Last night we completed debate and passed the Town and the Capital budgets, as well as our annual appropriation to the Minuteman, and the creation of a Special Education Reserve Fund.
As anticipated, the Town and Capital budget passed.
There were two attempts last night to amend these from the floor.
An amendment from Christopher Loreti of Precinct 7 would have changed the Capital budget by directing $30,000 from a parking study to bolster efforts to plant more trees in town.
An amendment from Stephen Harrington of Precinct 13 would have changed the Town budget by appropriating an additional $300,000 to education, and while it is not legally possible for Town Meeting to tell the School Department how to spend it's money, the hope was that this money would be used to reduce fees for extracurricular activities.
You can (might be able to) read up on Mr. Harrington's proposal here:
http://truepersons.com/2013/05/05/town-meeting-2013-night-5-school-budgets/
[Actually, if truepersons has decided for whatever reason to block you from their site, as they have some, you won't be able to read up on this.]
This morning my rationale for supporting or opposing each of these amendments might be due to the merits of the need, or the importance of staying within our plan, or feedback on how important these issues are to my constituents and neighbors.
Last night, my rationale for opposing both of them was simple: I had no advance opportunity to consider these amendments and think seriously about them.
We've had the Finance Committee's report since April 19th, and the Capital Planning Committee's report since April 22nd.
Both amendments were made from the floor, with no copies provided to Town Meeting members.
Either of these amendments could have been distributed in advance, giving me and others a chance to study them correctly, and weigh them on their merits.
They were not, and predictably both were defeated by large margins.
We have about one more night's worth of work to do, and we'll wrap up the 2013 Annual Town Meeting.
Thanks for this summary, Wes. Your link to Mr. Harrington's comments work for those who have access to it. In an ongoing testimony to his openness, he blocks me from seeing Truepersons. Still, I have ways of seeing them. I do not know why My. Harrington wants to create a club of his own in a public space.
ReplyDeleteBob Sprague
Re Wes's comment that he did not support Mr. Harrington's amendment, because he had insufficient time to consider it, perhaps the proponent will weigh the wisdom of hiding his presentation behind password protection, as was the case until last night. Nothing wrong with trying to education the public in advance.
ReplyDeleteBob Sprague