Town of Braintree

to depend on the state

is insanity. they can always find an excuse for not sharing revenue with the towns. blaming the governor is a standard liberal trick. the real power is with the liberal house and senate, they can and will override when it is in their best interests, they will let the governor take the heat when ever they can. you don't care much for looking into the truth of this issue do you? the out of control spending is our problem not the states. those who form alliances behind the scenes are the real problem. behind the scenes deals cost us big money. the question of anyone who advocates an override is why is this in their best interest, why would they advocate something that most of the town doesn?’t want and has voted down so often? why is it put on the agenda
again and again, do they think we will weaken after awhile, do they think we will change our mind and forget how we voted before on the issue..in lite of the information made available to us today I for one say no to budget busting pay raises this and every year. is it easier to fool the taxpayers than the school union? and we definitely don?’t need an override we need a refund
from the schools.

Thank You, TMM12

For your effort and sharing the grusome facts with us--our outlay is greater than our income. Do those handbooks explain how the money is expended within each department? How did the Personnel Dept. manage a 209% increase in their budget in 9 yrs.? You can understand that certain depts. have their operating expenses inceased through mandated causes, but the Personnel Dept., what is the reason for their increase? And within each depts. increase, how much of the increase was due to salary increases/expenses? Do the handbooks show line item expenses? I find the increases for the Police and Fire Depts. extremely low, wouldn't you think that in nine yrs. time their salaries alone would have increased their budgets by a minimum of 27%, add in the Quinn Bill, other contractual expenses and I would think their percent of increase would be greater, wouldn't you? Your post is a great reason for town meeting to call for an accounting of each department's expenditures before it agrees to increase their budgets. Tnanks again.

By money matters

Make budget public

When David Shaw was selectman chm, he set aside a full day where each dept head came before the bos to present their forecasted operating budget for the upcoming year.

He asked that budgets be presented in two ways:
level funded and also with a x% cut.

It provided a great vehicle for identifying where cuts can be made.

The meeting was also very public carried live on our community cable taking out any secrecy.

Assessments

If our budget has grown approx. 5.5% per yr. for 9 yrs., and that is a total budget inc.of 49%, then how does our total prop.assessments, with approx. a l.77% inc. over that same period, factor into our revenue position? From 2002-2003 our assessments increased approx. 30%; and for the most part these were fair market values. But do you think our assessors dropped the ball in previous yrs. and we were under assessed, thus causing a negative affect on our income?