Citizen at Large

Town Meeting's Ayes and Nays

Town Meeting’s Ayes and Nays

So last week I attended our Town Meeting, which for those of you who don’t live in New England, is an opportunity for all town citizens to come vote on a docket of issues that town leadership presents for approval.   Virtually all of the items up for a vote concern the usage of town money, with the town’s operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year being the main issue. 

 

In this town meeting, a group of concerned citizens had proposed an amendment that would effectively reduce the town’s budget it by about $2 million (thereby lowering property taxes). As I explained in my last post, for the past several weeks and even months, there had been a fair amount of contention between this citizen’s group and the town leaders over the budget issue.   When the issue came for a vote, a chorus called out “Aye,” affirming the town leadership’s budget, but the “Nays” were loud enough to force a standing vote.  Ultimately, the budget amendment proposed by the citizen’s group failed, but I was glad at least there had been some real debate on the issue and a worthy fight.  I was, however, a little disappointed because I felt some town folks seemed quite resentful of the citizen’s group for proposing the amendment at all.  To that end, I submitted the following letter to the editor which was published yesterday in our local newspaper. 

 

Letter to the Editor

We Need Both the Aye’s and Nay’s

 

I attended Town Meeting last week and came away remarkably invigorated and proud to be a [town] citizen.  I recognize that some of the articles voted on this past week were particularly divisive and that the conversation leading up to Town Meeting had become somewhat cantankerous, particularly regarding the budget articles.  But as I listened to the different groups presenting on both sides of the budget issue, I felt a great appreciation for all the energy and thought that had gone into preparing the presentations.  The town leaders had clearly put much effort into formulating a budget and a plan for our town.  In addition, two citizen-led groups, the [Town] Voters Group (TVG) and Together For the Future of [our town] (TFFT), which both presented their perspectives on the budget articles, also demonstrated the considerable effort they had made in preparation.   Both groups had valid viewpoints:  TFFT representatives showed their support for town leadership’s proposed budget, arguing that it already reflected deep and painful cuts; TVG representatives didn’t think the cuts went far enough, given that the town’s proposed budget would still increase property taxes by nearly the maximum allowable amount of 2.5%, and so were proposing a smaller budget along with ideas to further cut costs. 

 

Both TVG and TFFT are comprised of concerned citizens who, by all accounts, love living in [our town] and feel they have a right and responsibility to express their viewpoint.  I was impressed that these folks who were not obliged to do anything at Town Meeting came to present to us for the benefit of further educating town citizens about the issues and, in the case of TVG, giving voters a choice on the budget issue.   Having clear, legitimate choices and respectful debate around them is at the heart of a healthy democracy.   And so regardless of how I personally felt about the budget issue, I was glad that when the vote on the budget article was taken, it wasn’t just a “unanimous” outcome.  Indeed, I would feel very concerned if I attended Town Meeting where the outcome of every vote taken simply echoed all the “Ayes” that had come before it.  We need the “Nay’s” too, and we got them.  This is why I left Town Meeting feeling proud to live in [our town].    

 

 Have you written a letter to the editor before?  What have been your reasons?  Please share!

Handwringing is Not Enough

About six weeks ago, I gave birth to my fourth child (Isabel Blanche Busse, to be exact).  As you might imagine (or have experienced first-hand), things are a little crazy around here.  And this started to become my excuse for ignoring some of the information coming at me regarding our recent town elections and our upcoming annual town meeting (at which all town citizens can vote on such things as the budget for the next fiscal year, conservation issues, etc.).  “I can’t engage—I’ve got too much else going on.” (Yes, me, the blogger of Citizen At Large!)  And yet my husband and I continue to grumble about high property taxes.  But my handwringing was the end of it.

 

A prominent religious leader, Robert Wood, declared, “For too many, responsibility seems to end with hand-wringing and exclamations of dismay.  Yet talk without action accomplishes little.  We need to be vigorously engaged in the world."Read article here

   

So then I noticed I was receiving several emails from friends making the case for a certain way of voting on the budget in our upcoming town meeting.  But the cases they were making seemed to be one-sided (and specifically on the side of increasing taxes).  I couldn’t claim to be an expert on the issues so I didn’t want to email back my ideas in ignorance.  I decided instead to email the group of folks who are presenting an alternative (read: lower) budget plan and get their viewpoint.   They gave me their explanations, and I summarized their points in an email sent to a group of friends—in a non-advocating way, it should be noted.   I received several responses from folks saying they appreciated being presented with the other side.

