On the Brookline Override.
By Jim Conley • May 3rd, 2008 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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Thank God it’ll be over on Tuesday.
I’ve spent the better part of a year reporting on this march to a tax increase through a Brookline override, and I’m tired. Tired of the charade. Tired of the incompetence that has led to this bailout of town government. But mostly, I’m tired from what it has already come to mean — pass or fail.
There is no structural deficit in Brookline’s municipal budget. Town leaders say there is because it absolves them of any responsibility for the mess they’ve created. The deficit comes from a lack of long term planning (especially in building projects and employee benefits). The deficit is in the town’s ability to mange its finances. Simple as that.
They’ve screwed up and they know it. That’s why most of the people financing the “Yes for Brookline” campaign are town officeholders. They know that with every interest rate drop, the town’s pension fund becomes more expensive. They know they had no business renovating town hall and issuing $14 million in bonds (on the day the municipal bond market was crashing, incidentally).
They know that, since 2005, they’ve committed an extra $3.2 million in payments to consultants and outside vendors.
But they don’t want you to know it. That’s why the selectmen used $4 thousand in “Yes for Brookline” funds to pre-test the ballot question you’ll be looking at on Tuesday. I’m told that the poll is the reason we have two separate questions — one with a world languages program, one without (it didn’t poll well).
Does that sound like a town government that’s interested in providing the services we need? Or does it sound like a board of selectmen trying to game the election to get what they can? Why manipulate voters in this way?
Why go through the trouble of putting together an Override Study Committee to advise the selectmen on the best course of action, if they’re just going to poll the questions? Because the Study Committee’s purpose is purely political - as evidenced by “Yes for Brookline’s” ad nauseam references to the Committee in its campaign materials.
Folks, Brookline was once an economically diverse community. A lot of us wanted to raise our kids here because it had all the different types and seemed to make it work. (I was especially attracted to the IHOP within walking distance.) My roots in this town go back pretty far, and it seems it was always like that.
But not anymore. We are community attenuated by wealth and we act like we have no appreciation for how hard it is for some people to make it here. In fact, I would say that the pro-override campaign has pretty much succeeded in scoffing at the plight of the middle class and elderly. Don’t let the screen door hit you, and all that.
We haven’t had an override vote in 14 years because it wouldn’t have passed. We used to think about the message it would send to those who struggle to live here. Now, we have a school administration that has scared parents into thinking that their child will suffer if they don’t get more money. Superintendent Bill Lupini has threatened to cut classroom services, but he won’t touch the department’s $6 million in administrative salaries.
We didn’t let the superintendent of schools run an override campaign, as is the case now. Especially if we thought the only reason he needed the money was to do more standardized test prep.
Are we among the gated communities of Georgia, where a public school is modeled after the private school? Looks more that way every day.
I can tell you (as a college instructor) that the students from the gated communities don’t do so well socially and academically at university. They’ve not been challenged in class by students of various ethnic backgrounds who see education as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. They’ve not been called upon to ease the grief of a first grade classmate who lost her father in a convenience store shooting. Or figured out how to act in a culture where people don’t look just like them.
That’s what we lose when we put the needs of town government ahead of our neighbors. We become that gated community. And our kids become close-minded. Just like those who serve in our town government.
Like I say, I’m glad it’s just about over. It’s had me depressed.
Update: Now I’m really depressed. At the elementary school my sons attended, we were a bit sensitive to the message it sent to families if $15 thousand were raised at the PTO auction. Seemed like a lot of money being thrown around. This year, the school auction raised $60 thousand.
I think it’s quite clear that the Brookline Schools are more about the haves than the have-nots.
Update (2): I’m hearing about—and seeing—a lot of electioneering at the Town’s schools. Sheez, we used to have school principals that knew what that does to a school community. Now we have the sons and daughters of Lupini; and if that means turning the schools into a Chicago ward on election day, so be it.
Who’s going to stop him? The school committee? They are so deep in the thrall that I imagine they’re collecting his dry cleaning for him.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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Thank you Jim for unmuddying the SHELL GAME! Not so unBELIEVABLE IF you have lived in Brookline over 10 years! Sad but only 4 out of 10 residents can make that claim! Below is my 2cents on the PROPOSITION 2.5 overRIDE!
Should a selectman who was ‘forced’ to resign his chairmanship because of the appearance of impropriety be returned to office? (this weeks front page of TAB) Should any selectman be rewarded for mismanagement be returned to office? In a ‘tree friendly community’ should tar sidewalks be replaced with cement along Hammond St.? Should curbs be added to Cottage St.? Can the police chief cite being short staffed as a reason for not enforcing 2 hour parking regulations? (revenue for the town!) The prudent man would engage a ‘Detail Officer’ and watch the merchants remove their NAIL SHOP signs and purchase Merchant Decals. For over 3 years revenue was lost in two ways. Could not increase ticket fees until a sticker fee was established. Then for a year the great HAGGLE went on over how much the NON RESIDENT MERCHANT FEE SHOULD BE. I rode my bicycle to Boston for over 7 years because THEY did not provide a worker parking program at any cost. The merchants should have been appreciative of the program offered. Period!
