Letters to the Editor
Letter to the Editor
Why Holden Needs an Override
Why do we need to raise our property taxes more than 2.5 percent this year? We would need to approve an “override” of the 2.5 percent per year cap on annual property tax increases that was passed in Massachusetts in 1980. Residential and commercial property taxes fund our municipal services and school system, combined with state and federal funds.
The American system has two handicaps: 1) we lack a national health system and
2) federal spending on education has dwindled for a generation and has fallen off a cliff under the current administration. Lacking national health insurance, we are at the mercy of health insurance companies. The health insurer for the Wachusett Regional School District increased premiums by over 21 percent last year alone. Federal support for education has decreased at pre-school to post-grad levels, and now the Department of Education is being dismantled. They administer grants to states, which then pass along money to school systems like WRSD. Less federal money means less state support. Shifts in the state funding formula assist poor urban schools at the expense of suburban areas like ours, robbing Peter to pay Paul. All this adds up to unsustainable increases in costs.
Employees receive raises to keep up with the cost of living. The cost of food and construction materials has increased dramatically. Our property taxes simply cannot keep up with all these expenses. It falls on us citizens to either dig deeper to try to maintain the quality of life in our town, or we face a diminution in the quality of life and of our schools. Our state and local officials are struggling to maintain services in the face of massive policy failures at the federal level.
While we dig into our pockets to try to shore up our local library, Department of Public Works, Senior Center, school system etc., we must demand, and work for, better federal policy and governance. The current system is unsustainable.
– Robin Van Liew, RN
Holden
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Thank you for your February article on the Rutland prison camps (Rutland Historical Commission Takes on DCR to Preserve Prison Camp). Ever since my siblings and I were in grammar school, our Dad would take us on drives through the whole prison camp area. He took us fly fishing in Burnshirt Brook a few times. As an adult, up to just before Covid, I would ride through there on my own, stopping at the cell block and walking around and inside of it. One time I brought clippers and clipped some wild bushes on one side that were getting out of hand. Then I would go to the root cellar. One time I challenged myself to walk all the way in by myself and touch the back wall. I did and stood with my back to the wall and snapped a picture facing out. Another time there were blackberries growing to the right of the entrance. I picked enough to make a pie. As for the graffiti, the situation was always self-policing. One time there was a “male anatomy” painted on one of the pillars in the root cellar. I bought some gray spray paint and went back a few days later and it was gone, painted over with a much more pleasing illustration. At the cell block, the quintessential “F” bomb seems to be a favorite among other less than classy verbiage. But they always get painted over by the graffiti artists. Perhaps they are miffed at having their masterpieces ruined. Please do not destroy and erase these very historical artifacts. They have never been a problem in the past.
– Donmarie Sespaniak, Paxton
Correction:
Robert Birkbeck is the Town Administrator in Paxton, not the Town Manager as was reported in the March issue of WFP.
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