Ken
O’Brien
The gravy train is coming to an end folks!
For those of you who have been asleep for the past
four months, we found out that the landfill wasn’t the $100 million bonanza we
were originally
promised.
For
three years I’ve been trying to wake you up to the fact that bemoaning the
tax rate when it is set in December is a fruitless exercise. That tax rate is
effectively set in May when the Town Council adopts the budget.
Nothing better illustrates the abject profligacy of
the town council in managing Southbridge's finances in recent years than the following remarks by
Town Council Chairman David Langevin at the Council’s most recent meeting on
February 24.
Think about that for a minute. Last year we spent
$350,000 more than Webster on snow-plowing and removal. That’s over 1/3 of a
million dollars! (P.S. I'd love to know what those "rumors" were to which Chairman Langevin alluded.)
I’m going to take a little credit here.
When I started this blog I began comparing
Southbridge to other local communities in relation to property tax rates. Two
years after I started doing that our Chief Assessor added that comparison to
his annual presentation on setting the tax rate.
Now the Council Chairman has adopted that practice
by comparing our snow removal spending to that in a neighboring town.
This is not something revolutionary.
When I was the Director of Research for The American
Stock Exchange I regularly prepared studies of how our Exchange handled the
trading of a given stock relative to comparable securities. In this way we were
able to determine our efficacy in handling such trading on behalf of the
management of those companies. We called this practice “peer analysis”.
As we enter our next budgetary cycle, and, effectively, the setting of our next property tax rate, perhaps councilors should consider
applying this practice to a broader range of the budget’s line items.
Take a look at things like staffing and payroll at
the town hall, in the police and fire departments, and DPW relative to
comparable communities. Evaluate contracted services relative to other towns.
Compare variable and fixed costs. (Please suggest other areas for review - and don't neglect the school side.)
In other words, do some basic comparative financial
analyses to justify your budgeted line items before you send us a tax bill to
pay for them.
To help get you started I’ve prepared the following
interactive chart to help you select other communities to compare to
Southbridge. If you don’t like the choice of towns, no problem. Just click on a
given town and you’ll get a list of other comparable communities in
Massachusetts as well as other states. You can also modify the selection
criteria to suit you. Finally, you can click on “[details]” to get more
information on any given town.
Southbridge
Statistical “Peers”
City, State 1
|
Go To
City 2 |
One
Person Houses |
65+
|
College Grads
|
Average
Commute Minutes |
Median
Family Income |
Non White
|
Pop.
|
Poverty
|
Prop. Crime
|
Seasonal Housing
|
Viol. Crime
|
29.7%
|
15.1%
|
12.5%
|
25
|
$41,863
|
14.8%
|
17,214
|
15.4%
|
19.9
|
0.3%
|
4.1
|
||
31.7%
|
16.7%
|
15.9%
|
26
|
$48,898
|
5.2%
|
16,415
|
11%
|
22.8
|
2.8%
|
7.4
|
||
32.3%
|
16.1%
|
15.2%
|
25
|
$47,164
|
6.9%
|
20,770
|
9.6%
|
25.9
|
0.4%
|
5.9
|
||
28.8%
|
15.5%
|
13.5%
|
24
|
$49,358
|
3.2%
|
12,497
|
7.9%
|
21.9
|
0.6%
|
3.2
|
||
25.9%
|
12.4%
|
17.7%
|
29
|
$56,763
|
2.1%
|
11,691
|
8.6%
|
13.6
|
2.5%
|
3.2
|
||
23.6%
|
11.2%
|
17.7%
|
27
|
$58,973
|
3.4%
|
13,352
|
7.8%
|
7.3
|
0.4%
|
2.9
|
||
24.6%
|
16%
|
17.8%
|
25
|
$62,564
|
2.8%
|
12,784
|
6.3%
|
13.5
|
0.5%
|
2.7
|
||
28.6%
|
17.2%
|
13.3%
|
26
|
$41,061
|
3.7%
|
11,299
|
9.4%
|
13.5
|
1%
|
4.3
|
1.
Click on town to find peers for that community in MA and other states. 2. Click on “[details]” for more detailed
information about given community.
The town’s budget is the most critical document with
which you deal every year. Here’s a mechanism to help you analyze it from a
meaningful perspective.
Go to work. You wanted the job, now do it. I’m sure
that I’m only one of many who is tired of paying the freight for the gravy
train.
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