Mansfield politics

[buckman]

There is enough Mansfield guys here for our on thread.
What's your take on the schools threat to eliminate sports?

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by buckman

There is enough Mansfield guys here for our on thread.
What's your take on the schools threat to eliminate sports?

Technically, not a threat. On the other hand, it was conveniently timed with the Selectmen/School Board/Finance Committee meeting last night.

The school can't sacrifice significantly more teachers and they saw that last year, when they did fire a lot of teachers, people in the town weren't outraged because the direct effects on their kids wasn't obvious. Fortunately, stimulus money came in from the state to hire some teachers back.

On the other hand, this will immediately and directly affect the residents kids. It also affects many parent's source for "after school child care". So this is the school's way of saying "hey, we've done all we can with the budget we've been provided. They're your kids, it's your money, you decide."

In my opinion, there's a huge budget gap that needs to be closed. The town doesn't want to fire many more teachers. After school sports and arts programs are elective. Schools are expected to but aren't required to have them. If the residents want a service, they're going to have to pay for it. If they don't want to pay for it (which I feel is an acceptable opinion to have), then they won't get the service.

[striperman36]

Several other towns have fee based sports. I think they will change to that policy.

It is not a large amount in the entire budget, so I also believe it is the scare tactic yet again.
bringing the class size up to 32 thats huge.

And turn those damn lights off!!!

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by striperman36

And turn those damn lights off!!!

Please tell me you're talking about the stadium lights for the practice field??

Sometimes I'd be driving home at 11pm and see the stadium lights on. Those drove me absolutely insane

[PaulS]

Looks like there should be a Mansfield fling!

BTW - where is Mansfield?

[buckman]

50 teachers have been let go in the last two years, others have been added.

The school system had a 14% increase last year (stimulas money. oh sh$t, we don't get that every year), They pushed off the hard choices thanks to Obama, now we start to see some of the cost of stimulas.

The town employees were asked last year to move to State pension plans, a move that would have saved the town big bucks. They refused.

The town hired a new Athletic Director just last week. Do these people have any clue.

NO to an overide.

[buckman]

Originally Posted by PaulS

Looks like there should be a Mansfield fling!

BTW - where is Mansfield?

18 miles to the right of Cambridge

[RIJIMMY]

I live and moved to Mansfield because they have good schools, I have young kids. I can understand that there has been a bubble of kids moving through teh schools which has added costs, but we also added Mansfield Commons and Covidien into the town tax pool. they dont send kids to school. I cant understand how that hasnt added lots of $$$ into the town? I can tell you that many of my neighbors are wondering why they would continue to live here if the schools go downwhil, I am one of them.

[striperman36]

Originally Posted by JohnnyD

Please tell me you're talking about the stadium lights for the practice field??

Sometimes I'd be driving home at 11pm and see the stadium lights on. Those drove me absolutely insane

Yeah dem lights.

And, Buckman has it right.

[striperman36]

and thats why we're at SMCS and then Xvarian

[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.

[fishbones]

Stay out of Easton!

[striperman36]

Oh yeah

[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.

[EarnedStripes44]

Mansfield is wack.

[buckman]

A big part of the problem is the forced "low income" apartments we had to have per state mandate. The project on West Street alone is killing us. These people add nothing to the tax base and have alot of children. 28% of our population is in school.

[striperman36]

Originally Posted by buckman

A big part of the problem is the forced "low income" apartments we had to have per state mandate. The project on West Street alone is killing us. These people add nothing to the tax base and have alot of children. 28% of our population is in school.

We had to take those to continue to get state matching funding for what portions of our budget?

[The Dad Fisherman]

Originally Posted by buckman

These people add nothing to the tax base and have alot of children. 28% of our population is in school.

Now if they would just relax the Mortgage requirements for these people so they could buy a house.....Oh, Wait...that didn't work very well before either.

[buckman]

Originally Posted by The Dad Fisherman

Now if they would just relax the Mortgage requirements for these people so they could buy a house.....Oh, Wait...that didn't work very well before either.

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by buckman

A big part of the problem is the forced "low income" apartments we had to have per state mandate. The project on West Street alone is killing us. These people add nothing to the tax base and have alot of children. 28% of our population is in school.

Everyone forgets the strange coincidence of the increased drug problems and crime after the Mansfield Depot was built. Lots of trash came into town with that place.

