Dear Newburyporter: Here are my thoughts on the vote tomorrow Tuesday December 9 in Newburyport. I am voting in favor so that we can improve our athletic fields for our children and the occasional old geezer like myself who still plays baseball. In June of 2012 voters approved three separate questions or three separate debt exclusions. A debt exclusion is a temporary increase in property tax, always to be approved by taxpayers, for a specific project. The debt is the borrowing to undertake a capital project. Once the project is paid off by the additional temporary tax increase, usually in 20 years, the ongoing property tax is reduced by that amount.These votes took advantage of State funding of $32 million for both school projects, almost half of the cost of the school projects. 1) the City’s share of a $38 million new Bresnahan Elementary School. 2) the City’s share of a $27 million renovation of the Nock/Molin School 3) $6.5 million for a new Senior Community Center. The Bresnahan came in under budget. From the City’s website: “The City is holding a special election on Tuesday December 9th. There is one question on the ballot. This referendum question is required to approve the use of $1.7M in surplus funds from the Bresnahan Elementary School project to be reallocated to build a baseball field at the Nock-Molin, replacing the one that was displaced from the Bresnahan site, and to repair the athletic facilities, including the track, at Fuller Field. It is important to note that if this funding is approved, the total debt exclusion cost for the school projects and these fields is still set to come in approximately $1.5M under budget from what was projected back in June 2012. A summary of the tax impact of the initial debt exclusions for the two schools and Senior/Community Center projects as well as the potential impact of the debt exclusion for these two field projects is below. A YES vote means that you support this use of funding for improving the capacity and quality of athletic fields at the Nock-Molin and Fuller facilities. A NO vote means that you do not approve of this use of funding for these purposes.” The City held a public meeting on Tuesday December 2nd at 6:30pm in City Hall Auditorium on City-wide field space needs and the importance of the projects at these two key locations. There have been several articles in the Daily News over the Fall about this matter. The presentation from that December 2nd meeting is provided below. cityofnewburyport/sites/newburyportma/files/field_projects_presentation_12.02.14.pdf I am voting in favor of reallocating this funding. Because the construction was not able to accommodate the baseball field that was on the Bresnahan property and our facility at Fuller Field is already in dire need, we need to do something. Legally, the City needs to have voter approval to use any of the remaining funding for a different purpose; while athletic fields are related, the City Council wanted to get this right procedurally and voted a few months ago to put the matter to a ballot vote. While there was a thought to put this on the November 4th ballot, there were already 5 ballot referendum questions on that ballot. The Council believed that a straight vote was the best and clearest approach. Again the vote would reallocate $1.7M from the original purpose, money that was saved by completing the Bresnahan underbudget, and would not be a new increase in taxes. The amount targeted to the baseball and athletic field needs is $19 each year per the average single family home assessment. We have many needs in this City, especially in the schools. This will solve one of those needs. Im a firm believer that every vote counts ;-), so I hope you get out there. Thank you, Ed Cameron Newburyport City Council
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 02:06:01 +0000
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