Listen up!
April 7, 2007 - 11:20am
Editorials
By now, you've probably heard that Dunstable will have two override questions on the May 21 Town Election ballot. And, maybe you've already decided to vote No, because that's what we do on overrides, right? Enough is enough! Our taxes are too high! We have to live within our means. We hear this every year.
Well, this year is different. You will very likely lose many of the services you need if these overrides fail. So, this year, you might want to take time to listen up and understand what you'll risk losing if you and enough others decide to vote No.
Over the next month, you will have many opportunities to hear presentations or read about the town and school budgets. Our town and school officials can explain why we are in this position and what you are likely to lose if the overrides fail. Typically, budget presentations and public hearings are poorly attended; a handful of people show up relative to the number of voters at the polls. Newspapers barely scratch the surface of what you need to know, and often get it wrong. (The number of factual errors in the SUN lately is particularly disconcerting.) Information sent out in mailers is often ignored or interpreted as "propaganda." For some people, some relatively small controversial aspect of the budget or news report grabs their attention and becomes a reason to vote no.
This year, you need to pay a little more attention, understand the consequences of your vote, and open your mind to the possibility that, maybe this year, a "yes" vote is in your best interests. Attend the public presentations. Read the information our town officials provide through mailers or on the websites. Tune in to the cable broadcasts. Make sure your information sources are good. If something sounds unbelievable, get the facts.
You might not like what you hear. Nobody likes hearing that they have to pay more. We don't like the prices at the gas pump either, but we buy the gas because we need to get around in our cars. Nobody likes to pay taxes, but we need the services they buy us.
You might question what you hear. Do they really need that much money? This becomes a question of trust. We elected or hired these folks to do a job. When it comes to the budget, that job involves putting a LOT of time into understanding where every dollar goes. We've made it clear that we don't want our taxes to go up. That's why they spend so much time coming up with the budget and trying to avoid overrides. As budgets have grown tighter, department heads have been put through more and more intense scrutiny in meetings where every line item is questioned. The department heads spend a lot of time justifying expenses in order to get the funds they need to serve us. Nobody knows what it costs to meet our needs better than they do. We should trust them to do their jobs.
Not listening to learn about the consequences of our votes, while saving us grief in the short term, is precisely the behavior that gets us into these kinds of pickles in the first place. To make a decision, or to cast a vote, without knowing the facts is a very dangerous thing.
Even if you take the time to learn about the override, you might still choose to vote No. If enough people make the same decision, we will have to live with the loss of services, in spite of how it changes the town. But at least nobody will be surprised.
Please, listen up!
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Response to Bob's comment
Submitted by BrettR on April 25, 2007 - 3:32pm.
I would love to see the budget detail but as you well know, that budget is being tweaked right upto the night of town meeting. That's why they started to put the budget in the town report as a separate insert.
This year is especially difficult as the Fincom struggles with every line item. I'm very nervous over the outcome of the town override. I think they are taking a gamble by going for so much in one year although I understand their logic - they don't want to have to go through this again next year.
But with the school looking for an override as well, I think both may go down in defeat because it gives the impression of too much too soon.
Is anybody out there hearing anything different?
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Some info is available - more info on the way
Submitted by Kathy Icenogle on April 28, 2007 - 8:19am.
FinCom is in the process of preparing some information for publication on the town website . They are also working with the Selectmen to create a video that will be broadcast on Dunstable cable Channel 12. (Keep in mind, these are volunteers at work - people who have day jobs and a lot on their plate.)
As soon as the information is available, we will call attention to it on Dunstable Commons. So, continue to stay tuned!
Meanwhile, if you're interested in the municipal budget, the Selectmen will be meeting with FinCom to discuss the budget at Town Hall this Monday night (4/30) at 8pm.
If you missed the school budget forums, the information presented at those forums is now available on the GDRSD website :
- Budget Forum Presentation
- Budget Impact with Failed Override
- Freqently Asked Questions
- $350,000 Reduction List (approved 4/04/07)
Kathy
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Override Info
Submitted by Bob Nelson (not verified) on April 29, 2007 - 8:02am.