[striperman36]

Originally Posted by JohnnyD

Everyone forgets the strange coincidence of the increased drug problems and crime after the Mansfield Depot was built. Lots of trash came into town with that place.

Lots of fights I remember that, my wife has experienced overflow from Fridays inside LLBEAN!!

[striperman36]

mansfield selectman transfer 890K from various funds to the school budget.

Mansfield will transfer funds to save school sports - The Boston Globe

okay, now the selectman will put the override on the table? Magic money.

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by striperman36

mansfield selectman transfer 890K from various funds to the school budget.

Mansfield will transfer funds to save school sports - The Boston Globe

okay, now the selectman will put the override on the table? Magic money.

"In return, the committee will remove a property tax override vote from next month’s Town Meeting agenda."

Like I've been saying and as Miller was quoted, this is only a band-aid. The town keeps putting these band-aids on problems, yet it'll be an issue again next year - or the areas where they "transferred" funds from will be at contention next year. They've basically decided that instead of dealing with the PR backlash, they'll take funds away from areas that won't cause as much long-lasting, bad publicity for them come election time.

Hope we don't get too much snow next year or there will be a whole lot of snow days for the kids.

[buckman]

Originally Posted by JohnnyD

"In return, the committee will remove a property tax override vote from next month’s Town Meeting agenda."

Like I've been saying and as Miller was quoted, this is only a band-aid. The town keeps putting these band-aids on problems, yet it'll be an issue again next year - or the areas where they "transferred" funds from will be at contention next year. They've basically decided that instead of dealing with the PR backlash, they'll take funds away from areas that won't cause as much long-lasting, bad publicity for them come election time.

Hope we don't get too much snow next year or there will be a whole lot of snow days for the kids.

What they are looking for is about 1.5 million in somewhat painless concessions from the teachers union and town employees. either that or a lot of them will lose their jobs. Kind of a no-brainer.

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by buckman

What they are looking for is about 1.5 million in somewhat painless concessions from the teachers union and town employees. either that or a lot of them will lose their jobs. Kind of a no-brainer.

Doubling their health insurance contribution and taking a one year freeze on wages is far from painless.

[buckman]

Originally Posted by JohnnyD

Doubling their health insurance contribution and taking a one year freeze on wages is far from painless.

Is is when your job is on the line. Like the rest of us

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by buckman

Is is when your job is on the line. Like the rest of us

Necessary and painless are two separate things. I haven't taken a paycheck at work in almost 3 weeks because it's been necessary... it has been anything but painless though.

It's just another downfall of unions having a lock on public schools. The senior teachers continue to vote against anything that might affect them personally knowing that they have nothing to fear and can't be fired. Just think of how much the quality of school systems would increase if teachers that had been there for 15 years still had to worry about performance reviews - currently, they're all but invincible as long as they don't sleep with their students.

Just another reason why, when I have kids, they'll be going to private school.

[buckman]

Originally Posted by JohnnyD

Necessary and painless are two separate things. I haven't taken a paycheck at work in almost 3 weeks because it's been necessary... it has been anything but painless though.

It's just another downfall of unions having a lock on public schools. The senior teachers continue to vote against anything that might affect them personally knowing that they have nothing to fear and can't be fired. Just think of how much the quality of school systems would increase if teachers that had been there for 15 years still had to worry about performance reviews - currently, they're all but invincible as long as they don't sleep with their students.

Just another reason why, when I have kids, they'll be going to private school.

You said it JD, couldn't agree more. My kids are done and are now in college. I'm still paying almost $6500 a year in taxes. Somebody besides me is taking the hit this time. It may be selfish but I'm tapped out. Sports will survive or our propery values will drop. I don't care if they do, but the town should.

[striperman36]

Originally Posted by JohnnyD

Necessary and painless are two separate things. I haven't taken a paycheck at work in almost 3 weeks because it's been necessary... it has been anything but painless though.

It's just another downfall of unions having a lock on public schools. The senior teachers continue to vote against anything that might affect them personally knowing that they have nothing to fear and can't be fired. Just think of how much the quality of school systems would increase if teachers that had been there for 15 years still had to worry about performance reviews - currently, they're all but invincible as long as they don't sleep with their students.

Just another reason why, when I have kids, they'll be going to private school.

Mine already are, and if I could somewhere where I could get credit for that cost I would

And unfunded pensions and benefits in the private sector is killin us all