Please remember to get to the polls on Tues.
Vote NO to save endless dollars wasted in our city.
Extra Dollars taken directly from your pocket every year with no accountability.
There are no INDEPENDENT audits. You know that and I know that. A friend of the former mayor performing the audit doesn't count. When school committee members and alderman want to obtain city documents, they are thwarted. Why? Because financial transactions are hidden. If everything were on the up & up, the documents would be provided with the quickness.
Since there are no INDEPENDENT audits and when particular documents are denied, the obvious conclusion is that much is being hidden. Or as one yes person repeats constantly, the preponderance of the evidence shows that financial dealings are hidden by those entrusted with our city finances.
Vote NO.
Get the polls & Vote No!!
3 No’s from my home!!
It's fun to complain about lack of information and accountability, but there's so much information available, I suspect half the city government is doing nothing but explaining things as their full time job.
Take a minute and look at it: https://www.cityofmelrose.org/budget-information-resources
The logic of the arguments here is, "we need more money -- police, fire, roads, are being shafted. We will not give any more money until they get more resources." Which will come from.... where?
As one person put it, arguing about how to vote here is like standing in front of a burning building, voting on whether we should bother putting the fire out.
Even if you're entirely focused on your own self-interest, you might want to consider that the fire is going to spread, and it's better to put it out now, or it will cost us all even more later.
I might vote no on other occasions, but in this case, a "yes" is the only thing that makes any sense.
"It's fun to complain about lack of information and accountability, but there's so much information available"
The information that the local officials have provided is so full of holes and so defective that it's hard to believe so many "One" types are willing to be taken for such fools. This is not a reputable bunch of officials. Sure, there is the argument that because so many of them (all but one) are in favor of this thing that it must be true. But that argument just doesn't cut it. Melrose has a sick, backwards culture of banding together with ONE view and calling itself "inclusive," regardless of whether that has any truth to it whatsoever (and in Melrose it most certainly does NOT).
Voting NO makes the most sense for all the reasons that have been given to you yes people time & time again. You refuse to listen so I am done trying to educate you.
Remember that the 'information' you point to is being given by those who stand to benefit directly from the $5 million dollars.
Voting NO and hope that a majority do too.
> "Remember that the 'information' you point to is being given by those who stand to benefit directly from the $5 million dollars."
Actually, I should admit, in all seriousness, I'm the one who stands to benefit directly from the $5 million dollars. People on both sides of the issue have said that a "yes" vote could bring higher property values and a "no" vote puts property values at risk (Arnie Cave used this as justification for why the realtors are interested in a "yes", for instance).
It's hard to say how much impact this will have, but all it would take is a house price drop of zero point one percent (actually, 0.094% to be precise, based on the city budget calculator) for any cash savings from a "no" vote to be wiped out entirely.
I'm not actually planning on selling my house any time soon, and obviously there's a difference between home value and cash in hand. But we can correct for that difference by accounting for current home equity loan rates if we need the cash flow, which brings that 0.094% all the way up to the originally stated 0.1%.
So I can't imagine how a "no" vote makes financial sense for any Melrose homeowner.
I'll vote "yes" out of my own self-interest, in addition to the fact that it's the right thing to do.
To $$$&Sense: It makes plenty of sense to vote NO if one feels that this is the only responsible thing to do. From a fiscal point of view, I don't want more tax dollars going to administration that operates without any functional checks and balances or accountability because that will only empower bad administrators (with a proven terrible track record) to further mismanage that which is within their purview. Until there is actual accountability and new, competent management (city and schools), it makes no sense to guarantee a permanent new tax base (roughly 11%) forever onwards from which incompetent officials will only continue doing more of what has gotten our city into its current mess.
It is not sensible to blame external factors (federal and state mandates, etc.) for the pickle Melrose finds itself in, when there are actual large areas of proven incompetence and dishonesty over the past decade (15 years, actually) that deserve full scrutiny first and foremost.
Yes, funding formulas are flawed, the charter schools formulas are flawed, etc., etc. But Melrose officials have screwed up our city and take zero responsibility for this. Why would any sensible taxpayer throw more money at the very people who caused the mess, without demanding accountability measures and proof of change FIRST?
You sound far too sensible to be one of those calling No voters "haters" the way the current and former mayor have often done. You don't sound like the type who would have been screaming F-bombs at the No sign-holders, as happened many times of late (such a disgusting reflection of the intolerance of the NotOne side, and what a divisive moniker "One" chose!).
So perhaps you might think about the fact that despite your sensible-sounding statistics about your home values, your overall position doesn't really hold water. Oh, and by the way, home values skyrocketed after the last failed override.
4 yes votes out of this household, and taking 4 additional senior citizens to vote and then to Prince Pizza that otherwise wouldn't be able to get to the polls. Solid 8 in the yes column with 4 bonus votes for the cost of 2 large pizza's. Not too shabby.