Oops! Rookie Town Moderator makes costly mistake
By Matt Carroll, Globe Staff
Pembroke Town Moderator Stephen C. Dodge succeeded a legend, John D. Walsh Jr., who served for 59 years, arguably the longest tenure for a town moderator in state history.
Now Dodge hopes he doesn’t become a footnote as one of the shortest-reigning moderators in the state.
Dodge made a vote-counting gaffe at the Nov. 3 Town Meeting, which meant an article passed, rather than failed. It was his first Town Meeting.
The article awarded small longevity raises to 13 nonunion workers, totalling about $3,500, according to the town. The raises were similar to those awarded union workers. Not much cash, when town budgets run into the tens of mil lions of dollars, but still . . .
“Here I am, filling in for a guy who served in the position for 59 years, and in my first standing count, I can’t count,’’ the 51-year-old Dodge moaned. “I’m glad it wasn’t for $350,000 or $3 million.’’
FULL ENTRYCheck out your local government salaries here
The Globe's regional editions have published several stories on the salaries of employees in area towns and cities. In Needham, a police lieutenant made $157,000. In Wellesley, three brothers are on the police force. In Norwell, the list is dominated by school employees.
And there's more. You can search for the employees, their positions and salaries below.
Judge halts Hanover High construction
Much-anticipated construction on the new Hanover High School has been delayed by a dispute over a contract on the project.
Last Friday, Plymouth County Superior Court Judge Richard Chin granted a preliminary injunction that prohibited further work on the project by Bridgewater-based contractor Callahan Inc., which is alleged to have been unfairly awarded the construction contract for the new school.
The judge found that Callahan misrepresented itself during the prequalification period of the contract process, before bidding occurred. Two separate lawsuits seeking to stop the construction had been filed on Nov. 9 by 10 Hanover residents and N.B. Kenney Co. Inc., a subcontractor who bid for heating and ventilation work.
Hanover’s School Building Committee declined to comment on the injunction and the future of the school, which is to open in 2011. Town officials held a meeting on the matter Monday.
Meanwhile, Callahan Inc. insisted that it did not misrepresent itself in the bidding process.
FULL ENTRYArlington, Lexington approve local option taxes
Both Arlington and Lexington have approved local option taxes, raising money from restaurant goers and hotel users.
Here are two reports from Globe correspondent Brock Parker:
Arlington
Town Meeting members passed a local-option tax on restaurant meals and an increase in the local hotel tax during Monday’s session. The meals tax will tack on 0.75 percent to the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax on restaurant bills.
FULL ENTRYState cuts off reimbursements to towns for prison services
Local officials in Norfolk, Concord, Framingham, and Shirley are expressing disappointment and dismay over the loss of state mitigation funds that have in the past compensated them for the ambulance, police, and other services they provide to state prisons in their communities.
The Department of Correction decided to eliminate the roughly $1 million in payments to host communities statewide, according to agency spokeswoman Diane Wiffin, after receiving orders to reduce spending by $6.7 million, its share in the latest round of Patrick administration budget cutbacks.
“Unfortunately, due to budget cuts, the DOC cannot continue to provide mitigation funds,’’ Wiffin wrote in an e-mail. “The recession has hit the DOC just as it has other agencies.’’ She said the department was in the process last week of notifying communities they would not be receiving the funds.
The local officials say the state is not living up to its obligations, and point out that the recession has also cut into the local aid payments and tax revenues that they need to balance their municipal ledgers.
Shirley, which hosts the maximum-security Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center as well as MCI-Shirley, a medium-security prison, was in line for the $170,389 it received last year.
“Shirley has been a good neighbor to the prison,’’ said Enrico Cappucci, chairman of the town’s Board of Selectmen. “We feel they have to in some way help us because we have to provide services’’ to the prisons, including fire and ambulance coverage, and police assistance after escape attempts.
Cappucci and state Representative Jen Benson, a Democrat from Lunenburg, met with the department’s commissioner, Harold Clarke, on Nov. 13 to urge him to reconsider the funding cut. Clarke told them that he would communicate their request, Cappucci said.
Norfolk, which is home to the state’s largest prison, MCI-Norfolk, as well as two other Department of Correction facilities, will lose $170,000 in mitigation money this year, according to the chairman of its Board of Selectmen, Jim Lehan.
The town used to get $380,000 for prison-related expenses, but last year that amount was cut by more than half. When that happened, the town had to lay off five teachers, and five town employees, Lehan said, and residents had to live with larger class sizes, fewer road repairs, and slower snow removal after storms.
“Some of the secondary roads were not cleared as quickly, and that will be the case this year as well, because we don’t have the funds,’’ he said. “All of our employees are stretched to their limits.’’
And without any mitigation payment this year, the town will have to make additional cuts, Lehan said.
