This is the second installment of a multi-part post on my interview with Selectman Angelo Firenze. You can read the first part of the interview by clicking here.
In the first part of our conversation, Belmont Town Selectman Angelo Firenze and I spoke about his experience growing up in Belmont, how the town and its politics had changed since the 1940s and 50s, the job of being a selectman, and the current Board.
As our conversation continued, it became more topical, with Firenze weighing in on everything from funding for the schools, to the town’s business environment, to plans for a senior center and new library.
Our conversation picks up with Selectman Firenze continuing his discussion of Belmont’s level of per pupil spending (just FYI — Belmont ranked 205 out of 327 school districts the Commonwealth for per pupil spending, though Belmont is also at the bottom of the pile in receiving State aid for educational funding). Firenze’s position — which he articulates frequently — is that Belmont can do with less spending per pupil and lower standard schools because the community support for education is so strong. Firenze also talks about his concerns that continued tax overrides tied to school funding or other projects will drive older residents out of town.
Angelo Firenze: could we spend more money on education? Sure. Should we? If we had it, yes. But this is where the debate comes in. Look, I bought this house in 1977 and I paid $65,000 for it. I think I could get more for it if I sold it today. It’s assessed at $1.1 million. The house across the street recently sold for $1.45 million. Now that person who paid $1.45 million has a different expectation from the town than I do. Now I can afford to pay taxes on $1.1 million, fortunately. But not everyone can. So one of two things can happen, and that’s where the real rub comes in. You can chase all of the old people out of town who can’t afford to stay here. These are people who have lived here all their lives.
B2: But…come on. They’re being taxed based on the appreciation of an asset they purchased — their house. If they find that too much, can’t they downsize , but stay within town? Maybe purchase a condominium? If they didn’t want to move, couldn’t they get a reverse mortgage on their property and tap into the equity to help them pay their taxes and make ends meet?
AF: Why would you want them to have to do that? We’ve got to keep people in town. We’ve got to find a way to find right balance. That’s the very thing, diversity, that makes Belmont a great community. If we just raise spending, we’re going to force people out who can’t afford to live here. Let me ask you, what’s the right amount of property taxes that the town should be collecting?
B2: Well…I think the town should have all of its properties assessed at an appropriate level, and should collect taxes based on those assessed values.
AF: Let me ask you this: Is it in the town’s best interest for me to sell house or stay? If I move out, who’s going to move into this house? It’s got four bedrooms. A young family with kids will move in. If we continue on this path of letting people who are on the border line of being able to afford their house leave town because of the increased value of the house. If you allow that logical chain of events to happen, with constantly escalating real estate taxes and spending, then Belmont will look like Weston or Lincoln. You’ll end up in a situation where only people who can afford to live here move here.
B2: But isn’t the converse true, also? If you continue to short change education and services that young families want and need, won’t they leave town? Won’t they move to Lexington, or Weston or Concord?
AF: Let them. Let people who are in a position to pay more taxes pay more taxes.
B2: Full day kindergarten has been a hot topic on Bloggingbelmont and in the town recently. My understanding is that the School Committee is going to put funding for full day kindergarten in their FY 08 budget. What’s your position on that?
AF: I don’t think the School Committee will put it in the budget for this year.
B2: Oh really? My sense from last week’s School Committee meeting was that they would.
AF: Let me put it this way. It’s in the interest of the School Committee to not put it in the budget for this year. What’s in the budget for this year is an override for the Wellington School. I support a debt exclusion for the Wellington School, but oppose an operational override and funding for the roads and a debt exclusion for the Wellington. Last time around, I got around 150 emails from parents of kids who were gong into kindergarten supporting full day kindergarten. But I also got a number of emails from parents of children in high school saying ‘if we add the $350,000 for full day kindergarten, what will that do to my child’s programs? They don’t give a (expletive) about kids in kindergarten.
B2: Don’t you find it a sad statement. That we’ve got a community that’s so deeply divided, that parents of high school children could only think about a program for kindergartners in terms of what it would take away from their child’s education?
AF: It is sad. We are all one community, but we’ve got to recognize that we can’t do everything that we might want to do for every person. We’ve got to find the right balance. And I think the right balance is where we’re at. I don’t think there’s anything out of balance at this point. I don’t think we’re spending too much money on anything..except maybe buildings.
B2: What do you think your role as a Selectman is in all this?
