Lessons from recent override campaigns
By Rachana Rathi and Erica Noonan
GLOBE STAFF
NEWTON -- They wave signs at street corners and outside elementary schools, pass out flyers in front of grocery stores, and knock on door after door to tell their neighbors how to vote. A few have even have been known to tear down posters and signs.
Newton’s streets are flooded with residents looking to swing a May 20 ballot question calling for an override of Proposition 2 1/2's limits on property-tax increases.
Two citizens citizen groups — Move Newton Forward and Newton for Fiscal Responsibility — are engaged in all-out campaigns leading up to one of the season’s most-watched suburban override votes in area communities.
The $12 million question, that, if approved, will would cost the median Newton household around $378 a year in additional property taxes, on top of the 2.5 percent increase allowed by the state law without a special vote. The first group is advocating for the tax increase; hike; the other is opposed.
On the same day as the Newton vote, the towns of Ashland and Holliston will also be placing their own proposed overrides — to raise $446,000 and $992,000, respectively — before voters.
In the last few weeks, several area towns have answered the question of whether officials were able to persuade voters to approve tax increases. In Sudbury, the answer was no.
Natick and neighboring Wayland each passed Proposition Prop. 2 ½ override questions — Natick, for $3.9 million, and Wayland, for $1.9 million. Activists in both towns said they had to worked longer and harder for votes this year than ever before.
A relentless campaign of public education was key to their success, said Mari Barerra, cochairwoman of Yes! For Natick. The vote on March 25 vote marked the first time since 2001 that the town’s residents had approved a voluntary boost in boosting property taxes beyond above the annual increase capped by state law at 2.5 percent.
‘‘Absolutely the most important thing we did was have face-to-face discussions with people, and helped get them up to speed on how the town works,’’ Barerra said.
Barerra also cited near unanimity in the support from local leadership. Nearly all of the town’s top officials, selectmen, and a large portion of the Finance Committee were ardently in favor of a yes vote.
‘‘This helped a lot because there were many spokespeople for the override, and residents could see that these people had spent months poring over every line of the budget,’’ Barerra said. ‘‘There was a lot of transparency at the top level of government, and I think that went a long way in easing some concerns.’’
In Wayland, Lisa Valone, co-founder of Save our Services, helped lead pro-override advocates to their third success since 2005. Override campaigns often focus on the need to preserve services and jobs in town school systems, but Wayland’s proposal went further, and Valone believes that was a big factor behind the yes vote.
‘‘I think one of the main reasons we were successful was that we advocated for saving all kinds of town services, certainly not just the schools, and we were vocal advocates for fiscal responsibility in general,’’ said Valone, said of the passage of the $1.9 million question. ‘‘We never took it for granted that people would just vote for it. Times are tough now, we are in a recession, and people here live on in fixed incomes.’’
When it comes to winning votes for a voluntary tax hike, both Barerra and Valone cited the importance of getting people out on the street where their neighbors could can see them. In both towns, volunteers helped hold and distribute hundred of lawn signs, passed out informational fliers, flyers, and asked supporters to spread the word to their various social groups.
‘‘If you are a senior citizen, hearing the pro-override argument from another senior instead of someone you have never seen before makes a big difference,’’ Valone said.
None of that was enough apparently not enough to win victory last month in Sudbury for a menu-style override question — in which voters could approve a $1.8 million hike, a $2.8 million boost, or both, depending on the level of services they wanted to underwrite.
It’s hard to say why all of the options were turned down, said state Representative Thomas P. Conroy, a Democrat representing Wayland and Sudbury. But he suspects override fatigue might may have been at work, as Sudbury had passed a hefty $2.5 million question just last year.
‘‘We’re looking at a recession, declining home values, and declining equity,’’ said Conroy said. ‘‘What [(Sudbury] ) voters really want is to see is more state aid, state aid, state aid.’’
In Shrewsbury, where residents have voted down the last three override requests, proponents of a next week’s $1.5 million proposal to be voted on next week hope for a change in their luck.
This spring, there has been little buzz around the vote, and Maurice DePalo, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, hopes to keep it that way.
The lessons of success and failure have not been lost on Newton and Brookline officials, who said they intended to intensify their targeted campaigning, focusing primarily on shoring up a base of supporters and reaching out to the undecided.
In Newton, Rob Gifford, co-chairman of a group supporting the override, Move Newton Forward, said the effort is like a political campaign. Closer to the election, the group will focus on motivating supporters to get out and vote, leaving alone residents who are staunchly opposed, and sending mailers to persuade those who are undecided. Members have distributed about 750 lawn signs, hundreds of bumper stickers, and playground fliers flyers sporting slogans, he said, and make their case for the override at school meetings and house gatherings, serving coffee in the morning or wine and cheese in the evening.