Does anyone besides me find it troublesome that the town can find time to create a video and several print articles advocating for the overrride, yet can't find a few moments to make the budget documents that already exist available to us so that we can see for ourselves what's going on!?!
It just feels like we could get by with a much smaller override, but I need the budget information to be sure.
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Budget information is published
Submitted by Kathy Icenogle on April 29, 2007 - 8:11am.
I just put the budget information on the town website.
http://www.dunstable-ma.gov/govt/town-business.htm#budget-info
Doing this HAS been their first priority. I'll let you know when the video is available.
The articles about the impact of an override failure have primarily been based on the initiative of the Department heads. Personally, I appreciate the fact they have taken the time to give voters the information they need to make an educated decision regarding their vote.
Thank you for your patience.
Kathy
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Thanks!
Submitted by Bob Nelson (not verified) on April 30, 2007 - 6:31am.
Thanks Kathy. It would be nice to see the past few years of data for the revenue side of the budget in addition to the expense side, but this is a good start. Do you know when the budget public hearing is?
-bob
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All in good time
Submitted by Kathy Icenogle on April 30, 2007 - 9:30am.
Yeah... I agree, it's good to see the revenue side of the budget as well.
I believe the information regarding past year budgeted (i.e. estimated) amounts for revenue is relatively readily available, so I will ask about getting it published. Meanwhile, you can get the budgeted revenue numbers for the past few years from the FinCom town meeting presentations that are published on the Town Reports page on the town website: http://www.dunstable-ma.gov/govt/town_reports.htm
However, for my interests, I would prefer to see the actual revenue data. It's available on a yearly basis on the DOR website and in town reports, but I am not aware of any historical summary of actuals on revenue. So, I don't expect to get that information any time soon.
The public hearing on the budget was last Monday (4/23). Surprisingly (8-), nobody showed up...
The hearing date has been posted on the Town Hall bulletin board since last Fall and it has been listed on the Community Calendar on the town website for that long as well. This has been the traditional method of communicating the hearing date for as long as I can remember, including the years when you were on FinCom 8-), except that the information has only recently been available on the web. Given that this is typically the only communication of the budget hearing date, I am not surprised that no one ever shows up.
In my opinion, while the present practice 100% fulfills all legal requirements for communication regarding the annual budget hearing, I think we could do better, particularly in a year when an override is on the ballot. (Granted, there haven't been many of those years - fortunately.) I believe there are a few people in town who do take an interest in the budget and would probably attend, if they were better informed of the date.
A little more communication re: budgeting activities in general might also help get more people involved, so we don't run into years, like this year and last, when we have to write a candidate in on the Caucus ballot to put someone on the ballot for an empty seat on FinCom. (Thank you, Brian and Ron, for stepping up!...) On the other hand, maybe people don't seek that office, because our public officials tend to take a lot of heat, regardless of what they do.
I believe FinCom wants to move in the direction of more open and active communication regarding the town budget, and they have taken some good steps in that direction this year. We have the budget information, including revenue information, earlier than ever before. As you said, this is a good start. Changing the way we do things takes time and energy and we don't always have that time.
As Brett said, this is a very busy time for FinCom. Putting the budget together isn't a simple matter of putting some numbers in a spreadsheet. They have to understand what the numbers represent, and this year in particular, they have had to hold an extraordinary number of meetings and conversations in order to do that. Each of those meetings has resulted in having to comb through the spreadsheet and make adjustments to line items, while trying to keep the budget in balance.
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We need info!
The town meeting is just a few weeks away and there is still no budget information available. The override amount has been fixed for several weeks now, I know there may still be some (very) fine tuning needed, but without the budget info (expense and revenue) it it impossible to make an informed decision. It takes some time to understand the budget , so providing the partial budget information at town meeting just doesn't cut it.
The school district has had their budget information available for several months now, why can't the town be as forthcoming?
BTW, I used to be on the Fincom, and never really appreciated how hard it is to get information when you're on the 'outside'... but then again, we never asked for a large town over-ride.