Two words after hearing from the School Committee that they’re projecting cutting 65 educational positions if the Town Administrator’s five year budget projections become reality: déjà vu. After five years of trying to get the town to embrace the best practices adopted by other communities dealing with structural deficits, I still cannot get the Board […]
*sigh*…
The following are my decidedly uninspiring thoughts after tonight’s joint Board of Selectmen/Finance Committee/School Cmmittee meeting: No one likes the I-told-you-so guy. But since when do I care what people think? I told you so. I told you we’d be facing deficits in FY20, and that a magical $1,000,000 in new growth for FY 20 […]
The Inside Baseball of Fiscal Projections
Re: State of the Town Message Monday, May 8, 2017 From: eprisby@gmail.com To: Tim McInerney Cc: Anita Patel Guys, I just took a look at the “goal” scenario. I’m not comfortable teling the town that this is realistic. Not only are we assuming $1M in new growth in 2020 and 2021, but we’re also […]
I Need Your Help
In the end, the record will reflect that the math showed us this outcome may well have been inevitable. We were another exurban town without enough commercial revenue to pad the good times, to say nothing of the bad times. We relied on our residential tax base in Trump’s era of “ENOUGH”, all the while […]
The Ed Prisby Interview
In a Planet Grafton exclusive, we have secured this publication’s very first interview with a sitting elected official – new Selectman Ed Prisby. Ed was kind enough to sit down with us and discuss his first 60 days in office. PG: Ed, thanks for agreeing to sit down and talk. EP: No problem, I […]
You Can’t.
“You can’t,” they said. You can’t say that. You can’t start a blog about Grafton and expect people to take you seriously. You can’t fight town hall. You can’t promote affordable housing and have people like you. You can’t speak truth to power around here. You can’t argue facts and expect to win. You can’t […]
The Roadmap, Part 6: Restoring Accountability
There was a subtly important moment this evening at Town Meeting that I think exemplifies the difference between this administration’s approach and how I think things ought to be run. At one point, Donna Girouard, Grafton resident and former Town Clerk questioned the Town Administrator as to why funding was not being proposed for an […]