“State land is not taxable,’’ he said. “Prison mitigation money is designed for the expenses of ambulance and fire services. For the last couple of years, the funds are being depleted, but the services are still there.’’
Norfolk Fire Captain Peter Petruchik said his department’s ambulance responds to calls from the community’s three prisons approximately every other day, with 133 prison-related calls logged this year. The Fire Department has also responded to mattress and trash fires at the prisons, he said, and is responsible for fire-safety inspections at the state facilities.
The Police Department gets involved when prison visitors get locked out of their cars, or have outstanding warrants that need to be processed, Petruchik said.
Framingham hosts the state’s prison for women, MCI-Framingham, as well as the South Middlesex Correctional Center, and the Board of Selectmen’s chairwoman, Ginger Esty, said cutting the mitigation fund will have “a very serious impact’’ on her town. Last year, the town received $79,000 from the Department of Correction.
“Again, the state is not fulfilling their obligations,’’ Esty said. “There are a lot of calls for fire and police to go and assist, and there are tangential expenses of the prison population staying in our community.’’
Halfway houses and other institutions that provide programs to inmates spring up near prisons, Esty said, and they also require services from the town.
Concord, which has MCI-Concord as well as a minimum-security prerelease facility, the Northeastern Correctional Center, received $151,778 in mitigation funds last year.
“The bargain between municipalities and the state is being breached,’’ said Concord Selectwoman Virginia McIntyre.
Walpole, where MCI-Cedar Junction is located, saw a cut of $750,000 last year, and will lose another $60,000 this year, said Town Administrator Michael Boynton.
But regardless of state funding, local officials said, their communities will continue to provide services to the correctional facilities.
“You can’t say no when the call comes in,’’ said Norfolk’s Selectman Lehan. “You have someone’s life at stake.’’
-- By Julie Masis, Globe Correspondent | November 22, 2009
South shore beach front residents see taxes jump
This summer, five property owners in the Crescent Beach area who saw their land assessments more than double since last year asked Mattapoisett lawyer Patricia McArdle for help.
Hearing there were others there whose assessments jumped, McArdle, who specializes in real estate, ran a newspaper advertisement seeking them out. She received responses from more than 40 people, some of whom saw their assessments skyrocket from the $340,000 range to more than $800,000 since last year.
“Something is just not right,” McArdle said. “We don’t know if it’s a math error or something they’re arbitrarily as sessing or what.”
Town officials stand behind their assessments, but McArdle has been assembling data to prepare for a possible court challenge.
FULL ENTRYCompare your schools and home prices with the area's
When families are choosing where to live, they typically ask two questions before all others. Are the schools good? Can we afford a home there? We crunched some numbers taking both questions into consideration.
Click here to compare schools and home prices in your community with those around the Boston area.
Is there a pothole that's bugging you?
Do you have a favorite pothole? You know the one: you see it every day on the way to work, you veer out of the way to avoid it, you wonder why it's never been fixed.
You can report that pothole, and a host of other civic problems, to your town or city government via the seeclickfix tool that is available on the Your Town websites.
If you live in Natick, for example, click Here to report a problem.
If you live in Brookline click Here to report a problem.
Here for Framingham.
More of the towns are below:
FULL ENTRY$71m Wayland High project clears first big test
It is one of several multi-million dollar expenditures facing voters around the region over the next several weeks. Rockland voters approved a tax hike over the weekend.
In Wayland, voters approved the town's share of the project, $45.1 million. The vote came about a year after neighboring Sudbury casually proposed absorbing Wayland High School students into Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School as an idea for cost-savings.
The 2602-1115 tally, in favor of a new, state-of-the-art high school for Wayland students, still requires a 2/3 vote Wednesday night at a special town meeting, which starts at 7:30 at the current high school’s field house. See fact sheet here.
The Wednesday session is expected to be a contentious one as voters will decide the fate of the high school proposal as well as that of the embattled Wayland Town Center project, a multimillion-dollar shopping and condo complex which has been under debate for several years.
Rockland OK's tax hike as more towns request money for schools
By Kathy McCabe, Globe Staff | November 15, 2009
Despite the sputtering economy, seven area communities this fall are plunging ahead with campaigns to raise property taxes for multimillion-dollar school construction projects.
Rockland residents yesterday voted 2,092 to 942 to raise property taxes to build an $86 million middle and high school, approving the second such tax increase in six months by a more than 2 to 1 margin.
Over the next month, at least six other Bay State towns - Billerica, Hamilton, Needham, Norfolk, Wayland, and Wenham - will hold similar special elections, seeking debt exclusion to pay for big-ticket renovation or school construction.
FULL ENTRYWenham Town Meeting OK's school project
At a Thursday, Nov. 12 Special Town Meeting, a turnout of 168 Wenham residents voted overwhelmingly to support a $1.5 million project to replace the 57-year-old heating system at the Cutler School in the Hamilton-Wenham Regional School District with a new computerized energy management system designed for greater efficiency.
