Time to Think Different
It’s time for Belmont town and school officials to “think different” (with a nod to the old Apple ad campaign.) It’s time for Belmont town and school officials to “think smarter”.
Belmont residents are strong supporters of our town and have proven over the years that they recognize increased taxes are needed to maintain and to upgrade our assets and infrastructure. Belmont officials must respect that support by proposing only those capital projects whose initial and ongoing costs to the taxpayer are within capital budget amounts that are approved by the taxpayers in advance of any project plan being initiated. What’s more, Belmont officials should present viable alternatives for these capital projects to town residents, rather than single-threaded, outsized proposals that demand a never-ending series of one-off debt exclusions and overrides. Rather, alternatives with a range of “price-tags” should be presented to all voters, not one reflecting the wish list of special interest groups.
The Problem: Rather than developing project alternatives that lie within realistic fiscal parameters determined by the taxpayers, or presenting less costly alternative proposals, town and school officials routinely and habitually define a SINGLE AND ONLY alternative and then devote all their efforts to selling the price tag to you, the Belmont voter.
Here are several examples of this single-threaded thinking over the years.
The Middle and High School project: A $300 million new structure was not the ONLY solution to an aging school - but it was the only one presented to Belmont residents, who approved a $215 million debt exclusion. Winchester renovated and expanded their high school at half that investment. Renovating our High School was rejected, as was a more modest construction.
This “over-spend” on the juggernaut of a school building is even more distressing when one realizes that it was justified largely by a projected increase in student enrollment that never materialized.
In 2022, district wide enrollment dropped for the second year in a row, no longer attributable to a temporary pandemic dip. The new Middle and High School, which added over $1800 annually to the average tax bill, was justified by a projected 2021 enrollment of 4900 students. Our current enrollment is 600 students fewer than that projection.
Current arguments are being made that equating a lower enrollment with lower budget needs is “over-simplification.” Yet projected enrollment numbers were the justification for both the 2019 debt exclusion for the school building project and enrollment and related classroom size was used to advance the 2015 override. Apparently, enrollment only counts as justification for spending when it’s projected to rise, not when it falls.
The school cannot be “unbuilt”, and your related increased tax bill will be a burden for some 30 years – that’s $54,000 that won’t help pay for college tuition or your retirement.
Example Two – The Belmont Senior Center – Leading up the 2005 vote, Senior Center supporters insisted on a standalone, dedicated structure. A standalone structure with all related expenses was the sole alternative presented to the voters in a successful debt exclusion vote. In comparison, Winchester constructed and has since updated the Jenks Senior Center using only private donations – no taxpayer burden at all.
Soon after construction, the Senior Center “morphed” to the Beech Street Center to broaden its use, since the Senior Center was underutilized. Even after this recharacterization, the Beech Street Center operates well below optimal utilization by Belmont citizens (Seniors from neighboring towns visit). In that single-threaded development, Belmont missed an opportunity for a true mixed-use building, co-developed with a new Belmont library, which could have been a real, vital Community Center. We regret that lost opportunity – seniors, adults and children coming together in a well imagined and thoughtfully developed building.
Example Three – The Underwood Pool. The only alternative presented to voters was a multi-million rebuild. Voters were told “You must vote for this debt exclusion, or there is no pool.” The resulting debt exclusion benefits fewer than 1000 Belmont residents, determined by the number of passes issued annually.
Belmont seems ready to repeat this insanity. There must be a new and larger library, estimated at $40 million. As planned, the library will house fewer adult books, but will have more open public spaces - although there are multiple usable public spaces in other town and school buildings. It will have study nooks for teens, although there is a new library in the High School with study space. The desire for study nooks was expressed years prior to the new school construction but remains in the design. Voters will be asked to approve a debt exclusion for this project or the library closes. It’s all or nothing – there is no “Plan B”. Belmont voters should be offered a choice of alternate projects – a smaller structure or a creative renovation. Put THAT on a ballot.
Medford recently built a new library, substantially funded through a grant, plus donations, relieving the Medford taxpayers of much of the burden of the project cost. Belmont’s fund-raising efforts have yielded less than $3 million. Much more effort should be dedicated to soliciting large private donations.
This is NOT opposition to a new library, which clearly needs a solution. The library is eloquent testimony to Belmont’s chronically poor building maintenance. As has been asked in multiple public meetings, Belmont citizens should be offered alternatives at lower funding levels – not a single high-ticket project plan.
There must be a new skating rink; current estimates price this project at around $20 million. Voters must approve this spend, or there will be no rink for Belmont. In late 2021, Marblehead conducted a feasibility study for construction of a new ice rink, at an estimated cost of $7.6 million. There is still time for realistic options – not “pie-in-the sky” plans as described by an unintentionally un-muted committee member. Alternative plans, cost and related tax increases should be presented to Belmont voters. We can only hope that we will be given a choice.
Town and school officials embrace this single-threaded thinking, and openly discuss the future debt exclusions and overrides well before fully investigating and vetting options and the related cost with all the residents. It’s noteworthy that in past years Belmont spurned public-private developments for both the library and the skating rink, another indication of this single-threaded thinking.
The Solution: Belmont first needs an independent, comprehensive inventory of the state of ALL our major assets – commonly known as a Physical Conditions Assessment. This assessment will lay out what our buildings (will) need, both now and in the future, for all residents to see. The Town must then develop a long-term budget for both major and more routine capital expenditures, with realistic estimates of when such projects will need to be undertaken. This budget must clearly quantify the options for each project and the estimated cost of each in today’s dollars, and a corresponding future cost given the long-term average rate of inflation. This budget will need to be prioritized by ALL the residents, not just a select few who are appointed by a handful of people. Once prioritized, all the residents must be given ample opportunity to lay out maximum allowable dollar amounts for each project. Only after the residents have agreed upon a budget for each project should any design work take place.
Lastly, Belmont must be more creative with repurposing and utilizing our buildings. For example, move the School Administration offices into unused space in the new high school, and release the Pleasant Street building for commercial or alternative development – conscientious development since the building is historically significant. Another possibility is to site a new library adjacent to the Beech Street Center, releasing the current library building and land for business development, and an increase in our commercial tax base.
We join our Belmont neighbors in supporting our town and schools with our tax dollars. We know that taxes are necessary and will increase. But we implore our officials to stop this single-threaded governance which imposes the wants and desires of a handful of misguided supporters with no regard for cost and the burden it places on our people and our town. It’s time to think smarter.