 

Our town meeting is tonight, and there is bound to be an interesting showdown about the budget (so stay tuned for my next post!).  As for me,  I’m still not sure of how I’ll vote on the pending budgetary issue, but I’m glad I decided to engage—to find out more, and to let people know what I found out.   

 

Call for Stories of Political Engagement!

I’ve posted the text of my email below, as an example of how easy it is to simply engage in the process.  Do you have examples of when you’ve engaged in the political process in some way?  If so, post a comment on the blog, or better yet, consider emailing me the story of how you’ve engaged, especially if it includes a written piece of some sort (a letter or email).  I would like to start posting other people’s examples of how they have engaged in the political process.  My email is bussehome@comcast.net.  

 

    Email Text:

Hey all—So I was curious about this [Town] Voters Group’s (TVG’S) proposal to reduce the town’s budget (and therefore potentially the schools’ budget), so I emailed the folks at TVG to get their response.  I got responses from a few different folks from there, and I thought I would summarize their points, for what they’re worth:

1)      The TVG is NOT proposing a reduction in the town’s budget, but simply a budget less than what the town is proposing.  Regardless of which budget one supports, it still amounts to an increase in our town’s budget.

2)      The TVG is proposing a budget less than what town officials are proposing because its members believe that there is a significant amount in the budget that can be cut or reduced (they cite, for instance, $600,000 worth of retirement bonuses given to teachers retiring—which amounts to the salaries of 8 full-time teachers; a $185,000 excavator; the 85% the town pays as a contribution for the healthcare costs of its employees, which could be reduced to a more reasonable 75%);—items that they believe are not necessary, especially when they are being paid for by taxpayers in tough economic times.

3)      Several months back, the town Finance Committee (which, along with the Selectman and School Committee, formulate the budget) sent out a request to citizens for ideas to reduce costs.  From the suggestions they received, they compiled a list of potentially $6 million worth of savings if these ideas were implemented.  However, now the Finance Committee is saying that they are going to use the next six months to evaluate these suggestions, which irks the TVG, since that will cause the town to miss another budget cycle in which these savings could have been implemented, and because some of the suggestions on the list have been things the TVG has been advocating for three years now, and also because some of the suggestions are things that could easily be implemented right now.

4)      The town is now proposing a 2 1/2 % increase in taxes as part of the budget, but is also relying on utilizing some of the town reserves so that it will not have to ask for the Prop 2 ½ override.  But once the reserves are depleted, then town residents will be asked for the override, or possibly face layoffs of some sort, and so TVG believes a better course is to reduce costs in an orderly fashion now, instead of having to face the painful choice of an override or layoffs in the future.

5)      Members of TVG feel that in their experience, town officials like to use class size as a “scare tactic” whenever people don’t want to support tax increases.   Apparently, the budget that the town is now proposing is actually less than what TVG proposed back in October (at the special town meeting) and at that point, the town said that implementing that October TVG budget would lead to school lay-offs, but the town’s proposed budget now, being less than the October TVG budget, does not include any school layoffs; this is all to say that the TVG feels that some town officials are being disingenuous about saying that the budget that TVG is now proposing would inevitably lead to teacher layoffs.  

6)      On the issue of needing to add an additional Kindergarten section because of the unexpectedly high enrollment for next year, one of the folks that emailed me back said that he understood that this issue was going to be taken up perhaps the second night of Town Meeting and that officials were looking to perhaps fund this section with stimulus money that they believe is on the way (so it’s unclear if this is part of the official budget or not—guess I need to check the warrant.)

7)      Finally, TVG folks say that our town has the ninth highest tax rate in the state, and that it’s been moving up the list, and they are trying to get it to move down the list. 

 

So I don’t know how I’ll vote at Town Meeting next week; I’m just starting to wade through my town warrant now so I can understand more fully what I am voting on, but I did find it helpful to understand better what the [Town] Voters Group’s viewpoint is.   Thanks to everyone for engaging on these important issues for our town.

 

Best,

Margaret