The annual Springfield Town Meeting was held tonight at the Springfield High School Cafeteria. About 75 people showed up for it in addition to all the members of both the School and Select Boards and their various administrators.
Voting will be held on Tuesday at Riverside Middle School gymnasium. Polling hours are from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Town budget
$10,289,768; which is $247,000 (2.5 percent) over last year’s budget of $10,042,768.
School budget
$27,750,839; which is $69,729 ( 0.25 percent) more than this year’s budget of $27,681,110.
Special articles
More than a dozen social service agencies have requested funding, which will be voted on during Australian balloting Tuesday.
Voters
will also vote on town contribution toward funding Springfield Regional
Development Corp., and Springfield On The Move, the downtown group.
Voters are also being asked whether to purchase property at 47 Union Street to create a parking lot for Union Street School.
Monday, March 4, 2013
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Article 18: Shall the Town raise and appropriate the sum of TEN TOUSAND and 00/100 DOLLARS to help support outpatient, mental health and substance abuse services by the staff of Health Care and Rehabilitation Services, Inc.?
ReplyDeleteGo HCRS you are my heroes!
Another satisfied user, I mean, client.
DeleteNow, now, now, play nicely children. We all know that HCRS is instrumental in preparing us for the Zombie Apocalypse by turning our obedient former prisoners into our own little pet medicated zombies. All we have to do is pay for their beds, and we can hire a lot of otherwise unemployable people to follow them around. Its an amazing experiment in recycling, who would have guessed that an unlimited supply of former prisoners could create such a vast revenue stream for this community, and all those fancy titles and degrees. Why its simply an amazing capitalistic adventure should we even dream of adding our pittance to the stream of Federal and State funding? That would be terribly ungrateful don't you think, and what would Mia do for heroes then?
DeleteTo whom it may concern. I propose considering the following line item in next years town budget:
Delete"shall the town pay $100,000 in order to put Mr. Chuck Gregory on a slow boat to China"
I vote YES!
8:55, I would like to thank you for your positive, polite, and critical comment. It is posters like you that make this blog an important part of discussion process in this democracy we call Springfield.
DeleteNow if you had come to the Town Meeting you could have heard the CEO of HCRS expound on how they are involved in every social service agency in the Town, plus they are very much involved in the Turning Point Club providing staff, etc. Why it is amazing, they are just amazing they are just everywhere. Oh I so hope that we support the HCRS budget item.
DeleteI went to the Town Meeting and I am wondering why in the heck we don't have a Social Welfare Department rather than a myriad of not for profits with virtually no public accountability, no control by representatives elected by the people, with overlapping programs, and intertwined relationships, and a host of paid executive directors? The extra budget items are now at almost a quarter million dollars.
DeleteWhen you look at spreading it out over the town, a quarter of a million dollars is so much spit into the wind. That's less than the price of three cups of coffee per week per household. As I've asked before, which would people rather have-- three more cups of coffee a week or four more cops year-round?
DeleteWall Street treats us like peasants; there's no need to behave like one. If you really want to save money, let's just kill the road budget-- just let them all revert to dirt. That would take $4 million off the annual budget right there.
As it is, the town has peeled off some of its responsibilities to the voters-- Springfield on the Move and the Development Corporation-- rather than have to face irritated voters who are unable to connect quality of life with the responsibility of sharing the burden to pay for it.
Chuckles. Your kind of "thinking" is what is destroying this country and certainly Springfield. Our country's per capita debt is now 35 percent higher than Greece's! Springfield on the Move and the Development Corporation are embarrassments to the over burdened tax payers.
DeleteChuck Gregory, I agree with you regarding the moving of the funding of SRDC out of the Town budget that should not have happened especially when growing the Grand List is one of the most important tasks facing the Town. With regards to the various social service organizations who have petitioned for special appropriations, I am somewhat on the fence. I reluctantly see some of the points which Machine Tinker is making as being valid. Unlike SRDC over which the Town has tremendous control and influence, the Town government has very little control and influence over some of these not for profits, and the citizens frequently do not even know the players involved. It was nice that at least SEVCA had a director from Springfield, I don't think anybody even knew who the presenters were for some of the other organizations let alone who was on their board of directors. HCRS now wields an incredible amount of power in the community and the only check the citizens have on its activities is this small budget vote which I agree is merely a drop in the bucket, but its the only drop which remains in the hands of the citizens or the locally elected officials. If the citizens are concerned about how that power is being wielded, then this is the only real chance they have to register that concern -- there is no locally elected official for them to resort to or put pressure on.
DeleteI find myself in agreement with Aethelred here. With SRDC there is at least some accountability and results benefit (should) the town. I may not agree with the person in charge but that is another subject. Bob stated last night that now the Fellows Building is a grand list addition of taxes, but didn’t most of those tenants move there from elsewhere in Springfield? We need people moving in, not moving around. I digress.
DeleteI think the question at hand is when does this stop with non-profits and budgets asking for more? Homeowners, employers and businesses don’t have the option of going to its tax base and asking for more. We know they tell us they run tight and that some things are not even presented, that is noble and smart of the budget writers. To me it seems more and more non-profits at popping up with their hand out. Do folks realize that those “donations” add to the tax rate? Thus we have Town + School + Non-Profits = Tax Rate.
