To the editor:
Concerning town articles to be voted on March 10th I’m concentrating on the capital reserve. I understand the concept of putting money aside each year to avoid tax spikes in a single year but this article is being abused. In just five short years it has grown from $164,000 to $243,500 up $79,500 or close to 50 percent.
This is bad enough but the ramifications are even worse. For example the fire truck reserve for $50,000, once the dollar amount reaches a certain level the fire department thinks they must buy a new truck whether needed or not. As the years go by with bigger and more vehicles then they’ll demand a very costly and much larger fire station. The comparison is all too similar for our very expensive police department now asking for a very high priced luxury police station. By the way their capital reserve for cruisers has doubled from $20,000 to $40,000.
Capitol reserve is so abused that instead of avoiding a tax spike every so often it’s going to be a continuous yearly spike. Many times I hear the excuse for town spending because the school cost is much larger. That’s like a utility trailer salesman justifying his overcharging because the truck is more expensive. There’s no question about it that the school is a monstrous gold mine but that never gives the town an automatic free ride.
Another problem is when the selectmen don’t use fund balance money to offset taxes. After all it’s our money not theirs to play manipulative games with.
We better quit sleeping in the voting booths this March 10th because local government is all too eager to once again take advantage of us. So much for a lower tax rate!
Brian Somero
New Ipswich