>>Valley Patriot>>
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(03/06/07)
$3.5 Mil Override Planned for Town
Meeting
Sandy Gleed
A year ago I wrote an open
letter to North Andover, asking that we all try harder to
solve our financial difficulties.
I’ve seen many improvements since then: reasonable
increases in fees for municipal services; renewed
negotiations and sensible accommodations for the Lucent
property development; more aggressive collection of
overdue taxes; discussions with prospective developers
and other large property owners about donating
improvements to our community; our Board of Selectmen’s
commitment to encouraging smart growth in our community;
a credible school budget and our School Committee’s
commitment to maintain open communication with other
municipal departments.
I am a frequent visitor to many other Massachusetts
communities, on behalf of one of our local non-profit
organizations. I see, firsthand, the negative
consequences of towns whose budgets can not keep pace
with inflation and whose infrastructure is
deteriorating. North Andover is not alone.
This is the year that we must find the courage to set
emotion and politics aside and look at our financial
picture objectively, using facts that this year are
accurate and publicly available for our
review.
We have reached the crossroad; we must make an informed
choice of which direction we want our town to take: up or
further down. If we allow North Andover to continue
in a downward spiral, how far down can we go and still
have the strength to recover?
Today I filed a petition to add a conditional override
article to the warrant for Town Meeting, in the amount of
$3 million to benefit the schools, and $500,000 to
benefit remaining municipal departments.
The amount requested is my rough estimate of what might
be sufficient to bring our town services back to where we
stood three years ago.
These amounts are certainly not enough to restore or add
every position and program our town departments
need. I have inserted this article strictly as a
place-holder, to preserve our right to discuss this
option, should the need arise. Am I a “tax and
spender”? No. I simply believe that if
our leaders demonstrate between now and May that there
simply isn’t enough money to buy services critical
to our town, then we need to examine every available
option before choosing to do without critical
services. An override is a tool, a financial
option. The Massachusetts legislature provided this
tool for the very reason that citizens have the legal
right to decide if they are willing to pay more money to
receive more services.
Do I believe we need an override?
The correct answer for every citizen in North Andover at
this early date is “I don’t know.”
Our elected and appointed boards have just started their
examination of department budgets and revenue
projections. Clearly, the budget cuts of the past
year were very hard on our citizens. The school
difficulties have been widely discussed, but how long can
we also ignore the fact that our public safety, youth and
senior centers and library, not to mention administrative
services, will need expansion, not cuts, to accommodate
our projected growth over the next few years?
Let’s bring this down to the bare facts: If
our projected revenue is insufficient to pay for our
critical expenses, then our options are (a) find
additional revenues; (b) increase existing fees or
implement new fees; (c) increase state aid; (d) use funds
held in reserve, (e) cut budgets and make the conscious
choice to do without services, or (f) pass an operational
override to buy us time to find those revenues and change
state laws. Can we really afford to ignore any one
of these potentially useful tools on the budget table?
Going forward, we can continue to encourage our state and
local leaders to seek ways to improve our financial
picture. Better state funding formulas, better
contract negotiations, more options for negotiating fair
health benefits, and funding our local capital
improvement projects with debt exclusion overrides so
they won’t eat up large shares of our operating
funds, should already be on our to-do list. But in
the meantime, override is not a dirty word – it may
spell relief if it’s the only tool left on the
table.
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The March 2007 Edition
of the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2007, Valley Patriot, Inc.
We publish 12,000 newspapers and distribute in Andover,
North Andover,
Methuen, Haverhill, Chelmsford, Georgetown, Groveland,
Boxford, Amesbury,
Lawrence, Dracut, Tewksbury, MERRIMACK, Hampton &
Salisbury Beach, and Lowell.
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