| In which I partly agree with Barbara Anderson(!) ... Commonwealth mag's new cover story is on the budgetary dire straits many towns are experiencing these days, especially because of rising pension and health care costs. We've heard at length on this site about Stoneham's problems; add West Boylston, Saugus, and any number of other towns that are really struggling. The downward spiral of rising costs and their toll on quality of life should be obvious. For instance, posit that the single biggest problem in our state is the cost of housing, and retaining young families: How can these towns afford to educate the children of new families if they can't even afford to educate the kids who are already there? If there's a high level of anxiety about muni finances, that simply adds to the already-high resistance to new development. Anyway, here's St. Barbara: “Communities have been underfunding their libraries, their public works programs, their recreation programs for years,” says Geoff Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, the statewide lobbying group for cities and towns. He calls it a “quiet crisis” that has been building over time. His cry of crisis finds an echo from a most unlikely corner. Barbara Anderson was one of the architects of Proposition 2 1/2, and she remains the state’s most prominent anti-tax activist. But even Anderson says municipal government is in a true state of peril. “[It’s] not just the usual ‘the sky is falling’ that you hear all the time,” she says. “This time I think the sky really is going to fall.” Fiscal problems aren't limited to older cities. They are now hitting middle-class suburbs too. When the leader of the Massachusetts Municipal Association (a group whose initials are mocked by critics to mean “more money always”) and the state’s leading anti-tax advocate agree that cities and towns are in trouble, people should pay attention. But what to do about the crisis is where the agreement ends. While Beckwith and other municipal advocates invariably point to the need for more revenue—from an increase in state aid to its former levels, from Proposition 2 1/2 overrides, or from new options for raising revenue—Anderson sees it as a spending problem, with communities unable or unwilling to get a handle on things like public employee salaries and benefits.
Well, they're both right. It's a revenue problem, and it's a spending problem. Cities and towns are facing the same problems the airlines (or state and federal governments, for that matter) have had with pensions, and the same problems the automakers have had with skyrocketing health care costs. Just saying "cut costs" means cutting people's benefits; I wish Anderson would be so candid. Now, Gov. Patrick was elected in an atmosphere of grave concern about cities and towns, but it seems like the legislature is sleepwalking through the whole thing. I'm still amazed at how Speaker DiMasi simply rules out the local option meals taxes, and ending the telco tax exemption, and on and on. The towns may be in crisis, but legislators are clearly not feeling much urgency: “The state has been more than generous and more than an equal partner with every single city and town in the state,” Rep. John Binienda, a Worcester Democrat, told the State House News Service in September. “[Municipal officials] should be thanking us.”
Mmm, nice ... can't you just smell the entitlement? I'd love to help you Mr. Mayor, but I tee off in an hour ... To be fair, the article also includes some quotes from muni officials indicating contempt for their constituents as well: More common is pure disinterest in the number-crunching. According to Ragucci, the Stoneham administrator, most people, particularly younger ones, don’t want to delve into the “very dull and boring” world of municipal finance to better understand how their tax dollars are spent. “You have young families out here who are going out and buying those beautiful, 42-inch flat-screen TVs, and when the time comes for an override, they say, ‘My taxes are going to go up 200, 400 bucks a year. I can’t afford that.’”
You know, that kind of talk really doesn't help matters: Quit whining. But that's instinctive reaction of people who have gotten really comfortable who are finally confronted with an inescapable problem. As Mike says, time for the adults to take charge. PS: I should also mention that on the spending side, legislators were plainly cowed by the muni unions in approving only a watered-down version of the health insurance/GIC bill, avoiding the messy business of forcing them into the state's insurance system. They may well have to revisit that, for everyone's good; it certainly doesn't help the unions to put their employers into a fiscal crisis. |
