City Council budget hearings begin
Apr 23, 2007 19:30
The FY2008
budget hearings are starting. The budget is
online. The schedule is
available on the abnboston.org home page. Go, or
watch on TV, and speak up; it's your money.
Note the BRA hearing on Tuesday, June 19, 2:00-5:00.
Please attend if you can; testify and/or write in comment letters. This is your money.
Remember, though, that the budget has nothing to do with your taxes, because the Mayor and City Council are determined to raise your tax rates to the maximum allowed by Prop 2 1/2, even if the budget were cut! If you ask for budget cuts, either say where you'd like the money to go instead -- or demand that our tax levy -- that's your taxes -- be cut commensurately.
The only "department" that directly affects your taxes is the BRA, and the BRA does that not by affecting expenditures but by affecting collections -- that is, by giving away huge and unneeded tax breaks to big developers, by ignoring the ridiculously tiny PILOT payments made by institutions when the BRA can negotiate for more at development approval time, and by holding billions of dollars worth of real estate itself and paying not a cent in property tax.
Note the BRA hearing on Tuesday, June 19, 2:00-5:00.
Please attend if you can; testify and/or write in comment letters. This is your money.
Remember, though, that the budget has nothing to do with your taxes, because the Mayor and City Council are determined to raise your tax rates to the maximum allowed by Prop 2 1/2, even if the budget were cut! If you ask for budget cuts, either say where you'd like the money to go instead -- or demand that our tax levy -- that's your taxes -- be cut commensurately.
The only "department" that directly affects your taxes is the BRA, and the BRA does that not by affecting expenditures but by affecting collections -- that is, by giving away huge and unneeded tax breaks to big developers, by ignoring the ridiculously tiny PILOT payments made by institutions when the BRA can negotiate for more at development approval time, and by holding billions of dollars worth of real estate itself and paying not a cent in property tax.
|