Gifford said his group also focuses on educating residents about what’s happening in other communities.
‘‘People don’t see the big picture,’’ Gifford said. ‘‘They think it’s a failure of their officials, and not that lots of other communities are facing the same issues, and there are other drivers.’’
Brookline Selectwoman Betsy Dewitt, a co-chairman cochairwoman of a group pressing for the override, Yes for Brookline, said her campaign has done detailed polling, voter identification, and demographic analyses. They first found frequent voters by identifying residents who had voted in the last three to five municipal elections, and then narrowed down likely supporters, primarily aiming for parents of school-age children.
The group hopes that since this is Brookline’s first override request since 1994, when voters passed a $2.6 million question, residents will perceive this year’s proposal as a thoughtful one.
‘‘We think it helped credibility to say, ‘Look, this look this is a fiscally responsible town,’ but then we have to explain why after 14 years we really need one now,’’ said Rebecca Stone, a Brookline School Committee school committee member and another advocate of the override.
But Roger Blood, co-chairman of the Brookline Coalition Against Unfair Taxation, a citizen’s group opposed to the override, said the public debate too often devolves into scare tactics.
‘‘Override proponents have to threaten people with cuts, and they need to be painful, or nothing will pass. ..... It’s calculated and it’s inappropriate during a period of economic stress,’’ Blood said.
In the hopes of avoiding the ‘‘Chicken Little’’ syndrome, Andrew Porter, chairman of the Board of Selectmen in Holliston, said his strategy is to tell residents what they need to know as plainly as possible. Officials in Holliston, which passed an operating override in 2005 by 12 votes, are asking voters to approve a $992,000 override on May 20.
‘‘You tell people the truth,’’ Porter said. ‘‘You explain specifically what happens if it doesn’t pass, and show them the process you took to get you there. You don’t scare them. The sky will not fall down on their heads if they don’t pass it.’’
Rachana Rathi can be reached at! rrathi@globe.com.
I live in Natick. I voted "No" to the override.
I didn't get a 7-1/2% raise, so now things are even tighter.
So I had to stop contributing to my retirement fund. My savings are gone and have even dipped into my credit line to make ends meet.
Here in Saugus where the override was voted down they raised the land value assessments to drive the property taxes up.
Here in Saugus where the override was voted down they raised the land value assessments to drive the property taxes up.
You spend a lot of time talking about how people work to pass overrides, and correctly note that the town governments lobby the voters heavily. The guy from Brookline is the only opposing viewpoint. If you want to be "override central," I think you have to drop what seems to be a pro-tax bias and thoughtfully cover - in every article - both sides of the question. Property tax bases are the highest in history in Massachusetts (based on January 2007 values of real estate). If towns can't figure out how to run on the most money they've ever had, overrides aren't going to solve the problem, nor are "we'll lose our teachers" scare tactics. My taxes have almost tripled in 17 years, and absolutely no value has been added to city services in that time, apart from the mayor hiring a 6-figure paid spokesman. And now even the high school general contractor, Dimeo, has hired a PR firm. Who will really pay for that?
Newton should be ashamed of themselves. They just put up the most expensive school in history, and now they need money?! Don't think so...
they need the money for all the awesome pensions public sector employees get! when will people realize that it is the biggest issue in this state/country? they should have a 401k or 403b also..and not great pensions... most of them are slackers anyways who couldn't make it in the private sector..
Too bad this article did not present both sides of the over-ride picture. In Wayland, the "Save our Services" organization was founded a few years ago when a developer first proposed to build a shopping mall in Wayland. SOS was a huge advocate of the shopping mall, seeing it as an additional revenue source for the voracious appetite of the school budget. SOS has hundreds of signs that they pull out every year to support the over-rides that also keep coming year after year. They have advocated for three over-rides in the past what, four years? They'll just save their signs again for next year and the next over-ride.
#5 is right on.
Also, get rid of the free health care(or very low) for retired govertment officials.
This is one of the most blatantly biased articles posing as "news" that I've seen in a while, although it probably is to be expected from the Globe. I love how the override proponents are characterized as "hard working," the override proposal in Brookline is "thoughtful" and telling people "the truth," while override opponents prey on "Chicken Little syndrome" (term chosen by the author!). While the mortgage industry is blamed for every foreclosure that occurs these days, inordinate rises in property taxes also attack homeowners' budgets and push people on the brink over the edge.
Perhaps we are at the point where public education can no longer be supported by taxes, and parents of children attending must contribute more than those who don't. Back to education for the well off. Seems outrageuous, right. It is, but can we expect people to be crushed under taxation.
It is a benefit to all to have educated people in their community, but at what point do the scales tip, and elderly and those without children, or with children in private school don't see the value for their money.
