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I'm going to vote against the override,
TPTB in this town have not proven to
me they ''really'' need the money.
And just because you act like a spoiled
kid and stamp your feet doesn't mean
i'm going to believe you that the town
needs money.
I want to see hard numbers, raw data,
a reliable source that I can trust
who will verify that the town is
pinching it's pennies.
I voted against an override last time
because I thought the town is rolling
in dough. I haven't seen any evidence
to the contrary yet. (And no cutting
teachers, police, fire doesn't convince
me of anything except that town leaders
are throwing a hissy fit. It's the
equivalant of my kid throwing a temper
tantrum becuase he can't have candy
just before dinner.
The bottom line: i'm the voter, TPTB in this town need to prove to ME they
are pinching pennies and really need the
money. They failed miserably last time
we had an over-ride.
By Town Taxpayer
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THEY OWE US A REFUND
Budget Growth Details????
Dec 30, 2004
I did some research last night on how the town spends it's money. I used the Finance Committee's handbooks of FY96 (town budget was $56,886,147)and teh FY04 book (town budget was $84,734,842). Over past nine years, the town's budget has grown 49% (almost 5.44% each year on average) or a total growth of $27,848,675. We're spending more than we can raise under Prop 2 1/2.
Where are the monies going over that same period? Here are the results:
1. Personnel Dept grew $206,692 or 209% for paper pushing! Hmm, chop there.
2. Group Health Insurance costs have risen 140% or by +$2,466,509. It's out of control everywhere, not just Braintree.
3. Health Dept: +75% or +$127,533.
4. Waste Disposal Costs: +$560,913.
5. Water & Sewer: +54% or +$3.115Million and GROWING LEAPS & LEAPS.
6. Schools: +50% or +$14.7Million growth over past 9 budgets???????Hmm?
7. Inspection: +48% or +$138,107.
8. WorkersComp: +45% or +112,381.
9. Assessors: +36% or +$50,528.
10. Selectmen's: +35% or +57,727.
11. Engineering: +32% or +$85,517.
12. Police: +30% or +$1,385,884.
13. Library: +30% or $235,138.
14. Fire: +21% or +$962,588.
15. Parks: +20% or +101,505.
16. Planning & Cons: +19% or +$40759.
17. Legal: +8% or +$20,679
18. Highway Dept actually went down over past nine years by -15% or -$275,602. No wonder why our roads are what they are!
In summary,our town budget has grown by almost $28Mil over the past nine years at a rate of nearly 5.5% a year. We can only increase taxes by 2.5%, so this research tells the story. The CASH COW IS THE SCHOOLS FOR SURE, but any dept that has exceeded the 2.5% growth each year over the last nine years needs to be attacked at Town Meeting! That involves departments listed above from Personnel through Library who are getting a bigger budget than Braintree can afford each year? Comments?
-By TMM12
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Schools Eating our Tax base
Let's face it, folks. Our School Department is our biggest tax drain - not that it should be, but at the alarming rate of over 5% per year in the last nine years? That doesn't include the Capital Outlay dollars we have allocated to them as well to fix their schools? Hmm, wonder how well they succeeded? For instance,
In FY97, we approved $133,600 for schools. Technology upgrades was $100,000 alone.
In FY98, we allocated $1,261,000.
In FY99, a whopping $834,800.
In FY00, we gave them $779,558.
In FY01, another $575,800 was allocated to Schools Capital needs. In
In FY02, $890,979. In FY03, $445,000.
In FY'04, anothere $290,000.
In FY05, they got $732,000 in capital dollars from us taxpayers.
By my calculations, our Braintree Public Schools
OVER AND ABOVE THEIR OPERATING BUDGET has received $5,242,727 in capital outlay monies to fix their buildings and to purchase new equipment.
That doesn't take into account the bond issue floated for over a million additional bucks for the school by school consultant analysis of what's wrong with our buildings and what it would cost to bring all the schools up to snuff.
Remember the sum of $125,000,000 floated about (and that didn't include the high school). We've been duped, stuped and betrayed by our School Committee and administrators for bleeding our tax supported dollar appropriations each year through this budget struggle the past couple of years in particular. When will we grab hold, squeeze and say NO when we can't afford this bleeding any further?
-By TMM12
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