LETTER: Pass The Override Ballot Question At Sudbury Election

SUDBURY, MA—The following letter was submitted:

In most U.S. municipalities taxing authority is held by the mayor or board of selectmen. They assess what’s needed to meet their community's goals for town services and schools, then raise or decrease taxes accordingly.

In 1980 anti-tax proponents propelled Prop 2 1/2 to passage in Massachusetts, limiting how much town budgets can grow year to year. When some budget items increase faster than the cap, other items must be cut to fit total expenditures under the cap. As a result, town and school services can lose ground and budgets become unworkable without overrides.

After decades of living with an arbitrary property tax cap divorced from actual inflation rates, changes in the marketplace, and evolving needs in communities, some citizens consider overrides to be unpleasant, periodic exceptions that must be fought or grudgingly supported when the schools', police', or firefighters' budgets are in crisis.

Who among us is thrilled when our property taxes increase? Clearly, no one. Yet given the harm to the quality of town services and schools, and consequently the value of our homes, we should view overrides as an expected and normal correction of the budgetary process. Occasional overrides are necessary to remediate the cumulative damage inflicted by Prop 2 1/2. We must take advantage of the law’s built-in mechanisms for setting right the imbalances that develop due to the law.

It's been ten years since an override to remedy a shortfall in an SPS budget (aside from urgent building repairs) was passed in Sudbury. Since the crash of 2008 and the ensuing recession, the schools and town services have tightened their belts in many ways and made do. Now it's time for the community to step up and pitch in with adequate support.

If you want to preserve the quality of our schools and our public safety services and keep Sudbury a great town for all of us, then vote Yes for the Ballot Question on Tuesday, May 9.

Kay Bell
348 Old Lancaster Road

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