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

Expect more cost overruns Monday, February 7, 2005
Harold J. Wolfe Metrowest Daily News
No one in Framingham has discussed cost overruns in the cases of the McAuliffe library proposal or the 2005 capital override proposal. Using the 2000 high school override model, the original $54 million proposal had a 5 percent cost overrun ($2.7 million) built in.  That amount was overwhelmed in the first year of construction, and the schools had to go back to Town Meeting to get another $5.2 million (9.6 percent).  The total cost overrun was near 15 percent.

Using this model, we should expect a $1 million overrun on the library and a whopping $13 million overrun on the override proposal, thus running it up close to $100 million.

The library will be built on land where TMM Antoinette Burrill used to ice skate as a kid.  You can see where that cost overrun is coming from.

Let's not forget that a library is a library.  Let's not metastasize this function of government by making it some sort of community center with meeting rooms where only those friendly to the government can meet.

Why would any south-sider vote yes for the McAuliffe library?  For their constituents, it's a longer drive, and it puts them deeper in debt.

The override proposal suggests $28 million for a renovated Memorial building.  I'm guessing that about 120 people work in the building.  That comes to $233,000 per employee. 

One would think that a town that has been around for 300 years and wants to spend all this money belonging to the taxpayers would have some decent financial planning tools.  Alas, Framingham has rudimentary tools to peer only five years into a murky financial future.  I suggest that we spend $200,000 for the development of decent financial planning tools to save ourselves untold millions in the future. 

Lastly, I'd like to point you to an article on the web at http://www.abetterframingham.org/teachers-unions.html that explains why we should not expect education reform any time soon.

Send comments to: hjw2001@gmail.com