Ken
O’Brien
The response from Councilor Moriarty during
councilors’ forum was to urge attendance at subcommittee meetings where the
real work is done on the budget. Once the budget is determined, the setting of
the tax rate is a mere mathematical exercise.
In this context, I thought that the report of the
April 1 meeting of the General Government subcommittee was especially
enlightening.
The chart below is taken from the agenda for that
meeting. It has added to it the amount approved and forwarded to the full
council with a favorable recommendation. As can be seen, the items approved
(with a couple of blanks) amounted to almost $12 million, or over 20% of the
proposed FY 2015 budget.
At the outset it is perhaps worth noting that the posting
for the meeting on the town website says that the meeting would start at 7
PM. The chairman’s minutes, however, say that the meeting started at 6 PM.
Given that the meeting ended at 6:50 PM according to the minutes, woe to anyone
who relied upon the posted agenda to attend the meeting.
Having pointed that out, here is the presentation of
the subcommittee meeting minutes by the subcommittee chairman during Monday
night’s council meeting.
So, in less than an hour, the subcommittee dispensed
with 19 agenda items and $12 million without even one motion to reduce any
item. Almost half of the items were approved with no discussion.
At the previous meeting of the council the Interim
Town Manager presented his budget proposal. Councilor Conrad Vandal remarked
that the cost of paying taxes and water and sewer rates were taking all the fun
out of living here.
The following video of an already emaciated
Southbridge resident who still has joy in his heart until he sees what little
he has left after taxes illustrates Councilor Vandal’s point.
Nikolla should spend less time telling taxpayers how to live and more time getting town spending under control.
ReplyDeleteIf the meeting minutes are accurate, wasn't there an Open Meeting Law violation?
ReplyDeleteIt certainly appears to be.
DeleteHow are we supposed to show up at subcommittee meetings and question budget items intelligently without access to the line item material. A couple of years ago Dennis Martinek was able to post them on line on his own as a private citizen. Why can't the town, with all its resources, make this information available on the town website prior to the subcommittee meetings?
ReplyDelete