Myth: An Override Will Solve Brookline’s Budget Problems.
By Jim Conley • Feb 19th, 2008 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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Suppose a Proposition 2.5 override is approved by voters in May. What then? Well, in the short term it may relieve pressure on the municipal budget. But over the long term it won’t matter much.
As a one time infusion of cash to solve a trumped-up “structural deficit”, the override (at the contemplated amount of $6-8 million) will do little to solve the problem of the rising cost of government while assets used to produce revenue (property) decline in value.
And it’s a mystery to me how the Brookline School Department is going to manage the additional $2.6 million in revenue that will allow them to continue on with the programs (World Languages and a longer school day) after they exhaust the proceeds of this single override.
Indeed, some folks have been led to believe that the $800 thousand that the schools will receive for a World Languages program—financing a single teacher per elementary school—is seed money for a bigger and better program in the future. How that works, beats me. If the plan is to expand that Program, at say double the cost in 2010, where is the $1.6 million needed going to come from?
Folks, there is only one solution facing town government — reduce personnel costs and headcount to more affordable levels. But doing that would require taxpayers to be in charge of town government, instead of the salaried personnel who see these cuts a threat to their empire.
That the Brookline Selectmen and the Brookline School Committee are in charge of our financial affairs is probably the biggest myth of all.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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Here is an excerpt from Tyler Cowen’s Economic View article in the NYTimes Feb. 17, 2008, “It’s an Election, Not a Revolution”:
“Democracy is reasonably good at some things: pushing scoundrels out of office, checking their worst excesses by requiring openness, and simply giving large numbers of people the feeling of having a voice. Democracy is not nearly as good at others: holding politicians accountable for their economic promises or translating the preferences of intellectuals into public policy.”
Cowen was focusing upon the current Presidential campaigns of both parties and how the outcomes might impact upon the nation’s economy. With low voter turnout in Brookline, the first sentence may not be applicable in our Town; but the second sentence clearly is.
[...] This year, Brookline officials are working the same myths about an override. Read this http://www.onbrookline.com/brookline-ma/myth-an-override-will-solve-brooklines-budget-problems/ [...]