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Amherst Wins! Amherst Wins!
Today the overwhelming majority of Amherst made the decision to invest in our schools, our libraries, and our town services.
The override swept every precinct in town and won by a 58% - 42% margin, despite an severe economic times and an organized NO MORE OVERRIDES campaign and lack of support from some members of the School Committee.
This effort was an amazing grassroots effort pulled off by a broad and deep group of tireless volunteers. Over 170 volunteers worked including seniors and elementary and high school kids. Folks from every part of Amherst - and neighboring towns. We'd also like to tip our hats to the override team from Northampton who helped jumpstart our strategy and folks from Pelham and Leverett and Shutebury who helped the campaign. From the 5th grader making a video to the high school gals making phone calls to the seniors walking door to door to the parents delivering signs between shuttling kids - we truly came together as a community to make it happen.
So to all the folks who contributed dollars, time, food, good mojo, all of us in Amherst say THANK YOU!!!!!
Here are the unofficial results for each precinct:
Campaign Blog
Pottery
An awesome video by Michael DeChiara with Maddy Fordham and Bill Miller! Inspired by Bruce Watson.
As Goes Pottery... So Goes Amherst from massvoices on Vimeo.
Potholes!
An excellent Override spot from Michael DeChiara, Bill Miller and Maddy Fordham!
Potholes from massvoices on Vimeo.
On the streets
The Vote YES for Amherst took to the streets this weekend! We'll be downtown again on Sunday, so join us! Bring your car and we'll decorate the windows with Vote YES in green & white adorable lettering!
Teachers Step Up to Help Amherst!
Amherst teachers have voted to give back an average of $1,000 per teacher to the schools if the override passes! This is an awesome display of investment in our town by our teachers. The police have given back part of their salary and all non-union town employees have forgone their annual increases and given them to the town.
This $350,000 giveback only will happen if the Override passes. Our town is really coming together in this time of fiscal crisis to save the things we love in our community.
See the Gazette story here:
http://www.gazettenet.com/2010/03/16/amherst-teachers-agree-contract-giv...
Apologies
Our sincerest apologies to James Rising, who was mistakenly listed as an override supporter. He is not supporting the override.
An honest error, he was marked as a supporter in our database instead of his wife.
No More?
If you've driven around Amherst lately, you've seen the NO MORE OVERRIDES signs in their hazardous yellow format.
No more overrides? First off, there have only been TWO overrides in the history of Amherst. Secondly, Proposition 2 1/2 was structured that towns would have to pass an occassional override by limiting increases below inflation rates.
Inflation for town services has averaged 3.8% since 1980, and even higher since the 90s. If we had no more overrides, then we would steadily have to eliminate teachers, police, firefighters, DPW, books, schools, libraries until there was nothing left. This is because inflation is higher than the 2.5% limit. We *have* to have an occasional override to catch up.
It's time for us to step up and balance the cuts with a modest override. $16/month is what it will cost the average Amherst homeowner to prevent the most drastic cuts.
Vote YES for Amherst!
http://voteyesforamerst.org
Jonathan O'Keeffe designed these great "No More..." signs to evoke what will actually happen if there really were no more overrides.
Click on a sign to print yours today!
Tightening Our Belts
I hear from some folks that they won't vote for an override until the town "tighten's its belt".
Well, the good news is that Amherst has already tightened its belt. While Northampton was passing its override last year, Amherst was cutting 51 staff from the schools and 13.5 from town departments (including 3 police officers). Our town officials took seriously the message from the failure of the 2007 override. They asked a citizens’ fiscal committee (the FCCC) to examine the budget and identify strategies for closing Amherst’s structural deficit. Here are the areas the FCCC identified in 2008, and what has happened since:
* Increase fees for services. Done. LSSE is now practically all fee-based; other fees increased.
* Increase revenue from ambulance service. Done. Rates have been increased. Reduce costs through efficiencies, consolidation, and regionalization.
