This time next week I’ll be posting my regular Monday Top Comments diary but apologizing that I won’t be able to stay to comment. Why? Because I’ll be waking up at O’Dark Thirty AM to get to our polling place so I can be a Warden for a Special Election to override our stupid state Prop 2 ½ and raise badly needed funds for our schools and city.
Side Note: I’m intentionally not naming what town I live in. If you’re industrious you’ll likely be able to figure it out in a couple of clicks and a search box. That’s fine, although the specific town is not necessary to know to get anything out of my diary. I just don’t want to make it easy for the bots and webcrawlers to figure it out.
For those not living in Massachusetts, Prop 2 ½ is a state statute passed by ballot initiative in 1980, and what it does is (from wikipedia):
Under Proposition 2½, a municipality is subject to two property tax limits:
- Ceiling: The total annual property tax revenue raised by a municipality shall not exceed 2.5% of the assessed value of all taxable property contained in it.
- Increase limit: The annual increase of property tax cannot exceed 2.5%, plus the amount attributable to taxes that are from new real property.
If you really really want more details, see Proposition 2½ and Tax Rate Process at the state website. What should be really obvious is that if inflation rises more than 2.5%, you aren’t keeping pace. So naturally, the original intent was that periodic municipal overrides would be necessary to ‘reset’ things. There is a wonderful albeit outdated map here that shows the override history statewide.
Unfortunately, my town has passed exactly one Prop 2 ½ override since 1980. We are in desperate need of one, and so next Tuesday we will be holding an override vote, along with many other cities and towns statewide doing so this year.
It will not surprise you that some people don’t understand why we need this override. Yes, it raises our taxes. NO ONE likes that part. But we like not laying off dozens of teachers and cutting classes, city services and other things more. We deferred all of this for decades, and the can must no longer be kicked ahead.
I have a sign supporting the override in my front yard. The guy two doors down had a NO sign weeks ago and I had to wait for another batch printing to get mine. So on Saturday, I was outside in the front yard trimming our hedges when our mail carrier walked by. He didn’t have anything for us, but looked at the sign and then at me. I was prepared for a negative comment, but that’s not what happened.
Mail Carrier (looking first at my neighbor’s sign then at mine): I’m glad you’ve got this here. We need to pass that override!
Me: We do! I don’t like my taxes going up but without it our schools will be terrible and property values will decrease.
MC: That’s right! My wife and I moved here because of the schools! They’re so important!
Me: I wish more people understood that!
MC (looking back again at my neighbor’s sign): You got that right. Did you vote today? [early voting day]
Me: Nope, I’m working election day so I’ll vote then.
MC: That’s my plan! See you there!
It made me really glad both because my mail carrier lives here in my town, AND because he’s on board! I’m happy I was outside when he walked by or I never would have known how he felt! For the next week I’m making it a point to tell people I like their sign when I see another YES sign and they’re outside. And then on Tuesday, I’ll vote YES and help hundreds of my fellow citizens vote… fingers crossed they vote yes too :).
Hop below the fold for a double dose of Tops… we didn’t publish last night because the site was down for maintenance. Then come chat with me in the comments about whatever’s on your mind tonight.
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TOP COMMENTS
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down. Please remember that comment inclusion in Top Comments does not constitute support or endorsement by diarist, formatter, Top Comments writers or DailyKos. Questions, complaints or comments? Contact brillig.
We had no comment nominations. Well, we did but the diary they went to was deleted sooooo. Whaddyagonnado?
TOP MOJO
Top Mojo for yesterday (Sunday), June 9th 2024, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
Top Mojo for Saturday, June 8th 2024:
TOP PICTURES
It looks like in yesterday’s site maintenance/updates, the location of the Top Pictures files moved and I have no idea where they went. I’ve contacted the Help Desk who says “that’s a very good question and we’ll get to it as soon as we can”. Until then, dear readers, imagine a lovely quilt: