Local government dilemma

Submitted by yawu on Mon, 04/21/2008 - 6:55am
As former Norton Selectman Bill Gouveia points out in his Attleborough Sun Chronicle column, elected officials in local cities and towns are facing tough challenges with costs of health care, heating oil, and transportation increasing faster than the revenues the towns rely on to cover their costs.

The challenge for local officials is to bring this point home, adjust their governmental systems accordingly, and survive the inevitable wrath of the voters. Pay more taxes or get less services - it's that simple.
It is no secret what the voters want. They want more services and lower taxes.
Someone needs to tell them that ain't happening.

Gouveia knows from his experience as a selectman how difficult it is to ask people to pay more in taxes for the services they rely on every year. But that’s what officials in every town in Massachusetts are going through this year.

The difficulty these towns are having underscores the need for substantive tax reform at the state level. The fact is, the local aid and Chapter 70 education funds going to cities and towns has dropped while the cost of running local government has gone up. In 2000, we voted to cut the state income tax, many of us not realizing how it would affect our schools, our local fire departments and the ability of our cities and towns to provide the most basic services.

Our Legislature will soon face the same dilemma our town officials are facing. As Gouveia puts it:

What we cannot do is simply try and continue to operate the same systems with less money every year. It doesn't work. That is not philosophy, just simple math.
in

Comments

From a local film Maker

Submitted by Judy Meredith on Wed, 04/23/2008 - 9:51am.
I got an email from a friend who giave me permission to post this Oy vey is mir, what a mess. I just found out that Alaska passed a similar bill with fully-transferable credits. Guess where I'm shooting next week. Thanks for educating me on the fact that the tax credit we've benefited from drains revenues that could have been spent on all the public structures that protect the environment that we care so much about. Nonetheless, from what I hear from my filmmaking friends, this is the busiest season they have ever had. Everyone is working on a variety of projects, especially re-enactments for history documentaries. We are already working in the state so it doesn't bring us here, but many outside companies do come here because of a variety of factors including tax credits. We work on small margins and the tax credits can make or break a project. Perhaps if you are counting only beans you can make a case against the credits but it seems there are many intangibles, from keeping people employed to reputation to building skills for crew members. Naturally it's a race to the bottom, but until every state has equal tax incentives (which means they will no longer be necessary) it's a good idea to stay in the competition. BTW, the tax credits system is an incentive for us to spend as much money as possible in Massachusetts rather than in New York. Maybe the solution is for the Feds to offer a tax credit for any production within the US and let the states keep the tax dollars. Then we would keep film production in the US instead of Canada and Mexico. Judy Meredith