* We’ve closed a school, closed a pool, consolidated departments in Town Hall, restructured health plans, pursued regional emergency dispatch, cut over 60 staff.
* Increase economic development. Master Plan is done; business zoning is revamped; revenue-generating projects include the Lord Jeff, Boltwood Place, New England Environmental. Patterson property development and UMass taxable student housing discussions are ongoing.
* Implement local option meals/lodging tax. Done. New, annual revenues now coming in.
* Secure a Prop 2.5 override. Yes, the citizens’ fiscal committee said we would need one. Our public officials have done the hard work needed to erase our structural deficit over the long term. Even with the override, we will have made $7 million in cuts this year and next!
What we face now is the short-term problem of the recession. We can’t just keep cutting our way out – not if we want to emerge with the things we value about our community intact.
Want Lower Taxes? You've got 'em!
One of the primary arguments I hear against an override is that we have to draw the line on every increasing taxes. Here is the simple math after 8 years of Republican administrations in Washington and Boston:
Our taxes are lower today than in 2000! If your family brings in $70,000 a year and you live in the average house in Amherst ($334,600 property value), your combined tax payments for property tax and federal and state income tax were actually over $600 lower in 2009 than they were in 2000!
Absentee Ballots
Will you be out of town on March 23rd? No worries! As of today you can stop by Town Hall and cast your ballot in the election via absentee!
If you are already out of town, all you have to do is send a letter to the Town Clerk telling them you will be out of town on the 23rd, and they will send you an absentee ballot:
Town Clerk
Town of Amherst
4 Boltwood Ave
Amherst, MA 01002
The election is going to be VERY close, every vote will count!
Finance Committee Recommends Override 7-0
At its meeting last night (2/25), the Amherst Finance Committee voted 7 – 0 to recommend to the town that it support the $1,680,441 override referendum on the March 23. The FC will draft a position statement at its next meeting on March 4.
Decisionmaking
As I've talked to folks who are on the fence about an override, I have heard a common theme that they want to see the priorities of our [fill in the blank] changed. Schools, libraries, police, fire, public works, LSSE, I've heard them all referenced for change before someone is willing to commit to an override of $1.68m along with cuts of $2.1m ($7m in cuts in the past two years).
As I was talking with Max Page he summed up a great succinct, short response to this line of thinking as it relates to the schools:
* We have cut the schools by millions of dollars.
* The schools are weaker because of these cuts, which included 55 teachers.
* Whatever you think about specific decisions, starving the schools is not the answer.
Teacher Pay
Some folks think our teachers are overpaid. The facts are that our pay scale is lower than Northampton, Easthampton, South Hadley, Hadley, and Belchertown. Here's a comparison of a beginning and senior teachers' pay
M.A. Step 1
Easthampton $43,210 (FY10)
S. Hadley $41,180 (FY08 - higher now)
Northampton $40,522 (FY10)
Hadley $40,041 (FY10)
Amherst-Pelham $39,628 (FY10)
Belchertown $39,301 (FY09 - higher now)
M.A. Step 9
Northampton $55,119 (FY10)
Easthampton $54,995 (FY10)
S. Hadley $54,658 (FY08 - higher now)
Belchertown $54,408 (FY09 - higher now)
Amherst-Pelham $54,234 (FY10)
Hadley $50,720 (FY10)
Creating more efficient and effective schools is an ongoing effort. In the past 6 years our schools have made cuts, reorganized and re-prioritized programs, closed schools. But the important fact is that our schools will continue making our schools more efficient. But that is not enough. We need an override to prevent the most drastic cuts.
Select Board Sets Override
This morning the SB met and voted to place an override on the 3/23 ballot. Yay!
Total $1,680,441 - A single number (not a menu override).
The Select Board has committed to allocating the funds in this manner:
$739,195 ARMS/ARHS
$452,252 Town Operations
$400,000 Elementary Schools
$88,994 Library
The numbers and ballot are set! Time to crank up the campaign!
Continue to have folks sign the petition and click on this website to Volunteer!
