Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility

We were pleased when the Selectmen originally set a date of Saturday, October 6th for the Special Town Meeting which will attempt to balance Bridgewater’s budget. We believe it would be best to allow as many members of the Town as possible to attend. However, once again we will be making important budget decisions in the dead of night with most of the voters asleep in their homes. This is a result of the Selectman changing the meeting date and time to Tuesday, October 9th at 6:30pm. They were forced to do so when the School District was unwilling to adjust schedules in order to make space available on a Saturday.

The exact date and time of a Special Town Meeting may seem like a small thing; however, it speaks to much larger problems. Once again, the School Committee and Selectman were unable to work together to do something as simple as arranging a Town Meeting.  And once again, we will be making Town decisions based on the votes of a skewed cross-section of Town voters. Read the rest of this entry »

It was requested that the website would be taken down after the election, but it is now back by popular demand. Once again, those demanding fiscal responsibility for Bridgewater are being vilified by those who want to pay higher taxes. We are being told that it is our fault that Bridgewater is in a financial mess. I find that very amusing since we didn’t give out unsustainable raises and some of the most generous health benefits in Massachusetts. And, we didn’t vote to put our budget out of balance by handing over $1.5 million to the Bridgewater Raynham Regional School District. All we did, and will continue to do, is to advocate for the Town and the School District to better manage its finances, and to advocate for those who have no special interest speaking up for them.
The solutions to our current problems have been mentioned time and time again on our website. We need to reopen the currently negotiated contracts, roll back the raises to a maximum of 2.5% and to bring the health insurance costs inline with the state average. Doing this alone, will save the town hundreds of thousands of dollars each and every year. Even now, with our Town at risk of losing its library, senior center and recreation departments, our leaders are not working to make this happen. The deadline for Bridgewater to join the State Group Insurance Commission for the upcoming fiscal year is October 1st, and no one is moving on this issue. I figure that most employees of Bridgewater would jump at the chance to accept a small increase in their health care costs versus losing their job altogether. However, our leaders are denying our Town this opportunity. Why should the residents of Bridgewater accept a tax increase while our Town is stubbornly refusing to reign in costs?

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The override election results are in, and, once again, Bridgewater’s voters called for fiscal responsibility, accountability and sound management for our Town. Hopefully, our leaders will finally listen.

Yes:   3,303
No:    3,553
Total: 6,856

Thank you to all the voters who turned out to vote in today’s election.

Sure, most families in Bridgewater can afford to have their taxes increase by over $500 next year. The supporters of the previous override vote have stated that they can even afford more than that. However, there are many that can’t afford an over 13% increase to their tax bill. The tightening mortgage market has pretty much eliminated the chance for them to refinance, and their only option would be to sell their home or face foreclosure. These are the real outcomes of Saturday’s vote.

In public forums and on cable television, supporters of higher taxes have displayed contempt for those planning to vote no. They joke that we don’t have a high school education, and tell us to just get better jobs. They have openly hinted that if this override passes, there should be another override in a few years. It all amounts to the simple fact that the yes voters simply don’t even want us to live in the same Town as they do. They would happily see those people who can’t afford this hefty tax increase be forced to put their house up for sale and move out of Town. That way, another person who can afford these tax increases can move in. They don’t care what senior, single parent or new family is going to be forced out of Town by this tax increase. Heck, they obviously don’t think we should be living in their Bridgewater anyway.

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If the supporters of Saturday’s override really have facts, reason and logic on their side, why does everything that comes from them seem to be a threat? Some of the more recent fliers targeted at the elderly tell them that a no vote would mean no more Meals on Wheels and that ambulances wouldn’t be there for them if they were in need. These threats aren’t just silly and false electioneering; they are cruel threats targeted at some of the more vulnerable members of our Town.

We know all the Town employees have been ordered to support this override. So, we called Old Colony Elder Services, which serves Bridgewater, for some unbiased information. They said that seniors would continue to get their meals no matter what happens with the override. Unfortunately, we can’t call an unbiased source to reassure seniors regarding ambulance coverage. However, the money is there in pending land sales and other funds to keep our current ambulance services. They want to put the money they have into a reserve fund while raising our taxes to meet their expenses.

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I saw many signs prior to the Special Town Meeting vote on July 30th with the “Save Town Services” motto urging a No vote when it came to giving an extra $1.5 million to the School Committee. And now, the same motto adorns signs urging a Yes vote on the override. If we go forward as these signs urge us to do, the School Committee and like-minded Town Officials will have finally figured out the key to raising our taxes.

