Thanks. Mike

No one asks the hard questions like “Can we organize our selves better for more effective service delivery? Can we substitute expensive labor with technology? Can we change the way we have done business for last 30 years and be more effective? Is this really an appropriate function of government?”

This crisis will challenge town managers and leaders as never before. Anyone can manage in good times. We are going to find out who is a manager dedicated to the effective delivery of public services and who is an empty suit.

I think we all agree that teaching is an invaluable, and sometimes thankless job.

Yet, I have serious issues with public service union employees who – year after year, are granted automatic, non-merit based salary increases. I encourage you to look out at on the economic landscape, and take into account the circumstances under which most people today work – at least those in the private sector.

Many companies, including some very large companies here in Massachusetts -have enforced across-the-board wage **reductions** of 5% – 15% during the last 2 years. They continue to do so in 2010.

At the same time, most private sector employees – those fortunate to have health-care benefits, must cover between 40% and 45% of their fully-loaded family healthcare insurance premiums directly out of their payroll. Though I am not expert at benefits management, this stands in stark contrast to most in Government and public-service unions, where union members either receive their healthcare for “free” (Thank you UAW, IBEW, and SEIU) or on heavily discounted, taxpayer-subsidized platforms that cover 70% – 80% of their healthcare premiums.

That said, I am generally opposed to budget cuts that impact **front-line teachers** Most mysterious is that when local tax revenues dwindle and the waters get shallow – the knee-jerk reaction is to put front-line teachers, firemen, and police in the budget cross-hairs – and wave the imminent threat of cutting positions.

Mr. Boiardi’s post above is incisive, and thought-provoking. Why would we eliminate teachers? Why not look a few more levels up the Management food-chain & pay-scales to see what cuts can be made with County and State career education “officials” and “Administrators”; i.e., 6-figure salary recipients who are not student-facing, and make little or no direct contribution to the education of students?

What other reductions,eliminations, or postponements can be made – as Mr. Boairdi suggests, to capital or operating expenses that are not vital to teaching?

Al does raise interesting points on what we can consider in these budget discussions. I need to collect more information but what I did know is that the k-8 budget has been requested to reduce -3% from last year’s approved budget. What they submitted was a bit over 3% and because of the circuit breaker on SPED and the contracted 3rd year salary increase negoitiated in 2007-8, they would need to eliminate ~10 positions. The question to pose to our town is can we subsidize their request to get them to their 3% (somehow) and a engage in a supplemental discussion with the teacher union to evaluate if they would forgo salary increases to save their colleagues from budget cuts?

Again lots to consider but the bottom line is AN EDUCATED ATTENDANCE AT TOWN MEETING ON APRIL 12th!

I did not post the comment which you applied to. If and/or when I reply to posts on such forums, I use my full name.

John Mauro, Jr.

We are all paying a fortune in taxes and I think that is the point. It was tolerable in good times but now there is real economic hardship that has hit real families in our community.

I have lived in town about 14 years and over that time my taxes have risen about 2.5X and I assure you that I have not gotten 2.5X more service from our govenment.

Part of the reason why we carry a heavy burden is that we have one of the highest debt service ratio’s in the Commonwealth and will for the next 4-5 years. This is primarily the result of our school building programs, which were built for a population that has not materialized.

There are also a lot of wasteful and inefficient practices to be found far and wide in our government. These too have survived in good times and now need hard reexamination.

I don’t want you to move, I want you to participate so we can get some new thinking that will shake up our “business as usual” approach to government.

John