Keep Framingham Affordable
Working to Keep Your | 
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Every tax is a pay cut. |
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| Anti-override campaign a sign of things to come | Thursday, December 2, 2004 |
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| David McLaughlin 508-626-4338 | Metrowest Daily News |
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FRAMINGHAM -- Tax watchdog Harold Wolfe is taking his campaign to kill a
possible override to front lawns, distributing yellow yard signs protesting
the proposal -- even though a vote on any tax hike could be a year away.
Wolfe said about 60 of his "Keep Framingham Affordable" signs are up around town and include the address of his anti-override Web site. An additional 100 are on the way, he said, that will provide a more direct message: "No more overrides." "I want this override killed. I don't want it, period. There's no need for it," Wolfe said. While an initial schedule for the estimated $90 million override called for a special Town Meeting in January to vote on the proposal, Town Manager George King said yesterday it will not be taken up then. Instead, he said, it may not be considered until next fall. Later this month, King will present selectmen with funding alternatives, including a debt-exclusion override, for a list of projects like roadwork and renovations to the Memorial Building. When he first presented the idea to selectmen in September, he said, he and the board decided to make the schedule less aggressive. "In my opinion, Harold's signs are quite premature," King said. But Wolfe said he will continue making his signs available to residents who want them until the override is withdrawn. He hopes they draw more visitors to his Web site, www.no-more-overrides.org. "I won't stop until I get definite word that this thing is dead in the water and won't be resurrected until 2006," said Wolfe, who vowed to fight the proposal "tooth and nail, 'til my last breath." King called Wolfe's site "ridiculous" and accused him of being more concerned with creating "hysteria" than accuracy. Enzo Rotatori has had one of Wolfe's yellow signs on his Winter Street front lawn since Thanksgiving. With an estimated 7,000 cars driving by his house each day, he said, the sign spreads the word about the tax increase. "They're up in arms," Rotatori said about people he has talked to about the override. "It would be very difficult to present that proposal to the people and get any kind of acceptance." |
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