Bargain day at the voting booth

Date: 5/30/2010

If Longmeadow voters decide to accept all that "free money" and approve the proposed debt exclusion for an $80 million high school, and if the Select Board candidates promoted by the Longmeadow School Committee are elected on June 8, here is what you will get to look forward to:

• You will get to add to your tax bill $2 for every $1,000 of assessed valuation for your property, every year, for the next 25 years;
  
  
• You will get to live without Storrs Library for you and your children;
  
  
• You will get to live without a functional center for senior services and support;
  
  
• You will get to live without a recreation department for you and your children;
  
  
• You will get to thrill your homeowners insurance company with the news that Longmeadow no longer has a professional fire department;
  
  
• You will get to live with outsourced emergency medical service, snow removal and the Department of Public Works;
  
  
• You will get to live without rubbish collection or pay out of pocket for this service just as you now pay for leaf collection, recycle center, miscellaneous school materials and programs, student parking at the high school, "false alarms" of your security system and whatever else they can cost shift in your direction;
  
  
• You will get to lose the tax deduction for additional miscellaneous fees and lost services which used to be included and sheltered by your property tax payment;
  
  
• And, last but not least, you will get to move out of Longmeadow when the restructuring and spending plans of the School Committee and the Select Board diminish your quality of life and exceed your resources if you can find someone willing to buy your house because the Finance Committee predicts that your property tax will double within 10 years.
  
  Never before in the history of Longmeadow have you been offered so much for your vote. And who knows what other little goodies the benevolent School Committee and their compliant Select Board have in mind for the future (besides another rehab bait-and-switch, multi-million dollar plan for a new school, this time, for Williams and Glenbrook middle schools, that is).
  
  To receive all of these wonderful gifts, you don't even have to vote for them. You just have to stay home on election day, June 8, and let other voters make the decision for you. What more could you possibly wish for? Nothing else could be easier or come close to "free money" and bargain day at the Longmeadow voting booth.
  
  Philip Fregeau
  
  Longmeadow