Thursday, May 20, 2010
When The Levee Breaks
If you’re old enough to remember listening to Led Zeppelin’s new song, “When The Levee Breaks”, then you might remember when the citizens of Massachusetts staged a tax revolt in the form of a petition that would restrict the revenues cities and towns could collect through a property tax levy. Up until that time local governing bodies of the Commonwealth could levy whatever tax they felt was necessary to raise revenues that would cover the cost of running their municipalities.
The ballot initiative that we, the people of Massachusetts voted into law, was called Proposition 2 ½ and became a reality in 1982. At that time, those in government that were experienced in fiscal matters, warned that citizens should be wary of what they wish for, and that school systems, and fire, police and public works departments would be forever changed. They were right.
Over the next ten years, in Weymouth as well as other communities, schools were closed and reorganized, and town employees lost jobs. The Weymouth school system that educated and graduated students in 1992 was far different from the one that educated children prior to 1982. There were less firefighters and police to protect us, the crime rate rose and some people left town, but it still wasn’t enough to override the tax levy limit and those faithful to Weymouth stuck it out and made it work.
Today Prop 2 ½ still rules the day almost 30 years later. The law on levy limits is the guiding factor in keeping fiscal spending under control and in the hands of those that pay property taxes. In other words, we control how much we are taxed. The down side is that the inflation rate typically rises more than 2 ½ percent, per year. In the 28 years since Prop 2 ½ took effect, 22 years have seen inflation rise more than that. The cost of health care combined with town employee pensions have outgrown the rate of increase that the levy limit covers. It appears that the levy is about to break.
There are no simple answers to Weymouth’s immediate fiscal woes. A Prop 2 ½ override initiative, if passed, won’t prevent reorganization of our schools come September, and it won’t make us any safer. If you’re looking to place blame, don’t place it with policemen, firefighters or teachers for improving their quality of life as well as ours. The answer to Weymouth’s problem is the generation of revenue from new property development and that brings us to Southfield in South Weymouth.
If the former Navy Base had been improved at all in the years since it closed in 1997, then Weymouth’s tax base would have generated more money and the school system and other departments would be expanding instead of shrinking. As it is, the Tri Town Development Corporation and LNR Properties have done nothing to improve or support the communities surrounding the former Navy property. It’s too late to help us this year, but rather than a ballot initiative to override Prop 2 ½, perhaps the people of Weymouth need to vote for the removal of those mismanaging the development of some of the most valuable property on the South Shore and get it into the hands of those that can develop something that will produce money for Weymouth before the levy limit breaks us.
This article was posted by Stanley Ramon on May 20, 2010
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