the Yes
for Brookline override coalition. Add in overdue road and sidewalk
maintenance - a backlog that developed during a five-year stretch in
which paving costs roughly doubled, she said - and the figure becomes
$3.6 million, she said.
Without the money, officials project, the town would have to shed three
teachers, four police officers, all school library assistants, the
equivalent of 2.8 school social workers, the fourth-grade
instrumental-music program, and the use of one of the town's seven fire
engines from May through August, among other cuts.
Brookline officials have used the override proposal to add new spending
as well as to prevent cuts of current programs. They have presented
voters with three choices: no override, a $5.4 million override or a
$6.2 million override.
The $5.4 million would avoid cuts and add 20 minutes to the school day,
and the more expensive option would do that while also extending
foreign-language instruction, currently available at one elementary
school, to all elementary schools.
"We in Brookline have people willing to come here and live with one less
bedroom so their kids can go to Brookline schools," DeWitt said. "We owe
it to those people to keep the standards up."
Roger Blood, cochairman of the Brookline Coalition Against Unfair
Taxation, said supporters have unfairly bundled new spending with the
package. "They invoked the old override campaign playbook of 'You get an
override passed by scaring the dickens out of voters about what will get
cut and who will get pink slips,'" he said.
In nearby Newton, the failure of a $12 million override on May 20 could
mean the loss of 83 school employees plus cuts to the police, fire, and
public works departments, said Jeremy Solomon, a spokesman for Mayor
David B. Cohen. The taxes on the median home (valued at $690,800),
currently about $6,701, would rise an estimated $165 without the
override and $538 with it, said Elizabeth Dromey, the city assessor.
Layoffs would cause some elementary schools to squeeze 28 students in a
class, compared with an average of 20˝ now, Jeffrey Young,
superintendent of the Newton school system, told officials at a
presentation in February. It would also mean education cuts at the same
time Newton is in the final stages of approving a new high school, the
cost of which has ballooned to $197.5 million.
Swampscott, which has about one-sixth the population of Newton, opened a
new high school last year at the same time it was closing an elementary
school and imposing more than 30 layoffs. More layoffs are needed this
year, in part because utility costs for the new high school are $1
million more than the old one, said David P. Whelan Jr., chairman of the
School Committee. Swampscott has no appetite for an override, he said,
so the school board is cutting instead, with technical education at the
high school and band at the elementary school slated to go.
The district still provides a strong education in core college-prep
classes at the high school, Whelan said, but cuts and expanded class
sizes are eroding the overall school experience.
"We're unable to provide a well-rounded education for kids at this
point, and we're not going to be able to do it anytime soon without
additional funding," he said.
In Canton, Galvin Middle School principal Thomas LaLiberte said,
students who could take art or music every other day a few years ago now
have specialty subjects once every six days. Most of the 714 students in
the school have at least one unstructured study hall a day, with up to
90 students gathering in the cafeteria at once, he said.
In neighboring Randolph, voters rejected four overrides in recent years,
forcing the elimination of dozens of teachers, about half the high
school's academic offerings, and most freshman and junior varsity
sports.
"With all due respect to our next-door neighbors in Randolph, they're a
prime example of what happens when benign neglect sets in," said
Bonnanzio, the Canton school official.
But that changed last week, when Randolph voters approved a nearly $5.5
million school question, making the town one of three - along with
Dartmouth and Natick - to override Proposition 2˝ this year.
Although the money at best will restore staff and program offerings to
about three-fourths of what they were five years ago, it's a good start,
said Larry Azer, chairman of the School Committee.
"This is the first time I've been on the School Committee and not had to
make cuts," said Azer, now beginning his sixth year. "It's kind of a new
feeling for me. I like it, though."
