Tonight 7:30 PM L-S Auditorium will be the last night of this year's Sudbury Town Meeting. 

I would like to Congratulate all of you for voting yesterday.  The turnout was outstanding given the horrible weather.  It was a very, very close election as we won by 36 votes.  Thanks for all of your support.  Talk to you soon, Bob

 As an avid supporter of our schools with 14 more years of public school ahead of us I thought I would always categorically support school funding initiatives.  I grew curious as to why repeated overrides, which are permanent tax increases, did not solve our deficit.

 

I believe that if you do the same thing over and over and do not solve your problem, the answer may lie elsewhere. 

 

Since 1999, we have increased our tax levy by $13.7M due to overrides which is the third most in Massachusetts behind Wellesley and Lexington, which have many more people.  On a per-person basis, Sudbury has no peers when it comes to overrides.  The previous decade Sudbury had just two overrides in ’91 and ’92 for $875,000 total.  We had zero in the ‘80s. 

 

In the last 10 years Sudbury’s student enrollment has grown 26% while our population has grown only 2%.  The ratio of student growth% to population growth% in Sudbury is 13 to 1.  In the 1990’s it was less than 2 to 1.  We are gaining students at an extraordinary rate while we are losing profitable taxpayers.

 

The average cost, including debt, of educating a Sudbury student is approximately $15,000 per year.  For every student we add to our schools we need more than one household to pay for it.  Seniors and empty-nesters are leaving due to tax increases and families-with-students are moving in.  The value of Sudbury homes has not kept pace with peer communities making Sudbury a bargain for new homeowners. 

 

If I thought we were heading in the right direction I would recommend we keep doing it.  With every logical, analytical, rational and intellectual bone in my body, I honestly submit to you that we are not.

 

For that reason, I support solving our structural deficit.

I have an incredible amount of respect for our Selectmen and all our town committees who volunteer so much time to support our town.  Our Board of Selectmen has been successful at setting the right goals for our community.  But with a measure of respect, I submit that they have not been successful at achieving these goals.  The goals we face are challenging and complex.

 

Our Selectmen need to improve their approach toward achieving our goals.  The people of Sudbury would appreciate tuning into a Selectmen’s meeting to hear a discussion about fixing our budget deficit instead of always hearing how our budget deficits will cut school budgets and raise taxes.  We have too many meetings about our budget-induced layoffs and not nearly enough discussion about how to fix it.  I will force this issue.  I will force the discussion.  I will insist that we discuss how we spend the public’s money in public.  I will focus on progress not politics.  It is time for us to take accountability, quantify our goals, set deadlines and get to work. 

 

The Selectmen’s #1 goal in 2007 and has been reworded in subsequent years is: "#1. Ensure that the fiscal year budget planning provides for the future financial sustainability of the Town of Sudbury and protects core municipal and educational services." 

 

We still have not achieved this goal.  I will not pass the problem back to parents and students to deal with fewer school instructors and to our taxpayers to deal with higher taxes.  This is a historically challenging economy but it is also a time when the challenge to prepare our children for the future is equally historic.  As your Selectman, I will insist that we roll up our sleeves and get to work on achieving this goal.

Usually only about 20% of Sudbury voters vote in a town election even though we are electing school committee members and  a Selectman who will make decisions which affect the education of our children, our taxes, the value of our homes and the community in which we live. Please encourage your friends and neighbors to vote on Monday, rain or shine.

My position as your Selectman will be to use Community Preservation funds to create 55-and-over affordable housing because those are the taxpayers we need the most to ensure the high-quality schools for which Sudbury is known.  I would also support selling affordable housing to our town employees such as Teachers, Firefighters, EMTs and Police Officers.  We are mandated to use a percentage of the Community Preservation Funds we receive from the state for affordable housing and we have a mandate to achieve a 10% level of our homes deemed as affordable housing by the state.  As your Selectman, I will make sure we spend these funds in a way that benefits our entire community.

I have been talking to people all over town and they are all encouraged to see contested elections in Sudbury.  Did you know that prior to last year only about 4 of the last 40 school committee seats were contested?  We have people who are willing to volunteer their time to serve our town.  There are four of us who want to stop the cycle of fear tactics.  People should not be put in the harsh choice year after year by threatening to reduce their children's education.  We need people on our committees who will work together across the town so next year we are not threatening to cut education.  This is no way for a town to operate.  We can do better.  Vote for Haarde, Dufault, Semple and Matthews.  We want to balance the budget by sharing services and stop the fear.

 

You can watch the Selectmen's Debate online by clicking here. The SPS and L-S debates are first, just scroll ahead to 1:14:45 where the Selectmen's debate begins.

What do you think?

Please come to the Sky Bar Lounge Tuesday 3.23 6:00-7:30 PM to meet Bob Haarde for Selectman, Tammie Dufault for SPS, Kevin Matthews for L-S and Bryan Semple for L-S.  See you there!

The Candidates Night Debate should not be the only night of the year where new ideas for Sudbury are discussed.  At every meeting on every committee we should have people discussing new ideas.  Sudbury does not.  Sudbury's leaders have predominantly focused on the short-term which has resulted in yearly budget deficits which require us to layoff teachers or raise taxes.

 

Sudbury needs to be open to people who will bring new ideas to the table.  Sudbury should not be one big Groupthink.  Sudbury should be a community where people with different perspectives are not only welcome but highly valuled.