The state has promised to reimburse 42.58 percent of the building costs.
There was just one dissenting vote for the proposal, which had previously been approved at a Special Town Meeting in Hamilton. It now goes to townwide votes, at special elections scheduled for Nov. 24 in Hamilton and Dec. 17 in Wenham. The project will require Proposition 2 1/2 debt exclusion overrides in both towns.
- David Rattigan
North towns figure how to pay for school projects
A roundup of budget happenings in the towns north of Boston, just as furnaces are being turned on across the region:
- In Danvers, the Finance Committee Monday, Nov. 9 will hold a public hearing on the single article that will appear on the warrant of the Nov. 16 Special Town Meeting.
The article seeks an appropriation of nearly $80 million for the renovation and expansion of the high school. The state’s School Building Authority has committed to covering about $42 million of the project costs, so the town’s overall share would be close to $38 million.
The town plans to cover that cost without a tax increase by tapping an existing fund it maintains to help repay school project debt.
FULL ENTRYRockland to vote on $33m property tax increase for school
An $86 million proposal to construct a middle school and renovate Rockland’s aging high school won unanimous support at Tuesday’s Special Town Meeting. The real test comes Saturday Nov. 14, when voters decide by ballot whether they want to raise their property taxes for 25 years to cover the cost.
The building project has already secured a commitment from the state’s School Building Authority to reimburse 64 percent of the cost. That’s the highest percentage the state offers and represents $53 million for this project.
The town would pay the remaining $33 million through a temporary tax increase called a debt exclusion, which would remain on the tax rate for 25 years. To the owner of an average-priced home of $296,500, that would translate to an additional $23 in real estate taxes in the first year of the loan, $127 in the second, and $237 in the third. For the 22 years after that, the project would add about $400 annually to that home’s tax bill.
Credit ratings downgraded in some Mass. towns
Declines in state aid and local revenues have forced many communities south of Boston to dip into their cash reserves to help pay for operating expenses. But in doing so, some have dug themselves deeper into a fiscal hole.
Some municipalities that have depleted their rainy-day funds have seen their credit ratings downgraded by the bond-rating houses, and consequently will have to spend more if they borrow money.
‘‘It’s something for people purchasing municipal bonds to look at and decide the ability of a municipality to repay the loans,’’ said John Robertson, deputy legislative director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association.
FULL ENTRYArea municipalities relieved by Patrick's local aid plans
Area municipal leaders are breathing a sigh of relief after Governor Deval Patrick spared cities and towns from the brunt of the spending cuts he announced last week.
But with no end to the state’s bleak revenue picture in sight, some local officials warn that the good news on the local aid front may be only fleeting.
‘‘It’s always good news if you don’t make the cut the first time around,’’ said Malden Mayor Richard C. Howard. But, he cautioned that ‘‘it could be kind of déjà vu,’’ recalling that local aid was protected during a first round of state reductions in fiscal 2009, only to be cut later.
Patrick aide: 1,000 jobs to be eliminated, 1,000 more in jeopardy
WORCESTER -- At least 1,000 state jobs will be eliminated and another 1,000 are in jeopardy unless unions agree to concessions as the state moves to close a $600 million budget gap, Governor Deval Patrick's top fiscal aide said today.
 Governor Deval Patrick |
Administration and Finance Secretary Jay Gonzalez said the jobs in jeopardy could be saved if state employee unions agree to $35 million in concessions. The savings would be achieved through nine unpaid furlough days and officials are hoping to get agreement from the unions by Dec. 1, he said.
Gonzalez's remarks came after a speech and news conference today in which Patrick announced that up to 2,000 jobs could be cut as part of a plan to address the budget gap.
FULL ENTRYPatrick to cut 2,000 jobs to protect local aid
Governor Deval Patrick announced today he would move to eliminate 2,000 state jobs as part of a plan to address a $600 million budget gap, but he said he would fully protect local aid sent by the state to the cities and towns.
"We will not cut our record investment in our students and our schools. … We will not cut local aid. Local communities are the front line of both our economy and our social life and they are struggling as it is," he said.
The plan calls for $352 million in cuts across state government. Patrick would make $277 million in cuts across the executive branch and seek authority to make $75 million in additional cuts in other branches of government, including the Legislature, the courts, and county sheriffs.
FULL ENTRYWill taxpayers come to the rescue of anti-tax group?
By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | October 25, 2009
TIME AND again, Citizens for Limited Taxation has come to the rescue of Massachusetts taxpayers. Will the taxpayers now come to the rescue of CLT?
For 35 years, CLT has been an unwavering foe of high taxes and government arrogance, two commodities for which Massachusetts is well-known. It was created in 1974 to fight a proposal for steeply graduated income-tax rates, a proposal it defeated in the 1976 election. When the grad-tax returned to the state ballot in 1994, CLT led the fight to defeat it once again.
