Waste, Waste, Waste

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

Open Letter to the Framingham Board of Selectman and Town Manager January 10, 2003

Since the early 1990s, we have all witnessed the rise and fall of the stock markets in the US economy. During the boom years, much wealth was generated and as such, federal and state tax revenues rose quickly. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts quite dramatically increased their state aid to municipalities. Framingham was a recipient of this aid and each town made choices as to how to utilize this large increase in unsolicited aid.
Now, we are witnessing the collapse of the stock markets on a scale not seen since the 1929 crash, and I would expect state aid to drop down to what it was back in the early 1990s. Such a dramatic rise and fall in the stock markets, comes but once in a lifetime, if that often.
A mistake is doing something that has an unintended and undesirable consequence. Stupidity is defined as deliberately making the same mistake over and over again. It was stupidity to base the town government growth on state aid. The Framingham town government chose to spend every single penny in state aid on increasing staff levels in every section of the government. No money was put aside for future use, and no money was put aside for infrastructure improvement. Instead, we now have a bloated town government, that in effect, delivers a lower level of service than it did five years ago.
I can predict that state aid to Framingham will fall back to the $13 million range in another year or two, since state income lags the stock market by a year or two. I hope that the town manager plans on that level of funding in future budgetting, and eliminates his financial fantasy of ever increasing state aid. Why should he blame the state for the problem that he and most of the Board of Selectman created for us?
The taxpayers of Framingham will not provide you with any operational overrides to save you from yourselves. I would strongly advise the town employees to prepare themselves for layoffs this year and next year until the financial situation stabilizes.
The boom is over, and the party is over. Prepare for rationality.
Harold J. Wolfe
Candidate for Selectman

Open Letter to the Framingham Board of Selectman and Town Manager	January 10, 2003
Since the early 1990s, we have all witnessed the rise and fall of the stock markets in the US economy. During the boom years, much wealth was generated and as such, federal and state tax revenues rose quickly. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts quite dramatically increased their state aid to municipalities. Framingham was a recipient of this aid and each town made choices as to how to utilize this large increase in unsolicited aid. Now, we are witnessing the collapse of the stock markets on a scale not seen since the 1929 crash, and I would expect state aid to drop down to what it was back in the early 1990s. Such a dramatic rise and fall in the stock markets, comes but once in a lifetime, if that often. A mistake is doing something that has an unintended and undesirable consequence. Stupidity is defined as deliberately making the same mistake over and over again. It was stupidity to base the town government growth on state aid. The Framingham town government chose to spend every single penny in state aid on increasing staff levels in every section of the government. No money was put aside for future use, and no money was put aside for infrastructure improvement. Instead, we now have a bloated town government, that in effect, delivers a lower level of service than it did five years ago. I can predict that state aid to Framingham will fall back to the $13 million range in another year or two, since state income lags the stock market by a year or two. I hope that the town manager plans on that level of funding in future budgetting, and eliminates his financial fantasy of ever increasing state aid. Why should he blame the state for the problem that he and most of the Board of Selectman created for us? The taxpayers of Framingham will not provide you with any operational overrides to save you from yourselves. I would strongly advise the town employees to prepare themselves for layoffs this year and next year until the financial situation stabilizes. The boom is over, and the party is over. Prepare for rationality. Harold J. Wolfe Candidate for Selectman

Send comments to: hjw2001@gmail.com