Mansfield politics

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by Sweetwater

Mansfield...call the bluff and refuse any tax increases. If you let tax increases go through, you'll never get it back. But...the economy will improve eventually. Tax increases are never short term solutions.

The tax increase would legally only be for this year. Prop 2 1/2 limits helps protect the residents in that aspect.

The selectmen need to accept the request from the schools for an override. Then the selectmen would have to vote to present that information to the town for the town to vote on at a special meeting with an open hearing.

At a ton of these meetings, Mansfield Crossing was discussed and voted on. One of the sales to the town was the estimated $1 million in added revenue to the town. What they left out was the requirement to add a handful of police, fire and other town personnel/services - all for a single shopping center. From what I hear, that the added personnel ate up over 3/4s of the money and that's just what was reported.

I've had a theory about this town for the last year. The town government had so much money coming in from Great Woods, an industrial park that was packed full and the revenue that was gained through permitting and taxes from all the new home construction that they didn't have to be wise with their money. The town got two new ambulances, couple new fire engines, expanded high school, redesigned bus pickup/drop-off for grades 6-12 and 4 or 5 repavings of Pratt St between Hope and Franklin St.

There was so much money coming in that they could spend, spend spend and with that, huge areas of waste developed along with massive areas of bloat. Now, that there's significantly less money coming it and a huge bubble of students entering the middle and high schools, they don't know where to gather the funds.

It's absolutely ridiculous that with so many different revenue streams that the town is consistently facing so much hardship. Add in that piece of crap Town Manager that they finally fired and the current state of the town is the result.


I agree completely agree with Buckman, No Override and vote them out.

[fishbones]

Originally Posted by JohnnyD

There was so much money coming in that they could spend, spend spend and with that, huge areas of waste developed along with massive areas of bloat. Now, that there's significantly less money coming it and a huge bubble of students entering the middle and high schools, they don't know where to gather the funds.

It's absolutely ridiculous that with so many different revenue streams that the town is consistently facing so much hardship. Add in that piece of crap Town Manager that they finally fired and the current state of the town is the result.

You hit the nail on the head here. Because of it's location and good school systems, Mansfield became a place where families wanted to live. The town grew too much too fast, and as a result the schools and infrastructures in the town had to be made bigger to accomodate the influx of people. When the commercial tax revenue decreased, the town lost a ton of money it had counted on. It will come back eventually, though. Just be wary of anyone who tells you the tax increase will only last a year. While it may be true, they'll find another way to get your money. They'll value your property higher or something else.

In Easton our budget is in good shape, but they still somehow raised my property tax in 2009. I can't figure that one out. We may end up going through the same thing as Mansfield in a couple of years. They voted to build a 124 unit 40B apartment complex in town in a historic building and the developer won't have to pay taxes for 5 years on the property (not including the 2 years while it's being built). That's going to be a lot of people being added to schools, etc... without revenue from taxes. After 5 years, it's going to be converted into condos with 20% being kept as 40B housing.