Every tax is a pay cut.  Every tax cut is a pay raise.
Citizens for Limited Taxation

The Best They Could Do Was an Operational Override
In 1998, the town of Framingham called up a Financial Task Force (FTF) to look into town finances and report back. The FTF consisted of many town meeting members and included Charles J. Sisitsky and George P. King, Jr.  After due deliberations, it concluded that due to rising expenditure levels, the town would require an operational override by 2003.  It made many concrete and sensible recommendations to reduce the rising expenditure levels but they were all but ignored.

Back in 1998, when the General Fund was at $116 million, the FTF predicted that expenditures would rise to $164 million by 2003. The actual value for 2003 was $163 million.

A hindsight analysis of this report basically says that the FTF's foresight was amazingly accurate and that two town leaders (Charles J. Sisitsky and George P. King, Jr.) exercised very poor fiscal management and failed to take any steps to prevent the override in 2002.

While it is clearly understood that Town Meeting has the purse strings,  I am not aware of any efforts by either King or Sisitsky to reduce expenses.  I would expect more of community leaders.  Sisitsky could have voted like Ginger Esty against placing the Prop 2 1/2 override on the ballot, and he could have been more aggresively pursuing the control of school costs by demanding that the school committee cut costs. In the long run, he took the path of least resistance by voting for an override.  And when the override passed by a 51% margin, George P. King, Jr. celebrated.

Their legacy to all homeowners in Framingham is a $275 annual payment, indexed by 2.5% each year.  Despite their years of experience, this was the best they could do. Vote against Charles J. Sisitsky in 2004.

Send comments to: hjw2001@gmail.com