| Dear Wilbraham residents and taxpayers: On Friday, April 28, 2006 I received an "Open Letter to the Candidates" from one of our fellow citizens. He correctly asks that I address the issues of controlling municipal spending and thereby future tax increases during my term of office, if elected. This question is absolutely critical in the face of the significant capital projects that our town faces over the coming years. You, the voters of Wilbraham, must be assured that your elected officials act in a fiscally prudent and responsible manner. Our property taxes have increased by over 36% during the last 5- years. What do we have to show for these spiraling taxes? The first step that I would take would be to implement an immediate hiring freeze. For too long positions have been approved without even rudimentary job descriptions or a disciplined cost-benefit analysis. For example we can no longer approve new positions based on vague promises of reducing maintenance expenses, without even knowing how much the town is spending in preventative maintenance. Secondly, and vitally important would be my effort to eliminate short-term borrowing for planned municipal expenditures. We are borrowing money to pay current operating expenses. This must stop. How many households can function long-term on ever increasing credit card debt? Very simply, we are doing this on a municipal basis. The town's budgeting and revenue forecasting is clearly in deep disarray. Finally, I would seek to amend the Community Preservation Act. As many of you know we each pay a tax surcharge under this law, the receipts from which funded the purchase of Rice Farm. Well, the purchase of Rice Farm is now nearly paid off, and while we cannot repeal this surcharge completely, by amending the law we can reduce the surcharge that we each pay while retaining the ability to borrow if a parcel of land becomes available. While this would be a fairly small savings for each of us, I would hope that you would see this as an example of how, if elected, I will pay attention to the details making sure that your tax dollars are well spent. We have significant capital projects that must be evaluated and decisions that will need to be made. I feel strongly that we must make sure that our basic budget is in sound order as we address the significant capital issues that lay before us. "At this point, we simply do not know whether the state will recommend renovation or new construction for the high school nor what the reimbursement rate for each will be. Because of this uncertainty, I promise to keep an open mind and crunch the numbers once the state tells us the reimbursement rates for renovation and new construction. Please vote for a change in leadership on May 20th. Patrick Brady Wilbraham |
| Why have our taxes risen so much? | ||