I urge the poor management of Ms. Daly and Mr. Hoye be punished by voting for the newcomer only! This will send the message to the others that the selectman position is not HONORARIUM and requires accountability. World Languages is NOT Chinese at one school and Spanish at another when seniors on fixed incomes have been crushed by high energy and food costs! (will it be European or Latin American Spanish?) Buy Rosetta Stone for your child before you drive seniors from Brookline!
Baptized at St. Aidan Church,
Roxbury Memorial High School, graduate,
Veteran and lifelong adult resident of Brookline.
Christopher J. Pauli, Naples Road
YOUR LIPS TELL ME “NO, NO” BUT THERE’S “YES, YES” IN YOUR EYES
The “usual suspects” behind “YES YES for Brookline” ignore the “NO, NO” from the lips of many. A mailer received today tries to point out the costs to a homeowner with a table of assessed home values that stops at $1 million. And then there is added: “The impact will be less if you deduct your property taxes from your federal taxes.” This statement is deceptive as income taxes are reduced by itemized property tax deductions to the extent of the taxpayer’s tax bracket and not as a direct reduction against federal taxes.
The suggestion is that Uncle Sam will subsidize a portion of any override increases. This could justify an override every year for those homeowners who itemize deductions on their federal returns. So the sky’s the limit since most homeowners in Brookline itemize, especially those whose assessments are well beyond $1 million. This is a no brainer. You will save by spending more on your property taxes! That’s the joy of being a homeowner in Brookline: sure, taxes go up every year with or without overrides but so do the values of our homes and we can borrow against the increasing equities in our homes and itemize our mortgage interest deductions in addition to the increasing property taxes. Why this is a “win-win” situation. Or is it? Can I sell you a bridge over the Charles River?
Deductability from Fed taxes is a Yale MBA foible . . .
Fuzzy math 101 by some of the best people . . .
our Selectpersons know!
Fellow who straightend me out quickly on that was
Ceril Glassman my tax-guy.
Every morning when you go off to work give me $100
and at night I’ll have my wife greet you and give you $20!
Just how long will that go on? How come your wife Ceril?
OVERRIDES = REDUCTIONS IN DINING OUT
Some of us insist upon paying our credit card charges fully and timely to avoid the exhorbitant interest charges. We work out our cash flows accordingly. Now we may have to build in to our cash flows the overrides if successful. That means that we may have to cut back on our credit card charges if we wish to continue to avoid the usurious interest charges. Most likely we will cut back on consumer spending, in particular on dining out. I understand that restaurants have been having problems with the near- or actual recession resulting in reductions in dining out. If the overrides pass, there may be further reductions in dining out. This would be part of the downward financial spiral as all but Town government (and its managers) tighten belts during these tough times. This is not a matter of giving up a Starbucks coffee on a daily basis. (Some of us make our coffee at home, thank you.) The potential costs are much higher.
“YES FOR BROOKLINE” NEW MAILER:
It does not contain a table showing the potential override tax bites as in the prior mailer. Nor does it make a reference to overrides providing federal income tax deduction benefits. Rather, this one is intended to strike into the hearts and pocketboods of homeowners the FEAR that our investments in our homes may decrease without the overrides. “For most homeowners, the override is a smart investment: the cost per household is far less than the increased value of the home when it is sold.” Is this a guarantee by “Yes for Brookline” or just hype? Do the “experts” on “Yes for Brookline” have a crystal ball on the housing market in Brookline for either the short or long term? Or is this just plain hyping recommended by the expensive polling? IF THIS MAILER WERE A FINANCIAL PROSPECTUS, AN S.E.C. REVIEW SHOULD BE CALLED FOR.
Many homeowners want to stay in Brookline. But higher and higher taxes and the lack of affordable housing can make this difficult. Maybe, just maybe, current housing prices are too high. Will higher and higher taxes increase housing prices? And is it in the best interests of Brookline to get rid of long time residents who have contributed much to this community for more wealthy buyers with money to spare?
This mailer is aimed at FEAR. We have to tighten our belts. Let the Town, its managers and employees tighten their belts as well.
Can we expect yet another mailer tomorrow with another form of FEAR? Remember what FDR said: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Did the polling decide to instill FEAR in us to sell the overrides?
Would it have been Cricket for property owners to have advised
renters that RENT would go up if THE proposition 2.5 override was
voted in? That would have been similar to the NOTICES students
brought home from Brookline Schools, warning that schools would suffer serious cuts if Proposition 2.5 failed.
The time is at hand for a comprehensive explaination of exactly what PROPOSITION 2.5 is and what it is DESIGNED to prevent!
Just how stupid are the citizen/VOTERS @ Devotion School? Hope their children are brighter. For a TAX INCREASE of 6.5% to only bring 20% (500 of 2,500) of registered voters to the polls is UNBELIEVABLE! • C. J. Pauli, Naples Road