Town of Braintree

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!
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. 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!
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.
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.
I'd rather watch our Selectmen haul the BELD board in front of them to explain these outlandish bonuses and their department's 4%-4%-4% employee contract! That's backbone. That's leadership and that's what they were elected to do for us voters!
Finally, with insurance increasing, fuel costs increasing, tax bills increasing, everything seemingly increasing just to survive as we were, then everyone needs to shout in town - let's do this together, let's all get on the same page and let's stop this ME FIRST FOR MY DOMAIN and let's see how the chips land attitudes. Ted Langill and his Finance Committee are right! If there is something cloudy about what we can afford and can't afford, we all in unison need to proceed together and accept these cold hard facts! Stop the bash mouthing and let's become positive in our approach to resolve these issues.

By Patty

A Braintree teacher holds forth

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

To Patty

You have about zero people fooled
that you aren't someone connected to the school dept.You are being very presumptive that we should leave them alone and go after everybody else. Bar none they have the biggest slice of the pie and they continue to demand more and more each year. I instead believe we should go after everyone. Start with a hiring freeze and then a major reorganization of all the departments.
Its understood all the departments heads will circle the wagon and protect their turf and what we need is a strong leader to make the hard dicisions.

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