Keep Framingham Affordable
Working to Keep Your | 
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Every tax is a pay cut. |
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| Override is unnecessary | Friday, November 5, 2004 |
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| Harold J. Wolfe | Framingham Tab |
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As winter approaches and oil prices are surging, the Framingham town
manager since 1999, George P. King, Jr. is working arduously to
pick your pockets for the third time in five years with this insidious
$90 million capital override. The average annual household cost
I calculated at http://www.no-more-overrides.org is $220. If you
just turn your thermostat down to 40 degrees for the next 20 winters,
you'll be able to afford it.
If this $90 million override is placed on the ballot and it passes, our Board of Selectman members, Christopher Ross and Esther Hopkins (both up for reelection in April, 2005) will have increased your taxes by 15% in a mere three year election cycle, not to mention our recent $100 annual per household water and sewer rates increase (fees, taxes, who can tell the difference?). A most impressive record.
Fiscal 2003: 2.5% each year + 5% operational override At this pace, how long will it be before you can no longer afford to live here? After all, you do intend to retire on a smaller salary. There are no necessities in this proposed override required to conduct the business of the town government. Many of the requests including the town communications center, wireless access and the expansion of the library will allow the town government to metastasize like cancer. Each review of the proposed expenditures brings to mind the thought "there must be a pony in here somewhere". Regretably, I could only find what ponies produce. If the school system put aside a mere one percent of its $100 million annual budget, it could have it's $10 million allocation of this override. What's your savings rate? Seniors on fixed income and those at the bottom end of the social economic spectrum will be driven out. Of course, this seems to contradict the goals of the town's housing policy. How can the town manager and the Board of Selectman (by a 4-1 vote) even consider this? I'm guessing callousness and greed. |
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Send comments to:
hjw2001@rcn.com
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