The Boston Herald
Friday, March 28, 2008
Override overdrive
By Herald staff
More than 50 Bay State communities will be asking voters this spring to
approve tax hikes to cover budget shortfalls. Among the overrides being
sought are:
Ashburnham - $500,000 to avoid
school layoffs
Tyngsboro - $1.2 million to avoid 22 possible
school layoffs
Northboro - $316,000
Randolph - $6.4 million to avoid
school, police and fire cutbacks
Chelmsford - $2.8 million
Milton - $2.7 million to avoid 23 possible
school layoffs
Newton - $12 million
Holliston - $1.7 million, facing 28 possible
school layoffs
Canton - $4.5 million
Brookline - $5.4 million to prevent cuts to fire, police, public works
and schools
Falmouth - $353,000 for fire apparatus
Provincetown - $153,000 for trash pickup costs
Belmont - $4.5 million for
schools
Shrewsbury - $1.5 million
Spencer - $528,000 to keep a library open and avoid laying off a police
officer;
Dalton - $250,000
Truro - $400,000 for
schools
Wayland - $1.5 million for
schools
Sudbury - $2.8 million for
schools
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Budget forecast bleak
Cahill urges communities to hoard cash
By Christine McConville
The state’s cities and towns better start saving, State Treasurer
Timothy Cahill said yesterday, because they’ll need it to weather the
state’s coming economic storm.
“No matter how bad this year was, 2009 is going to be worse,” Cahill
told the Herald in a wide-ranging interview about the state’s economic
outlook. Cahill encouraged even cash-strapped cities and towns to try to
save some of this year’s local aid to help ease the blow next year.
Cahill said that, with the stock market going sideways and the housing
and retail markets in trouble, state revenues from capital gains and
sales taxes will continue to plummet.
And while revenue from the state’s lottery is up about 6 percent from
last year, Cahill has told state leaders not to depend on a similar
return in 2009.
But, Cahill said, the state’s $2 billion stabilization fund is healthy.
And although Gov. Deval Patrick and House Speaker Sal DiMasi are eyeing
the fund as a way to fill the state’s budget gap, Cahill said state
leaders need to be careful.
Depleting the stabilization fund, he said, could put the state in a
vulnerable economic position, because credit rating agencies don’t like
to see dwindling funds.
As a result, he said, the message to communities is: Start saving.
Yesterday, Methuen City Councilor Joseph Leone said he agrees with
Cahill.
“He’s 100 percent right,” he said. “The state used to be everyone’s
bailout, and that’s going to stop.”
But it won’t be simple, he added. “The state has to help cities and
towns change the rules and allow us the flexibility to operate in a
business-like manner.”
“Between medical insurance and pension costs and civil service work
rules, we don’t have authority and power over our own employees,” he
said.
Medford Mayor Michael McGlynn said it will be difficult for communities
to save any money.
He said communities have been so hard hit by cuts in state aid in recent
years, “we have used all our resources to survive.
“And when you are fighting for survival, you have no opportunity to
save,” he said.
“The taxpayers aren’t happy,” he added.
The Boston Herald
Thursday, April 3, 2008
A Boston Herald editorial
Planning ahead for rainier days
Municipal officials discovered after the last budget crisis that the
state won’t always be available to bail them out. But old habits die
hard, and many local leaders still expect their benefactors on Beacon
Hill to supply them with the millions they need to shield local budgets
from deep cuts.
Well, Treasurer Tim Cahill and other state leaders have a message for
those officials: Times are changing.
“No matter how bad this year was, 2009 is going to be worse,” Cahill
told Herald editors and reporters during a meeting Tuesday, in which he
urged communities to set aside a portion of their annual local aid
allotment to weather the economic downturn that will be felt even more
acutely next year.
That’s easier said than done, of course.
The truth is that local budgets are being squeezed. And it takes
remarkable managerial discipline to set aside funds that could be used
to hire more classroom teachers or prevent library layoffs to hold back
the next economic tidal wave.
But taxpayers are growing ever more weary of being asked to pay more to
finance generous pension and health care benefits for city and town
employees, while their own earning power buys them far less. Just this
week, voters in three of four towns with Proposition 2˝ overrides on the
ballot flat-out rejected them.
And it’s an inescapable fact that you can’t get blood from a stone. As
Cahill and others point out, state revenues from capital gains and sales
taxes won’t rebound anytime soon. So local communities have little
recourse but to tighten belts - and squirrel away some of their aid from
the state, because the worst may be yet to come.
Cahill’s warning comes on the heels of House Speaker Sal DiMasi’s speech
last month to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, in which he
floated the idea of a new state audit bureau to scrutinize municipal
spending and management practices. It all points to the simple fact that
the equation has changed, and cities and towns have no choice but to
change with it.
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