Where does your tax money go?
As the chart below shows, over 55% of your tax dollar is already going to fund education. That represents $21 million, of which, over 96% goes to the Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School District. If the override passes, nearly 60% of each tax dollar will go to fund the school system.
What this graph doesn’t show you is the “fixed costs” that have become a large part of each slice of the pie in recent years. The major “fixed costs” are employee benefits, which have risen dramatically over the past few years. Since Fiscal Year 2001, employee medical and life insurance costs have increased by 97%, and pension benefits have increased by 99%. These unsustainable increases result in the diversion of funds away from our children’s education and basic town services.
Additionally, there are a lot of misconceptions about where exactly the $2.9 million tax increase will go of it is passed on June 16th. The chart below lays out where it has been planned to be spent. Please take note that the “Other” section is the 2nd largest slice of the pie with the B-R Regional School District being the largest. Over 96% or $400,000 of the override money being allocated to the “Other” portion of the town budget is to pay for the generous health insurance the town provides for its employees.
If you have more questions as to where your money is going, please email us at bridgewatercitizens@gmail.com, and we’ll do our best to get you the answer.