As reported in the Belmont Citizen Herald, voters in Belmont sent a warning shot on Monday, voting down an effort to pass a Prop 2 1/2 override to fund road maintenance and reconstruction in the town. According to data posted on the Belmont Town Web site today by Town Clerk Delores Keefe, the vote was a close one with 2602 voters saying “No” and 2269 saying “Yes” – a difference of just 333 votes. (Has anyone considered that 333 is half of 666 — the NUMBER OF THE BEAST??!?!?!) OK. OK. Just kidding.
The breakdown, by precinct, went like this:
TOTALS: YES 2269 NO 2602
Despite a poll by B2 that showed strong support for the override, sentiment seems to have been strongly against it across the town. Only two Precincts: 1 & 6 voted in favor, with some lopsided votes against in Precinct’s 4 and 8 (my lawn sign, notwithstanding).
The vote sends a sobering message to those of us in town who will shortly be pushing for a debt exclusion to fund the construction of a new Wellington Elementary, as well as for town leaders who are desperately hoping to pass an operational override come budget time, given that the town has already raided all available sources of free cash in the last three or four budget cycles.
There are two ways of looking at what that message is, exactly: the optimistic view is that voters were factoring in their support of the Wellington project and the budget override and concluding that we can’t do it all at once. The pessimistic view is that voters in town feel put upon and are unwilling to accept funding any increase on the revenue side, even with a glaring problem that’s staring them in the face (and jolting their spine) every day. Whichever is true, the folks who want to see a new Wellington School built will have to be more organized and fervent in turning out their supporters than the roads folks were. In the end, I think those backing the roads override did a good job getting the issue in front of the eyes of voters. The question is: how good were they at turning people out on election day. Judging from the turnout — around 5,000 voters –there’s still a lot of work to be done in getting the vote out for future overrides.
I have to admit, I’m one of the ‘no’ voters on this measure. I voted purely with my pocketbook on this issue. I am a little peeved that Belmont saw fit to ignore this problem for decades, and then, less than a year after I moved here, decided to pay for it all at once. It’s like being asked to pick up the check when you meet your friends at a restaurant at the end of their meal.
And this is not to say that I am categorically against improving our roads. I just found this plan to be a bit overly ambitious. If it were scaled back a bit, and if the effect were less intimidating, tax-wise, I’d likely vote for it. For now, I consider the potholes a deterrent to would-be speed demons on my street.
On the other hand, I will absolutely vote for the Wellington School override. I think that schools are well worth paying for, and I was absolutely factoring the Wellington schools issue into my decision making process regarding the roads. I personally cringed at the thought of two big overrides in such a short period of time, and I prioritized the school over the asphalt.
Jessie,
I also voted No but it’s because I believe the Town needs to find the money by cutting spending elsewhere. The Wellington is a whole different game. It needs to be replaced and as long as the State kicks in the full 40% and the Town keeps it reasonable (unlike Newton ) then I think it stands a fair chance at passing. They should seriously look at a common design pre-approved by the State if available. Any deviation from those two conditions and I suspect you get a similar result and I would reconsider. A 7% defeat is significant in a special election that usually favors the group supporting the vote and the reaction of Selectman Jones was that of a Deer caught in the headlights.
As for the Op Override in April… I suspect it will depend on the average cost of Heating Oil and Gas through the Winter and whether Wellington passes. Realistically only one of these three will get through based on current conditions imo.
Keep Cool
PJ
Jessie, it’s not a pay-for-it-all-at-once; it will take years for the roads to be repaired. You arrived at this meal after the appetizers and first round of drinks were served. What we’re stuck with is a combination of several of those ignore-economic-reality citizen’s initiatives (one to pass prop 2.5, another to roll the income tax back down from 5.95%) both of which make unrealistic demands on productivity gains in government. It’s lovely to imagine that government could increase productivity as quickly as private enterprise, but people who say that seem to forget that private enterprise gets its gains by performing many “experiments” (aka “startups”), which more often than not burn through all their seed money with nothing to show for it. The winners take over the market with their productivity gains. In business, also, there are spectacular bonuses for the winners, that are never available in government enterprises.
But, for years it was the political fashion to pretend that this was all very sensible, and thus we tried hard to avoid overrides, by deferring maintenance on roads and buildings, and by foot-dragging an ADA lawsuit requiring us to do something about town hall, until a judge more or less got mad at us. In recent years we’ve been behind on our pension funding, and I do not know for sure that we are on track yet. These problems won’t go away.
And yes, the risk that people would choose not to vote for a schools override was definitely in my mind, too, but I think that there’s also a risk that people will perceive the schools as sucking up all the money if we don’t spend some of it on something else. They’re efficient (the numbers prove it, we spend less than the state average, but get great results), but they’re also a huge chunk of the budget.
There’s another thing that needs looking at, which is, given that the current rules have us funding the town with a property tax (which is regressive), what (legal) games can we play to blunt its impact on the least well-off residents? Walter McLaughlin wrote a letter about this, I wrote a letter about this, a week later I poked through my electric bill and discovered that in fact, we already offer discounted electricity for a variety of need-based reasons (it’s a good-looking list), my ballpark estimate was that it might come to $500/year. I don’t know if there is something similar in place for the water bill. In this coming year, anyone who heats with oil is going to be one unhappy camper — a 250 gallon tank is well over $1000 — so people are going to be feeling pretty well pinched because of that, too. Should the town help low-income residents install smarter thermostats? Is that our job? It might deliver more bang-for-the-buck than some of the subsidized heating oil programs we have up here (or are we already doing this?)
To waste $10,000 when this override question could have been placed on the previous ballot is a fiscal disgrace. To have a seperate date under the auspicious that with less people voting it has a better chance to pass is a political disgrace. When you then throw in this dangling carrot (lLock Box) because you admit you can’t be trusted is a moral disgarce. I voted no
When my oldest child entered his first day of kindergarten at the Wellington School he had to cross a teacher picket line on his way to a converted janitors closet they passed off as a classroom. Now the school committee gives out the backdoor golden parachutes and raises or call them promotions if that makes you feel better. The teachers union will be loaded for bear when their next contract comes around. The Wellington was good enough for my kids, it should be good enough for everyone elses kids. I will vote no!
There have been many mistakes made by the town spendthrifts in the distant past and relatively distant past, those I begrudginly will live with . The recent ones are unacceptable. If that rotary on Grove Street needs to be torn up at the cost to taxpayers somebody(s) better be fired !
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