Every year the School Committee can, by law, put forward nearly 10% budget increases. They can ignore the voters at the ballot box, and then force through their bloated budget requests at relatively lightly-attendeded Town Meetings. Then, the Town Officials can claim that there is nothing they can do, and that we have to support an override or decimate the Town. They realize that the public will be frustrated and divided, but they assume we will head to the polls and vote for an override because we’re told we don’t have any other option. Well, we do have a choice. We can vote NO on September 8th and send a message to our elected leaders that we will not be bullied, threatened or intimidated into a tax increase.
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Bridgewater was highlighted in a column that appeared in the April 26th edition of the Boston Globe for being one of the most generous towns in the Commonwealth when it comes to health insurance premiums for its employees. We strongly believe in the premise of this column written by Economics Professor David Tuerck and entitled, “Cut Costs First.” Why is it that whenever there are budget shortfalls a tax hike is always the answer, but reigning in costs is never put forward as a solution? Why is the Town giving out 3.5% raises to its employees, and paying nearly 90% of employee health insurance premiums when we’re in a “fiscal crisis”? We need to oppose this override so that the Town is forced to get serious about reigning in costs. That is the only way Bridgewater will have long-term stability when it comes to its budget.

The taxpayers are now facing the 2nd override attempt in less than 3 months. The leaders of our Town outlined the budget situation as grim during the most recent Special Town Meeting. Most of those same leaders said very similar things 3 months ago regarding the last override. And, when that override failed, the ominous predictions didn’t come true. Also, if they are so concerned about the state of the Town, then why are they not looking at the spending, which got us into this situation. Apparently, they would rather work to raise our taxes than ask our public employees to receive benefits that are a little closer to the state average.

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In a typical year you vote on the Town’s budget at the Annual Town Meeting, and it’s then set for the upcoming Fiscal Year. However, this year has been anything but typical. The B-R Regional School District with the support of just over 7% of the voters of Bridgewater was able to force an additional $1.5 million appropriation to the District. Now, the Town has to scramble to make up a $1.5 million deficit.  And that’s what we’ll be doing tonight.

After the School Committee got their money on July 30th, the leaders of our Town began to speak for the passage of a $2.2 million override. I find it pretty interesting that we barely heard from them before the July 30th vote, but now they have released detailed impact statements on the Town web site stating the dire situation resulted by gifting the money to the schools. Even worse, some Town officials have ratcheted up the rhetoric by telling us that people would die if we do not pass the override. By the same rationale, people would die if we transfered $1.5 million to the School District from public safety, but of course nobody was saying that. These scare tactics did not fool the voters on June 16th, and they shouldn’t work now.
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Last night’s vote to hand over $1.5 million to the Bridgewater Raynham Regional School District will have some definite repercussions throughout the Town. First off, there will be a Special Town Meeting to decide from which Town Departments the $1.5 million will come. As part of that meeting, there will also be a vote on an override proposal to restore funding to those same departments plus add more in order to offset recent budget cuts. I guess the Town figures if the School District can have a 9.3% increase to their budget, then they should be able to increase the Town budget by a small amount as well.

A flier was placed outside of last night’s meeting which details a “Preliminary Budget Outline” presented by the Advisory Board and the Board of Selectmen. This flier details where the $1.5 million in cuts will come from as well as a plan for a $2.2 million override. By my unofficial estimate, this would mean an average tax increase of about $320. Now the voters will have to choose between cutting essential town services or passing a tax increase. Services which have already been scaled back in order to keep up previous School Budget increases. With last night’s vote, the Town of Bridgewater is spending over 60% (including debt service) of its $38.7 million budget on education. We are being directed to make cuts to only the much smaller Town side of the budget.
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In a very close vote, the Special Town Meeting voted to approve the B-R School District’s budget request. As of right now $1.495 million is officially allocated from the Town to the School District. An upcoming Special Town Meeting will decide where the cuts will be made in order to fund the allocation and whether another override vote should be held. The vote totals are as follows:
Yes: 1,082
No: 1,006
Total: 2,088

Other than the vote, it was interesting that the Town was not prepared to handle the number of people who turned out. As a result, we were forced to have a vote without any discussion.   It is unfortunate that the vote cast by 53% of the voters at the ballot box is not binding, but the vote cast by far less than half that number on a weekday evening is binding.