Structural Deficit? A Brookline Sham.
By Jim Conley • Nov 20th, 2006 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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Throughout the debate concerning a 3% tax surcharge for community preservation, we heard many in town government say that Brookline is experiencing a “structural deficit.”
I don’t know what that is, and apparently neither do the people who throw the term around. The closest I can come to defining structural deficit is this: “Structural deficit is not a result of a cyclical policy implemented by the government but is the deficit that exists when the economy is in equilibrium.”
In other words, it’s a deficit not brought about by downward shifts in revenue or increased costs, but by factors outside the budgeteer’s control. But shifts in revenue and rising costs (health care benefits for one) are contributing to an increasingly shaky budget situation in Brookline.
On the revenue side, property tax receipts - over the next three years - will be severely curtailed as property values and assessments decline. Thirty-seven percent of homes sold in Brookline during the period May to September have sold at prices below the assessed value. And news today has it that the Town has been pushed out of the $1 million plus median-price club.
Pension costs, health benefits and debt service show no sign of abating over the next few budget cycles. Last week, Brookline Town Meeting approved a $16 million Town Hall renovation and a $3.5 million purchase of the Fisher Hill Reservior to build a wilderness park there. Brookline Town Government appears to guarantee employment, so health and pension costs will continue to mount.
A structural deficit is another contrivance brought on by the Selectmen and Town Administrator Richard Kelliher. It’s a sham, one designed to convince you that the only thing that can correct the problem is a Prop 2.5 override.
The Brookline deficit is not structural, it’s cynical. And God help us if we don’t clear the halls of these hacks in time to make a difference.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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Brookline’s structural deficit is its Representative Town Meeting form of governance, which is antiquated, inefficient and unaccountable, which leads to incompetence, including wasteful spending. Perhaps a brand spanking new Town Hall in the wilderness of Fisher Hill Reservoir would serve the Town better, with (as Steve Martin might say) all the wild and craaazy guys running the joint.
Jim, you didn’t mention the $20,000 voted for a taxicab consultant by Special Town Meeting. The meter is running on this Town.
[...] That’s the kind of unenlightened thinking we’ve come to expect from Merrill. Remember this quote when it becomes apparent that the Town did not pay attention - or respond to - the statistical data that showed a worsening financial condition. [...]
[...] Well, I guess if you ignore the fact that nearly 40% of homes sold in Brookline over the past two fiscal quarters did so at prices below their assessed value, if you ignore the add on charges of sewer, trash collection, athletic fees, building permits and parking fines on the cost borne by taxpayers; and if you think a Aaa bond rating is the sine qua non of municipal government, than an over-ride makes sense. [...]