The system for funding public education is broken, from washington to boston to the local towns and cities. Its time to fiix it ,if we don't we will migrate from the current crisis to chaos. The property tax payer is exhausted. The time for rheteroic and "tactics" is over. Many people in my community of Hamilton are paying their taxes and fuel bills on their credit cards. A neighbor just spent $700 on 174 gallons of heating oil. Its time. James kent- Hamilton
I agree with #9. I have 4 kids in the schools and it's okay if I have to pay more than the retirees in town without any kids in the schools. I hope #9 and all the retirees will also support my plan to quit having the government take Social Security and Medicare taxes out of my paycheck. What do I care if a bunch of seniors eat cat food for dinner? That's not my problem. I certainly don't see any value in those taxes either.
I am saddened by this blog and the comments in it. I don't believe that citizens actually understand how we have arrived in this situation of shortages in cities and towns and the need to vote these overrides to provide services. The history goes back to the Prop 2 & 1/2 legislation. It was designed to limit taxation on property owners. At a time when the Federal and State governments were supporting the schools and other public services, it seemed that limiting local tax revenue was a good idea. However, we are now in a time when neither the Federal nor the State government is putting the funds into public education that are necessary to keep the schools running properly. In addition, the cities and towns have been mandated to provide a certain level of services and assessments to their students, but there is little money put up to support these mandates. People want to blame the teachers and the administrators and the parents of school age children for causing this situation. But the anger is misplaced. Historically our citizenry had no issue with supporting their public employees, those working in town or state government, public works, fire, and police and those working in the schools. People believed that in society we want to be sure that we have safe neighborhoods, ready firefighters, clean water, good roads, snow cleared off the streets, and good teachers to educate our children. There was always a sense of a social contract. Someone else who had no children in the schools paid when my kids were in school and now I pay when someone else's are now in the schools and my own aren't. It was OK to pay taxes to make sure that these things were in place for all the citizens of the town, the state, the country. But now, we have become a country of people who only want to pay for what they see in their hand, for themselves. Taxes somehow has become a dirty word, especially in this state. People remember the days when we were called "taxachusetts". However, if we compare ourselves today with other states, such as New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, we will see that we are paying lower taxes than citizens of those states. I know, we have a segment of this population who would rather look at New Hampshire that has no state income tax. They seem to not understand that their property taxes and other taxes are higher in order to cover the lack of state income tax. Above, I read the complaints about public employees enjoying wonderful pensions, etc. Again, those people don't understand that public employees, such as the teachers and others working in the schools actually fund their own pensions. They pay into a State retirement system on the school side every paycheck to cover their retirement benefits 25 to 30 years later. For most of us working in the schools today, that rate is 11%. And, it is not "matched" by the City or Town or State as is done in many private sector settings. If you look at New York State, those public employees do not have to contribute at all to their state retirement system. The State takes care of it for them. And, they get paid on a higher scale than any public employee in Massachusetts. Another person mentions being willing to pay more for his kids to go to the schools in a municipality. He forgets that the basis to a solid democracy is a free public education for anyone who wants it. This talk is that which leads to privatization of the schools and services. What happens to those citizens who don't earn enough to pay for their kids to go to school? What would they do? It really is a much better value to give a student a good education rather to pay for them to be in prison some day. Someone talks about Newton having "put up the most expensive school" ever built. Well, that school is not even close to being built yet. I look at many people in our society who have no problem paying exorbitant prices to attend a sporting event or a concert. They see nothing wrong with supporting their "heroes" on the fields or on the stage. Those same people find it impossible to believe that any educators in this state should earn over $100,000. Those are the people who don't respect what educators do for our children every single day of their lives. Educators work with our children because they both love children and they want to make a difference in the world. Why do we not respect them for this noble desire? They happen also to be among the best educated citizens in our State, but they are questioned for wanting to earn a professional's salary after being in the profession over 15 years. Many members of our society see a teacher or other educator as a person who clocks out at 3 PM and then has the summers "off". They don't understand that even if a teacher leaves the school early on occasion, they are carting home a pile of papers that need to be corrected, reports that need to be read and lessons that need to be prepared by the next day. During the summers, most of these professionals are either studying to further their education, or preparing a new course to be taught, or working a second or third job in order to make ends meet. It is outrageous that some people pay higher equivalent salaries to their cleaning help or beauticians than to the teachers and educators of the country's children. I am ashamed of my fellow citizens who can not understand that the way to preserve our democracy is to make sure that we invest well in our children. Afterall, they will be the leaders of tomorrow, whether they are well-educated or not. And they will be the ones to vote on how we will be taken care of in the future. What are we teaching them about keeping the social contract when we squabble about how much technology or books or paper or teachers are needed to be there for them today?
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