What do you think about the upcoming elections/or the Braintree Link site being closed?

By TMM3

There is a new link on google

Cut and Paste this link in your browser address window.

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Braintree-Chat


Sign up and give yourself a nickname and you can post there.

Braintree Town Former Cradle

of liberty now a slave province!
This elected body is in runaway from their electors and should all be removed from office and held in high contempt by the decent citizens taxpayers of Braintree!!

The teachers raise should be rejected out of hand by town meeting and the attempt at an override/exclusion laughed out of town!

This treasonous body of elected school committee should summarily be impeached or failing that voted out of office at the soonest never to be considered for town office again in total disgrace!!

This censorship is a wake up for those of us in town who feel betrayed by our selected body of
so called leaders, to censor our medium of discourse is treasonous behavior in any sense of the word, to quote the master can the servants be greater than the master?

We are fortunate in having an neighboring town like Fair Millis to harbor us, We the exiles of Braintree, where Freedom was once a watch word, but no more, are driven from our own town by excessive greed and censorship!!


By Silence Dogood

Teachers union's failing overrid



CLT UPDATE
Saturday, July 5, 2003

Teachers union's failing override strategy exposed

Check out the Web site of the Massachusetts Teachers Association for part of the answer. These professional tax proponents have developed a guide, aptly named ''Better Funding/Better Schools. A Roadmap to Overriding Proposition 2?½,'' to improve the success rate of local override campaigns....

The guide gives tips on everything from a winning message to getting out the vote to convincing local teachers to support the campaign. And it's self-described as providing ''good information about what has worked well and what has backfired ...''

Given some of the gems contained in it, the guide itself might just backfire. At the very least, it exposes some override campaigns for the teacher benefit protection plans that they are....

So let's get this straight. Don't be too greedy, keep publicity to a minimum lest voters figure out what you're up to, make sure local teachers are aware of their self-interest, but don't let anyone else figure that out. Because then the jig would be up.

The jig may already be up, with reports showing that permanent override approvals have fallen from a high of 74 percent in fiscal 2002 to just about 50 percent now. Taxpayers are tapped out, and no campaign strategy will change that.

A Boston Herald editorial
Saturday, July 5, 2003
Taxpayers beware of override tricks


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The election turnout broke a record, and the town meeting a short time later attracted almost double the usual crowd. In no uncertain terms, Abington voters, who were being asked to raise taxes, were telling local leaders to read their lips about the town's cash problems.

''The message was loud and clear: They didn't want any taxes raised. Period,'' Abington Selectmen Chairman Kevin Donovan said....

Since Jan. 1, 13 of the 26 communities covered by The Patriot Ledger have considered overriding Proposition 2?½ property tax limits, the highest number in more than a decade.

Eight communities defeated overrides, many by wide margins, and five passed them. As in the past, tax increases for municipal construction projects such as sewers and new schools fared better than increases for operating budgets....

According to the Department of Revenue, in the last five years the average single-family property tax bill has increased 40 percent in Braintree, 37 percent in Pembroke, 26 percent in Milton, 25 percent in Abington and 22 percent in Randolph.

The Patriot Ledger
Thursday, July 3, 2003
Override defeats show a distaste for raising taxes


By Grumpy