Submitted by the Democratic Candidates for the BET, Elliot Alchek, Matt DesChamps, Scott Kalb, Leslie Moriarity, Stephen Selbst and David Weisbrod
Much attention has been given to our town’s debt policy, unnecessarily.
Both parties are, by statute, required to be aligned about debt financing – because no debt can be issued without seven affirmative votes from the twelve-member BET. In other words, the tie-breaking vote doesn’t count. Ultimately, BET members must reach a consensus on debt policy; let’s determine how best to finance assets AFTER we agree to the capital expenditure.
The big issue, of course, is spending; capital projects represent about 20% of our annual budget while operating expenses, 80%. Both parties state they want to keep our mill rate low and maintain our AAA credit rating, a good thing. However, our plan to achieve this differs in important ways…