Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility

Tonight, Bridgewater voters will assemble at Special Town Meeting in order to vote on the Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School Committee’s budget request. Even though we’ve already voted at Annual Town Meeting and at the ballot box, we are forced to vote on this issue once more. In fact, the B-R School Committee seemingly is going to keep making us vote on this issue until they get the answer they want.

If passed, the Town will be forced to transfer $1.495 million more than has already been approved to the Regional School District. This money would have to come from essential town services. The Police, Fire, and Highway Departments are all sure to face some very large budget cuts if voters pass the District’s budget request. Recreation, Council on Aging, and other departments who have already been dealing with budget cuts are likely to see further reductions in funding. The only way to avoid large scale cuts to these departments would be a tax increase, which the School Committee has been pushing for all along.

Any why are we faced with such a possibly bleak future? Because the B-R Regional School District will not accept anything lower than a 9.3% budget increase. At a time when most town departments were cut by 3.25% the School District is demanding nearly $5 million more in funding than last year. Some of this money is going to hire 3 new teaching positions and 2 new administrative positions; however, most of this money is going towards costs the School District has been unable or unwilling to control.

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The Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility are meeting Monday night at the St. Thomas Aquinas Parish Center. The meeting will begin at 7pm. We will be discussing the upcoming Special Town Meeting.

We understand that the hard-working citizens of Bridgewater often cannot attend Town Meetings. Many don’t even get home from work by 6:30pm. Yet, the B-R Regional School Committee is requiring us to either show up at the Special Town Meeting or face another override. So, we are asking you to please make plans to be at the Special Town Meeting on July 30th at the Rondileau Center, Bridgewater State College, 19 Park Ave at 6:30pm.

The vote on July 30th is simple. If the majority of the attendees at Town Meeting vote yes, then Bridgewater will be forced to increase their payment to the B-R Regional School District by nearly $1.5 million. Then, the Town will be forced to either cut police, fire and other departments in order to fund that $1.5 million, or pass an override. Simply put, a yes vote will pave the way for another override vote.

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We’ve gotten a bunch of emails asking, “What’s Next?,” in terms of the Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School District budget. The next step lies with the Department of Education who must rule if the B-R Regional School Committee voted in a timely manner to resubmit the so-called ‘Budget #1′.  The Massachusetts General Laws specify that the School Committee needs to vote within 30 days of the rejection of its budget. However, the question of when did this 30-day window start is being asked by lawyers on both sides.

If the DOE rules that the vote of the BRRSC was invalid, then the issue is over with regards to Bridgewater. The assessment voted at the annual town meeting will be the official assessment. If the DOE rules that the vote was valid, then Bridgewater must act again at a special town meeting accept or reject the school district’s request.

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You would think that the decision rendered by voters in the recent override election would be respected by the members of an elected body. However, the Bridgewater-Raynham School Committee made the decision at its June 20th meeting to ignore the voters and require the towns to approve an over 9% increase in the school budget. Now Bridgewater has to hold a special town meeting to act on this mandate within 45 days. And, even if we vote down the request at that meeting, they are threatening the Town with a joint or regional town meeting to force through the budget increase.

Given the stance of the School Committee, Bridgewater now has the following options:

1. Do nothing and the Town will be required to fund the full budget demanded by the School Committee 
2. Reject the request for an increase in funding at special town meeting
3. Pass the request for an increase at special town meeting

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Over 50% of Bridgewater turned out to vote today and defeated the override. The Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility thank all of those who turned out to vote. Now it’s time to come together as a town and put forth real, long-term solutions to fiscal issues.

Total Vote: 7397
No: 3893
Yes: 3504

The override election is tomorrow, June 16^th, at the Bridgewater-Raynham Regional High School. It’s critical to remember that this upcoming election is as important as it’s been contentious. This vote will set the course for our town for years to come. We highly encourage all members of our community to review all the facts and to cast their ballot.

Throughout this campaign we have been trying to highlight the impact of the vote on the residents of Bridgewater. A $600 increase in taxes is nothing to scoff at, especially considering more tax increases are coming in the ensuing years.

Our opponents have trivialized the plight of seniors, families just starting out and others facing financial hardship. Foreclosure rates in Bridgewater are already much higher than the average, and many families cannot afford to pay an additional $600. The impact on far too many of the members of our community isn’t just reduced town services. If the override passes, it could be the loss of their home.

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We would like to thank Joseph Gillis for submitting answers to questions we listed in a previous post on this site. Please note that he is not speaking for the School Committee in these answers.

Mr. Gillis has publicly announced his support for the override. We appreciate the time he has taken to respond to our questions with detailed figures. He has confirmed that there will be additional bonding in coming years and also noted that excess money that is budgeted for the school gets put into their reserve account if not otherwise spent. In recent years, that account has been used to fund the following year’s budget. It’s interesting information and we hope you read it before you go to the polls on Saturday.

The following has been copied from Mr. Gillis’ website, www.josephgillisjr.com:

“While I am the Vice-Chair of the B-R School Committee, the responses are mine. It would take a couple of days to meet with other members to write an official response.

I have attempted to answer the following questions as briefly and accurately as possible. For anyone who has ever asked me a question, you know that my responses can become long-winded, and become mind-numbing as I provide every possible exception in an attempt to provide perfectly accurate responses. I tried to keep my responses to under a hundred words (and I was not even always successful with that). If you believe you know of a ‘but what if’, let me know and I will be happy to go into further detail. I am not trying to mislead, only provide short and accurate answers. Contact me at Joe@JosephGillisJr.com or at my website www.JosephGillisJr.com for more information.

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Today’s Brockton Enterprise came out with an editorial in support of the override that repeats statements we’ve heard elsewhere from override supporters. If the override does not pass, our schools will “edge closer to losing their accreditation.” However, a quick check of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges website lists no schools that have been terminated. And, Haverhill High School has been on probation since 1999. So, to state that we are even close to losing accreditation is a stretch.

We’ve noted a correction to the It’s a Matter of Trust post from June 11th. Based on comments made by School Committee members at the June 6th override meeting, we stated that bonds were going to be issued on the new high school. Since then, they’ve corrected those comments and we will correct ours here. Bonds are going to be issued for other projects including the renovation of the existing high school (which will be the new junior high school). What’s important is that the impact of the bond issuance will still be the same. Our taxes will still go up in coming years when the projects are completed and the bonds get issued.