Town of Braintree

A Braintree teacher holds forth

If we are going to survive our latest controversies caused by outlandish, ill advised school contracts, Quinn Bill fiasco retroactive payments, new police, new firefighters, then we need a townwide course in fiscal prudence.
The pie can only be cut into so many slices. The following are realities and we have to understand without bashing the fools who believe the simplest of solutions is cut, cut, cut!
(I disagree, point one: You flatter your self, teachers are not the high prestresses of education,
that position is the root of the salary problem! You are obviously are a teacher by implication, and I for one object to being called a fool for advocating fiscal prudence! The real biggest assets of the town in the monetary sense are those of us who pay the bills of this town! The endless demands by you and your ilk will bring Braintree to its knees and financially ruin and force us the owners of the tax paying property in town to bankruptcy, as if you really care, just move-on to the next school position in another town and do it again!!)

We can agree that teachers LIKE ALL TOWN EMPLOYEES are our biggest assets in town. They deserve a fair wage. However, we need to learn the lesson that ZERO increase this year and an affordable increase next year is black and white.
(Why didn?’t the schools accept a zero increase, why do you council police/fire to be more prudent than the school unions? We cannot agree that teachers, like all town employees, are our biggest assets, they are our biggest consumers of resources. They are simply employees of the town, no more no less!)

Our School Committee screwed up big time and as a result, they must absorb the first year costs of their preposterous cave in on their negotiations. All other unions need to accept that reality for this year!(IT WASN?’T A SCREW UP, AS YOU CALL IT, BUT A COLD CALCULATED ACT BY THE CHAIR OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE!!)
Second, the games have begun! Six new cops and seven new firefighters approved by our Selectmen yesterday during their budget review! Response: NOT THIS YEAR because what is it these Selectmen politicians don't understand about WE CAN'T AFFORD TO DO THIS for the coming year! The PIE isn't that big enough. Maybe next year, less than six or seven could be added, but WE HAVEN'T THE RESOURCES this coming budget year.
(What a hypocrite, after raping the town for excessive pay raises and step increases and three more years of budget busting salary increases to come you, one of the chosen ones, have the unmitigated gall to be critical of the police and fire pay demands/requests! The sniping at the police/fire funding requests by teachers seems to be a common denominator and an indicator of teachers excessive greed! )
Town Meeting will need the boldest backbone in memory to stand up and be heard clearly we can't afford this and an override isn't the solution.
(AN OVERRIDE IS A TAX INCREASE PLAIN AND SIMPLE, PROP. 2.5 WAS VOTED BY US TO SAY NO TO EXCESSIVE , THEY STILL ARE, INCREASES IN TAXATION, WE HAVE ,THE TAXPAYERS OF THIS TOWN HAVE SAID NO IN THE PAST, HAVE YOU NO EARS, NO, IT IS FISCAL INSANITY!!)




By A poor taxpayer, getting poorer

WackyAcky is soon gone


WackyAcky is soon gone from Braintree as our Selectmen were behind closed doors working on a good-bye cop out yesterday. She was a poor fit for Braintree and 3 years on the job at $90,000 was such a waste for us all. A leader not and an executive administrator proven to be poor. Let's let her leave with dignity, say our good-byes and bite our losses.

New police and firefighters supported by our Selectmen was another stupid action of our Selectmen yesterday during budget reviews. So, we've had some crime in town. Pouring more money to add more cops will not stop crime folks and that has been proven! In the good days when we were at 86 cops, did they prevent crime then any more or less than we have now?
As for seven new firefighters, nice try, but we can't afford to do it. Will seven new firefighers prevent less fires or accidents they respond to than they do now?

In the best of times when the economy is strong, an argument might be made, but in this tight economy time, no means NO, WE CAN'T AFFORD TO DO SO. Now, our Selectmen are no different than the complaining recently about our School Committee one year and three year contracts with their teachers WE CAN'T AFFORD!

We hired a Finance Director to track the dollars in town. HE SAID we can't afford and now we're facing a $2million shortfall if we proceed with these latest BEYOND LEVEL SERVICES BUDGET challenge of our Finance Committee and Finance Director. Let's get rid of our Finance Director if we aren't going to accept his black and white reality reports.

Let's get serious, folks, and make our elected officials represent US, not their heavy weight unionized groups they oversee!

----Some Hot Topics

By News Scribe

Been there, and got stuffed

by the schools. Last year there was a genuine effort to get evryone working together to address our budget woes. For the most part it worked better than it has in years past until the school committee sent a nasty gram to the selectmen.

BELD has nothing to do with the financial woes of the town and the selectmen have been working with them to get more services for the town to help us.

The problem really is that the schools continue to come to the FinCom meetings and tug at all of the herat strings to get the money that they need. They've been out of control for years and that's the way they like it. It works well for them and they know it.

Until the school committee understands that it is not all about them and that they need to be responsible in funding their programs and not rely on one time funding sources like our chairman and Finanace Director have stated, then the problem will never get corrected.

Its one thing to take votes for what you truly believe in but it's another to craft a vote that benefits your teachers and hurts the rest of the town departments.



By Fincommer