Depends on Your Definition of Broad.
By Jim Conley • Mar 16th, 2008 • Category: Betsy DeWitt, Brookline Selectmen, CPA Vote, Override Ballot, Politics, Robert Allen, Schools, The Allen Files, Town FinancesAccording to the TAB, the pro-override campaign effort has been launched and it’s a doozy. The TAB runs the press release which features the announcement of a Web site, and that Selectman Robert Allen is a “founding member” of the committee. Co-chairs are Selectman Betsy DeWitt and School Committee Chair Judy Meyers.
Of course [...]
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Jesse Mermell’s Priorities.
By Jim Conley • Jan 8th, 2008 • Category: Asbestos, CPA Vote, DPW, Jesse MermellThe black object you see to the right of Selectman Robert Allen is the empty chair of Brookline Selectman Jesse Mermell, who instead of hearing more on the treatment an African American resident endured at the hands of Brookline Police chose instead to politic in New Hampshire for Hillary Clinton.
I’m not kidding.
Remember when it was [...]
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Town Hall Torpedoes Over-ride.
By Jim Conley • May 18th, 2007 • Category: CPA Vote, Override BallotFor some unknown reason, town administrators have posted the full report from Moody’s Investor’s Service that re-affirms the Town of Brookline’s Aaa bond rating [see previous post].
And I’m glad they did. Reading through the report makes me think that there’s little justification for a Proposition 2.5 over-ride in Brookline. [read the report].
Remember, during the [...]
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Cracks in the Alliance.
By Jim Conley • Jan 9th, 2007 • Category: CPA VoteRemember back in October when I objected (see previous post) to a mailing from the Brookline Greenspace Alliance in advance on the local referendum question on a 3% tax surcharge to fund community preservation in Brookline.
Remember that?
At the time the Alliance’s Executive Director Ed Hsieh told me:
“Regarding your concern about our article in our publication [...]
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Depends on Your Definition of Smashing.
By Jim Conley • Nov 30th, 2006 • Category: CPA Vote, PoliticsRemember how the proponents of a 3% tax surcharge (or CPA) for Brookline told us that the program was a smashing success in Newton? Remember that?
Never mind.
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CPA Fails.
By Jim Conley • Nov 7th, 2006 • Category: CPA VoteAccording to the Brookline Town Clerk’s Office (at 9:20 PM), Question 4 fails at the voting booth. Totals are:
No - 10,732 (57%)
Yes - 8,056 (43%)
Good God, what will happen to Fisher Hill?
Update: Alert readers point out the totals were reversed in the earlier post…a lesson in how a clear headline saves the rushed [...]
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Can’t Make This Stuff Up (Part LXIII).
By Jim Conley • Nov 2nd, 2006 • Category: CPA VoteFrom today’s “No on Question 4″ newspaper ad:
” A vote for the CPA thwarts the process by which funding decisions are made in Brookline. A small, unelected committee with no accountability to you, the voter, will recommend expenditures.” - Robert Allen, Chairman of the Board of Selectmen
I assume that the distinction for Allen between [...]
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Can’t Make This Stuff Up (Part LXII).
By Jim Conley • Nov 2nd, 2006 • Category: CPA VoteFrom today’s TAB on another screw up by Team CPA:
Selectwoman Nancy Daly, a former co-chairwoman of the study committee, said she didn’t see the DOR ruling as a setback to how the CPA would operate in the long run.
“There’s [sic] ways we could work around it … we could sort of do it through the [...]
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Know Them by Their Acts.
By Jim Conley • Oct 28th, 2006 • Category: CPA VoteToday’s mail drop at home featured a newsletter (addressed to My Dulcinea) from the Brookline Greenspace Alliance urging a yes vote on Question 4. Hmm, a non-profit organization sends out their newsletter (one whose previous issues I don’t remember having received) endorsing a referendum question a week before the vote.
This is not a public [...]
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Luckily, They Only Get to Vote Once.
By Jim Conley • Oct 27th, 2006 • Category: CPA VoteSeveral members of the Parks Mob are so hopped up over a CPA tax surcharge in Brookline, that they’ve endorsed it twice on the pro-CPA website.
Update: Seems the pro-CPAers winnowed down their list and went to one person one endorsement. Here’s the text from the multiple endorsements page, in case you want to [...]
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Reader Mail on Question 4.
By Jim Conley • Oct 23rd, 2006 • Category: CPA VoteA reader writes:
Hi Jim. If you haven’t already, check out the pro-CPA website: http://www.yesforbrookline.org.
In particular, click on the “What will it cost me?” tab, and take the quiz. Then, re-take the quiz checking the boxes indicating that you are a renter or that you earn less than the means test. What [...]
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More CPA Deceptions.
By Jim Conley • Oct 20th, 2006 • Category: CPA VoteWhat is it about electioneering in Brookline that makes people incapable of telling the truth? Check out this page on the pro-tax surcharge (Question 4) Web site.
Clearly, the intent is to get you to think that CPA funds will be used for renovations at the Lawrence and Devotion Schools. That’s deceptive and misleading.
Is it the [...]
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You Know You’re Screwed…
By Jim Conley • Oct 19th, 2006 • Category: CPA Vote…when people pushing through a tax increase start talking about it as if it were a “Save the Children” television spot. This from the pro-CPA website:
“The CPA surcharge tax will cost the average Brookline homeowner only $104 per year, or the cost of a cup of coffee each week. In the case of virtually [...]
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Contrived Brookline.
By Jim Conley • Oct 18th, 2006 • Category: CPA VoteYou’ll find no enthusiasm for a 3% tax surcharge for community preservation at this site. It’s a bad idea, for myriad reasons. So why are the opponents of Question 4 planting signs that say, “Preserve Brookline! Vote NO on the CPA?”
Referendum questions are confusing in their own right. And by suggesting that [...]
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Turn Off the Faucet.
By Jim Conley • Oct 17th, 2006 • Category: CPA VoteIt bears noting that a 3% tax surcharge for community preservation means more money in the hands of the Brookline DPW. A DPW whose employees sold town property for personal use. A DPW that overspent its snow clearing budget by $1 million during winter drought. And a DPW Commissioner who, when he’s not [...]
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