Every tax is a pay cut.  Every tax cut is a pay raise.
Citizens for Limited Taxation

Lopsided Funding Friday, April 15, 2005
Harold J. Wolfe Metrowest Daily News
The town of Framingham has about 37,000 registered voters and 216 town meeting slots.  Each Town Meeting member represents 171 voters.  In the library vote of March 15, which had above average attendance, there were 26 vacancies, 46 absences and 2 abstentions, implying that nearly 13,000 registered voters in Framingham had no representation.  Imagine if you will, our outrage, if the US Congress had such an abysmal attendance record.

It is within the purview of Town Meeting to set the revenue sharing values between the town and the schools.  The current setting, about 61 percent for schools and 39 percent for the town seems lopsided.  This value was never set by Town Meeting because it has no leadership within its ranks.  This explains why our Town Manager appears to play the cards.

The public school students (or "the children" as we so fondly call them in politics) constitute 13 percent of the town's population but are given 61 percent of the town's resources.  This leaves the rest of us, who constitute 87 percent of the population, only 39 percent of the resources.  I admit that the students are the future, but we aren't dead after 18 years of age and we have a long life ahead of us.

The town claims to be unable to handle its infrastructure repair costs.  Perhaps, a shift of funds might help the rest of us.  It's not all about "the children."

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