AF: What I can do as a Selectman in Belmont is to try to make Belmont the best community it can be, given all the benefits the town has to offer. I want to make sure that the town is in balance. That the poor and the rich people have a reason to stay. That the people who care about education have a reason to stay, and make this the best possible overall community that we can have. I can try to make sure that nobody is being neglected by someone else, number one. Number two: when residents look at the way the town operates. The elected officials, department heads. The whole thing. I want the people of Belmont to say hard working people run this town and be confident that they’re making the best decisions for this town.
Up next…”I’m a reasonable guy. How can I support the building of a senior center across the street when I know we need a new Library?”
I’m shocked to read some of the comments Selectman Firenze makes about our community. To think that raising taxes would push older folks out is unacceptable, but underfunding/not addressing schools and FDK is appropriate because younger families can afford to move is just sad. He opines that we don’t need to increase school spending because of a strong support for education within the community. I can’t find evidence of a stong support for education in the comments made by Selectman Firenze. The face of Belmont is changing with an influx of younger families moving into our town. We cannot ignore their needs under the pretext of preserving the elder population. More divisiveness in a community hungry for solidarity.
Hey Christine. I totally agree. Young families are the future of this town and, let’s not forget, property values in Belmont aren’t high because of the lovely skating rink we’ve got. They’re high, in part, because we’re one of the top performing school districts in the state (among other things, of course). I think Angelo’s 100 percent correct in saying that we have to strike a balance between the needs of different people within the community. But, speaking as a parent, he’s not correct in saying that we have that balance now — that things are perfect as is. I don’t know, but I’d imagine other parents would agree (even the ones who are ticked off at me about my FDK comments)
Paul
This number was 80 last time Angelo announced his opposition to Full Day K at a meeting and that was after it failed. Now Angelo says 150? Did he really get more even after it was thrown under the bus? Can he share the emails with members of the School Committee? Perhaps if he just draws ink through the names to protect privacy. But no – I’m sure there will be a story about how they were deleted because he didn’t see a reason to hold on to them. I think this number he’s throwing out is far higher than actual and shouldn’t be given as fact unless we see them. In the meantime let’s make sure when parents send Angelo emails now that they cc Paul Solomon and Dan LeClerc.
And regarding the seniors – Paul has given a perfectly plausable alternative. If they want to stay in their four bedroom house and keep up the maintenance, then by all means a reverse mortgage is the way to go. If they have gained almost $1M on their house, the least they could do is invest in what made their house so valuable. Chances are that when we are consistently good with the way we treat all our citizens, house values continue to rise and this rise outweighs the taxes because their home values increase at a greater value than their taxes…and you don’t have to be an economist to understand that.
Paul – you are doing a wonderful job on this blog and I urge you to keep this up. We’ve needed someone in town like you – that has the ability to bring people together and fight for the cause. Thanks for being here and know that several of us support you in a political role here. Damn I wish you’d run for Selectman because if it’s Angelo and Ralph, our schools are DOOMED!
I have read the interview and comments so far with interest. For the most part, the answers I have given reflect the way I feel, but is some cases my comments, as reported, do not present the position I am trying to convey, for which I take full responsibility. As has been pointed out many times I am an over user of hyperbole, and that does get me in trouble, however, I do it to try and communicate my position clearly.
For example, with regard to the Senior Center, I do not believe what is written in the blog, conveys my feelings. In trying to clarify it here I may make it even more unclear, but I am going give it a try.
I do support the need for a Senior Center in Town. I originally supported the construction of the Senior Center at the Beech Street site. However a lot of things have change since that time. The building turned out to be too big for the selected site, with insufficient parking and many other issues that required over a year to reach suitable compromises and now we have cost issues. In that time, additional land became available on Concord Avenue, and the plans for a new library solidified and the need to address the police station surfaced. These changes with the possibility of a public or private reuse of the current library building are what led me to the concept of building a combined facility.
I also believe my perceived lack of support for public education is totally misrepresented, but I am not sure I can set those straight in a blog.
I am now sitting here thinking about how much time I can now spend responding to comments in the blog. If I do this, I won’t be doing much else. As a result I also wish to convey that I generally will not be responding to comments in the blog. If anyone wants to ask me about anything, please give me a call I would be happy to discuss it with you at any mutually convenient time. My number is 617-484-0544
Hey, Angelo. Thanks for responding and for checking out BloggingBelmont.com. As you know, the posts were taken from notes that I took during our conversation. If you feel like any posts don’t accurately reflect your position, please feel free to spell it out in the comments or just email me (paul@bloggingbelmont.com) and I will update the post accordingly with your response. Not everyone reads down in the comments for blog entries, so it’s easy to miss rebuttals that are registered that way. I will update the Library/Senior Center post with your clarification.
Paul