Vote NO on Dec 4: we can do all 3 projects without a tax increase

On Monday, December 4, we decide how to fund 3 projects — a new Hastings school, a new fire station and a pre-school — worth $85.7 million.

The questions (Lexvote.org/q) are not "Shall the Town build these projects?" or "Shall the Town spend $85.7 million to build them?" — we would answer YES and YES: these well-designed projects must be built. The question is how to fund them.

The ballot questions ask “Shall the Town of Lexington be allowed to exempt from the provisions of proposition two and one-half... the amounts required to pay for the bonds issued in order to pay costs...” for the projects (key word is "exempt").

The answer is NO because the Town can fund these projects without raising taxes, without delaying them and without forgoing $16.5 million in state reimbursement.

If voters say YES, the Town will raise $6 million annually more in taxes to repay the projects' "exempted" debt — an extra +3% tax increase, $350-$490 more in annual taxes for a typical house (assessed at $831,000). The Town has not calculated this % figure, so we did from official Town documents (at Lexvote.org).

If voters say NO, the Town can fund these projects without any tax increase, by saving $6.5 million, enough to pay for the $6 million in debt service (see Lexvote.org):

• Reassign 3.2% of our elementary students to another school, while staying within current classroom guidelines. The School Committee can decide this immediately. 3,052 of our 3,153 elementary students won't be affected. This saves $2 million and frees up 16 classrooms to accommodate rising enrollments, the equivalent of almost a full new school we won’t have to build. Details at Lexvote.org/sc

• Raise permanently all employees’ annual salaries by $7,000 and reduce the Town's 85% contribution to health premiums to 50% (like in Concord). This increases or maintains total compensation for every single employee. But more married employees will subscribe to a plan from their spouse's employer, saving the Town $2.5 million (net of salary increases). This will end the indirect subsidies other employers now receive from Lexington taxpayers (because our 85% is so high). It can be done in 2018, by putting the health benefits negotiations recently started on hold until the Town can propose a full package to our unions, and by keeping our current agreement in effect until a new one is reached. Details at Lexvote.org/hc

• Get the State or communities sending us METCO students to fund the $2 million (or more) that the program now costs Lexington taxpayers beyond the current State subsidy of $1.5 million, or reduce the number of new METCO students accepted in Lexington each year. Details at Lexvote.org/metco

It's not too late: we must implement these 3 measures, whose savings will pay for the projects without raising taxes yet again — and expensive High School renovations loom. The Town's reserves ($37 million) can cover the debt service for the projects until these 3 measures are fully implemented.

Additionally, Lexington can raise more money by getting the State to recognize that large commercial properties are not currently assessed at their full market value (many are now vastly under-assessed).

Lexington can also cut taxes on small homes (where most seniors and people with limited incomes live) with a “residential exemption,” which is finally considered 13 years after it was first proposed.

Finally, something the YES campaign won't tell you: the Selectmen shouldn't gamble on a YES vote on the Hastings question; they must schedule a Special Town Meeting before December 21 to reauthorize the Hastings school project on a non-exempt basis if the Hastings question fails on December 4, so Lexington doesn't forgo $16.5 million in state reimbursement. The YES campaign asserts that "A “no” vote would mean rejecting this aid [...]" in the Boston Globe and in its mailings: Lexington deserves better — let's stick to the facts, not "scare" voters into voting one's way, or blaming them if the Selectmen don't have a plan B.

Vote NO on December 4 on all questions: the Town can and must fund these projects without a new tax increase.

Patrick Mehr
Chair, Committee for Financial Responsibility in Lexington