Now to reiterate what Aethelred wrote, HCRS (as most non-profits) seem to offer no insight to what they are doing. Maybe these organizations should present a budget for us to see before we vote such as the Town and Schools do. You want our money, show me what you are doing with it. Even you Chuck can’t disagree with that.
One quick note about this blog. I believe it gets the job done and people in power do read it. In this “I” world it seems nobody listens, or at least hears with others are saying while they wait for their chance to speak again. Put thoughts and opinions in writing and those same folks can read it and maybe have the points create some impact. Do you remember when a newspaper editorial actually meant something? Today it’s blogs like this that create a similar opinion piece. So annoying as any of us writers can be we do accomplish something (even you Chuck)it's called a thought process.
HCRS is getting a lot of attention, but what about the VNA request($63,000)? That seems to be a rather large appropriation compared to the $10,000 that HCRS is requesting.
DeleteI have never needed or use the VNA services, do a lot of people in town use them?
The only answer for me is to VOTE NO to everything at this point. The budget is crazy on both school and town. The problem with the town is not that we need extra services but rather need to cut out the fat in between. There are WAY too many people being paid at the top end. You have the bloated benefits of the school and town employees which cut into the actual heart of what is needed. It is what it is! Vermont now has the third highest taxes in the entire country. What exactly does one get for that expense? Not a whole lot.
ReplyDeleteI am pretty happy with the quality of life here, I think it is worth the tax burden. Having moved here from a relatively low tax state, I can tell you the grass isn't always greener.
DeleteOne does have to decide what their priorities are and what is important to their family.
Perhaps you could find Alabama to your liking? Or even that state across the river?
I think you and a bulk of these people are in sticker shock. Just how much do you think it costs to run a school and have quality? I am not saying you "throw" money at it and it makes it better, but to be competitive things have to happen and to fix what has been broken for 20 plus years, money will need to be spent. As for bloated benefits, most people on the line do not get paid a substantial and livable yearly wage. One benefit to working with the public has always been the benefits and time off. Why else will anyone work for the public, I mean with all of you being so friendly and all! I can tell you that people working in the public sector do NOT make the salaries that those in the private sector make. The time off, pay, and benefits all even out in some way, they have to. You want teachers and educated people or do you want barely there graduates because they came "cheaper". I came from a state that had the highest taxes, they also rank the highest in education right now in the country because they spent it to fix it and spent it correctly. I do , however, agree that maybe how it is spent needs to be looked into more than how much is right now. None of this is easy. Also to note, I do not work for the school district or the town, so please spare me any us them rhetoric.
Deleteso im a peasant cause i dont agree with you. thats realy nice. so in chucks world having all the non profits gives US a good quality of life. i think that 1 groups quality of life gets better at the expense of the rest.
ReplyDeletemy feeling is,that all these special articles add up to a lot of money,not only are the town and school taxes going up,but our federal taxes are going up,state taxes are going up,the cost of everything is going up,and don't forget your town sewer and water taxes are going up and you don't even get to vote on them,they get what they want and you have no say about it.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI can recall when non profits actually WORKED to raise funds. The Fire Dept. held a huge, 2-day, chicken BBQ in the Plaza. Other organizations held raffles, concerts, carnivals, etc. Donations from businesses in exchange for public recognition were solicited. Now, it's so much easier to appeal to a legion of parasites to shake down home owners. Hell, the community band is so awful they can't even pass the hat to cover costs.
ReplyDeleteI profoundly resent such an ungrateful, self serving approach that reeks of entitlement. I'll will be voting NO on each article.
The Fire Department never held a chicken bbq, it was the social arm of the Fire Department the WHH Slack Steamer and Hose Company, a now defunct organization due to the lack of volunteers and increase in family and job commitments
DeleteI work at a non-profit that raises all its funds from donations and events. It's not so easy. In my view, non-profits that provide useful public services can and should be funded by local government. I used to work, in another state, for a non-profit that did receive a small portion of its funding from the city in order to provide specific services that did increase public health and safety. Even though the amount we received was comparatively small, we were required to be audited each year and to submit that audit to the city so that our finances became a matter of public record. Is that not the case here? It should be. It's a simple matter of making the requirement to be audited part of the contract between the town and the non-profit.
ReplyDeleteI have noticed that here in Springfield, if something gets voted down, the "wants it" get the needed 200 signatures and it comes up for vote again, and again, and again until they get what they initially wanted. We "don't wants it" get so sick of going back to vote that eventually we stop and, you know the rest. Maybe it is just a matter of who can persevere.
ReplyDeleteKate, this is impossible, they would have to wait another year to be on the ballot.
DeletePerhaps you are referring to the School Budget? Eventually that has to be passed in order to operate a school system.
Kate, did you vote for the Mcdonalds appropriation allowing them to use public funds to rebuild their restuarant?
Kate, if you want to write a blog and keep us reading take time to read Alpin Jack, Aethelred The Unready, Harry Byrd, Ethan McNaughton and even sometimes Chuckles, there are others but you get the idea. They make a point and explain themselves most of the time. Looks like you have some hope you just need to change your style.
DeleteKate has to be a joke right? Can anyone be that uninformed?
DeleteAnd there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth among the Not for Profits in Springfield tonight, me gut tells me that even the Dems are going to forsake them today. Oh my oh my, will Mia Taniche cry in the wilderness....
DeleteOh my. I guess I just don't take this blog as seriously as everyone else does.
ReplyDeleteMea Culpa.