FULL ENTRYSuburban voters weigh big town projects outside of Boston, amid down economy
By Rachel Lebeaux, Globe Correspondent | October 22, 2009
Voters in a number of communities west of Boston will consider property tax increases to raise millions of dollars for capital projects in the coming weeks, while a few other towns are shying away from large requests amid the down economy.
Voters in Wayland will weigh in next month on a $70.8 million renovation and expansion for the town’s 50-year-old high school, and next week, Westborough officials will ask Town Meeting to approve a $30 million public safety complex.
Brookline’s Town Meeting is to vote next month on whether to spend $29.1 million for renovations and additions to John D. Runkle Elementary School, but officials have said they intend to fund the project without seeking a tax increase.
“I think, like a lot of communities, we’re concerned about the economy,’’ said Fred Turkington Jr., Wayland’s town administrator, “but for the past four to five years we’ve been focused on a whole financial plan for this capital expense.’’
FULL ENTRYMass. puts a number on its state layoffs: 726
By Glen Johnson, AP Political Writer | October 20, 2009
The Patrick administration has talked for over a year about cutting 1,750 jobs from the executive branch work force to cope with state budget deficits, but it's still short of its goal even as tax collections continue to languish.
An official tally released Tuesday at the request of The Associated Press shows 1,620 jobs had been cut as of Oct. 10, the end of the state's most recent payroll period.
Of those, only 726 came through layoffs. And 129 of those layoffs were made during the most recent pay period. The rest of the cuts came through attrition or voluntary departure programs.
FULL ENTRYBillerica voters to consider override for new school
Billerica residents will decide next month whether to approve an override of Proposition 2 1/2, the state tax-cap law, to cover the cost of a new Parker Elementary School.
The five-member Board of Selectmen has unanimously approved a ballot question for a debt exclusion, which is a temporary property tax increase. The question will be put to voters at a special election on Nov. 21, with polls open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Voters at Town Meeting had approved plans to spend $33.6 million on construction of a new Parker school; more than half of that money would be reimbursed by the Massachusetts School Building Authority
-- Brenda J. Buote
Latest state shortfall could hit local aid, again
By David Abel, Globe Staff | October 17, 2009
The pain has already been more than they thought they could bear.
So far this year, Lawrence has laid off 18 police officers. Class sizes in New Bedford ballooned to as many as 34 students. Home health care services had to be cut for elderly residents in Melrose.
The state’s plummeting budget this fiscal year has already resulted in a loss of $724 million in local aid to cities and towns, a 12 percent drop from last fiscal year of what amounts to the lifeblood of many municipalities.
Now, local budgets are likely to take another hit.
FULL ENTRYBelmont asks non profits to pay more for town services
In another sign of the financial troubles facing local communities, Belmont officials are passing the hat to all of the tax-exempt institutions, including private schools, churches, and hospitals, in town.
The Board of Assessors is turning to the entities, which under state law are not required to pay local property taxes, in an effort to raise more revenue for the cash-strapped municipality. The board has developed a voluntary payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOT, program, and hopes the 37 nonprofit organizations on its mailing list will sign up.
“As the cost of government continues to escalate, everyone should share in the cost of these services,’’ said board chairman Charles Laverty. “We feel they have a moral obligation to contribute.’’
FULL ENTRYMass. spends $4b of federal stimulus money
By Steven Rosenberg, Globe Staff
Massachusetts has spent more than $4 billion of the $17.7 billion in stimulus funds it received from the US government to help offset budget shortfalls, provide tax reductions, and fund construction projects, saving or creating 27,400 jobs in the state according to a report by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center.
The report comes after a Minnesota congressman criticized the pace of stimulus spending in Massachusetts.
FULL ENTRYLayoffs imminent, Lt. Gov. says
By Matt Viser, Globe Staff | October 11, 2009
Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. Murray warned Friday that layoffs to the state's workforce will be announced next week. Although the administration previously had said there would be impacts to state employees, it was the strongest indication that people would lose their jobs as a result of a decline in state revenues.
"There will be layoffs that will occur," Murray said at a press conference after he emerged from an hourlong meeting with mayors from across the state. He did not provide specifics.
Murray and Governor Deval Patrick summoned Massachusetts mayors to the State House Friday for a closed-door briefing on the deteriorating condition of the state budget. The 27 mayors who came to Beacon Hill - and 10 more on a conference call - said they were relieved to hear that local aid payments from the state will most likely be spared from the first round of budget cuts. The future outlook is uncertain.
"I feel much better coming out than I did going in," said Mayor Kimberley Driscoll of Salem. "The governor is being clear - local aid cuts are a last resort, and he wants to do everything he can to prevent that. That's good news."
FULL ENTRY